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206 of 218 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for low light, great focal length for DX, and autofocus will also work with D40, D40x, D60, and D5000 cameras, May 24, 2009
This Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX lens produces sharp pictures and great color and contrast. It is also perfect for portrait and other general purposes (semi-macro etc). This lens also produces nice bokeh. The picture quality and bokeh quality are comparable with the other Nikon prime lenses (50mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4 AF-S etc) lens which are famous for being sharp. Overall, this is a very versatile lens. On a non full frame DSLR (such as D40, D40x, D60, D5000, D80, D90, D200, D300 etc), this 35mm focal length is equivalent to about 50mm which is considered a normal lens (normal as to being close to a person eye viewing angle perspective).
Many of us, including those who already own the 50mm prime, have been waiting for this lens (prime lens that has wider angle than the 50mm) for a long time, especially for non full frame DSLR owners that usually have about 1.5x magnification due to the smaller sensor size. Those 50mm lens on a non full frame DSLR is equivalent to 75mm which is often too much zoom for many situation. For example in a room where you can't keep backing up to compose your photos, or when taking picture of a group of people where you will need to move back a lot with the 50mm lens. This 35mm lens will solve that problem to some extent as this is a lot wider lens than the 50mm prime lenses. Having said that the 50mm prime lens is still a great lens. If you don't own any of the earlier version of the 50mm lens and wondering if you should get this 35mm or the 50mm, then I would recommend you to get this lens over 50mm, unless you know for sure that you need more zoom than the 35mm for your purpose, then you can go and buy the 50mm or 85mm (both available on f/1.4 or f/1.8).
This lens (DX lens) is not designed for a full frame camera (FX or Film). There will be light fall-off which is quite significant. If you have a full frame DSLR, you might want to get the 50mm f/1.4 AF-S, or the older 35mm f/2 AF-D lens instead.
Being a prime lens (this 35mm lens), you will need to move your feet a lot to compose your picture.
While this lens produces very sharp images at f/1.8, the corner show lower contrast. Sharpness and contrast increases further as you stop down to f/2, f/2.8 and f/4. Sharpness increases slowly after f/2.8 (i.e. at f/2.8 seems to be the optimal, without sacrificing too much speed)
The big plus with this lens over the older 35mm lens is the AF-S feature which is auto focus system that is internal to the lens, very fast and very silent. This lens will please a lot of people who currently own D40, D40x, D60, and D5000, as they now can benefit from the autofocus.
Another big win is the manual override on autofocus mode (M/A mode), which will allow us to change the focus without having to change the mode to manual mode (this is pretty standard to most Nikon newer lenses but it's quite new for Nikon prime lens series)
This lens doens't have image stabilization (VR), but that is kind of expected as Nikon also doesn't include VR on their new 50mm f/1.4 AF-S lens. It would be nice to have VR (for longer exposure handheld operation, and for people with less stable photography technique) but it will probably increase the size, weight and cost of this lens.
If you are wondering whether you should get a fast lens or a lens with VR (Vibration Reduction), here's my take: In overall, VR does help a lot (as it will reduce camera shake) and will produce better/sharper picture than equivalent lens without VR (especially if the object is static). If the object is moving fast (sports/action) then VR feature alone might not help (depending on how fast the object is moving and how much light is available), and a fast lens often end up being a far better solution, even without VR feature as it will allow much faster shutter speed to freeze motion. Using tripod (and a remote) will substitute for the need of VR feature. In general I would recommend getting a fast lens with VR feature (and usually it is expensive) such as the 70-200 f/2.8 VR, but if one can only get for one or the other, then find out what do you want to use the lens for and then use the guideline mentioned here.
If you are wondering whether you will get the benefit of buying f/1.4 lens over a f/1.8 lens, just remember that the f/1.4 lens is about 60% faster than f/1.8 at its widest aperture setting. With this information, you can decide if the additional speed will justify the additional cost. The bokeh is nicer as well in f/1.4 lens but I think speed is usually the main factor in deciding whether to get the more expensive f/1.4 lens.
Here are the summary of pros and cons for this Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S lens:
Pros:
1. AF-S AF-S AF-S (very fast focus, internal focus, and very silent)
2. M/A mode (manual focus override available on autofocus mode)
3. Very fast lens (f/1.8)
4. Very sharp pictures
5. Great for sport/action photography (though you might need more zoom)
6. Great for indoor and low light situation
7. Great for portrait
8. Bokeh is almost as good as many expensive Nikon tele-lens
9. Perfect for low light with no-flash event. However, also check out the following lens for low light photography: 17-35mm f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 17-55mm f/2.8, 28-70mm f/2.8 or the the 50mm nikon prime lenses.
9. Great focal length (35mm). About 50mm equivalent which is a normal lens (If you need more zoom, you can get the Nikon 50mm or 85mm prime lens or 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens).
