How useable is a Nikkor 50mm Prime on a D40?

sophos9

sophos9

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Want a prime lens for low light and general urban stuff, how usable is the 50mm F1.8 AFD manual focus on the D40 please?

Thanks
 
Easy peasy.

I manual focus with my fifty and it will take you about half an hour to grasp it.

Its a great lens.
 
I have it, I love it.

Mines abit stiff to focus though, I think it maybe a bad example.
 
if you want a 50mm prime with auto focus, you could get the af-s 50mm 1.4 (quite a fair bit more in price, around £300)

or even go for the AF-S 35mm 1.8 (around £200)
 
The Nikon 35mm f/1.8 or Sigma 30mm f/1.4 would be my preferred choice on a crop-sensor camera; both would auto-focus on your D40 too. :)
 
sdb123 said:
The Nikon 35mm f/1.8 or Sigma 30mm f/1.4 would be my preferred choice on a crop-sensor camera; both would auto-focus on your D40 too. :)
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This is an interesting topic (sorry for the mini-hijack). Any ideas as to what would be a good used price for the Sigma 30mm?
 
idkb said:
This is an interesting topic (sorry for the mini-hijack). Any ideas as to what would be a good used price for the Sigma 30mm?
Click to expand...

Depends what you mean by a good used price...i.e. what's good for you may not be for me.

The recent MSRP rise has had a small impact on the used prices...I'd look to pay circa £210 for a good example (maybe less on a forum).
 
i used an old 50mm on my d40 and then a 28, far preferred the 28 so bought a 35mm f2 and love it. much more useable field of view on a crop sensor IMHO (and much closer to field of view of a 50 on full frame)
 
Manual focus is alot easier than people think

I read bits and peices on here before venturing out with my Sigma 24mm and find it easy to use and focus

the 50mm will be exactly the same, take an hour to get used to using manual focus and you will find it great and get some great shots
 
fontmoss said:
i used an old 50mm on my d40 and then a 28, far preferred the 28 so bought a 35mm f2 and love it. much more useable field of view on a crop sensor IMHO (and much closer to field of view of a 50 on full frame)
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Can you explain what the practical difference between a 35 and 50mm is please?
 
on a crop sensor a 35mm lens is far closer to the field of vision you would have with a 50mm on a film camera (or full frame digital camera)

it means from the same spot you will see a wider view of what's in front of you with a 35mm than a 50mm lens from the same spot (on a crop sensor like the d40) really needs to be illustrated with a pic but im sure someone will oblige ;)

if you were standing at your front door for example then with a 35mm lens you would see the same or v similar field of view than if you didnt have the camera in front of you. with the 50mm lens it would be more 'zoomed in' than you would see with the naked eye.

god im making this sound complicated, help please! bring me the illustrations!
 
The 45° diagonal field of view is a nice natural field of view.
On a 35mm film/digital camera you need a 50mm lens to get that.
On a Nikon crop digital camera you need a 35mm lens to get that.

Simply put, it's because the smaller sensor captures a smaller part of the imaging circle, so it has effectively cropped part of the image out. You need a wider lens so that the cropped image looks the same.
 
love my nifty 50 on my D40. I got mine for around £80 from ebay. Got to manual meter it too, but its al good for learning
 
its an AI version ;-(
Also just checked and I got it for £35 not £80
 
yea, good job the wife wasn't looking over my shoulder, she would have never believed me, but it was £35, honest ;-)
 
Bought a 50mm 1.8 AFD and after shooting it for a bit, am well surprised how good this lens is for the price.

Compared with my 18-55 and 55-200VR its much sharper and the manual focus is really usable! Great in low light too - any great addition to the kit bag. Can see how this brings you closer to the subject so would be interested in how a 35mm goes but for now, happy with this! :)
 
A prime is the next lens on my list. Will not be untill the later part of the year though.
 
Although it may seem like a bit of an annoyance, I never rated my 50mm 1.8 when I started to use it (in AF). It was only when I used it in manual that I really appreciated just how good it was. You could even think about it as forcing you to use it properly :p.
 
Love my nifty fifty on the D40. There can be times when AF would be very nice, but it's a great lens for the money. Got mine from Jessops about 8 months ago for £75. Most of the shots on my flickr are taken with the 50mm (link should be in sig)
 
The more I play with the 50mm, the more I'm starting to see how cool a prime is... No photos to write home about yet but just some playful snapping has produced some nice looking shots!

For the price, its a cheap upgrade and manual focus becomes totally second nature :)
 
Maybe it's my advancing years and poor eyesight (although it's only -0.25 in the shooting eye!) but I find MF on my AF bodies a royal PITA. Plain glass screens don't help a lot, neither do the darker viewfinders when compared to the cameras of yesteryear. I know I could get Katseye screens with microprisms or split circles which would help but since all my bodies can screw older lenses, I can't really see the point, especially since modern AF is so fast and accurate.

Having said that, since AF isn't really an affordable option at the 30-50mm prime level for the D40(x)/D60, it's certainly worth trying with an older AF prime to see how well you get on with it. 50mm f/1.8 lenses still pop up in 2nd hand stocks from time to time. Had mine a while now (7 or 8 years) and IIRC it cost me £35 or £40. Bought it for film use as a "standard" lens then used it on crop as a portrait (occasionally) and fast short tele and it's now come back into its own as a standard on a FF DSLR.

If you can find one cheap, go for it! If you don't get on with it in MF, either sell it on for what it cost you or keep it for when you upgrade to a body with a focus motor.
 
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