For those with D40 + 50mm 1.8

What do you mainly use this lens for (in lieu of the kit lens)? How much of a big deal is it that you have to manual focus?

zedagive

I just bought the 50mm 1.8 and gave it a go last night at a family get togther. Good opportunity for low light and no flash. Here's one of the better shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mryuk/410229367

Since I'm so used to working the zoom on my other lens (18-135mm) it was "natural" to have my hand on the focus ring and work it. A green dot comes on in the lower left in the viewfinder when in focus. The green dot can be fooled some of the time; I'm trying to figure this out. I suspect the background is a factor, but I'm certain a more experienced person can explain it better than me.

So some of the shots were great, some out of focus. I didn't have a D50 for a side by side comparison

I think I'll keep the lens. After using it I wonder what all the D40 "crippled" fuss is all about.

Hi Zedagive,

I use my 50mm whenever I'm in seriously dark conditions and I'd rather not use the flash. I don't use it all the time, but it's a small enough lens that it's not really a big deal to carry it around with me.

I think the manual focus issue is not that big of a deal. I was initally worried about it, but I found that I have pretty good success with just using the focus indicator dot on the D40. It can be a little difficult getting dead-on focus with a really wide aperture, but you'll get a lot better at it after you use it for a little while.

In some ways, I think having to manually focus has improved my photography, as it slows me down and makes me think about my shots a bit more. The only real downside for me is that I'll occasionally miss a shot because I can't react and focus quickly enough. But that is rare.

I'd say give the lens a try, I think you'll be surprised with just how good your results are.

--
-Matt

Mr Yuk said:

I just bought the 50mm 1.8 and gave it a go last night at a family
get togther. Good opportunity for low light and no flash. Here's
one of the better shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mryuk/410229367

Since I'm so used to working the zoom on my other lens (18-135mm)
it was "natural" to have my hand on the focus ring and work it. A
green dot comes on in the lower left in the viewfinder when in
focus. The green dot can be fooled some of the time; I'm trying to
figure this out. I suspect the background is a factor, but I'm
certain a more experienced person can explain it better than me.

So some of the shots were great, some out of focus. I didn't have
a D50 for a side by side comparison
I think I'll keep the lens. After using it I wonder what all the
D40 "crippled" fuss is all about.

Click to expand...

Hmmmmm...Maybe the fuss is all about what you just stated here. Some were great, some were out of focus, you say. That sounds like 50/50 to me or somewhere near that ratio. That's a lot of missed moments/opportunities. On any other camera nearly ALL would have been in focus with no hassles. This is what the fuss is about as for people who want to shoot more critical situations or important events and have more keepers compared to what your leaving us to suspect here. This just may not be good enough for most prime shooters.

I have D80 and D40 and other than shooting near still subjects with my primes, i'm losing a way bigger ratio of shots compared to my D80 for moving subjects from either trying to get the focus correct in time, or from getting out of focus shots by the time I have focused and the subject is long gone.
--
*****************************************
Packy

http://homepage.eircom.net/~vmax ; for my pic stuff

In my opinion, the 50mm is best used as a creative lens. It's depth of field manipulations offer endless opportunity for creative fun. In that scenario, auto-focus is not really important. With the high iso possibilities of the D40, other than it's creative uses, there isn't a great must-have need for the 50.

This flickr group has many great examples.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikkor50mm18/

A recent example of my own:



--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/v63/

I use the 1.8 for low light, like most of the other postings. It's hard for me to get the focus right wihtout using the green dot. I'm probably 60% off by eye and 20% off using the dot.

As far as being slow, the D40 is the first SLR I've had that wasn't manual focus so I tend to use the same focus tricks I used with my 'really old' 35 mm gear; e.g., pick a spot where you think you'll want to take the shot and pre-focus.

I have always thought taht every image a camera makes is in focus. Whether it was focused on what I wanted it to or not was mainly a function of my skill and not the camera's capabilities. ;-)

Rick

Has anyone played with hyperfocusing this lens?

I am considering picking up the Nikon 35mm f/2 prime (50mm effective) as a walkaround/low-light lens. I would like to set it up for hyperfocal focusing so I could get quick shots without having to manually focus.

I played around with a Depth of Field calculator and you really have to go with high f numbers to get a large depth of field when working with hyperfocal focusing. Raising the f stop then would seem to defeat the purpose of having a f/2 lens.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

I'm still trying to sort this all out since I don't have any experience with setting up a fast prime lens for hyperfocal use.

Any thoughts?

TR

I like it for lower light, no flash stuff too.

Below is 800 ISO, f/2.2 so I didn't even push the camera or lens to full throttle. It isn't a masterpiece but my kit lens (f/5.6 at 55mm) and ISO 1600 would have probably struggled in that shot. In fact, I know it would have because I tried it earlier in the night on some other people shots and it wasn't very good. So I switched to the 50mm.



A few other shots...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stujoe/sets/72157594553588356/detail/

--
Stujoe -
http://www.DigitalPhotoPeople.com

Nikon D50 (Sigma 10-20mm, Nikon 18-55mm, Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro, Nikon 50mm f/1.8, Vivitar 2x Macro Teleconverter)
Panasonic FZ7
Fuji F20

Hey, cut me a break here. First time focusing ever and (for me) the AF-S kit lens has some trouble focusing when the light is low. But since you asked I downloaded 52 pictures from the camera; 12 were out of focus, and another 20-22 just sucked. So I kept 10 and I'm happy. Much better than the film P&S days.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

packy said:

Hmmmmm...Maybe the fuss is all about what you just stated here.
Some were great, some were out of focus, you say. That sounds like
50/50 to me or somewhere near that ratio.

Click to expand...