10. Did I already mention very fast and very silent focus? :)
Cons:
1. Being prime lens, you need to move your feet a lot to adjust/compose
2. Being a G lens (no aperture ring available), this lens will not work on manual focus camera where you need to set the aperture from the lens)
3. No VR. As VR will be useful for taking handheld shots on low light (especially if the object is somewhat static or if the photographer doesn't have steady hands when taking photograph)
4. Not designed for full frame cameras (FX or Film) where there will be siginificant light fall-off.
Bottom line: This lens is so versatile that I think everyone should own this lens in addition to all the lenses that they already have (even if they alredy have the 50mm prime lens). Being a very fast lens, it will allow people to take action shot in low light that otherwise wouldn't be able to be do. And now, with AF-S, there is nothing to dislike about this lens (though in my opinion, this lens might attract even more interest if it has a VR feature).
Happy Photographing!
Sidarta Tanu
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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unassuming humble little jewel of a lens, October 23, 2009
Nikon has absolutely nailed it with this lens. A modest sum gets you exactly what you need in a lens, nothing you don't, and it works beautifully. It is relatively feature-rich at its price: cheap lenses, even from Nikon, often lack important features - but not here. Unlike other recent DX bargains this lens has Nikon's M/A focus setting, which allows automatic focus with instant manual over-ride. This is a simple and intuitive method of combining the ease and accuracy of AF with sometimes-necessary manual control, and Nikon has done users of this lens a great favor by including it, despite the low price. It also features, less importantly, a proper metal mount and a gasket to keep dust ingress from occurring through the camera/lens interface. A couple of items do remain absent: there is no focus distance scale, and as a consequence there is no depth-of-field scale, an unfortunate omission that is nevertheless justified at the price point. This is a bargain lens, a no-brainer for any photographer aspiring beyond the point-and-shoot level, and the lack of distance and depth scales are a reasonable trade-off.
What is clear to me in using this lens is that Nikon has put its money in exactly the right places to make this lens a star despite its price. There may be nitpicks here and there, but the optics, the coatings, the engineering, and perhaps most importantly the quality of the focusing system, are exactly what they need to be to allow this lens to make photographs that are the equal of those made by professional zooms costing in the thousands.
The important thing to keep in mind with this lens is that it is a relatively fast prime lens, and the most important quality of a fast prime is its ability to take photographs using a large aperture: without this ability there are any number of excellent consumer and professional zooms that are capable of doing the same job. Its essential distinguishing quality, then, is its ability to make images at apertures wider than f/2.8 or so, and at such large apertures there are two hurdles that a lens must overcome. The first is simply a matter of optics: most lenses, historically at least, have been made from an assemblage of spherically-ground lens elements. Spherical elements do a good job of approximating the perfect shape for a lens at smaller apertures and are used because they can be manufactured inexpensively - but at larger apertures, their spherical nature varies optically from perfection, leading to something called spherical aberration. This results in a lack of acuity, and sharpness, in the resulting image. The 35/1.8 uses an aspherical element (actually a hybrid aspherical for what it's worth) to correct this imperfection. The result, in this well-engineered example, is a lens that performs nearly as well at a wide-open f/1.8 aperture as at an optimal f/5.6 or f/8 aperture.
The other important hurdle in performance for a modern fast lens is the quality of the focusing system. This is more complicated than simply the lens itself, as it relies on electronics in both the lens and the camera body. Nevertheless the more I use Nikon's AF-S lenses - and have the opportunity to compare them with older and third-party technology - the more I am impressed by their performance. The difficulty is that at f/1.8, even with a "normal" (35mm for DX) lens, the depth of field is very narrow. The focusing system needs to be able to find focus within a very small margin of error, and just as importantly it needs to be able to alter focus in very small increments in response to minor changes in the position of the camera or subject. The requirement for accuracy is stringent enough that earlier generations of AF lenses, those which relied on motors in the camera body, tended to be somewhat clumsy in their ability to consistently maintain perfect focus. They would "hunt," requiring several back-and-forth adjustments to find perfect focus, and they would often either fail to respond or lose focus altogether when small adjustments were needed. Nikon's AF-S lenses comprise a significant technical advance in that they largely eliminate these problems. The AF-S motors, in combination with the in-camera focusing logic of Nikon's contemporary bodies, are able to make the small adjustments necessary to find and maintain focus even within small depths of field. They rarely hunt, they are typically very accurate, and the 35/1.8 seems to be as good as the best of them. This is important, because it allows the 35/1.8 get excellent, perfectly focused pictures while other lenses are trying to figure themselves out or are shooting pictures an inch or fractions of an inch out of perfection, often enough to ruin the shot.
These are the most important things to keep in mind, for most photographers, when looking for a fast "normal" lens. Everything else should be considered as well, but when it comes to the ability to make consistently good images with proper AF function, these are by far the most important points for this type of lens. Everything else, by comparison, is a minor detail.
As for those minor details, some do work against this lens. There are well-documented chromatic imperfections in the lens' performance. These are largely corrected by Nikon's electronics and by its software, but are apparent, if usually subtle, when these corrective elements are not used (for example, in lower-end camera bodies that do not correct for chromatic aberrations). It has a bit more distortion than you'll find in most "normal" primes, enough to be noticeable in photos with strong horizontal or vertical elements that pass through the majority of the frame. And its build quality is very much in the consumer range - light, plastic, and not necessarily of high tactile quality, though certainly of high actual quality. None of these things matter all that much, however, if what you want to do is point this lens in the right direction and get excellent photographic imagery in return. Some seemingly superior lenses give the photographer better first impressions but can't equal the results - see my review of Sigma's competing 30mm f/1.4 prime for an example.
