Why did I take along my Nifty-fifty?

Uncle Michel Greeting lost friend

Little Lolo

carefree

Hotel Back yard

Angelina

Hello Torti!

Thumbs Up!

Kitty Cat

Papparazi

Ox Carts in La Digue, Seychelles

Aldabra Land Tortoise

My work horse has been my kit lens (sorry to put work horse and kit lens in one sentence :) ) with my Nikon 5100 was 55-200 3.5 kit lens,

Treat: was to upgrade myself with the save up some money to buy my very own nifty-fifty the NIKON 50mm 1.8 (Prime Lens) primarily for portrait shots..and a 1.4 just cost more that I could shell out at the moment...but before I opened my wallet I had to consider a few point to make my case strong.

Reasons why this lens should be in my bag?

- Low Cost & Great Value: at a price range of AED600-800 (Grey Market) low price tag makes it affordable as a good first prime lens investment.

- Light Weight: If you don’t want to haul a whole bag full of stuff around, there is no reason to leave this lens at home.

- Avoid Upgrade: I do my photography entry-level DSLRs such as Nikon D5100 and with an inbuilt the AF-S motor gives the ability to use autofocus with a manual focus override

- Killer Bokeh & Sharpness: at 1.8 you get great bokeh (small near perfect circles)

ie. image above just has string lights in the background ...Bright lights twinkle :) , being a fixed length which are inherently sharper than a zoom lens, a wide aperture give you increased sharpness and shoot at faster shutter speeds and lower ISO. Being able to get a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate camera shake, or freeze a moving subject has a lot to do with getting sharper images as does minimizing noise.

Last and foremost it is great for travelling, I take along my camera and my nifty-fifty because it’s light weight, and is a fast lens (big aperture f1.8) overall the 50mm is a great addition to your bag for trips.

Also, on your travels, when shooting cityscapes and landscapes you can take these with the 50mm 1.8, you just have to frame it right.It isn't going to be super wide, so you have to choose what part of the landscape you are going to get.

I was feeling a bit limited due to the crop factor on my D5100, but I was ok with PANO shots from my iphone 5 and now 6 also remember If you need to go "wide" don't forget you can take pictures side by side and stitch them together. (invest in a good tripod!)