Low light.
Lightweight.
Low Price.
Legendary status to be...

No DOF scale, but won't complain, it's not MF anyway...

I have used this lens less than I month and it has impressed me very well.
I normally use big cameras (D3 series) with heavy lenses attached.
This lens is permanently attached to my D5000 and it is so cute and cuddly.
It's like a 10 ton crane driver switching to his Morris Mini Cooper when going home from the construction site.
The feel is like the OM-1, FM, and AE-1 with the normal 50mm of old times.
Always in my bag and car.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

AF 35mm f2 D FX

Great in low light.
Gives you a true(ish) 50mm view assuming you have a crop factor.
It's QUIET. My 45 year pro dad was playing with it and asking why it wasn't focusing and had to put his ear up to it to confirm.
Fairly cheap
Looks good on a small dslr like the d40, 5000, and other similar bodies. Doesn't look too shabby on my d90 either.

Focus ring is slightly wiggley. VR would be nice.

I will be frank and say that I didn't really need this lens. I have the 1.8 50mm, but I wanted something similar I could use on my d40 so I picked this one up just out of curiosity really. I have no qualms about it though. First off, it looks great on my d40 and my d90, and lets face it...how a lens looks on your body is kind of a big deal. With that out of the way, it's great to have something a bit wider then my nifty fifty that I can use in low light. I generally use it when family is over and running about and I don't want to blast everyone with my sb600. It's also nice for throwing on my d40 and passing it over to someone else on dummy...err...auto mode. No zooming, no focusing, just point and shoot genius. Images seem to be tack sharp, but I can't say I've done any testing or have anything to compare it to. I also like that unlike my 1.8 50mm I can override the auto-focus, and that it doesn't surprise me with the noise and movement my fifty does.

AF speed/noise
very lightweight
image quality

Body is plastic, so it feels "cheap"

I purchased this lens to replace my SIgma 30mm F1.4 that I had purchased a year before. First thing I noticed about this lens is the AF is quiet. Quiet enough when I first put it on the camera I thought it was broken since I didn't hear any noise.

The body is made out of plastic, so it is very lightweight. I am careful with the lens, but I don't feel that I have to baby it around in order to stop it from breaking.

I routinely use this lens at around F1.8/F2 and the images come out fantastic. I normally use this lens when I am doing portraits/wedding photography, but I have recently started using it for sports. I've found the 35 can keep up with panning bicyclists without a problem, and the AF keeps up quite well.

In comparison to the Sigma 30mm that I used to use this lens blows it out of the water. I had to send my Sigma in since it wasn't very sharp, and it still wasn't very sharp. The other thing I noticed was the AF between the two. The Sigma needed lots of light to AF correctly, while the Nikon deals with backlit/low light situations very well.

Customer Service

I've used Nikon CS for other products, and have been quite happy with it.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 30mm F1.4

Good price, AF-S, breathes new life into the D40/D40X/D60 line, lightweight

Could benefit from VR for ultra-low light situations; hood could be deeper

This is truly a great lens. It works great in low light on my D40- in fact, I have a dimmer switch on my room lights and I tested this lens by dimming the lights and taking pictures as it got darker and darker. I had to turn the lights completely OFF before I could get the lens to not focus. Most of the time you won’t need a flash with this lens, which makes it perfect for weddings and churches. The pictures come out tack-sharp and with good lighting look almost 3-D. I like the bokah, especially with a lot of distance between the main subject and the background. In fact, that is the comment I get most often when I show people pictures I've taken with this lens.

It will work with any current Nikon DX, the AF-S means it works with the D40/D40X/D60 line perfectly, since the auto-focus motor is in the lens.. Set your auto ISO to 800 and 1/60 trigger and you will get sharp pictures in almost any lighting. Even 1/30 works well for very dark situations.

