Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G Lens with Auto Focus for Nikon DSLR Cameras, 2183, Black

I was looking at getting either this lens or the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens. The 50mm lens was only $135, but doesn't autofocus on the D40 which is my camera. I know I am looking to upgrade to the D90 soon, so that wasn't as much of an issue, but something to consider as I purchased a prime lens. Of course this 35mm lens does autofocus on the D40, so that was one point in it's favor. Truly my main reason for purchasing this lens was to use in low light, indoors, typically at home during family functions. The photos are sharp! I even had all the lights turned off in the basement and took photos of my son, and WOW,it gave nice, natural tones to his skin and his eyes are amazing in the photos. I have to get closer to my subject(s) than with the 50mm, but when you are in a room that is crowded and you are trying to get a photo with everyone in it, you don't have to back up very far. With the 50mm, you need much more room to backup to get the same shot including all the subjects. My sisters kitchen is small. My little neice was about to blow out the candles, and I got not only her, but mom and dad in the photo as well. I would not have enough room to backup and get the same shot with the 50mm lens. Being able to take photos in low light (indoors) without a flash is very handy, and paticuallary when you are in a situation where flashes aren't allowed. (I have been at several museums, historical homes during a tour, and even a 50th anniversary ceremony at a church were photos were ok, but no flash allowed). The last wedding I was at, everyone was taking photos and the photographer said that was ok while she was shooting, but no flashes please because it intereferred with her shots. Everyone had to stop taking photos, because they needed their flashes to get a decent shot. How nice to be the one able to continue to shoot photos and not have to put my camera away. I didn't need a flash. I also had to consider price. I got this lens for $199 with free shipping. I ordered this and waited a little over 4 weeks to recieve it. If you are looking at this lens, and order DIRECTLY from Amazon, the price is $199. It will say "not in, stock order now and we will deliver as soon as available". I didn't really want to wait, especially knowing I could order the 50mm that day, and get it in a week, but I knew if I was to choose between the 2 lenses, I wanted this one. I don't think it is justified paying the $300+ price just to get the one in stock. My opinion, order the one listed at $199, and be willing to wait, like I said, mine arrived about 4 weeks after ordering it. Pros: Absolutely sharp photos in low light. Price, if you are willing to wait, totally worth every penny. Fast and light lens. You can shoot indoors with low light without a flash. Cons: Only one I can think of is waiting a full month to recieve. But I would do it again in a heartbeat for a fantastic lens.

