A little advice about Nikon Prime lenses please

tensai-riot

I am looking at buying a prime lens for my Nikon D300s the first time and was wondering if I could get some advice from the many talented photographers on here.

I would mainly be using it to shoot live bands in small venues here in Japan, or for portrait shooting, etc. One thing I wanted to know is what dose everyone prefer, a 35mm or 50mm? And if you were shooting a live event which do you think would be more useful. I am tilting towards to 50mm now, but any suggestions would be great.

And if you know of specific, "this is the lens you MUST buy" lenses, I am all ears. Oh ya, would prefer auto focus over manual.

Thanks for the help!!!

catspaw

*definitely* the 50mm. a must-have (as 1.8 or 1.4) in any Nikon bag

tensai-riot

catspaw wrote:

*definitely* the 50mm. a must-have (as 1.8 or 1.4) in any Nikon bag

Thanks catspaw, much appreciated
I have heard of a 1.2 with the 50mm, have you seen anything about this?

Art Scott

tensai-riot wrote:

I am looking at buying a prime lens for my Nikon D300s the first time and was wondering if I could get some advice from the many talented photographers on here.

I would mainly be using it to shoot live bands in small venues here in Japan, or for portrait shooting, etc. One thing I wanted to know is what dose everyone prefer, a 35mm or 50mm? And if you were shooting a live event which do you think would be more useful. I am tilting towards to 50mm now, but any suggestions would be great.

And if you know of specific, "this is the lens you MUST buy" lenses, I am all ears. Oh ya, would prefer auto focus over manual.

Thanks for the help!!!

For events shooting especially concerts a prime is just to limiting......but I have shot zooms since the 1970's snd owned a few primes that never saw the light of day after my introiduction into the world of great zooms............for event and concerts a sigma 17-70 f2.8-4, or a Sigma or 24-70f2.8 or a 28-70f2.8 nikon would be great.................I do find the 28 much too long and the 24 a tad too long for the wide end of a crop body...........I could work with the 24 much easier than the 28 anytime tho......................

tensai-riot

Thanks for the advice, but I actually already have the Nikon 18-200 zoom lens (not the biggest aperture but the zoom range is great) as well as the Nikon 10-24 wide angle. With these I get pretty much every shot I would want/need, but I was looking at the 50mm because it would be so much faster/brighter and give a bit of a different effect with the bokeh you get from the 1.4.

You have good results with your Sigma lenses though?

GadgetRick

tensai-riot wrote:

Thanks for the advice, but I actually already have the Nikon 18-200 zoom lens (not the biggest aperture but the zoom range is great) as well as the Nikon 10-24 wide angle. With these I get pretty much every shot I would want/need, but I was looking at the 50mm because it would be so much faster/brighter and give a bit of a different effect with the bokeh you get from the 1.4.

You have good results with your Sigma lenses though?

Your 18-200 won't be fast enough to shoot indoors unless you can shoot close enough with flash.

tensai-riot

Hey Gadget Rick, thanks for the advice. I have had pretty good results with it indoors so far, without a flash, but ya, I think if I can afford to get a faster zoom lens I really should. Any recommendations with a Nikon?

Mitchell

Nikkor 50mm, f1.4 would be a great addition to your bag. The Nikkor 50mm, f1.2 you mention does exist but is a manual focus lens. I enjoy playing with the f1.2, but I can't recommend it for concert shooting. With my old eyes, I'd never be able to manually focus wide open in dim lighting!

YMMV.

Photometric

This is a show I shot using only the 50mm f1.8 if you want to see some actual pics. These are straight out of camera, no pp.

Here

The 50mm f1.4 will of course be slightly faster, but I thought a picture would speak 1000 words.

Qarik

50mm and 85mm 1.4. Forget the 35mm.

tensai-riot

That settles it then, I am going to pick up the 50mm at the end of the month.

Thanks for all the help everyone. And Photometric, thanks for showing me the pictures. That is the same kind of venue I was thinking I would want to use it in so that was a great help.

Thanks again everyone! You will probably hear from me again sometime with more questions

DerekMartinezPhotography

Chime in and let us know how you like it

derekmartinezphotography.com

tensai-riot wrote:

That settles it then, I am going to pick up the 50mm at the end of the month.

Thanks for all the help everyone. And Photometric, thanks for showing me the pictures. That is the same kind of venue I was thinking I would want to use it in so that was a great help.

Thanks again everyone! You will probably hear from me again sometime with more questions

rookieshooter

If you're shooting concerts go with the 70-200. It's as sharp as a prime, as is the 24-70. Both are incredible lenses but much more expensive than a 50mm obviously.

