Digital SLR Reviews Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Depth Of Field’

Nikon 50mm f 1 8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

A compact and fast lens that is perfect for travel and portrait pictures, as well as general photography / f/1.8D / 50mm / Compatible with 52mm Filters Stops down to f/22 for excellent depth-of-field control

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Wonderful lens! Just get it!!
I’m a big fan of what I call the “blurred” background pictures – subjects in sharp focus, with the rest of the background as blurred out as possible. Of course, you have to overcome the challenges of working with a small Depth of Field (DoF). I also love snapping candids of my kids, many a times, in sub-optimal light conditions. This lens is terrific for both of these purposes.

Some reviews were negative about Autofocus,but it worked just fine, out of the box (didn’t have to change any setting, or set any locks on the lens – just snapped it on as is) on to my D70 – note, some Nikon consumer SLRs will not autofocus with this lens.

I thought for quite a while about the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras, but the price difference doesn’t seem to justify it. Getting to shoot around 1.8 is good enough for me (remember – DoF becomes that much more challenging when you go down to 1.4).

If you’re a zoom addict, remember that there isn’t any zooming on this. You will have to move yourself to get the right picture composition (or crop later).

I shot a good set with my kids and also on some religious figurines at a friend’s house (see customer image of Lord Ganesha) – love what I see.

This is a great complement to my Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR [Vibration Reduction] DX Lens. Enjoy!

5 Stars Very small and powerfull lens
Well this tiny lens is very powerfull and pictures it take are very sharp. Im very happy with this lens. You can blur the background very easy with it…and much more..

5 Stars Excellent fast lense..u need it !!
Well, i guess every photographer need a fast lense..and this one is the first choice before you end up paying double for f/1.4. Excellent image quality, mind blowing DOF..what else left..manual focus is something u may feel little bad, but u will get habituated. It wont dissapoint you..for sure !!!

4 Stars Great little lens, Does NOT Autofocus with d5000
Excellent little lens. Price is great! Good depth of focus, easy to use, very quick. Good for low-light, indoor, and portraits. I really love it! One hangup is that it does NOT auto focus for my new d5000. Definitely not a deal breaker though for the price and the picture quality. Overall, very happy with it… Happy shooting!

5 Stars The greatest lens ever
This lens is pure awesome. Although i have a d60 and cannot use it for auto focus, the nifty 50 has made me experience and enjoy and become good at manual focusing, which is something every photographer should be capable of.

I highly recommend every nikon dslr owner out there to have this lens

Buy/More Info

Nikon D300 DX 12 3MP Digital SLR Camera Body Only

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Pretty good so far
So far so good. I think this may be the most reviewed camera ever so I’m not going to repeat what has already been said, both pros and cons. I will say that my experience has been over all positive although I haven’t used the camera much yet. I keep justifying using the D40 with the Nikon 18-200 lens. The shutter is a little louder than I would want it to be, not sure why more haven’t commented on this but it’s not a deal breaker by any means. Overall, I would recommend this camera to others.

