Which is better for bokeh, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 get or 50mm f/1.8g?

[abrarhayat]

I asked a similar question before but haven't got my lens yet and now I want to be sure. I use a nikon d5300 with a kit lens 18-140 mm . My intentions with the new lens is to take portraits primarily and also for daily use with the help of the huge aperture, a good lens for low light conditions, but primarily I want to take photos with a nice bokeh effect. Thanks in advance!

 

[xzyragon]

Bokeh is determined by how large your aperture is, how close you are to your subject, and how far your subject is from the background. You can compensate for your kit lens's smaller aperture by standing farther away from the subject, and positioning the subject well in front of the background.

Walk around with your kit lens parked at 35mm, and then parked at 50mm, and see which focal length you like better / would use more.

 

[Bender]

The 50mm f/1.8G is better with respect to bokeh than the 35mm f/1.8G DX. My opinion. YMMV
The 50 is also a better focal length on DX than the 35 for portraits.

 

[bc_steve]

If you're shopping for bokeh, get the 50mm.

 

[Braineack]

the longer lens is almost always better. (in regards to bokeh)

 

[abrarhayat]

Bokeh is determined by how large your aperture is, how close you are to your subject, and how far your subject is from the background. You can compensate for your kit lens's smaller aperture by standing farther away from the subject, and positioning the subject well in front of the background.

Walk around with your kit lens parked at 35mm, and then parked at 50mm, and see which focal length you like better / would use more.

I did as you said, I've used my kit lens at both 50mm and 35mm and it seemed really irritating at 50mm, its much more convenient at 35mm. Now I know 50mm has a better bokeh effect, but the bokeh in 35 mm should be enough for me.

 

[xzyragon]

Bokeh is determined by how large your aperture is, how close you are to your subject, and how far your subject is from the background. You can compensate for your kit lens's smaller aperture by standing farther away from the subject, and positioning the subject well in front of the background.

Walk around with your kit lens parked at 35mm, and then parked at 50mm, and see which focal length you like better / would use more.

I did as you said, I've used my kit lens at both 50mm and 35mm and it seemed really irritating at 50mm, its much more convenient at 35mm. Now I know 50mm has a better bokeh effect, but the bokeh in 35 mm should be enough for me.

Again, if you're trying to get a subject in the frame, you'll be able to stand closer to the subject with a 35mm lens, but as a result you'll get more subject distortion. A portrait on a 35mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.8 with the subject filling the frame should have similar bokeh, but the subject will appear distorted (have wonkier limbs, stranger lines, etc) in comparison to the 50mm.

On a personal note, I have a 50mm prime on a crop body and I love it. The next lens I'm getting however is going to be a 35mm prime as a walk around / candid lens. Plus if you eventually upgrade to a full frame camera (like I do), the 50mm will replace the 35mm as a candid / walk around lens, and if you do have a 35mm prime, you'll have a decently fast wide lens for astro stuff and whatnot.

 

[abrarhayat]

Bokeh is determined by how large your aperture is, how close you are to your subject, and how far your subject is from the background. You can compensate for your kit lens's smaller aperture by standing farther away from the subject, and positioning the subject well in front of the background.

Walk around with your kit lens parked at 35mm, and then parked at 50mm, and see which focal length you like better / would use more.

I did as you said, I've used my kit lens at both 50mm and 35mm and it seemed really irritating at 50mm, its much more convenient at 35mm. Now I know 50mm has a better bokeh effect, but the bokeh in 35 mm should be enough for me.

Again, if you're trying to get a subject in the frame, you'll be able to stand closer to the subject with a 35mm lens, but as a result you'll get more subject distortion. A portrait on a 35mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.8 with the subject filling the frame should have similar bokeh, but the subject will appear distorted (have wonkier limbs, stranger lines, etc) in comparison to the 50mm.

On a personal note, I have a 50mm prime on a crop body and I love it. The next lens I'm getting however is going to be a 35mm prime as a walk around / candid lens. Plus if you eventually upgrade to a full frame camera (like I do), the 50mm will replace the 35mm as a candid / walk around lens, and if you do have a 35mm prime, you'll have a decently fast wide lens for astro stuff and whatnot.

Well lets say, I'd use it as a walk around/ candid lens when I'm not using my kit lens, but would also use it for taking portraits. Now will these portraits be much better with this lens than my kit lens? And will it take overall good bokeh shots?

 

[abrarhayat]

Bokeh is determined by how large your aperture is, how close you are to your subject, and how far your subject is from the background. You can compensate for your kit lens's smaller aperture by standing farther away from the subject, and positioning the subject well in front of the background.

Walk around with your kit lens parked at 35mm, and then parked at 50mm, and see which focal length you like better / would use more.

I did as you said, I've used my kit lens at both 50mm and 35mm and it seemed really irritating at 50mm, its much more convenient at 35mm. Now I know 50mm has a better bokeh effect, but the bokeh in 35 mm should be enough for me.

Again, if you're trying to get a subject in the frame, you'll be able to stand closer to the subject with a 35mm lens, but as a result you'll get more subject distortion. A portrait on a 35mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.8 with the subject filling the frame should have similar bokeh, but the subject will appear distorted (have wonkier limbs, stranger lines, etc) in comparison to the 50mm.

