so ive had my camera for a couple months now

[djacobox372]

I personally love my 35mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.8. I don't think the D3000 has the ability to auto focus without AF-S lenses so I guess that kills the 50mm option. Being able to get such a shallow DOF with a 1.8 lens is nice. However, you would have to move your feet a lot more to "Zoom".

The D3000 can also auto focus with both AF-S and AF-I lenses, as can the D90.

Pages 157 - 159 in the D3000 users manual, pages 229 - 230 in the D90 users manual.

If you put a Nikon AF 50 mm f/1.8D (about $125, new) on your D3000, it will do all the auto focus functions, except moving the focus ring. You would need to do that by hand. The lens would still report focus information to the camera's CPU so the camera would light the in-focus indicator in the camera's viewfinder when focus had been manually achieved.

See page 49 of the D3000 users manual, page 60 of the D90 users manaual.

Now that's a confusing post! What you're saying it will autofocus except for the part about operating the focus. LOL

To be clear, AF lenses will not autofocus on a d3000, but you will still have a focus indicator light that will aid in manual focusing.

AF-I and AF-S are essentially the same thing, AF-I is just the older lingo.

The d90, on the other hand, is compatible with AF, AF-S and AF-I.

Most people here are suggesting the 35mm f1.8, which would be an excellent choice. However if you are looking for a zoom, a 55-200mm af-s might be more to your liking. The difference being one is a pro-quality lens, and the other is just another consumer quality lens.

I personally would recommend opting for the 35mm lens, as you don't know what your missing by not using high-quality glass until you've tried it.

Finally, if you see yourself collecting two or three more lenses in the future, it actually may be less expensive to upgrade your body to a d90, so you can use the less expensive AF lenses. AF-S/AF-I is not really needed at the lower focal lengths (<105mm), yet the lenses can cost a lot more--you can make up the cost of the body upgrade with a single lens purchase.

 

[mrpink]

Finally, if you see yourself collecting two or three more lenses in the future, it actually may be less expensive to upgrade your body to a d90, so you can use the less expensive AF lenses. AF-S/AF-I is not really needed at the lower focal lengths (<105mm), yet the lenses can cost a lot more--you can make up the cost of the body upgrade with a single lens purchase.

Yes, this was my exact reason for upgrading to the D90. Throw i-TTL OCF ability and it seems like a no brainer.

As for the 50mm 1.8 on a AF-S only body- the camera communicates with the lens as normal, just when it comes to actually moving the focus ring, you become the motor.




p!nK