I imagine for most people, this will be either the 2nd or 3rd lens they buy (counting the kit lens, if you got one). For me, this was my 3rd lens. The first were the kit 18-55mm Nikon VR lens and the 55-200mm telephoto Nikon non-VR lens. Both of those lenses are very good, and very versatile, but in terms of image quality they can't even remotely touch this one. First things first, it's a prime lens, meaning no zoom. Kind of obvious, but should at least be mentioned for those newer to the hobby. However, that doesn't mean that it can't take pictures from far away, on the contrary, it can take some stunning pictures from a distance, it will just be that you can't zoom in closer on things at a distance. It's actually very good at landscapes, especially late evening sunsets and night time skylines, for instance.Additionally, this lens is so sharp, that you can crop a LOT. Meaning that you can effectively get zoom after the fact by cropping your picture in photo editing software, and the image will still look very good, as long as you nailed your focus in the original picture (obviously the more you crop, the more you notice things being out of focus). Secondly, it doesn't have vibration reduction. However, this is a fast lens, which negates most of the need for VR in the first place. What photo nerds mean by a 'fast lens' that is that it lets in a lot of light, meaning that the shutter can open and close very quickly and still properly expose the image, meaning that blur, both from camera shake and moving subjects are DRASTICALLY minimized. It also thus better at 'freezing' moving objects, that would blur in a slower lens. The only time where VR would be a welcome addition is possibly extremely low light photography, but even then you should be fine without it. To be honest, I'm almost glad it's not on there, because I often forget to turn VR off when I don't need it, and VR does run your battery down faster. Now that those two caveats are out of the way, on to the strengths: This will enable photos that you just can't take with the kit lens. Especially if you're interested in concert photography (or any other form of photography that involves low light, but also movement). In most instances, this lens just takes better looking pictures than the kit lens. But in low light concert photography it will actually take pictures that a slower lens just can't take without extreme blur (or using the flash, which both kills the atmosphere and often times isn't allowed). For instance, a lead singer who moves his head back and forth some on a dimly lit stage. With the kit lens his head will just be a blur, which is sometimes a cool effect, but sometimes it just looks blurry. With this lens, you can get a nice crisp image if you want, or adjust your aperture, or your shutter speed and get the motion blur as well, if you want it. It's nice to have both options. The bokeh. Bokeh is a photography term that essentially just means 'blurry background'. This is what really makes portraits 'pop' as the subject's face can really be set apart from the background. It's also good when you have a busy background that would otherwise be distracting, even if you're not shooting portraits. Just go into aperture priority mode and set this baby to f1.8, get relatively close (a few feet) to your subject and fire away. Your portraits will take on that dreamy professional look. The closer you are to your subject, the more extreme the bokeh effect is (which is why this lens can effectively take landscape shots, because the effect is diminished greatly when you're shooting from a large distance). More control over your depth of field. This is basically the same strength as the previous point, but just more widely considered. With the kit lens, at any given focal length, your f/stop options are going to be pretty limited. Meaning you're basically stuck with the depth of field you have. However, with this lens, you basically always have from f1.8 to f22. This gives you extreme control over how deep your field is (essentially how large the range of 'in focus' is, and how gradually images fade from in focus to out of focus). You can create that nice blurred background we talked about above, or you can have an identifiable background as well. This is especially useful when shooting dogs, for instance, because sometimes (like when they're in profile) you want a very shallow depth of field, to give good bokeh and sharpness, while others you want a little more depth of field (like if they're looking straight forward at you and you want to keep the tip of their nose all the way to their ears in focus. Being able to control your depth of field is really the first step (of many) into going from a snapshot shooter with a nice camera to an actual photographer. Light weight, short length. doesn't seem like a big deal into you lug a heavy 15-300 zoom lens around on your neck all day long. It's also short, which is surprisingly helpful in a crowded environment, like a concert. While this lens is obviously not quite as versatile as a kit or telephoto lens, the images you get will blow you away. Yes, you will have to move around more to get the shot you want and/or crop more. But that's not much of a price to pay for drastically improved image quality. Since I've bought this lens, the 18-55 mm lens rarely comes out of the bag. I still use other lenses, but this is the default go to lens. The one that stays attached when the camera is in my bag, so that if I need to pull it out and snap off a shot in a hurry, this is the one that will be taking it.

I've had this lens for just about a month and I couldn't be happier with it! The Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G gives you a lot of quality for a little bit of money. I'm shooting with a Nikon D3500 DSLR and I have to say this lens is quite a step up from the kit lenses that came with my camera. The Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G Len has great clarity and the auto focus works very well. It's relatively fast to focus and shoot with. The manual focus works well and the focus ring moves smoothly. It's versatile close-up and far away, but remember, this is a prime lens so there is no zoom. You have to do any zooming with your feet by moving to position your framing and your shot. This lens works well in low-light situations with the ability to open the aperture up to F1.8G. It's easy to control the depth of field and creates a nice bokeh (blurred) background for professional looking photos. An example of blurred colored lights is attached. This lens is great for portrait or product photography and it's very good for landscapes too. The other attached photos examples have only a minimum of post-processing, mostly to adjust exposure and highlights, but they are a good example of the quality this lens offers for its price point. The lens is small and light and it's become my "go-to" whenever I'm shooting pictures. It won't weigh you down carrying it for a day of shooting. Remember, depending on your camera, this lens may not shoot as a true 35mm - on my camera's cropped sensor, it shoots the equivalent of 50.2mm. This works well for me for the various types of shooting I like to do. I really can't give a list of pros and cons since I have no experience with another similar lens (it's my 1st prime lens), but I will say that so far, all I've seen are "pros". As an amateur photographer, it's a nice step up from kit lenses. I don't hesitate to suggest this lens and I would purchase another. Thanks for reading my review and I hope it help you to decide on the lens that you really think will work for you.