5 Stars a dream camera come true
I am not a professional photographer or a techie, but I do appreciate good photography and good quality photographic equipment. I wasn’t that thrilled with my Nikon D80 and I was very pleased with my Nikon D200 which I was able to buy new for $720.00 (What a deal!.) BUT the desire for this Nikon D300 kept nagging at me as I read more and more reviews. The best review ever is from The Imaging Resource (google it). So, I sold my Nikon D80, Nikon D200, and 3 prime lenses to pay for this new camera. I also purchased David Busch’s Nikon D300 Digital Field Guide, which is very helpful. You will read all about this camera in many other reviews. I just want to say that color is accurate, Build quality is awesome, User friendly. Very little nose at high ISO. I think my favorite aspect is the four separate shooting menus. They are very user friendly (even for me), independent of each other, and you can always reset it to default if you think you are getting lost. I felt very safe navigating through all the menus. I use it with the Nikon 16-85mm VR lens (approx $600). Yes, you can take good photos with it right out of the box. Of course, you have more control over exposure, depth of field etc as you learn more about the camera. This is my advice. If you have the money, $1700 approx, buy this camera body! It is the finest camera body you can buy without going to full frame, which is immensely more expensive. Go ahead and buy Nikon kit zoom lens and upgrade to a more expensive lens down the road if you want to. In the digital world, it is the camera body that is crucial for accurate color rendition etc. As far as the lens goes, Nikon doesn’t make a crappy lens. I find the VR (vibration reduction) lens very helpful because I don’t like to use tripods. It is a bit on the heavy side compared to D80 because it is solid Magnesium Alloy body. If you want light weight, buy a compact. In the Nikon D300 manual, Nikon clearly states to never touch the sensor at all in any way. If you can’t get the sensor dust off by blowing or by the built in dust vibration system, than make sure that a very qualified Nikon authorized person does it. (this goes for all digital SLR cameras). My previous film cameras were Minolta SRT 102, Leica Rangefinder M2, Contax with Zeiss lens, so I have owned some of the best. This new Nikon D300 DX digital camera does not disappoint me. I am going to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Jean

5 Stars Nikon D300
I have been waiting to write a review about this camera! Amazon does not always ask for a review on some items & others they ask for a revie before you get the product. I just can’t wait! I have several nikon cameras. N90 (Film) A Nikon Coolpic Nikon D2H & a Nikon D90! I’m so Happy with the D300 I find myself using this camera & not the others! I can’t wait to get to Jamaica again & start shooting. I recommend this camera to everyone. There coming out with a new D300 soon!

5 Stars Going from SLR to DSLR
Prior to buying the D300, I was very familiar with film SLR’s and had quite a bit of experience with digital imagery, but this was my first DSLR. I estimated that I was probably over the hump in the learning curve when I purchased this camera. BOY I WAS WRONG!

It turns out that wasn’t such a bad thing. I’ve enjoyed the challenge, and the more I discover about this camera, the more I love it.

Unfortunately the user’s manual that comes with the camera (400 pages), doesn’t do a good job of coalescing the camera’s individual features into useful information. There are A LOT of features and most of them have variable settings. Is it intimidating to think about all these variables every time you want to take a picture? You bet! Don’t worry, Nikon has thought of this. By selecting between Shooting Menu and Custom banks allows you to change dozens of settings all at once.

I eventually bought a book on the D300 which covers everything in the manual but makes all the necessary connections between features and gives you a thorough understanding of how to effectively apply them (the author’s name is Busch). I only wish I had bought the book when I bought the camera. It would’ve saved me a lot of time.

I’m happy to say that my D300 is now configured for nearly any photo situation I might encounter.

5 Stars Tanks to god I bought this camera…
Well Im from COSTA RICA, in the tropics the dream of any fotografer is to have a camera like this…it works fantastic… Wow!!!

Buy/More Info

Nikon 85mm f 1 8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

This fast, compact lens is an excellent choice for indoor or outdoor portraits, as well as indoor sports and stage productions.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars This thing delivers.
If you have a grand to burn…get the 1.4. If you are a practical person, enjoy maxin’ out the gear you currently own before buying more stuff get the 1.8. This lens produces absolute beauty. The Bokeh is very…and i mean very pleasing and, of course, sharp as hell. I own various fixed lenses and even the 80-200mm af-s behemoth(serious “bokeh-er”)and I’m still drawn to my 85mm 1.8 like a magnet. I believe in squeezing my current gear before moving on to 1.4’s for example. That’s just me. This Nikkor is indeed fantastic. This is your lens if you need above average performance at a reasonable price.

5 Stars No need for the 85 f/1.4 for my needs!
I LOVE this lens!!! When shooting, I ALWAYS go to this lens for that “has to be sharp” photograph.

I can’t believe I took so long to purchase this, but am so glad that I did!

Focus is fast and accurate, and it does suffer from some CA, but only in extreme cases…but can be corrected easily in photoshop!

