Nikon 35mm f1.8 AF-S lens

As some of you will know I bought my first new lens the other day, a prime 35mm f1.8 Nikon AF-S lens. And so far I am in love.

Since I got into photography, particularly in the last 2 years and with my DSLR, I have been reading a lot of tips, tricks, advice, tutorials, and the like, and two things have always come up again and again:

1 - If you buy a DSLR body with a lens (a kit lens) then the best thing you can do is buy a new lens
2 - You NEED a prime lens in your life at some point in your photography adventures

So I did both. In one.

The 18-55mm I got with my Nikon D60 is a very capable lens, it has a great range, and keeps sharpness across the whole zoom. It's not particularly fast - f3.5 at the wide end and f5.6 at the long end - so low light performance is pretty weak. But it works well.

But the 35mm I have now got on the camera is from another world! It may be that I am excited because it is my first new lens, it may be that I am still learning and don't know that much, but my god the pictures that are coming out of it are fantastic! at the fastest f stop (1.8 and 2) you get lovely creamy bokeh, and the subject that is in focus really pops out. I have only mucked around in the house with it, while the fiancee peeled some boiled eggs, and the short shoot by the church tonight,  but I can already see the difference, and I can't wait to get shooting with it properly.

Part of advice point 2 from above is that the prime lens that you need in your life should really be 50mm. this is due to the fact that 50mm is the closest to what the human eye sees. With this in mind, and the fact that I own a DX format camera I went for the 35mm.  DX format means the camera actually adds a little length to a lens, in other words it crops the image (when compared to a full frame or 35mm film camera). So the 35mm lens on the D60 actually turns out to be around 52mm. Perfect.

Another point to getting a prime lens is the fact that it doesn't have zoom. With the kit lens I could stand in one spot, and pretty much get the framing I wanted without having to move. All the top guys and gals in the camera world rave about the fact the primes don't have zoom, so as a photographer you have to move to get the shot. And this is a good thing, as it leads to you thinking about composition more.

There are some down sides. One is that I was getting A LOT of light flare tonight. The other is I did miss the wide end of the 18-55mm lens in a couple of spots where I was butted up against a wall but still couldn't frame the shot the way I wanted.

Verdict? Buy one! That is if you have DX format camera. If you are on full frame go get the 50mm one, the AF 1.8D one (only £90).

I think that is all for this evening.
Happy Friday Night.

Peace out
(Thoughts on sign off tag line....I am listen to a hip-hop at the moment, so it wont last)

Adam