Nikon 50mm f/1.4G SIC SW Prime Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras - Ideal for travel, event, environmental and general photography in a wide variety of conditions, with superb optical formula and an ultra-fast f/1.4 maximum aperture.

Fast f/1.4 prime NIKKOR lens

Perfect for low-light conditions, general and travel photography.

Normal angle of view on FX-format cameras

Classic, normal angle of view when used on a Nikon FX-format digital SLR or 35mm film camera.

Ideal portrait lens on DX-format cameras

An ideal portrait lens when used on a Nikon DX-format digital SLR, approximating the angle of view similar to that of a 75mm lens on a Nikon FX-format digital SLR or a 35mm film camera.

Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC)

Enhances light transmission efficiency and offers superior color consistency and reduced flare.

Exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM)

Enables fast, accurate, and quiet autofocus.

Close focusing to 1.5 feet

For extended versatility.

Rounded 9-blade diaphragm

Renders more natural appearance of out-of-focus image elements.

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The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens is amazing the quality shines through its perfect for portraits. And having an f-stop of 1.4 is just so useful if you can afford it it's worth every penny. This lens is perfect for taking portraits a.k.a. photos where your subject is clear but their backgrounds are blurry if you shoot at 1.4 or 1.8 the depth of field looks beautiful. Down below I will describe how new photographers can get the most out of this lens.

The 50mm f/1.4 standard lens is a terrific choice for both casual and professional photographers. The lens is outfitted with two high-refraction lens elements and new Gaussian optics, which combine to eliminate astigmatism and suppress astigmatic difference. As a result, the lens obtains crisp images with little flare even at the maximum aperture. The lens's f/1.4 speed, meanwhile, is perfect for available-light shooting. And as a bonus, this lens is the only lens in the EF system to offer an extra-small Micro Ultra Sonic Motor (USM) while still providing a full-time manual focusing option.

Package deal: 50mm f/1.4 standard lens 58mm 3-piece Filter Kit (includes a UV, CPL, FLD filters ) 58mm Hard Lens Hood, 5 pc. Lens Cleaning Kit Lens Cap Keeper

Lens spec: Focal length: 50mm Maximum aperture: f/1.4L Lens construction: 7 elements in 6 groups Angle of view: 46 degrees Focus adjustment: Overall linear extension system with USM Closest focusing distance: 1.5 feet Filter size: 58mm Dimensions: 2.9 inches in diameter and 2 inches long Weight: 10.2 ounces

If you're new to digital photography or are on a budget check out the 50 mm f/1.8 lens below as it runs for around $100 and is a great place to start for new photographers for those on a budget.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard AutoFocus Lens - Gray Market

Maybe you will say why the package deal less expensive than just the lens itself - The lens was the same, but don't expect anything special from the extra goodies. It was a great deal!

This bundle isn't that bad since you get the lens hood and some filters - this whole bundle is basically worth it

Here I'll explain how the f-stop or aperture priority works on digital SLR cameras. Basically the aperture is a circle inside the lens that as you go up in your f-stop from 1.4 to 1.8 to 2.2 to 3.0 and beyond it shrinks the size of this circle in the lens. The shrinking of the circle from a higher f-stop allows less light to pass through to the sensor. The lower the f-stop i.e. 1.4 allows you to shoot at faster shutter speeds in low light situations because the circle in the lens allows more light to pass through because of the lower aperture. 

Here's an example say are in a well lit room and you're shooting your child (yes that sounds very weird but it's a funny joke anyway). Generally indoors you need to shoot at 1/60 of a second with most lenses they'll instantly autofocus at their lowest f-stop which would be about 4.0. But with this lens since it can go down to 1.4 on the f-stop you could shoot the same picture at 1/125 shutter speed. Resulting in about the same light but avoiding any motion blur that plagues low light photography. Now needs to be noted that as you drop your f-stop you lose depth of field. I.e. how much of your photo will be in focus and how much will be blurred. It's the effect you see on portraits where the person is in focus but the background is blurry.