This lens has a great build, great weight and a great feel to it.

85mm is great for portraits, and the f/1.8 offers a VERY NICE bokeh!!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

4 Stars Wonderful lens, especially for crop-size DSLRs
I like the 85mm focal length very much. On a Nikon crop-size DSLR, the 85mm focal length is a very useful short-to-medium telephoto length, giving a nice field of view with just enough distance compression to get a pleasant telephoto perspective. This lens’ wide aperture gives plenty of control of depth of field, allowing you to isolate your subject and get just the right amount of defocus elsewhere in the frame. I tend to prefer to use it at f/2.8 or so, although having the ability to go to f/1.8 is certainly useful at times.

A few notes on specific performance issues, some of which seem to be in disagreement with others here:

- I would not characterize the lens as very sharp wide open. I’ve sampled three of these lenses, two “AF” models and one “AF-D” model. The AF-D was the best. Like any lens I’ve used, it loses sharpness at wider apertures, and I would characterize it as soft at f/1.8, still moderately soft at f/2.8, good at f/4, sharp at f/5.6 and very sharp at f/8. There is a definite difference in sharpness at each aperture up through f/8. This is not necessarily bad. A bit of softness at f/1.8-f/2.8 might be desirable for portraits and some other types of photos, and the lens is very sharp where you would usually use it for landscapes and general photography – f/5.6-f/8 or so. At wider apertures, the contrast between a blurred background and relatively sharp subject remains striking and is a very pleasant effect that will allow you to get exceptional images.

- This is not a high-contrast lens, due at least partly to a lack of ED glass. This is appropriate and probably contributes to its reputation as a good portrait lens – skin tones are pleasantly rendered and the overall effect is slightly subtler and gentler compared to Nikon’s most contrasty lenses. I can shoot the same scene with this lens and then with my 16-85mm (consumer DX zoom), and colors that leap off the screen with the 16-85 are significantly mellowed with the 85/1.8.

- I don’t see any loss of contrast at wider apertures. This is good. The 50mm f/1.8 loses a lot of contrast wide open, for example (and mine is considerably softer than the 85mm at wide apertures).

- I would not say the quality of bokeh is particularly pleasing. It can be distracting at times, and I see color effects in the blurred areas (chromatic aberration), which occurs because different wavelengths of light are blurred differently by the lens (some very expensive lenses are “apochromatic,” meaning that they correct for this). This does not in my opinion detract significantly from my images, since the whole idea of defocus is to attract the viewer’s eye to the subject rather than away from it and so consequently one does not tend to study an out-of-focus background unless actually evaluating it specifically; but this might be one of the reasons the f/1.4 lens is a more popular choice among those willing to spend three times the money. This is speculation on my part as I have not tried the f/1.4.

- Focus is very quick and as far as I can tell completely accurate. I do use a simple test chart to test focus with all my lenses and this lens focuses well within its depth of field even wide open.

This lens is very good for tight indoor shots as well as outdoor photography. At near-wide-open it can be used indoors with fairly low available light and make very pleasing shots of tight groupings of people from a reasonable distance. A slower lens will tend to bring the background into the photo more than is desirable, which can be distracting in the final image.

It is not a good only lens and perhaps not even the first prime lens one should buy. It is a very good lens to have after all the basic focal ranges are covered, and perhaps after a “normal” prime, and it is a very good lens for taking pictures of people. In addition to this lens I highly recommend Nikon’s very affordable 35mm f/2 (2/25/09 note: Nikon has recently announced an even more affordable 35mm f/1.8 lens for DX which will probably prove to be an even better choice for DX users), which is very sharp indeed and in my opinion a far better lens than the 50mm f/1.8. I do however prefer the 85mm as a matter of pure personal taste: it is my personal favorite fixed-length lens.

I wish I could give it 4-1/2 stars as it is a good, good lens, but can not justify giving a full five. I don’t think anybody would regret buying it, however. With a bit of help from the user it is capable of making some truly fine images.

