low light lens for travel (nikon D80)--have 18-135mm, now should i have 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8 or something else?

Answer 1

My first "good" camera was a Yashica TL-Electro, which I got for Christmas in 1975. The "electro" part meant it had a built-in light meter... way cool high tech for 1975. :-)

I took hundreds if not thousands of pictures with the Yashinon 50mm f1.4 lens that came on that camera. It was GREAT in low-light, full sun and anything between. I took pictures of my wife, our cats, our kids, scenery, flowers, spiderwebs, race cars... you name it. It was years before I bought a flash because ASA 400 film (oh, right, ASA is Old Fart-ese for ISO) plus the 1.4 aperture meant I could shoot pictures inside, with one or two floor lamps, and still get great clarity.

One thing you'll notice IMMEDIATELY by going to a "prime" (that is, not zoom) lens is that image clarity is likely to be MUCH improved. That is, I have the 18-135mm zoom on my D40x and it's fine for pictures that I'm mainly going to look at on the computer. But during my years as a freelance writer, I took photos with the 50mm f1.4 that were used as cover shots from 35mm slide film. And when I finally upgraded to an 80-200/f5-or-so zoom on the old Yashica, I noticed immediately that I couldn't get the crisp edges and clear details that I used to with the f1.4/50mm.

So.. go old school and learn to use the "foot-operated zoom." You know... where you walk forwards to get closer and backwards to get a wider angle. :-)

And as long as I'm playing the Old Philosopher here, turn off your autofocus once in a while, too. There's a lot to be learned from twiddling the focus ring by hand and learning to look at the entire viewfinder to see what your depth of field is doing to your composition. The autofocus is awesome for action shots (I'm in love with the "Sport" setting on the D40x, can't wait to take pictures at the upcoming Portland Historic Auto Races), but if you're shooting a fixed object, dialing your focus manually really forces you to look closely at what you're shooting.

Answer 2

It's hard to beat the bang for the buck in the 50mm f/1.8. But on the D80, as Dr Sam said, it's not the most useful of focal lengths unless you like doing a lot of portraiture.

You could spring for one of the wide f/2.8 zooms, pretty pricey. Maybe look for a 20mm or 24mm 2.8. You can probably find a used one fairly cheaply at www.keh.com.

The 18-135 isn't such a bad lens, but it's pretty slow and suffers from quite a bit of distortion at the wide end. In the daylight, though, it's a pretty good performer for a travel lens.

Answer 3

If you want to use mostly available light with no flash, 1.4 is a great choice, but it certainly is not a NECESSARY expense. Bear in mind that this is a mild telephoto lens in the D80 and you might want to think about the 35 mm f/2.0 so you don't find yourself unable to back up far enough to take the picture...