Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF

I’ve been wanting to get a prime lens for some time but haven’t had the budget.. I’m going back up the French Alps in a few days time so I decided I would get this lens for the trip even though I still don’t really have the budget…

I asked around and did a bit of research and it seemed the best starting place was a 50mm f1.8.

I decided to go with Nikons own prime lens. I found a seller on eBay who was flogging one in mint condition for £80 delivered. I placed my order and it arrived next day. Magic.

First impressions, I thought it was very small. It’s certainly smaller than my other lenses, Lighter too. It looks kind of funny and insignificant attached to the big body of an SLR.

During my lunch break I went out round town and the studio testing it out. Below is one example.

To get an idea of the size here it is against my other lenses. From left to right: Tamron 100-300mm, Nikon 18-105mm, Falcon 8mm and Nikon 50mm.

The lens has a maximum f stop of 1.8. Which roughly means the aperture opens up pretty big allowing more light in. I just about understand the concept of the f stop but its quite difficult to explain.. So I wont bother. Any way below are two images to demonstrate the principle, the top one is f22 (minimum amount of light) and the bottom is f1.8 (maximum amount of light)

I took this photo to compare the size of the back facing lens ( I’m sure there’s a technical term) of the prime and my fisheye. The prime lens is nearly double the size. I look forward to taking some night shots with this lens as I imagine it lets in a fair bit of light. The lens can be controlled by the camera meaning it can auto focus and auto select the best shutter speed and fstop. This is quite a nice feature to have even though I’m used to the fully manual fisheye. It means if I have to, I can quickly get a snap without faffing about with the controls too much.