Nikon 50

The lens you need to buy, fast, cheap, light

This is a great lens. Regardless of its price (it is one of the cheapest you can buy), and regardless of its weight (it is the lightest lens I own), it is just great. If you find fault with this lens, I think you are a very hard to please person. If you want to demonstrate why prime lenses are great, let someone use this for a day.

If I had to pick one lens, either this or the Nikon 35 would be my choice. Problem is, you definitely do not need both of these lenses, either one would do fine (probably buying these two together will cost you less than buying any other lens), it is a bit of a preference of how wide you like it.

What I do not like so much about this lens is the minimum focus distance which is about 45cm, compared to about 25 cm of Nikon 35. It may not seem much, but I like fast lenses when I visit museums, and usually 45cm is a bit too far away from the subjects in showcases. You end up being further away from the glass and it is harder to get rid of the reflections. Do you see the level of nitpicking going on here. This lens is just good.

Versions

This the older version. The newer 1.8G allows you to manipulate the focus while you are in autofocus mode.
There are f/1.4 versions which is probably one of the most affordable f/1.4 lens you can buy.
And also a f/1.2 version, which is much more expensive.

My Nikon 50mm f/1.8D

Price	Very cheap
Weight	Very light, 150g
Good for	everything
New or used	150 new, almost no need for used

Full Frame

This is a bit more suited for full frame from the focal length, it is an excellent lens to carry around with you when you have a single camera and either a wide angle or a long lens. It is light, fits into every pocket, and delivers.

It is also the perfect city lens, when you walk around light and want to capture things day and night. If you have carried around a 1kg lens an entire day, you will appreciate this light weight lens a lot.

APS-C

On APS-C this lens ends up being a bit long at 75mm, so it is not suitable for everything, it gets difficult to capture streets, buildings larger scenery, it becomes more for details, portraits, people. The lens is still great, but if you only have an APS-C camera you might be wondering why everyone praises this lens so much, it works on a wider range of subjects in full frame

Gallery / see also

The 50mm on a Nikon D610, notice how small the lens is. The weight of the equipment you carry is actually quite an important parameter.
Test subject on a full frame camera
Test subject on a APS-C camera
A cute stone left on a bench in the woods in great light, This one is with an APS-C camera. I can not stress enough how much the weight of the lens is a factor. This lens is the difference between taking your camera everywhere and leaving it at home because you do not want to carry it all day.
On an APS-C Camera this lens becomes a lens with 75mm focal length, which makes it better for such shots as you can frame them a bit closer. The sunflower is a bit smaller than a persons head, so you see that it would also work very well for portraits.
Onca again on an APS-C camera, if you know how to look (and to be fair if I actually uploaded it at full resolution) this is a picture that shows how sharp the lens actually is on all corners. The corn on the foreground is out of focus but the roof tiles are the same sharp everywhere on the frame.

These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.