The almighty 50mm Nikkor.... What?

[boclcown]

I keep hearing about this 50 mm lens...

I don't understand. You can't zoom?

What's the use of a lense with a fixed zoom. I've always needed to tweak the frame of a pic a bit wit a slight zoom in or out...

Regardless, what makes the 50mm lens good?

 

[d70girl]

It's a nice sharp lens that gives you effortless depth of field, and it's inexpensive. ($100)

 

[skiboarder72]

your zoom is moving closer to the subject

i love mine, the optical quality will blow away any other lens you have too

 

[MommyOf4Boys]

In my opinion, Prime lenses blow away zoom lenses any day of the week..Especially the 50mm. Just because you cannot zoom in does not make a prime lens less essential in your bag..it just means you have to know where and when to move closer or further away from your object. Prime lenses tend to be a lot more sharper than a zoom lens...The 50mm especially...wheather you get the 1.8 or 1.4, it doesn't matter, either are very sharp because you are able to stop down that low, making it a SUPER FAST lens. The faster the lens, the sharper the image, correct?

 

[Tiberius]

That's what feet are for.

The 50mm f/1.8 has better optics than any other lens under $1000, is super light-weight and very fast. There's nothing bad about it.

 

[fightheheathens]

fixed lens give better optical clarity for a few reasons.
1. there is no zoom element. thus there is much much less glass in the lens.
2. less glass means less glass light barriers. Every time light passes between barriers (IE glass and air) it will get slightly distorted.

All in all, less glass = much much better optical clarity. my 50mm and 28 mm primes blow the frak out of my 80 - 200 any day of the week. period

 

[DepthAfield]

That's what feet are for.

Thats what I was going to say!!

I love my 50mm Nikkor! It is one of the most often used lenses in my bag.

 

[ksmattfish]

What's the use of a lense with a fixed zoom.

Before the 1990's almost all zoom lenses sucked. Zoom lenses have gotten significantly better since then, but prime lenses still are almost always faster, cheaper, and have better image quality (at least in labratory testing, real world experience may vary).

 

[boclcown]

Does Canon have an equivilant?

 

[danalec99]

Does Canon have an equivilant?

Yes they do - 50mm f1.8 and a 50mm f1.4.

 

[JDP]

Yes they do - 50mm f1.8 and a 50mm f1.4.

Don't forget the $1600 50mm f/1.2

 

[Mihai]

They actually have a 50mm f/1!
M.

 

[boclcown]

how much does the popular nikkor one cost? Does anyone have a link to a review of it or something?

Thanks.

 

[JDP]

The most popular nikkor is the 50mm f/1.8, because at around $100 it's less then a third of the cost of the f/1.4. Here's a link to it at B&H. As for reviews, well this one by Ken Rockwell is good.

As quoted from a website he linked: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Photodo.com rates no other Nikon lens as sharper.

[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The bokeh on it is really nice too.
[/FONT]

 

[niccig]

Fast prime lenses are also great for low-light photography. Since you can open them up to 1.8 (or 1.4, if you have the 1.4), you can use a faster shutter speed than you could if you were using a zoom where the largest aperture at 50mm is f/4 or something like that. I got my 50mm 1.8 Nikkor from KEH for $109 (along with a bunch of other stuff). I use it more than any of my other lenses.