The 35mm on a DX camera is equivalent to 52.5mm on a full-frame camera, which is almost a 1:1 or “normal” lens. This means that what you see with your eye will be the about same as what you see through this lens, as far as apparent distance. It’s neither a wide-angle nor a telephoto lens. The lens is a bit smaller than I thought, but this works well with the small size of the D40/D40X/D60 line.

It’s lightweight due to use of plastic in its construction, although it does have metal mount A nice touch is that to manually focus all you do is turn the focus ring; you don’t have to move a switch first. Price was right at $199.99, and my local Best Buy had several of them in stock and none on display, which makes sense since this is a very popular lens and those who know about it won’t need to see it on display. My only complaint with this lens is that VR would have been a nice feature, even if it added a few dollars to the price. However, that would have made the lens a bit bigger, which may take away from it's attractiveness.

Customer Service

No problems buying it at my local Best Buy.

Similar Products Used:

No other primes. My other lens is a Sigma 18mm-200mm. The 35mm 1.8 is my preferred lens.

Light weight fast rugged lens.

Mine was front focusing. I fine tuned it 10+. As a prime I would like it to be more ambitious as regards to IQ. But money kils everything.

Photos of this lens are not as deep contrasted clean as those of Sigma 30mm f/1.4's.
I had quite some troubles also with that one because of it's focusing dilemmas. When I tried manual focusing it could give stunning photos. I didnt expect that much from Nikkor 35mm but my mind was set to the expectancy of a regular lens. Nikkor 35mm works smooth. But I had to coreect its front focusing with fien tuning.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 30mm F/1.4

Light weight
Cheap price
built quality

I wish it was a FX not DX but in that case we had to pay more that 1000 USD

This lens is great. you can use it as a light weight kit lens. from the time I got this lens I don't use my 18-70. I carry my camera everywhere and having a lens like this is a gift. you can use without worrying about blured photo in 1.8.
for Sigma 1.4 you need to go to f 2 even 4 to get a sharp photo. for this lens you can have a razor sharp photo in f 2.
It doesn't look a cheap lens like 18-55 series. the built quality is not same is high end Nikons but is still very good.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 60 macro
Nikon 50 1.8

Cost
Size and weight
Image quality
Speed (and silence) of autofocus
Maximum aperture
Lens hood
The look of the thing

Chromatic aberration in extreme conditions
Definition falls off towards the edges
Light fall-off at f1.8?

I was very pleased when Nikon released this “normal-available-light” for DX format. This is the equivalent of a 50mm on 24x36 film, as used by generations of street photographers, usually on Leica (example: Henri Cartier-Bresson).

This is my favorite sort of lens for going people hunting in cities. A city is a fascinating place, a melting pot of cultures with interesting faces on every street, inside exhibitions, shops, houses, subways, during the day, at night. Getting an image of just part of this is delicate. It needs a small, non-aggressive camera and lens able to work in low light at a distance a 6-10 feet. (BTW the same technique works also for impromptu snapshots of family without flash)

The 35mm f1.8 DX is short and surprisingly wide but it fits perfectly on a small-bodied DSLR like the D60 and makes the camera look much classier than it really is. The lens hood is excellent – for carrying about it fits snugly over the lens in reversed position. If you need to be really quick in taking a shot you can use the lens without reversing the hood – the hood covers the focusing ring but not the zoom ring (there isn’t one). Focusing is fast and silent, with the possibility to retouch manually instantly.

In real-life shooting the 35mm always seems to be sharp all across the frame with no light fall-off or flare. I have only once noticed a violet fringe (chromatic aberration) shooting against the light at full aperture.

When I testes the lens against my huge 28-70 f2.8 AF-S the 35mm has better resolution at all apertures in the center but is less good in the corners. It also seemed that there was some light fall-off in the corners at f1.8 which disappeared at f2? I would say the performance is excellent but not perfect

Customer Service

Haven't needed it

Similar Products Used:

50mm f2 Leica (on film)
28mm f2.8 Nikon
35mm f2 Nikon (broken - can't compare)
28-70mm f2.8 AF-S Nikon