New lens ordered

[tom.ganc]

Hi there
Today I have ordered new lens for my D40
It is well known 50mm f1.8 D
I know it wan't autofocus on mine camera but it is not big deal.
I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Cheers
Tom

 

[Chewbecca]

This will become one of your most favorite lenses. IF you don't mind manually focusing.
It'll make you an expert at manually focusing, though, as long as you use it enough.

Congrats! It was my first lens purchase (minus the kit lens that came with my D60).

 

[rubbertree]

I just bought that lens last week. Love it!

 

[crashcart]

Congrats! It was my first lens purchase (minus the kit lens that came with my D60).

Same here; first lens I purchased (also minus the two lenses that cam with my D60.) I bought this lens at the B&H store in NYC about a month ago, and as far as bang for the buck, I don't think you can get better glass.

 

[manaheim]

Woot! Congrats!

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Congratulations, man! I am sure you will absolutely love the nifty fifty. In my opinion, it just opens you up into a whole new world of photography. You begin to think what something might look like if the depth of field was measured in millimeters. Also, when stopped down to something like f/4-f/5.6, the lens is S.H.A.R.P.

 

[petercox]

Congratulations on the purchase! You'll find it tough going at first with the manual focus and such a thin depth-of-field, but with practice it will become easier.

I would recommend getting a split-prism focusing screen to replace the one in your camera - DSLRs just aren't designed to be manually focused and so the focusing screen tends to sacrifice manual focusing ability for brightness.

I had one of this company's focusing screens on my 20D ages ago and was happy with it. The one downside is that any lens with a maximum aperture smaller than f/2.8 or f/4 will result in part of the prism blacking out. It's not a big deal, but something to be aware of.

Split prism focusing screen

Cheers,
Peter

 

[hoboahoy]

Excuse me everybody here. I am interested in getting this lens too. Could you explain why you have to manual focus this lens? I'm reading the description of this lens at B&H site:

Nikon Normal AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D "Autofocus" Lens

It says "autofocus" in the description. If I use this lens on either Nikon D90 or D300, do I have to manually focus?

 

[Chewbecca]

Excuse me everybody here. I am interested in getting this lens too. Could you explain why you have to manual focus this lens? I'm reading the description of this lens at B&H site:

Nikon Normal AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D "Autofocus" Lens

It says "autofocus" in the description. If I use this lens on either Nikon D90 or D300, do I have to manually focus?

No, because the D90 and the D300 have an in-body focus motor.
The d40/d40x/d60 do NOT have an in-body focus motor, so for auto focus, they require the focus motor to be IN the lens.

That's why it needs to be manually focused on those 3 cameras.:mrgreen:

 

[hoboahoy]

So if I use it on either D300 or a D90, then it's a fully auto focus. Ok. Thank you.

 

[hoboahoy]

Wait, I'm getting confused.

If the camera body is the mechanism that does the actual autofocusing, why do they describe the lens being "autofucus"? I thought the lens is the one that has a motor to autofocus? I mean if you put any lens on D90 or on a D300, the cameras would autofocus anyway, right? I asked the same question before about Nikon D40 vs the Nikon lens 18-200mm VR to somebody. They said the 18-200mm VR can be used on D40 perfectly, and it does autofocus even though the D40 does NOT have a body motor, but the lens 18-200mm VR DOES have the internal motor. Is this info correct?

Are you saying sometimes the camera body and the lens could both have its own AF motor? Then which motor are being used to autofucus if both the body & lens have a motor simultaneously? Sorry I'm getting confused.

Anyway Tom congratulations. That's a good lens. I want that too.

 

[manaheim]

heh... this is funny because I never really stopped to think about how complicated this is, but it really is.

Ok...

Lenses are broken up into two major focus categories... auto-focus (AF) and manual focus (MF) (or, really... "with the absence of autofocus" ). AF lenses will, as is implied, do the focusing for you.

In the AF category, there are two sub-categories... lenses that have a AF drive screw and are thus focused by the camera actually moving a little screw to adjust the focus... and lenses that have an AF motor built directly into the lens, such as HSM lenses.

Cameras like the D40 and D60 require the latter type of the autofocus lenses because they have no autofocus drive screw.

--- Only those who are not feint of heart should read further than this point ---

Note that there are yet two more subcategory of AF lenses... and these overlap, so they are not mutually exclusive from the above AF subcategories.

The first are AF lenses that allow small manual adjustments after the autofocusing takes place. This is a VERY nice feature and I don't believe that many lenses have this.

(POSSIBLE MISINFORMATION ALERT!) The second are AF lenses that also allow manual focus. I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I do believe that there are AF lenses that do not allow manual focus at all. I'm actually expecting to be wrong on this one, so take it with a grain of salt. (enough disclaimers for you?)

 

[DannyB]

Congrats on the purchase! Can't wait to see your shots. I have been playing with the idea of picking one up and I only hear good things about this lens...Time for some online shopping tonight!!!!!!


Lol, yeah I just bought it

 

[Chewbecca]

heh... this is funny because I never really stopped to think about how complicated this is, but it really is.

Ok...

Lenses are broken up into two major focus categories... auto-focus (AF) and manual focus (MF) (or, really... "with the absence of autofocus" ). AF lenses will, as is implied, do the focusing for you.

In the AF category, there are two sub-categories... lenses that have a AF drive screw and are thus focused by the camera actually moving a little screw to adjust the focus... and lenses that have an AF motor built directly into the lens, such as HSM lenses.

Cameras like the D40 and D60 require the latter type of the autofocus lenses because they have no autofocus drive screw.

--- Only those who are not feint of heart should read further than this point ---

Note that there are yet two more subcategory of AF lenses... and these overlap, so they are not mutually exclusive from the above AF subcategories.

The first are AF lenses that allow small manual adjustments after the autofocusing takes place. This is a VERY nice feature and I don't believe that many lenses have this.

(POSSIBLE MISINFORMATION ALERT!) The second are AF lenses that also allow manual focus. I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I do believe that there are AF lenses that do not allow manual focus at all. I'm actually expecting to be wrong on this one, so take it with a grain of salt. (enough disclaimers for you?)

oooh, I want to add a disclaimer, too!!!
I *believe* you are right on the second part as well. I say that because, I know that the Sigma 10-20mm doesn't have an "AF?MF" switch. If I want to manually focus, I have to go in and select so in my camera.

 

[manaheim]

oooh, I want to add a disclaimer, too!!!
I *believe* you are right on the second part as well. I say that because, I know that the Sigma 10-20mm doesn't have an "AF?MF" switch. If I want to manually focus, I have to go in and select so in my camera.

If you camera has an on-camera setting for it (in menus or physical), the lens will tend to not have it on the lens itself. That is the case with the Sigma 10-20 for the Nikon line.