Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Just get the lense, dont think about it so much... unless you want something more expensive, then you have other options... like the 1.4 and the other manual focus 50mm nikon lenses...
But this one is really really good for $100

Small, light, and sharp in the corners, even on a full-frame SLR. What more could you ask for? Now, if I could only find a 20, 24, 28 or 35 that is this good.

this is my most versatile lens. I love it. It's versatile becuase it works well in low light. It's wide enough to work in many situations (there are occasions in tight quarters where steping back isn't an option) I am so very happy I bought this. The pictures I've taken with this lens are great. I shot indoors with limited lighting at a wedding until about 530 pm and never used a flash.

You can get better pictures with this lens than with much, much more expensive zoom lenses. Fixed focal length lenses like this one, at 50mm, are inherently sharper and (because they have fewer elements) produce better contrast, color, and tonal range than even very good zoom lenses.

Back in the day, fixed focal length lenses were the norm for essentially these reasons. If you bought a new SLR, it came with a 50mm lens. Zoom lenses were second-rate, and if you wanted a wider or narrower angle, you got fixed focal length wide-angle and telephoto lenses, too. To be sure, zoom lenses have improved greatly over the years with advances in lens designs and coatings, but the superior image quality from fixed focal length lenses remains.

As is noted elsewhere, on a digital SLR, this lens functions as a moderate telephoto, the equivalent of about a 75mm lens on a 35mm film camera. This is an ideal portrait lens length, and it has many other applications, too.

I've used one of these lenses on a Nikon N75 (Nikon's last consumer-market film SLR). B&W film (which I'm fond of) shows off its advantages. Images are tack-sharp and have an excellent range of gray tones. Relatively large prints (on 8"x10" or even 11"x14" paper) look nearly as good prints from medium format negatives.

Over the years, I've used 50mm lenses from other legendary manufacturers, including Zeiss and Schneider Kreuznach, on other cameras, and this nice Nikkor lens is their equal.

It's just like everybody else says. This lens is a great deal. Light, sharp, fast, simple. Need a bigger image....just step closer. Works great on my Nikon D80.