Other Lenses:

I’ve had the opportunity to own and use many different Nikon lenses and have posted my impressions of several of them here on Amazon. For those interested, here are short summaries. I have used all these lenses on Nikon DX-sized DSLRs, most recently my current D90. Refer to the full reviews for further detail.

35mm f/2 AF-D: **** Sharp, especially at large apertures, moderate contrast. Classic “normal” lens for DX but consider new 35mm f/1.8 AF-S instead.

50mm f/1.8 AF-D: *** My sample was unacceptably poor at large apertures. Perhaps a below-average sample. Focal length not ideally suited to DX.

16-85mm VR ***** Very sharp at all settings, excellent contrast, very useful zoom range including true wide-angle at 16mm. Excellent VR. Best-kept secret for DX users.

28-200mm AF-G *** Of two samples, one was excellent and one poor, so watch for sample variations. Very good contrast. Not ideal hand-held due to lack of VR. Not ideal for tripod use due to design.

55-200mm VR **** Very good lens, very good sharpness and contrast, no fatal flaws. Cheap feel and feature-challenged, but has effective VR. A bargain.

70-300mm VR *** My sample had very poor performance above 200mm, good to very good elsewhere. Good contrast, generally very good focus performance. Good sports/action lens. Not good where critical sharpness is desired. Possibly a below-average sample.

4 Stars Solid lens, expensive, NO LENS Pouch!
The bad:

Major dissapointment not to have a lens bag, Nikon went cheap on this one.

The lens hood is metal and screw style mount, it is a hassle. You got to be very careful as it is metal to metal threads, so you better screw it in right to prevent permanent damage.

I bought it from Adorama and had no tamper seal, so keep an eye on that…

The good:

Excellent picture quality, very sharp, solid like a tank. I only wish the lens hood was bayonet style.

3 Stars Poor contrast and not sharp with wide open apertures.
Whenever I try or buy a lens, I perform a simple but fairly objective test on the lens: I photograph a bar code from a bottle.

I photograph the bottle’s bar code with the aperture wide open then stop down an f-stop at a time.

With the 85mm 1.8 lens at f1.8 aperture, the contrast is poor and bar code is fuzzy. At around f5.6, the bar code is perfectly sharp and the contrast is excellent.

I also own the Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens and it too is fuzzy and has poor contrast wide open. Only when the aperture is closed down several stops does one obtain very good sharpness and contrast. I think the Nikon f1.8 lens is a piece of junk.

I’ve also owned the 85mm 1.4 lens and it’s perfectly sharp at 1.4 but it is nearly 3x the price and a lot heavier.

I wish reviewers wouldn’t arbitrarily state that a lens is perfectly sharp wide-open without stating how they arrived at that conclusion.

If I could, I’d post my results as proof but Amazon won’t allow links and I can’t include images.

Buy/More Info

Sony 50mm f 1 8 SAM DT Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras

50mm f/1.8 standard lens * designed for Sony APS-C sensor SLR cameras * effective focal length of 75mm with APS-C sensor Sony cameras * large maximum aperture (f/1.8) for better low-light shooting and depth-of-field control * minimum focus distance: 13″ * attachment/filter size: 49mm *

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars The sharpest lens in my bag!
Things I like:

1. Sharp and great colors! I’ve been using my kit lens for a while, and I wanted a lens for portraits. The quality of the images make it my preferred lens, and I only resort to my kit zoom lenses during events where I am unable to get close.

2. Light. Agreed that it is mostly plastic, but it is sturdy and looks good. I do not regret this purchase at all due to build quality.

3. Fast! Indoor photos can be shot by hand with natural light due to the large f1.8 aperture. Built in steady shot in every Sony Alpha makes this even better. Shutter speed indoors using just natural light (no flash!) shooting away from the windows can range between 1/8 to 1/120 of a second from ISO 100 to 400. Moving to higher ISO values (which my zooms would have done in order to get similar shots) would probably match the speed, but would have introduced much more noise.