If you want a sample of the 50mm f1.4 well here is my cat :0

Foques

taken with 50 mm 1.8 in a dark room at ISO 3200

tensai-riot

Hey guys, thanks for the sample images, they look great. I especially like your cat photo rookieshooter. I love shooting cats I find in the street and I think the 50mm will make these look great and easier to take, at night especially. And ya, DerekMartinezPhotography, I will post a few when I get it. Can't wait

tensai-riot

Can't make up my mind
So...dose any one here know any real difference between these two lenses?

AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D

and

AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G

I have been examining them and not sure what the real difference is except $100. If you had a D300s and could afford either, which would you buy?

Thanks a tone

Enitsugua

tensai-riot wrote:

So...dose any one here know any real difference between these two lenses?

AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4D

and

AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G

I have been examining them and not sure what the real difference is except $100. If you had a D300s and could afford either, which would you buy?

Thanks a tone

AF-S has a little nicer bokeh (most noticeable on NOT round brighter objects). Hard to describe without simply putting each on your camera in turn and looking through to see. Bokeh is smoother, "creamier", a little more pleasing to the eye on the S. But not much.

S also is a very accurate focusing lens (but the D is no slouch either). The S, oddly, does not focus faster (AF-S usually means that).

The S is also a G (no aperture ring), but that won't matter with your camera. On the D, you simply lock the ring and use the camera's adjustment.

The S has more barrel distortion that the D (which you will only see on pictures of things like buildings and other rectangular objects--not on people).

Other differences are physical and mechanical and could matter, depending on what you shoot and under what circumstances.

The S is bigger.

The S will accept a bayonet style lens hood. The D will not.

The S is internal focus, meaning the lens doesn't physically change lengths externally to focus. That means bumping (hard) the end of the lens is not likely to mess up the focus. On the D, that same bump could misalign the mechanical parts that move to different lengths for focus, rendering the lens either unable to focus or unable to focus accurately. Some consider that a "professional feature", whatever that is.

And, finally, you can grab the focus ring on the S and hold onto it--spinning it to manually focus if you want to. To switch from auto to manual focus on the D (no M/A switch on lens), you have to change to manual focus on the camera. Grabbing and spinning the focus ring (or just holding on to it too tightly) on the D while the lens is mounted and working could cause damage to the focus motor in the lens. Not likely, but possible.

So, go look at and through them and then decide if you want to spend the extra $100 or not.

Enitsugua

tensai-riot wrote:

I have had pretty good results with it indoors so far, without a flash, but ya, I think if I can afford to get a faster zoom lens I really should. Any recommendations with a Nikon?

If you're going to buy zooms, save and buy the good ones. AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED if you want to go with zoom and not with the 50.

tensai-riot

Enitsugua: Thanks a TON, that is exactly the information I was hopping to get. Lots to think about, but I think I am going to drop the extra 100 and pick up the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G. But I am going to borrow the other one from a friend tonight for a show on Thursday, so if I fall in love with it...

Anyways, thanks again, and you are right, I should save up and get a nice fast zoom lens, that's now on the long...long...list of things I want.

Cheers!!

tensai-riot

Picked it up!
So I got the 50mm last week and went around Kyoto with it for a hour or two while I was waiting for my wife to meet me down town, and a shot in the bar after. Just thought I would post a couple shots in here so other people can see what the lens dose.

All shots taken at 1.4, just so you know.

Cheers!

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ziggy53

Congratulations on the new, very fast, lens.

tensai-riot

ziggy53 wrote: »

Congratulations on the new, very fast, lens.

Thanks a ton. Really liking it so far!

TopCat

tensai-riot wrote: »

Thanks a ton. Really liking it so far!

How about some shots made using it???

Enitsugua

TopCat wrote: »

How about some shots made using it???

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1388764&postcount=20

LabRat

tensai-riot wrote: »

Thanks catspaw, much appreciated
I have heard of a 1.2 with the 50mm, have you seen anything about this?

I started with the 50 mm 1.8D It is an awesomelense for the price. When the new 35mm 1.8 was released, I bought that as well, i bought it for twice the money... it gives half the picture in my opinion.

You will not be sorry if you buy the 50 mm 1.8

J.D.

tensai-riot

Enitsugua wrote: »

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1388764&postcount=20

Thanks

tensai-riot

LabRat wrote: »

I started with the 50 mm 1.8D It is an awesomelense for the price. When the new 35mm 1.8 was released, I bought that as well, i bought it for twice the money... it gives half the picture in my opinion.

You will not be sorry if you buy the 50 mm 1.8

J.D.

For sure, loving it so far to say the least clap