AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

I still consider myself a beginner in Photography... I think that prime lenses are a great tool to teach yourself how to frame a picture if you are as bad as I was in the very beginning. This specific lens is simple and light and remains one of my favorite go to lens. It is versatile and can be used for portraits, close-ups and is great in low light and interior settings. At this price, it is a no brainer...

I got this lens a couple years ago when I found my dad´s old FM2. I didn´t know how good this lens was until I customized my picture control and shot in aperture priority. I don´t know how old this lens is, as mine was made in Japan but hearing the autofocus was never a problem for me. For simply a $130, you get so much image quality and low light shooting capability that you´d be crazy not to get this lens. I shoot with a Nikon D7000 so if you have a camera that doesn´t have an internal motor, are you willing to put with shooting in manual focus? I also love the contrast and the simple build.
Pros:
Super Sharp Image Quality
Lightweight
Great Glass
Made in Japan (for mine at least, Nikon may have outsourced now)
BOKEH

Cons:
If you have a camera like a D3200 or another entry level DSLR, you have to take into consideration that autofocus is not compatible
Feels plasticy and tacky
Is known to break fairly easily
If you don´t take image quality into the discussion, this lens doesn´t look intimidating or even all that impressive.

The 50mm f/1.8D is the very first lens I bought along with my first Nikon. I tried them both out at the camera store before making my purchase. I found it to be a great first lens for so many reasons. Being an affordable fast prime lens is on top of that list. I´ve used it for black and white as well as color film photography. It is small and light that walking around photographing is not tiring. The filter size being 52mm makes it affordable to experiment with different filters.

Though the autofocus doesn´t work with entry-level DSLR, I´m not lowering how I rate this lens for it because the 50mm f/1.8D worked with the film camera I bought with it, F5. When I got my first DSLR, it worked just fine with it too. It focuses fast and the images are sharp and clear. When I want to be more creative than what the camera does, i manually set the aperture on the lens and manually adjust the focus to infinity for long exposures.

For the price, you really can´t complain about the value you get out of it. The 50mm f/1.8 is a great first lens when learning photography and provides years of use.

Bought the D instead of a G because of the slightly smaller size. Ended up exchanging it and going with the G model because it was a real tight fit when trying to mount and unmount from camera. My other lenses felt nice and smooth and easy to mount and unmount, this one felt like there was considerable amount of tension. G model did not have the issue. No complaints on the image.

purple spot appears on ´´black´´ objects on all shots taken at f/8 to f/22 with light sources

This lens is a steal for the money . I use it with my Nikon D3200 it only works in manual focus but it´s F/1.8 aperture is great for low light conditions. I have used this lens to photograph stars, landscapes and people, a nice prime lens takes better pics than the kit lens that comes with the camera.

I love this lens. I use it on my d7100 and the results have been excellent. It is great in low light, very sharp, focuses quickly, and gives great crispness and color fidelity. At the price, this may be the best bargain in camera lenses, period. I highly recommend this lens for any camera with a focus motor in the camera (7000 series or higher).

Been using this lens for about 8 years now. I personally didn´t really like the 50mm range on the DX, but loved it on my FX. I really like the color this lens brings out, and the bokeh it produces. The only thing I find a bit annoying about this lens is the noise of the focusing when set to AF.

When a customer purchases a lens from Nikon, it is generally assumed that the product will meet the highest standards of quality and dependability.

This is why I was so surprised to discover a ´´purple spot´´, or ´´pale blue dot´´ visible at lower apertures on the AF Nikkor 50 mm 1.8 D. After a great deal of trial and error, trouble shooting, and wasted money cleaning the thing, I learned, to the best of my knowledge, the purple spot is presumably caused by light bouncing off the sensor, back on the rear element lens, and back on the sensor (no, this is not glare, it is not a lens flare, or dirty lens- you can literally detect this problem from a brand new lens, fresh out of the box at a camera store). This design flaw renders the lens functionally useless at apertures lower than F11.

Simply search ´´pale purple dot, AF Nikkor 50mm 1.8D´´ on the internet to see what I mean.

Nikon should recall the product with the intent on discovering if this aberration represents a manufacturing error in a limited batch of AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lenses or a larger problem, and then they should fix it.

When I contacted Nikon about this, they were very respectful, but have not recognized or admitted to this common problem (to my knowledge).

If you are even considering purchasing this lens, try it before you buy it.