This lens can produce amazing low light images as well as great portraits. I´m using it for headshot portraits in studio and outdoors and works fantastic. I do the zooming with my feet and the quality of the images is superb. I also purchased this lens for food photography in natural light (using daylight through windows and diffusers) and it opens up nicely to capture great shallow depth of field and sharpness. Its been on my D90 camera for 2 weeks straight and loving it. I use D90 primarily and D3000 as back up. This lens will work with the D3000 but only using manual focus. Also, the nice thing about using this prime lens versus a 18-55mm at full 55mm is that you don´t get that barrel effect.

I bought this lens a year an a half ago for my D60. I´ve focused manually and with steady hands picture was so sharp. The D60 has no motor on the body so, it was a little tough. But love it love it love it. Now, I upgraded to D90 and boy, auto focus was so fast. Super clear and sharp photos. I highly recommend this. I´m looking into getting a wide angle lens soon. Love Nikon!

On a crop camera it is a decent portraitist, on a full-frame will be an all-around. And absolutely best value for your money anyway!

Compact, lightweight end fast focusing, this lens has a nice wide aperture making it perfect for indoor shooting. Its other big advantage is that, on my DX format camera, it becomes a 75 MM portrait lines.

My lowest cost lens yet I love it for indoor portrait shots on my D300. Great bokeh, ok for sharpness when wide open! Focus speed isn´t too bad on the D300. I can´t wait to check up the new 50 AF-S lens that officially leaked out a few days ago.

I love this lens. It works wonderfully for low light conditions, especially indoors, when you can´t or don´t want to use a flash. However, I would love it more if the autofocus was compatible with my D60. I knew before buying it that it that the autofocus would not work with my camera. I figured I could use the manual focus; unfortunately, my eyes don´t work as well as I thought, so I guess I will need to upgrade my camera! This still is a great lens, and I would highly recommend it. Just make sure you either have good eyes for manual focus, or that you have the compatible camera to use autofocus!

I bought this lens expecting it to be good, but its great. Very fast and convenient lens. I really like Nikon products but this lens just dotted the (i) in my book. For the amount of money you pay, you get ten fold in image capturing capabilities. I recommend this lens, worth every penny. Should be in every photographer´s bag.

This is a great lens for portrait but it also serves almost any purpose. The image appears just a touch soft at wide open but gets really sharp when you stop it down to f/2.8-5.6. Its barrel is made of plastic but I have no issue with that. I have been using it over 2 years and it still working fine until to day. The bokeh is not completely round due to 7 straight blades diaphragm and it doesn´t auto focus with entry level DSLR such as Nikon D40, D60, D3000, D31000, D5000, or D5100.

Used maily for portraits at wedding, sharp, clear even at wid open. Reliable auto focus. Good value.