Cheap lowlight AFS Nikon 35mm prime

Thirdfox

just announced:
http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/dx/af-s_dx_35mmf_18g/index.htm

Well that's one more thing that Nikon has gotten covered for the low-end side of its camera/lens line (autofocusing Nikon "normal" prime).

Should go for around 199 dollars when first released.

edit: oh and good that they've stuck with the tradition of using a 52mm filter thread for its primes I'm tempted.

melekalikimaka

pity its dx, i would have thought they'd have stopped with that crap now full frame is getting affordable from them...sigh... oh well, looks great tho

Thirdfox

How is DX "crap"?

Surely MF is getting "affordable" now too for the professionals (though not as versatile as 35mm perhaps) - is FF/FX "crap" too?

Anyway - I enjoy my camera for its photos (and shoot FX with my film camera). And preferably, I hope they develop smaller cameras not larger ones - we should be trying to get great iso pictures from the 4/3rd format (and why not the ordinary 1/1.6" (?) compact camera sensors), not having to use large bulky FX cameras to get decent 12800 iso.

DaireQuinlan

Yeah I agree to an extent, DX is just another (smaller) format. Its got bad press though. I think most of it is just associations though. From the fact that its now viewed as the amatuer version of FX, to its association with APS which was a lower quality consumer level film format etc etc. Horses for courses though. Any bird or sports shooter would probably rather a good DX body in the bag I'd say.

I just wish they'd never started G'ing everything. 40 years of compatibility down the drain. Bah :mad:

Thirdfox

Distance scales, IR dot, DOF scales, aperture rings... how I miss thee

The 35mm afs has none of these btw.

Arciphel

I was very excited - until I realised this is a DX lens

back to browsing the sigma 20mm/24mm f1.8's ... :rolleyes:

melekalikimaka

Thirdfox wrote: »

How is DX "crap"?

cant be used on full frame with out nasty cropping... kinda defeats the whole 'wide angle' advantages it has... its a lens marketed at the low end market... kinda dissapointing... nikon doesn't even have an affordable fisheye for FF... I can't see what Nikon is playing at bringing out DX lens in the first place...

Thirdfox

To answer those people who say that Nikon does not have a lowlight cheap prime that can autofocus on the D40-60 series...makes perfect sense to me.

This lens was one of those that everyone asked for when the D40 was released...if anything it was released 3 years too late.

And the people who own 8000 dollar cameras probably are not interested in a 199 dollar lens

Mycroft H

Nice wish sony had one of them..... Its almost a certainty of a cheap sony 50 f1.7 been released at pma to rival the canon nikon equiv.

Anyway its good to see nikon release another cheap prime. Just hope the optics are good for all those considering

DaireQuinlan

melekalikimaka wrote: »

cant be used on full frame with out nasty cropping... kinda defeats the whole 'wide angle' advantages it has... its a lens marketed at the low end market... kinda dissapointing... nikon doesn't even have an affordable fisheye for FF... I can't see what Nikon is playing at bringing out DX lens in the first place...

welll, its not so much marketed at the low end as it is at DX. This is the long overdue standard prime for DX from nikon. This should have been released years ago. There are still a pile of D1/2/x and D300/200 users out there for which this will be an ideal 50mm equivalent, not to mention the millions of D40/x and D60 users for which it'll be a lifesaver.

melekalikimaka

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

welll, its not so much marketed at the low end as it is at DX. This is the long overdue standard prime for DX from nikon. This should have been released years ago. There are still a pile of D1/2/x and D300/200 users out there for which this will be an ideal 50mm equivalent, not to mention the millions of D40/x and D60 users for which it'll be a lifesaver.

I'm just spiteful, nothing wide and cheap these days, that's only 50mm on cropped sensor

DaireQuinlan

melekalikimaka wrote: »

I'm just spiteful, nothing wide and cheap these days, that's only 50mm on cropped sensor

Yeah, I hear ya. Nikon needs to get its act together and release a pile of fast wide non-dx primes all right. Its something they used to be renowned for, the 28mm f/1.4 being a case in point, and tons of market leading (at the time) wide primes back in the manual focus days. All they seem to be releasing at the moment are enormously expensive and heavy fast zooms 17->35 / 14->24 etc etc.

DaireQuinlan

Interview with a couple of Nikon product managers about the reasoning behind this lens. They're pretty specific about it

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0902/09021002nikoninterview.asp

About the focal length:

Ludovic Drean explains why: "The concept was to give a 50mm equivalent lens on the DX format. A lot of people have bought the 50 1.8 because it was all that was available. It may seem rather late for the APS-C system, but we believed that entry-level users wanted a standard lens."

And addressing mele's complaints above:

The other obvious question was why the lens should be restricted to the DX format, given that Nikon now makes three FX, full-frame bodies: "It's about price, size and weight. We wanted this to be a lens for the entry-level. If we'd tried to make an FX 35mm F1.4 it might cost €1400, rather than €200, and we wanted to make sure it was an affordable lens." Drean says.

And target market:

Robert Cristina offers some context: "The main target is D40/D60/D90 owners. They make up 80% of our DSLR sales and there wasn't really an inexpensive prime lens for them. So far, the lens offering for that market has included some really good zooms, but this offers them something they were missing."