I purchased this lens before shooting an event that was to take place in a small, dark restaurant, and boy was I glad that I did! It allowed me to get pictures in a low-light situation without too much distortion and still capture some of the setting. (My 50mm 1.8 worked well for close-ups, but didn't allow me to capture the whole scene.) The lens produces nice bokeh and the images are crisp. I have also found that it works well for shooting children as they are fascinated by the camera and are often running towards me. This lens allows me to capture them at a closer range.

katevan

USA

I have an entry level Nikon DSLR.  I love it and have added a 18-200 lens, which is excellent for outdoors, but I wanted something small and fast for indoors and portraits.  I read about this 35 mm f/1.8 lens, which was going to be released soon.  It was just what I was looking for so I ordered it.  I was really surprised at the price which was very affordable.  It's called a wide angle, but 35 mm is really not a wide angle on a DSLR, it is more like 55 on an SLR film camera.  Unlike the zoom lenses that come on camera kits these days, you have to be careful when framing your shot.  Instead of moving the barrel of the lens, you have to move your body.  It sounds simple and should go without saying, but it was something I noticed.  This lens is fast.  I do not usually shoot with a tripod and it took wonderful holiday photos indoors and sometimes in low light.  I really like Nikon cameras and lenses and this Nikkor lens was no exception.  

indagarden

Henderson, NV

If you have a DX DSLR from Nikon, then Nikon 35/F1.8 prime lens is one of the essential lens that you have to buy. For an affordable price, you get a very high quality prime lens that gives very sharp images. The lens is fast. It's a AFS lens so focusing is pretty quick. This lens is very good at doing portrait too. I have other zoom lens too, but this one for sure beats a lot of the mid/low end zoom lens that cost even more. If you are from the point and shoot world, you'd like zoom lens. But as a general rule, prime lens is always sharper than zoom lens unless you get to some really high end zoom lens. I'd rather take this lens than other zoom lens with so so sharpness (this includes the overrated 18-200 VR). Do yourself a favor, get this lens. You won't regret it.

kenchan

Thief River Falls, MN

The nikon 35mm f/1.8 G lens is a great lens at a great price.  I like that it's small and actually allowed to bring and use my camera a lot more often than when I just had the kit lens.  It produces a nice bokeh and is good for portraits, but also for just about anything.  It's a good lens to walk around with.  I was deciding between this and the 50mm, which is even more inexpensive but decided on this one because it has manual autofocus, while the other one does not.  Also, since the aperture is lower, it's better for low light situations, without flash.  There is not vibration reduction, so sometimes you have to be careful when taking a picture or else it'll come out blurry. But in general, overall, I am glad that I purchased this lens! and I am sure that I will be bringing it along with me and taking a lot more pictures because of it.  If you're unsure you can always go to a camera store and try it out. 

bbobloblaw

San Diego, CA

I use my Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G Wide Angle Lens with my Nikon D3000 camera.  I'm a novice photographer and love to take pictures of my kids and family.  While the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my camera is great, the pictures I get with this lens are so much better.  I love the "bokeh" or blurred background effect I can get when I shoot with my 35mm lens; it makes my kids stand out in the pictures, rather than drawing attention to all the clutter in the background.  This prime lens allows me to take pictures in low light without using my flash.  The flash casts such a different color on photos that I prefer to shoot with natural light whenever possible, and that was difficult with my kit lens.  It is a little more challenging at times to frame the photo just the way I want without being able to zoom, but I don't mind being on my feet and moving around as necessary while I photograph my kids or family events.

EmmyLooo

Tafton, PA

This was my second lens which I bought to replace the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my Nikon d5000. The autofocus speed on this lens surprised me because for the price, it was fairly fast and silent. I bought this lens mainly for the purpose of shooting portraits of family members and it has produced some amazing results. It can shoot fairly close but is not a macro lens. The low aperature number allows it to produce some amazing bokeh. Aside, from being versatile, it is also very sharp. Using the 35mm on a cropped body (such as D40, D40x, D60, D5000, D80, D90, D200, D300), gives you the equivalent focal range of 50mm, which is considered to be a normal lens range. Using the 50mm on a cropped body would give you 75mm and that would be too much zoom for practical uses indoors. Since this is a DX lens, it is not meant to be used on a full frame body, In my opinion, this lens gives very sharp images at around f 2.8 and after that. Get this lens now!!

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Westminster, CA

I've been taking pictures with a kit lens for a little over a year now and felt it was high time I upgraded to a better lens with a wider aperature.  My husband was kind enough to splurge on this as a Christmas present and I absolutely love it!!  The wider aperature makes it easier to have a faster shutter speed in lower light.  And this lens works so much better in lower light than my kit lens. I was a little concerned at first that it didn't have any sort of zoom capabilities, but after using it I've decided that I don't mind that it is a walk around/prime lens mainly  due to the fact that the photos are so much sharper than my zoom lens.  I really like the versatility of the lens as well-I'm really glad that this was my first "good" lens and I'm not sure that I will be needing any others anytime soon.  Great for portraits, fast moving children, indoor shots, and even landscapes-perfect! 

bethanycr

Lehi, UT

I bought this lens for indoor photography. I helped photograph a wedding and found out that the kit lens(18-55mm vr) on my D5000 was not up to the task indoors without cranking the ISO all the way up. This lens has exceeded my expectations, I can get great photo's indoors and outdoors, and at night. With the shallow depth of field it is easy to play around to get play around to get Bokeh to show it's face in photo's.  This lens is ha a built in auto focus motor so it works on the lower end DSLR's from Nikon like the d40, d3000, d5000 etc. The only problem I've had comes from it's auto focus. I have the autofocus assist lamp turned off so my kid wont close her eyes when I blind her before taking a shot. The problem that causes is that the lens does not focus well in very low light situations. It is easy enough to use the focus ring that is easy to get at and focus it yourself, but it is annoying when you were not anticipating it.

ShannonBarnes

Moriarty, NM