Now I know many people will probably shoot holes in the foregoing explanation of f-stop but I'm not a really advanced photographer but I get how shutter speed and aperture priority work with each other. Buying a lens like this can only help somebody understand how both are related and work together.

Here's what I recommend that you do:

1. Enable manual mode on your camera this mode allows you to set both the aperture for the lens a.k.a. the f-stop and the shutter speed a.k.a. how long the shutter is opened while taking a photograph.
2. Drop the aperture or f-stop to 1.4 on this lens
3. Set your shutter speed to 1/60 of a second
4. take a picture
5. Look at your photograph notice how much is dark and light about it how sharp it is etc.
6. Go up to the next shutter speed 1/90th of the second or 1/125 and take another photograph.
7. now compare both of the photographs you took
8. to change the shutter speed again going up another step taken other photograph now compare all three photographs

If you continue to do this adjust shutter speed while knowing what your aperture is you're going to notice how shutter speed affects the lighting of your photographs all you need to do then is start changing your aperture and repeat the process of stepping through your shutter speeds eventually you'll understand how the aperture works in correlation with shutter speed. I would recommend starting outdoors on a well lit day because then you will see how you can adjust your aperture and your shutter speeds to really make good photographs.

That's the reason I recommend this lens so highly as it helps you as a beginning photographer to create photographs because the lower f-stop helps you experiment and instantly see your results.

This review by Chuck Bittner - more reviews click image below:

The Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. And for its price (which seems to climb recently), it is worth more than 5 stars rating. I initially get this lens for low light action and sport photography (as this lens is famous for being one of the fastest lens together with its brother 50mm f/1.4), but I also found out that this lens is also perfect for portrait and other general purposes (macro etc). This is definitely a very versatile lens.

It is important to note that you will need camera with internal AF motor (D90, D300, D600, D700, D800, D7000, etc) for this AF lens autofocus to work properly. If your camera is D40/D60/D3000/D5000 series (no internal AF motor), you will need to get the AF-S type lens, otherwise if you get this AF lens, only the manual focus will be available to you.

And as much as I want to encourage everyone to buy this lens right away, let me mention some of the limitation that you would see (which I think will be helpful to go over before deciding to buy this lens):

First, being a prime lens, you will need to move your feet a lot to compose your picture. If you are used to zoom lens, don't underestimate this limitation. It takes me a while to get used to it, and sometime I still find people looking at me wondering why I am moving forward and backwards. the good news is that most of the time, they don't think I'm weird, but they are actually wondering if I'm a professional photographer.

Secondly, the focal range of 50mm, which is considered the normal lens and great for portrait lens. but on many DSLRs which is not full frame (unless you have a full frame Nikon DSLR like the D700 or D3, then 50mm is 50mm), this lens become a 75mm equivalent which is in the border of a short tele lens. I actually like the 75mm equivalent though I often have to move backwards when taking picture of a group of people.

Third, in some situation the autofocus might not able to focus (which is common for many other lens too). It is hard for the autofocus to lock when aiming at a wall that is one color (usually black or white), or on a clear sky (day or night). This kind of makes sense to me actually. IN these situations the AF assist light doesn't help either so you can opt for manual focus or set the focus to infinity when you can't find focus lock on scenic/landscape or sky photography. So far I don't have many problems with the autofocus.

Sharpness increases as you stop down to f/2.2 or f/2.5. I actually use f/1.8 most of the time and the results are still nice. Personally, I'd rather use f/1.8 aperture settings than stopped down (e.g to f/2.8) and compensate with higher ISO setting which often gives me grainy picture. But if your object is not moving (static) then it is better to stop down to f/2.8 or more.

If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR (Vibration Reduction), here's my take: In overall, VR does help a lot (as it will reduce camera shake) and will produce better/sharper picture than equivalent lens without VR (especially if the object is static). If the object is moving (sports/action) then VR feature alone might not help (depending on how fast the object is moving and how much light is available), and a fast lens often end up being a far better solution, even without VR feature as it will allow much faster shutter speed to freeze motion. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature. In general I would recommend getting a fast lens with VR feature (and usually it is expensive) such as the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but if one can only get for one or the other, then find out what do you want to use the lens for and then use the guideline mentioned here.