What a great price for a fast, prime lens that you'll use every day. I'm a nube to photography (good photography) and have caught the bug. I've got a Nikon D5200 and primarily take pictures of family and kids sporting events. The big zoom goes to the soccer games with us, but for almost everything else I use this little gem. With a max aperture of 1.8 you'll rarely need a flash for most of life's events indoors or out. The sharpness of the pictures I've taken with this is so good that you can really crop something down if you want to "zoom" in using Photoshop or Aperture with no graininess or degredation. At the risk of embarrassing myself to the more savvy photo enthusiasts I will try and explain why this and not the 18-55mm kit lens that you got with your camera. No it doesn't zoom (that's the prime lens part), but you'll find yourself in the 35mm range on that 18-55mm lens most times anyway. They say a 35mm lens is most representative of what the eye sees anyway. What it does do is let in a lot of light, a lot more than the kit lens does. This gives you a couple benefits first of which is speed (the fast lens or fast glass part) which means less blur on things moving and stationary. It also means that you can dial down your ISO settings. Higher ISO settings tend to add noise to the picture which gives you that pixelated look when you zoom in and crop a picture. Thirdly is something us point-and-shooters have never gotten to appreciate called depth of field. This lens will let you take those great looking photos where your subject is in perfect focus and the background is pleasantly blurred drawing your attention to what you intended the view to see. You can adjust your aperture setting to have a deep depth of field where everything is in focus, but you'll need a fast lens like the 1.8 to get a really striking shallow depth of field photo like the pros. For under $200 (maybe under $100 if you get a good price for your kit lens on Ebay), this is the single best thing you can buy to take great photos. You can pay more money for better cameras with larger sensors and more bells and whistles, but so far it appears to me that you're better off taking pictures with a great lens on a good camera, than a good lens on a great camera.