On a personal note, I have a 50mm prime on a crop body and I love it. The next lens I'm getting however is going to be a 35mm prime as a walk around / candid lens. Plus if you eventually upgrade to a full frame camera (like I do), the 50mm will replace the 35mm as a candid / walk around lens, and if you do have a 35mm prime, you'll have a decently fast wide lens for astro stuff and whatnot.

Well lets say, I'd use it as a walk around/ candid lens when I'm not using my kit lens, but would also use it for taking portraits. Now will these portraits be much better with this lens than my kit lens? And will it take overall good bokeh shots?

And yeah I also do a lot of astro photography and was hoping to take advantage of this large aperture.

 

[PaulWog]

The 35mm is better for all-around photography. It seems like that's what you want. If you're doing waste-up portraits, 35mm should be fine since you'll be standing far enough back that distortion isn't a big issue.

If you decide you want a dedicated portrait lens, look to the 85mm 1.8G. I own all three focal lengths (50, 85, and an 18-35). I like all three.

 

[hamlet]

Quality of bokeh is also something to consider.

Here is a shot with the 50mm 1.4g:

And this one taken with the 70-200 VRII

 

[PaulWog]

Hamlet, he's debating between the 35mm 1.8G and 50mm 1.8G. Not the 70-200 VR II and the 50mm 1.4G.

You might want to also post what aperture each shot is at, what your focus distance is, and what focal length the 70-200 is shot at. Otherwise, the bokeh examples won't help at all.

With that said, a little off-topic, I like the bokeh purse in the second shot.

 

[hamlet]

Yeah, probably not good comparison. It was the only one i found of my 50mm. I found a better example on my old drive of last Christmas with my 50mm 1.4g:

@ f1.4
Bokeh by miranfoto, on Flickr

The 1.4g gives pretty creamy bokeh.

 

[KmH]

Depth-of-field (DoF) is adjustable. Bokeh is not adjustable.
Many use the term bokeh when they are actually talking about depth of field.

DoF is what is controlled by choosing the lens focal length, lens aperture, and point of focus distance. How far behind the point of focus the background is is another consideration if the photographer wants the background blurry.

Bokeh results from lens construction. The number and shape of the lens aperture blades has a lot to do with a lens having pleasing or not pleasing bokeh.

A lens that has low quality, jarring, very nervous looking bokeh is the inexpensive Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II. The Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II lens has just 5, straight, sharp-edged aperture blades that form a pentagonal shaped lens aperture.

A lens that has high quality bokeh Is the Nikon AF 85 mm f/1.4D and is nicknamed The Cream Machine for the very smooth and visually pleasing bokeh the lens delivers. The Nikon 85 mm f/1.4D has 9 curved, rounded-edge aperture blades that come very close to forming a perfect circle of a lens aperture.

Bokeh is an aesthetic quality of blurred parts of a photo if the DoF is shallow enough to blur foreground and/or background image elements.
Put another way, if you want to change the bokeh you have to use a different make or model of lens.

Internal lens construction beyond the aperture blades also plays a part in the quality of the bokeh a lens can produce. Lens glass quality, lens finish quality, and lens body interior finish play a part.
Basically, the less expensive a lens is the lower the bokeh quality.

Of the 2 lenses the OP asked about, and for more reasons than just the bokeh, I would recommend the AF-S 50 mm f/1.8G over the AF-S 35 mm f/1.8G.

 

[D-B-J]

Depth-of-field (DoF) is adjustable. Bokeh is not adjustable.
Many use the term bokeh when they are actually talking about depth of field.

DoF is what is controlled by choosing the lens focal length, lens aperture, and point of focus distance. How far behind the point of focus the background is another consideration if the photographer wants the background blurry.

Bokeh results from lens construction. The number and shape of the lens aperture blades has a lot to do with a lens having pleasing or not pleasing bokeh.

A lens that has low quality, jarring, very nervous looking bokeh is the inexpensive Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II. The Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II lens has just 5, straight, sharp-edged aperture blades that form a pentagonal shaped lens aperture.

A lens that has high quality bokeh Is the Nikon AF 85 mm f/1.4D and is nicknamed The Cream Machine for the very smooth and visually pleasing bokeh the lens delivers. The Nikon 85 mm f/1.4D has 9 curved, rounded-edge aperture blades that come very close to forming a perfect circle of a lens aperture.

Bokeh is an aesthetic quality of blurred parts of a photo if the DoF is shallow enough to blur foreground and/or background image elements.
Put another way, if you want to change the bokeh you have to use a different make or model of lens.

Internal lens construction beyond the aperture blades also plays a part in the quality of the bokeh a lens can produce. Lens glass quality, lens finish quality, and lens body interior finish play a part.
Basically, the less expensive a lens is the lower the bokeh quality.

Of the 2 lenses the OP asked about, and for more reasons than just the bokeh, I would recommend the AF-S 50 mm f/1.8G over the AF-S 35 mm f/1.8G.

While I realize it's more expensive, the Nikon 85mm 1.8G is a beast, especially at it's price point. If the OP has the cash, I'd get that one. Definitely a better performer than the 50, and significantly sharper too.

Jake