4. Smooth bokeh. None of this hexagonal stuff you see in other lenses.

Things I don’t like.

1. AF/MF switch. I have one on my camera, I don’t need one on my lens. In order to attain full manual focus I need to swith both the lens and body.

2. 49mm filters. Why not the usual 55mm?

3. Not full frame. If you don’t own an A900, and don’t ever plan of upgrading to one – this doesn’t matter to you.

I would recommend this lens to EVERYONE! It is cheap, and the quality of the images are superb! Furthermore, the fixed focal length forces a photographer to be more aware of how he/she is composing photographs. The lazy method of zooming in and out to fit the subject is no longer applicable. You have to move, and take into consideration objects around the subject. So in the end – you will be a better photographer – or a frustrated one due to the lack of zoom.

4 Stars excellent low light indoor lens.
the sony 50 mm takes excellent pictures indoors if you use the A- aperture setting and dial down to 1/8 great sharp pictures without the need for a flash. But everyone should have a 50 mm in their kit. it is also great for portraits as to the wider aperature. Well worth the money and takes great pictures.

Buy/More Info

Sakar 52mm 55mm Close Up Filter Set 1 2 4 Diopters Magnification Kit Metal Rim and Glass

Availablein +1, +2, and +4 diopters for close-up photography. Close-up lenses are high-quality optical magnifying lenses which shorten the close-focusing distance of the lens. It allows the lens to go closer to the subject than before and to achieve a largerimage scale.
Use lenses individually or in combination for maximum effect
Depth-of-field is shallow so use as small an aperture as possible,
Diopters can be “stacked” for extreme magnification.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars A satisfied consumer
I am very pleased with my recent purchase of Digital Concepts close-up Macro Filter Set. Still learning the skills to properly use them to thier full potential but have already had some great results. The price was really great compared to all others I looked at. I would highly recommend this set to anyone who would like to enter the world of very close or macro photos. I’m sure there are better , more expensive products out there, but for a novice you can’t beat it! I keep it in my camera bag at all times just to be prepared! A small tripod is highly recommended for these although handheld shots are still possible. I am thouroughly enjoying my set. Jerry Robertson

5 Stars Go for it !!
First of all, what would you except from a 7 bucks lense..sorry 4 filters in 7 bucks ? dont expect a high macro lense..seeing at the price its a must have filter..there should not be any hesitation buying this item..check some of my pics uploaded here..+10 worked great..if not macro- it will certainly increase the DOF for close up shoots..image quality is also acceptable…dont think too much..just go for it..

5 Stars Excellent Deal
I got shipped before estimated delivery schedule.

These work great with my D40 using 18-55mm. Specially +10 Lense. I guess I rare use others (i.e. +1, +2 & +4)

Anyways this is awesome at this price. I am much satisfied what I expected.

2 Stars Not really worth the buy
I don’t see a big boost using these close-up filters. The limitations to the close-up photography due to the camera’s minimum focus distance controls how close your can get to you subject for macro-photography. Using these is simply a means of telling yourself that you are doing macro- but unfortunately you are not getting anything significantly better than you would with just your camera. Best not to waste your money on this.

4 Stars Hard to beat for the money if you want to do Macro
If you don’t have a dedicated macro lens, or something like a 70-300mm lens with a macro mode, this is an awfully tempting deal. And for less then $10, it really is a good deal. The quality of the glass is more than adequate, and they do exactly what they are intended. The only problem I encountered was that my lens’ autofocus would generally not work with the +10 macro filter. However, if setting up macro shots, you should have no problem manually focusing by hand. The case the filters was shipped in was also not of great quality, and could see it scratching the glass if they had not been individually wrapped in plastic beforehand. This is a non-issue for me, as I have dedicated filter wallets, but for someone who will be using this to carry these around, use caution.

PROS:

+ Good quality glass filters

+ Great deal for macro photography

CONS:

- It’s still not as good as a macro lens

- Included filter wallet is sub-standard

Buy/More Info