New Lens!!!!!!!!!!!
I woke up Saturday morning and decided I couldn’t live another day with out the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. It just would not be possible. My very existence depended on it. I had to have it right now.
Me, dramatic? Never.
So I (of course cleared it with my husband first) jumped in the car and headed out to the local camera shop. I will spare you the all the details but I happily walked out with that shiny new lens. I even got to drool over play with a Nikon D90 for a few minutes.
It was a really fun morning!
So I L-O-V-E this lens. Seriously. I am having so much fun with it.
The kit lens that came with my camera is an 18-55 mm f/3.5. So I already had the 50mm range available to me. The reason I wanted this lens is because the aperture is so much larger than f/3.5. Plus, for reasons I don’t fully understand yet (but will in the future!), I could rarely get it to actually go that large. It was usually around f/4 or f/5.
This caused some emotional discomfort for me. I was getting frustrated with how dark my photos were. I couldn’t get enough light into the camera. It was driving me nuts.
Also, with the higher aperture, now I can have a narrower Depth of Field.
Have we talked about Depth of Field? I don’t think we have. You know when a photo has something in the foreground that is blurred, the subject is in focus and then the background is blurred? Here’s an example:
Ok, I know it isn’t the best example. It’s the only one I could find in my recent photos. Plus, it was taken with my new lens (so that makes it extra cool). You can kind of tell that the car in the foreground is blurry, Gar is in focus and the background is blurry.
Here is another example of a photo with great depth of field or DOF as it is referred to in the biz… I did not take this photo. I’m not that awesome. Yet…
So there are a few different ways to get that shallow DOF, one of them is to use a lens that has a large aperture (remember the smaller the number means the larger the aperture or lens opening). The smaller the aperture number, the shallower the DOF.
If you are taking a picture of a group of people - like a family portrait, you will notice that everyone is standing in different planes and so you will want to remember to widen your DOF so that you can get everyone in focus. So that mean raise the aperture number to a 7 or 8 and see if they are all clear. You might need to go higher than that in some situations.
I know this doesn’t mean anything to point and shoot users. It’s really a SLR feature. I don’t know of any point and shoots that offer that kind of aperture control. If you know of one, please let me know. I’d love to learn more.
**Edit - Thanks Luann for reminding me that there are higher end point and shoots that have manual modes in which you can control the aperture and shutter speed. I know that both Canon and Nikon make some really good ones. This was totally a slip of my brain as I spent about 5 minutes talking to the guy at the camera shop about the new Nikon ones. Ding-Dong!! Now back to your regularly scheduled program...***
So anyway… I feel like I’m kind of rambling here. The point of what I want to say is that I am having a blast with this new lens. It is so much fun to be able to shoot in lower light than I could before (without having to raise my ISO or use my flash as often). It is so much fun to experiment with a great DOF. It is also fun to use a lens in manual focus.
What? Did you just read that correctly? Yes. Manual Focus. I have to focus old school style because my D40x only supports auto focus on lenses that have an internal motor. One of my least favorite things about this fun little camera, but ya’ deal. It’s no biggie. I have heard that this feature is the reason that the D40-D60’s are so small; they don’t have to have that autofocus motor inside.
I read online that an autofocus lens with an internal motor will be coming out in December. However it is rumored to cost about $430. This lens that I bought was nowhere near that price. It works on autofocus on our D100 and when I can one day upgrade to my D90 it will work with that too.
So here’s to new lenses! It is also really fun to have more options. When I need a zoom feature, I can use my old lens and when I want that shallow DOF, I can use my new lens. Honestly, I will probably keep this lens on my camera for a long time. It’s my new favorite possession.
Here are a few shots of Uly that I took at the park last night. I shot them all with the 50mm at f1.8 with the ISO at 400.
