Nikon Lens Recommendation Needed!!!

[Lonnie1212]

Hi Folks,

I would like to know if anyone could recommend a camera lens based on personal experience. I currently own substantially older lens that is a 135mm 2.8. It's the lens that the Angry Photographer recommended a few years ago. I paid $89.00 for it. And it happens to be the sharpest lens that I own. The lens is simply remarkable in terms of sharpness. Would like to have another lens with a wider focal length, but with the same sharpness. The 135 mm is just too narrow most of the time. Some people would call it a head shot lens.

Would curious to know the thoughts of others on this.

Thank you,

Lonnie

 

[MartinCrabtree]

The 50mm f1.4 Ais is a gem and works equally well on DX and FX bodies. I paid $100 US from a member here a couple years ago. Here is where it spends a lot of it's life. has some issues in the corners wide open but who frames for corners?

​

 

[ac12]

What is your budget?
For which of your cameras?
Do you want/need auto focus?
What do you want to use it for?
Prime or zoom?

 

[Lonnie1212]

The 50mm f1.4 Ais is a gem and works equally well on DX and FX bodies. I paid $100 US from a member here a couple years ago. Here is where it spends a lot of it's life. has some issues in the corners wide open but who frames for corners?

View attachment 202247​

Thank you for the advice Martin. I wonder if the 50 mm f1.4 is much better than the 50 mm f1.8.

 

[LWW]

The 50mm f1.4 Ais is a gem and works equally well on DX and FX bodies. I paid $100 US from a member here a couple years ago. Here is where it spends a lot of it's life. has some issues in the corners wide open but who frames for corners?

View attachment 202247​

Thank you for the advice Martin. I wonder if the 50 mm f1.4 is much better than the 50 mm f1.8.

I prefer the 1.8. It seems to be a tad sharper and is less expensive, but a good condition example of either will do you quite well.

A 105 f2.5 is also a great lens.

 

[Lonnie1212]

Thank you for the advice guys. I will reconsider the 50 mm lens.

 

[jcdeboever]

Depends on what your use is I suppose but the Nikkor 85 1.4 is hard to beat. The voightlander 58mm slii 1.4 is a truly remarkable lens for the money if you can deal with MF. The voightlander has wonderful fidelity and sharpness. The Nikkor af 35mm f2 is a winner as well.

 

[mjcmt]

35mm f1.4 AI-S is an amazingly sharp fast aperture lens. My favorite lens in my film days. I use it on my D750 w/ excellent results.

 

[Strodav]

Looking for a lens starts with asking what you are going to use it for. That helps you select the quality, speed and focal length. Saying you want something sharp and wider opens things up for popular 20mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm prime lenses, so you might want to narrow it down a bit before searching. Once I've got an idea of what I want, I go to DxOMark.com and search through their lens database. Another good source for honest reviews is PCMag.com. In addition to primes, you might want to look at a zoom. Most of my non wildlife / birding shots are done with either a 24-70mm f/2.8 or 70-200mm f/2.8. These lenses are very sharp and very flexible, but they are heavy and bulky compared to primes.