Help purchasing a "nifty fifty" :)

[ambrya_nell]

okay..... i have a Nikon D60... want a 50mm lens and have searched and searched for a used one cause i'm on a budget......
what i need to know is what is the major difference between the 1.4 and the 1.8... there seems to be a big price difference but is it worth the extra hundred or so for the 1.4?
i'm going to be using this for portraits mainly and am just starting out so don't know as much as some of you others on here
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
thanks

[inkista]

On your D60 the main difference is that the 1.4 will autofocus, the 1.8 will not: the 50/1.4 is an AF-S lens, the 50/1.8 is only AF.

You may want to contemplate the AF-S 35/1.8 instead. It's only about $200, and the focal length is closer to normal on a crop.

[outamyway]

I love my 35mm 1.8 lens.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by inkista

On your D60 the main difference is that the 1.4 will autofocus, the 1.8 will not: the 50/1.4 is an AF-S lens, the 50/1.8 is only AF.

Beware, however: there are two versions of the 1.4: AF 50mm f/1.4D and AF-S 50mm f/1.4G. The latter will autofocus on the D40/40x/60/3000/5000 bodies.

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by inkista

On your D60 the main difference is that the 1.4 will autofocus, the 1.8 will not: the 50/1.4 is an AF-S lens, the 50/1.8 is only AF.

You may want to contemplate the AF-S 35/1.8 instead. It's only about $200, and the focal length is closer to normal on a crop.

Which also means make sure you're looking at the AF-S version of the 50mm f/1.4 lens when you're comparing it to the f/1.8. The 50mm f/1.4G will auto focus on your camera. The 50mm f/1.4D will not. The 35mm f/1.8 AF-S will also auto focus on your camera, which is much closer in price to the 50mm f/1.8 than the f/1.4G.

Edit: man, I typed too slow

[inkista]

BTW, if you really think you're going to use this lens only for portrait shooting, autofocus may not be as critical as you think. You may have time to manually focus if someone's sitting for a portrait. Autofocus tends to be more critical for fast action photography, like shooting rugrats running around the front yard; or if you have bad eyesight and the camera can focus better than you. But for a lot of portrait photography, manually focusing may not be such a big deal.

It is, after all, how photos were taken for about a century or so.