Edit: After using this lens on a few more shoots, I've come to the conclusion that it's maybe a 4 star lens. The reason why is uncontrolled achromatism or CA in the form of purple fringing. It's most prevalent at f1.8 and can be somewhat tamed stopping down. This lens is sharp wide open, so it's a shame to get hefty amounts of CA under certain lighting conditions and contrasty situations. My D7000 does not automatically correct for axial CA that plagues this lens, and it can also be rather hard to fix in post, if at all. I would recommend shooting at 1.8 only when needed in (very) low light/contrast situations...not daylight of course. The original review below still applies, except I may now be a bit hesitant to recommend this lens. Original review: This is a great lens, sharp, inexpensive, light, easy to carry, and perfect for "snapshots". It can be a no-brainer purchase as so many others have said. However, in my opinion, it's a 200 dollar "snapshot" lens. That's not a bad thing either. It's an easy lens to tote around for crystal clear "general" pics. The problem I have is not necessarily a fault with the lens, but rather it's ability to make me less creative. Therefore, I don't consider it a "no-brainer" purchase. I'm not rich and have to think about what else I could use my 200 dollars towards. I have a 16-85vr for general picture taking. My other two lenses, 10-24 and 70-300vr, are the two most creative lenses I own and I find I run to those before mounting the 35. That's just me and maybe it's something for you to think about too. Is this lens going to give you generally clear "snapshot" pics or is is going to offer you unique ultra-wide or telephoto views? If you want no-worries clear pics, then I'd say go for it. Distortion: The first portrait I took with the 35 surprised me as my subject's nose was larger than life. It wasn't "huge", but noticeable. I was maybe about 3 feet away, which I thought to be an okay standoff distance from a person. True, the lens has barrel distortion to be aware of. Allowing for more distance from the lens to subject will minimize barrel distortion when taking portraits. The distortion caught me off guard, but I'm aware of it now and able to easily compensate for it. The 50 f/1.8D doesn't have distortion, so it may be worth considering for a DX portrait lens as well. Light: Here's what's great about the 35: It's 35mm and DOF is less restrictive shooting a f/1.8 as opposed to say shooting the 50/85 at f/1.8. At 50/85mm f/1.8, the DOF is very shallow and it's possible to focus on a persons eyes and have their ears and nose out of focus. Shooting wider at 35mm f/1.8 broadens your DOF and you're more assured of getting your subjects entire face/head in focus. This is one reason I'd keep the 35mm, or even shoot with a 24mm f/2.8. You can routinely shoot at f/1.8 in low light and at slightly slower shutter speeds than the (telephoto) 50/85. To me, this is the most important benefit of shooting fast, wide-angle lenses. Alternatives to the 35: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 50 as well, whether the 50 1.8D or 50 1.8G. The 50 1.8D is a cheaper lens alternative with no distortion and longer reach for portraits. The 50 1.8G has minor distortion as well, though similar build and look of the 35. Do forget the more expensive 35 f/2D, which you'd be able to use on an FX camera when you upgrade. Regarding the 50mm focal length, I've never had a problem shooting all sorts of indoors portraits with my 50. In the end, I can recommend the 35 without hesitation. However, if you have other lenses to buy, such as a wide angle or super telephoto, you might consider saving the 200 dollars towards one of those. I'd also ask myself if shooting a 35mm prime will have me snapping stagnate images or creative & unique photos. Good luck with and enjoy the 35!

I bought this for my wife, who loves to take pictures, but isn't all that well-versed in how to use the gear. I wouldn't profess to be anything but someone who dabbles in photography and knows just a little bit about how to adjust shutter speeds, ISO and F-stops to do different things. I tend to do a lot of bracket shooting of the same thing to try to get something good. When my wife got her D3100, she was really excited about taking pictures of the new baby (who is now 3), but found the kit lens (18-55mm) a little wanting for indoor shots. The interior of our house wasn't particularly well-lit, and even using the speedlight we had, we still were getting a lot of grainy shots. When I saw this lens for $200 and read the specs on it, I thought it just might be thing to get some better pictures. The answer is yes...and no. No lens is going to change your photography skills if you don't really invest time and effort in learning the equipment and how to use it properly. That being said, if you find yourself wanting to take pictures in less-than-ideal lighting, this lens is definitely a step up from the kit lens. Pictures that were grainy before suddenly weren't, and the end result was better pictures, even on the "auto" settings for metering. The drawback to this lens is that it is a fixed length lens, no zooming. That means you've got to be in the right place in terms of your shot composition, lest you cut off someone's head or get something in the background that you didn't intend to. This is a go-to lens for indoor shooting, especially where lighting is an issue. Since we also own a D80, we tend to have one rig set with a zoom lens, like the 18-55 or the 55-200 and one with a prime lens like this one. All in all, if you're an amateur looking for more glass for your rig, this isn't a terrible choice by any means. It really depends on what you're looking to photograph mostly. I feel like the best advice I've ever gotten is make sure you cover as much range as possible, which makes the 55-200mm a good option to add to your bag first if you're on a budget. You can really spend whatever you want on lenses, but I've found that we do okay with those two zoom lens and this lens. Occasionally, we score some good shots here or there. You're not going to regret buying this lens, but you should really think about what you're going to shoot before investing in a prime lens. If you want one and don't want to pay a small fortune, this lens is the ticket.