If you are wondering whether you will get the benefit of buying f/1.4 lens over a f/1.8 lens, just remember that the f/1.4 lens is about 60% faster than f/1.8 at its widest aperture setting. With this information, you can decide if the additional speed will justify the additional cost. The bokeh is nicer as well in f/1.4 lens but I think speed is usually the main factor in deciding whether to get the more expensive f/1.4 lens.

High-speed normal lens Great for travel and for shooting full-length portraits in available light Distortion-free images with superb resolution and color rendition Provides high-contrast images even at maximum aperture Format Compatibility: Nikon FX/35mm Film and Nikon DX

Here are the summary of pros and cons for this Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF lens:

Pros:

1. Very fast (f/1.8)
2. Very sharp pictures (especially when stopped down to f/2.2, f/2.5 or more.)
3. Great for sport/action photography
4. Great for indoor and low light situation
5. Great for portrait
6. Bokeh is almost as good as many expensive Nikon tele-lens
7. Fast autofocus
8. Good for wedding photography (or no-flash event). However, if this is your main objective then you might want to get the 50mm f/1.4 version or 28-70mm f/2.8 lens)
9. 75mm equivalent which can be considered a short tele lens (I actually like the fact that it's 75mm equivalent vs 50mm in DSLR. if you need more zoom, you can get the Nikon 85mm f/1.8, or the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR). If you have full frame DSLR(like the D3 or D700), then this #9 pros is not applicable.
10. Inexpensive

Cons:

1. Being prime lens, you need to move your feet a lot to adjust/compose
2. Autofocus issue on some situations (read detail above)
3. Plasticy build
4. Autofocus is not the most silent but very reasonable
5. 75mm equivalent with 1.5x multiplier on non full frame DSLR (many people find this is an odd range for normal lens. I actually like it). If you have full frame DSLR(like the D3 or D700), then this #5 cons is not applicable.
6. Autofocus does not work with D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100, D3200, D5000, D5100, D5200 etc (basicaly D40/D60/D3000/D5000 series. it's best to check if your camera body require AF-S lens). The newer 50mm f/1.8G AF-S, 50mm f/1.4G AF-S lens or 35mm f/1.8G AF-S lens will autofocus with those cameras.

Bottom line: 

The Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF lens is so versatile (and inexpensive) that I think everyone should own in addition to all the lenses that they already have. Being a very fast lens, it enables me to take pictures in low light (sport/action photography) that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

After knowing its limitation, I would predict that 99% of you that decides to buy this lens will find this lens very useful. And if you decide that you don't like it (which I think not more than 1%), I'm sure there will be a lot of people who wouldn't mind buying it from you (with some discount of course).

Thank to: Sidarta Tanu TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE

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	This item: Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras	Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR FX Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras	Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras	Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
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Price	$113.95	$216.95	$196.95	$333.00
Shipping	FREE Shipping	FREE Shipping	FREE Shipping	Free Shipping
Sold By	Amazon.com	Amazon.com	Amazon.com	Unique Photo, Inc.
Lens Type	Prime lens	Prime lens	Prime lens	Prime lens
Maximum Format Size	35mm FF	35mm FF	APS-C / DX	35mm FF
Maximum Aperture Range	F1.8	F1.8	F1.8	F1.4
Minimum Aperture	22	16	22	16
Photo Filter Thread Size	52 millimeters	58 millimeters	52 millimeters	52 millimeters
Minimum Operating Distance	0.45 meters	0.45 meters	0.3 meters	0.45 meters
Weight	0.3 pounds	0.4 pounds	0.4 pounds	0.5 pounds
Dimension	2.5 x 2.5 x 1.5 inches	5.0 x 5.0 x 4.0 inches	53.0 x 70.0 x 3.0 inches	43.0 x 65.0 x 2.5 inches
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