50mm 1.8

New lens, my friend.

It's the widely known, inexpensive yet superb Nikon NIKKOR AF 50mm f/1.8D. I bought it for 450 bucks directly from Nikon and also a UV filter for protection. I'm still looking for its HR-2 rubber hood which sells for around 50.

At 450 bucks, this is the cheapest lens currently made by Nikon. And yet, it is one of the sharpest lens ever, with almost no falloff or distortion. It is a 50mm normal prime lens ("nifty fifty") and every avid photographer should have one. On a DX format camera like my D90 however, it becomes an excellent portrait and short telephoto lens. The reason it is so cheap yet superior than many lenses is because it is a very simple lens to make and uses a classic, proven optical design. Optics is science, not technology.

Although it has no in-built autofocus motor and instead uses the typical "screw-type" autofocus via the camera body, but its AF speed is very fast and dead-on- it is even faster than my AF-S (with built-in motor) kit lens! Closest focusing is 0.45m, same as my 18-105 lens.

This lens is terrific for low light. With f/1.8 it gathers many many times more light than my zoom lens set at 50mm. At 50mm my zoom lens only has a maximum aperture of f/5 while f/1.8 is 3 stops faster, which means it gathers 8 times more light (2^3)! Now I can take the same indoor shot at 1/80s instead of 1/10s.

What's more, f/1.8 at 50mm gives a very shallow and pleasing depth of field. This is perfect for portraits where I can focus on my subject's eyes and make her skin appears soft due to the depth of field. I'm quite a shallow-d.o.f. junkie, and I really love to be able to shoot at f/1.8 wide open which renders really nice blur.

Nikkor 50.

NIKON.

Nikon AF NIKKOR 50mm 1:1.8 D. Aperture ring? Yes. Subject-camera distance indicator? Yes. Depth of field indicator? Yes. Infrared focusing index? Yes.

7-bladed diaphragm.

Quality? It's a Nikon.

Kit lens: Nikkor AF-S 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

Images taken with the 50mm f/1.8:

Oo yea, the shallow depth of field.

P.S: Some severely obese noob (you know who) who doesn't have knowledge in photography and don't even have a camera bag tries to criticize this lens. Oops, noob?

P.P.S: I saw many idiots online until 4 a.m. including me, all doing chemistry shyt.