Customer Reviews
Great lens! 
2008-06-17
I love this lens. It's sharp. I love the colors. It's manual focus so it takes time to getting used to but aside from that this is great.
love it 
2008-06-16
i bought this because of all the raves i've been reading. I'm glad i did. i never expected to use it that much (only in poor light conditions), but i haven't replaced it on my D80 since putting it on!
I'm only a beginner, so it took some time to get use to the 1.8, all my first shots came out blurry. It didn't take long to get used to. I'm very happy with this lens.
Good but too specialize for general use. 2008-06-16
I got the general Nikon kit lens 18-55 and 55-200, the Nikkor 18-200mm VR, Sigma 18-200mm OC (returned) and this lens, the Nikkor 50mm 1.8. I would say I use the Nikon 18-200mm VR now 90% of the time. This len is trickier to use with the Nikon D40, which you have to manually focus. There is a focus indicator, but I still get too many blur. This lens is definitely for portrait and fine for indoor lowlight. I found the depth of field best for portrait and the landscape isn't as good as the 18-200VR. The 18-200mm's VR feature is actually almost as good as this lens for indoor. 50mm as a prime lens means too much walking around to get the right shot. Definitely you can tell that this lens is one of the fastest and see the large aperture, I don't have the f1.4 version.
This len fits tighter to the camera body then my other lens. The manual focus is very smooth to operate. Leave the f number alone, unless you have an older manual camera.
When you get all the settings right, you can get some of the sharpest image out there. The manual focus for the D40 has some hits and misses to get the right sharpness. The price is fair.
Limited usefulness but a great lens at its price 2008-06-15
Those of us old enough to have owned (or still own) a collection of prime lenses for our film SLRs will appreciate this little gem by Nikon, an amazingly compact and inexpensive 50mm f/1.8 lens designed for 35 mm cameras but fully adaptable for the DX format as well. On a digital camera, this lens has an equivalent focal length of 75mm, turning it into what we used to call a "portrait lens". Well, this little 50mm Nikkor is available at a price of just a bit over $100! It is fully automatic and very fast-focusing despite not having a built-in motor, probably due to the fact that it is a prime lens. Resolution and contrast are outstanding for its class and its image is totally free of visible geometric distortion. This is truly a rare buy -- assuming you do a lot of portraiture. Snap it up while it's still available. What can you lose at this price?
The general usefulness of this lens, however, is somewhat limited, its focal length being a bit too long for everyday use, although it is excellent with a 35mm format. Also, I find it disappointing that a lens shade doesn't come with it. I did locate a discontinued Nikon snap-on shade in a local store and I hope you can, too. Otherwise you are stuck with a screw-on shade.
Enjoy.
Recommended Buy 2008-06-11
This is a great all-purpose lens. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a small, compact lens good for almost any situation.
Not only is the lens great - producing sharp images in almost any lighting conditions - but the price is amazing too!
amazing quality 2008-07-05
its a lens that every single nikon photographer has to have it in his bag... its just beyond amazing... very light, cheap, yet great
so much fun
Excellent portrait lens 2008-07-02
I put this lens on my D200 and started to take AWESOME portraits. I cannot believe that this lens is so inexpensive. I have yet to take it off of my camera and I haven't had any bad portraits with this lens. Grab a UV filter for it and keep it on there. :)
Great Lens for Any Nikon! 2008-07-02
I purchased this lens for my D40x after reading the good reviews. I just wanted to add my thoughts. BUY IT! I did however purchased the lens knowing it does not AF with the D40/D40x/D60. This lens takes great pictures. If you need a great lens for a little price then this is your lens.
Nikon 50mm F/1.8 Nikkor Lens 2008-06-24
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
I purchased this lens 6/16/08. I selected quicker shipping and i recieved it on 6/19/08 VIA UPS. Vender had great customer support and pricing. I really enjoy this lens, i have a Nikon D80 and this makes a great addition to my camera toys. Overall i would recommend this lens to anyone. It provides a great DOF and great lower lighting pictures.
wonderful flexibility, inspiring constraint! 2008-06-17
i've used this lens with my old nikon d70 for a couple years now, and it's my favorite. it enabled my improvement as a photographer
lot's of people have written great descriptive reviews already, i'll review by example ->
[...]
what does the lens do?
1) the wide f/1.8 aperture a) preserves the post-sunset natural skin tones and eye glint by avoiding a flash/red-eye/etc and b) provides a great bokeh - in this example, blurring the nose and emphasizing the eyes in the foreground. and, in the background, emphasizing the face by blurring the sky and beach
2) the fixed 50mm focal length inspires creative close-up framing, in this case inviting me to fill most of the frame with the subject's face and forget about "getting all of it". the fixed-length lens continually begs me to consider "what about this frame?" - whereas, with a zoom lens, my attention is on zooming-in or zooming-out to whatever i presume will be the best frame (often, more typical/boring/"everything"/etc). after a short period of time with this lens, my zoom-lens photos improved as well (and i still prefer this lens)
3) it's very light and relatively cheap. this particular shot was during a month-long camping/backpacking trip in costa rica. owing to it's lightness and (relative) cheapness, i had no problem carrying it in my backpack and not worrying about losing it, dropping it, getting it wet, etc. maybe i can take better photos with the [...]$ (+) f/1.4 lens? but i may not take it with me in the first place, and it's slightly heavier to carry
the fixed focal length can only cover the range of frames you can walk to. i usually wish i could go wider rather than bigger. but if you want to shoot portraits/people - and specifically faces - this is an amazing lens! if you're interested in photography, and haven't tried a prime lens - this one provides a great experience at a good price.. it did for me