amateur hardware geek's practical opinion: Though the experts rave about it for the price, I'm not going to talk about minuscule degrees of sharpness, minor hard to measure distortions, or CA you can't see unless you zoom in crazy close. Optically, this lens is fine for us, and it offers some great other advantages over typical kit lenses. Hand-held shots wide open at dusk outside without flash gives no blur, and results in better image quality than using the flash and auto mode, or the 18-55 vr with any settings we tried. Back to back tests each using the same (poor, but typical of a night-time birthday party, etc) lighting conditions indoors: 35 mm f1.8, ISO 400 hand-held. No camera shake or subject motion blur over numerous shots (subject was a dog who was incited to perk up her ears etc beside a motionless clothes basket to test for subject vs camera shake blur). (18-55 set to 35 mm equivalent with max aperture) 35 mm f4.5, ISO 800 hand-held, no VR. No camera shake for most shots, but significant subject motion blur, and poorer image quality even in the regions with no subject motion. Cheating down to f3.5, and otherwise the same conditions, trying ISO 400 and 800, the f1.8 35 mm still won. The above shows just how much advantage The f1.8 lens has for low light moving subject conditions compared to a typical kit zoom. Auto-focus is very fast in bright light, and pointlessly slow for moving subjects in the dark. Manual focus is as quick and easy as auto in bright light. Another huge The really cool thing about this lens compared to other low end Nikon lenses is that you can leave it in auto-focus mode when the auto-focus speed is questionable or variable. If it isn't auto-focusing fast enough on our D90 because there is just a hair less light than it needs, it will often go rapidly slightly out of focus both ways, then settle in on very close to the correct focus, and hunt around there. If it does this, right when it starts to hunt, we can just hold the shutter button down, and spin the manual focus ring the correct direction. As soon as you touch the focus ring, the 4.5 fps start firing off. Running it in the correct direction for focus from what the auto focus system deemed wasn't close enough often results in one of the first 2-4 shots being in good focus, and being a shot of the critical moment you wanted to capture, instead of what auto-focus alone would have given (perfectly in focus, too late). If it is so dark that it switches to contrast based auto-focus, this trick doesn't work. Note this is all with the auto-focus assist light off. With it on, the auto-focus is fast down to much dimmer light, and the aperture is still fast enough to give better images without a flash than with. We just don't like to intrude on the scene with the auto-focus light. this is an awesome lens. I hate to admit it, but Ken Rockwell called this one right.

I couldn't wait for this lens to come out and I bought it the second I could get my hands on it. I was NOT disappointed. The lack of zoom obviously has you moving your feet to frame up but this is a good thing as it helps you look around more and try distances and angles you might not if you had the zoom. I have used this lens on both my D40 and my D90 with zero issues and unbelievable photo quality. The bokeh at 1.8 is amazing! All my photos are tack sharp, colors perfect. No problems focusing, but with a lens like this there is a minimum distance you must be away from an object to focus. There is no VR in this lens but in my opinion its not needed, or at least I haven't seen a need for it. I don't have the most steady hand and I very rarely blur a shot with this lens. I see people claiming this as a flaw and detracting from the rating, this is not a flaw. It is a fact of life, every lens has some sort of minimum distance in which you must be for it to focus on the subject. Manual focus is super easy when needed. This is a great lens for just walking around in the woods or the park or playground. I take stunning portraits with this lens even on my D40. The lens construction is typical Nikon standard, feels good and doesn't look cheap. This lens is fast, down to f1.8 you can get the best of low light situations which is always good for D40 users, just bump the ISO up 400 or even 800 and you should have no problem shooting your subject in low light. I have been using this lens since it launched and I make sure I always have it with me. For anyone just getting into photography this is a fantastic piece of glass for the price and to help you see what fast glass can net you. You won't be disappointed. I will post up a few photos I took recently using this lens as well.

