Today's feature will be the nifty-fifty, or the Nikon 50mm f/1.8, since its small, light, and cheap, and sharp. My only qualms will be that, its bokeh is not the best you can get, ranging from average to poor, depending on what you take. On a DSLR like my D90, its actually a 75mm lens, about reaching the portrait lens focal length. Great for portraits for those smooth out of focus background, depending on your background that is.
The Nikon 50mm f/1.8 reminds us that, you don't have to buy an expensive lens to get sharp results, its even sharper than my 18-105mm lens which cost 2-3 times as much. Its fast, since its aperture is at f/1.8, its 2 stops faster than my zoom lens at 18mm at f/3.5. 2 stops is about 4 times as much light that will enter through the lens, or, reduce my ISO from 800 to 200, or increase my shutter speed from 1/30 to 1/120. Great eh?
But, I still need my 18-105mm since, at 18mm, its about 3 times shorter the focal length, giving me about 1 stop extra (or more) for my shutter speed, and it allows me to grab photos of 1-2 second exposures hand held, since I've got a greater depth of field, meaning more will be in focus. And the VR helps too. But, at the longer end of the zoom, what I really need is the 50mm f/1.8 where it will make more sense.
Another great thing about the 50mm, is that it has zero distortion. If Nikon made all their prime lenses to have zero distortion, I think that primes would be more popular. They have made a wide angle rectilinear lens with zero distortion, called the 13mm f/3.5. Google it and be amazed.
Examples and explanations will be provided when you click on the jump.
Most of these are shot at f/1.8, except for 2.
[1. f/1.8, 1/80s, ISO 200. Sharp everywhere. Where it is blur, its due to the depth of field, or bokeh. ]
[2. f/2.8, 1/13s, ISO 200. Smaller aperture for greater depth of field. Though, I failed, since I would want fur to be sharp, so f/8 is what I really want for the effect I wanted.]
[3. f/2.8, 1/50s, ISO 200. f/2.8 to get smaller bokeh balls and to reduce the effect of coma or blobs of light]
[4. Hmm... Horsey. Shot at f/2.8]
[5. Don't Jump!!!]
[6. Why does this seem creepy???]
[7. f/2.8. Daylight, wouldn't need the f/1.8 since the effect of bokeh is greatly reduced since I'm very far from the subject.]
[9. Look ma! No distortion. Straight lines are straight. Not to be confused with the leaning effect of the building, since I'm shooting from the ground level upwards.]
[10. f/1.8. Straight lines are not good for bokeh. (Background very distracting) Don't have the background or foreground with lines, since the lens was created and designed for sharpness, not bokeh. ]
[11. f/1.8. Ugly bokeh balls. See the middle of the balls like its an egg yolk? Not good, not natural. Perhaps its best not to shoot it with light streaming out of the shadows. ]
[12. Presents more than the tree?? What's wrong with you people??!! ]
[13.]
[14. This is so much fun!!!]
[15. f/1.8. Bokehlicious, if you don't mind the non-circular bokeh balls. ]
[16. Somewhat distracting bokeh balls, but great sharpness.]
[17. Creepy Santa]
[18. Hmm... I would like to play crosswords on my undies...]
[19. Oh, apples... WTF!!!?? Look at the price!!]
[20. f/1.8. An example of good bokeh. The double lines are due to the thickness of the mirror glass. What makes it good? The sharpness. Its so sharp that the bokeh matters less, and you would focus more on the double image or wordings.]
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