I rank this as a four-and-a-half star lens. Amazon doesn't allow half-star ratings, and I won't quite give it a full five, but by getting the most important details just about as right as any lens can be, it is very close. I don't believe in ranking lenses differently according to price. This lens gives a 4-1/2 star performance, and at its price that is remarkable, but I won't call it a five-star lens because it is cheap: that determination is for the reader to make. What I will say is that, among the variety of "normal" primes I've used, on DX and on film, most of which are pretty reasonably priced, this lens is a standout. It gives me the highest proportion of great images, with perfect clarity and color, of any - and it does it with a minimum of fuss. It's wonderful to use, and I love it. It's one of my favorite lenses.
Miscellaneous notes:
- This lens has fairly poor bokeh. Bokeh is a word used to describe the quality of blur in out-of-focus areas in the frame, and can be important for fast lenses because a fast lens allows the photographer to "isolate" his subject in the frame by rendering the remainder of the frame out of focus. Nevertheless, bokeh is a less important quality in a 35mm lens than in a longer lens, because the actual degree of blur is less: in fact, the degree of blur achievable by any lens is related to its focal length and nothing else. It is true, if one looks closely, that some other lenses in this range have better bokeh, however the blur itself is a relatively subtle effect in all such lenses, and concentrating too acutely on the quality of this modest blur seems to me to be somewhat misguided. The ability to isolate one's subject remains critical, but it is a more subtle level of isolation that one might achieve with a longer lens, say an 85/1.4 or 180/2.8, and consequently the precise nature of the blur is just not all that important, at least for my purposes. The exception is close-range photography, where the background can be thrown well out of focus, and which is consequently not this lens' forte.
- The 35/1.8 uses Nikon's standard 52mm filter thread, which is of some importance to those of us who already have a decent collection of filters and step rings. I'd advise any buyer of this lens to buy a high quality, multi-coated polarizing filter and a high quality, multi-coated neutral density filter of 2-3 stops. That can come close to doubling your investment in the lens, but those filters can be used with a significant spectrum of Nikkors that share the same filter thread. The filters will allow you to maintain this lens' desirable narrow depth of field even in brighter conditions, which is otherwise not possible; or while using synced flash, which is usually limited to somewhere in the range of 1/200 sec shutter speed.
- One minor drawback of this lens, for me personally, is that the 35mm focal length is just a bit longer than I'd like for a "normal" perspective on DX. I'd rather Nikon have made this lens with a 30mm, or even possibly a 28mm, field of view. Though this is a minor point, there are some alternatives out there in these ranges that some might prefer. Nikon's 28mm f/2.8D is a perfectly decent lens, not quite as good as this 35/1.8, and also not as fast, but it's available on the used market for next to nothing and might be desirable to some who prefer its focal length. It does not have a built-in focus motor, but it is sharp, light, and unlike the 35/1.8 it can also be used on full-frame and film cameras. There is also a 35mm f/2D lens, which on paper seems as though it might be a better buy than this lens, despite its higher price...
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72 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For $199 is it just hype?, June 12, 2009
Being a self proclaimed prosumer I'm not exactly a pro, but I am still demanding when it comes to camera hardware (and software for that matter). I mention this because it puts this review in the proper context.
On to the lens...
First off, when a $199 lens comes around from Nikon I have two thoughts, "Right on!" and "Seems pretty cheap for Nikon". I was skeptical but for $199 and all the great reviews why not give it a shot? Well, I did.
Amazon taunted me, B&H teased me, and my local camera shops didn't exactly sooth my fear that it would be months before I could get my hand on one. Putting a pre-order in with all the above mentioned establishments my local store came through first (and for the same 199 dollar price tag).
I get it home, take it out of the box and the first thing that comes to mind is how much heavier it is than some of the kit lenses I have picked up. Yes it's plastic, but the thing has a different level of quality from the other Nikon budget/consumer lenses. You can peruse the other reviews on Amazon and other websites for more specifics but the point is there is a noticeable difference.
I then put the thing on my camera (made sure to put on a filter first) and start snapping away, outside, inside, and everywhere in between. The pictures are fantastic, in low light in particular. The bokeh isn't top notch but for anyone but a pro this likely will be worth the tradeoff being the 199 price tag is a huge selling point here. And don't get me wrong, the bokeh isn't terrible, I've just seen better with more (much more) expensive lenses.
So is it hype? Can a Nikon lens selling at $199 be good enough for the more demanding consumers out there? You betcha, this thing is probably the best and smartest purchase I've made in the last five years. I have three other lenses and I can say without any hesitation the 35mm F/1.8 AF-S will be on my camera 90% of the time - if not more - from here on out.
In closing, if you love photography but don't have the means to drop hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on nicer lenses, get annoyed at the fact that low light photography with the kit lens just doesn't cut it, and want to expand, this is THE lens to get.
I promise you, you will not be disappointed.
Good luck!
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