Objectif dédié aux boîtiers à capteur APS-C (d'où son appellation DX), qui offre une focale équivalente à un 50 mm en plein format (l'angle de vue idéal et naturel). Ses vrais atouts au quotidien : Très lumineux (f/1.8) : parfait pour les photos en basse lumière et pour obtenir un superbe flou d'arrière-plan (bokeh). Superbe piqué : l'image est très nette dès la pleine ouverture. Mise au point rapprochée : sa distance minimale de mise au point courte permet de s'approcher près du sujet pour capturer les détails. Compact et discret : léger et peu encombrant, il s'emmène partout sans faire imposant. Un incontournable à posséder absolument dans son sac photo !

Love it! I purchased a body-only D7100 and needed a lens that was decent and still made me feel like I was getting a deal on Black Friday (I'm no moneybags!). This little guy (or gal) was only $196.52 so that worked out great! Arguably, you get a better deal with the body and a zoom like the 18-200mm or the 70-300mm included for $1000-$1200, but I wasn't sure yet how to best approach lens purchases, so I figured I'd start small. The last thing I want is to be a collector of lenses I never use or that cover the same ranges. But I digress. This lens is a treat. It's relatively small, lightweight (thank you, plastics industry!) and doesn't get in the way of a good photo opportunity. I bought a clear filter for this lens (making sure the cap fit snugly on it from reviews! Some don't!!) and found I didn't have to keep popping the cap back on for a shoot (party full of kids). I'm still paranoid about dust and scratches even on a filter, but that's my faulty wiring - not Nikon's or Hoya's! The AF-S designator means this kens has a built-in autofocus motor - essential for camera bodies like the D5x00 or D3x00 that don't have their own. Works like a charm on my D7100 - no issues with a motor in the lens AND the body in case you were wondering. It can be switched to M(anual focus) for the purists, but the most useful setting 90% of the time is M/A - the autofocus mode that also allows you to focus manually at any time that the AF system doesn't quite get it right. It happens with any lens, especially in low light. The f/1.8 means it's a bright one! Good for indoor lighting with the fam, outdoor landscapes at dusk, and even stars if you get far enough away from light pollution! It's also good in regular light, don't get me wrong. I just feel like even when I get other zooms and such, I'll be reaching for fast ones like this in low-light situations. The one catch for me is that indoors, you have to be a certain distance from people for group photos where you want full head-to-toe. You can't just take a picture of the person sitting beside you and expect to catch them giving you the finger and kicking over their beer (for example). You may want something wider for that - 18-55mm? But I knew this going into my purchase, so I simply step back where possible and make do. Again, this for indoor group pictures in a cramped space - outside, it's great for catching street style and candids without getting up in people's faces so much. You can also take wonderful landscapes with any lens, really. This bad boy (or girl) is no exception! If you're not the only one using your camera or budget to shop, make sure the oarties in question agree on its usefulness - this does not zoom! - before spending your hard-earned money. If you're rich, you probably bought a full-frame body and aren't even reading this. Bully for you! I doubt you'd have any regrets with this lens. It can do a lot with very little, and in my case is giving me time to get to know my new camera before I go buying a ton more lenses without thinking. Cheap lenses don't necessarily mean cheap results! And prime/fixed focal length lenses tend to have less compromises than zooms covering absurdly long ranges. Check reviews for details on distortion, aberration, etc if you're picky or get disappointed easily (nothing wrong with that!). Hope you found this helpful and entertaining, in that order.

SUPER

Really happy with the Nikon 35mm prime lens. It’s fast, lightweight, and delivers sharp images with beautiful colors. I have found it great for low-light shots, and its compact size makes it super convenient for everyday use. Definitely a solid choice for anyone, whether you are just starting out or more experienced.

La apertura f/1.8 permite un desenfoque de fondo notable y buen rendimiento en condiciones de poca luz, muy por encima de lo que consigue cualquier zoom del kit en el mismo rango de focal. excelente relación calidad-precio para cuerpos DX, nitidez y apertura sobresalientes para el precio. Aseguraos de que vuestra cámara es DX antes de comprarlo, ya que en FX no rinde igual.