35mm 1.8 OR 50mm 1.8 nikon lens?

Just bought a nikon d3000.It will mostly be used to take photos of my child and I'm going to a couple of my friends weddings next year, NO I will not be the photographer.

I want a lens I won't regret buying.

I have looked at photos taken by a 35mm 1.8 as in head and shoulder shots and don't notice any distortion

You won't really see any distortion with either lens, but you will find the 35mm more useful. It if the "normal" lens for the D3000.

Here are some samples with a 35mm lens on my D300:

You can check for distortion of whatever. It is NOT the same lens, though. You are looking at the newer DX lens, I'm sure, and I have the older D lens.

Very simple answer.

Take a piece of masking tape or something else that comes off easy. Set your 18-55 lens to 35mm and "lock" it in place. Walk around with this for an hour or so and see how you like that field of view. Do the same for 50. Now you can make your choice. Do remember that for a 50mm on your cam you'd better buy the af-s version

You have to know what camera body the 35mm lens is on before you try to judge if there's any distortion on a head and shoulder shot. Most likely it was mounted on a crop frame camera, (like yours), meaning your sensor is not the same size as frame of 35mm film, which in digital terms are called full frame cameras. Your camera crops into the field of view by a factor of 1.5. The 35mm lens on your camera gives you a field of view as a 52.5mm lens would on a "full frame" camera.

The 35mm lens more than likely would show distortion in a head and shoulder shot if it were mounted on a full frame camera.

So for your purposes, I also suggest you use the 35mm, though the absolute ideal lens for portraiture with your camera would be the 50mm, as it would give you an effective 75mm, much closer to the ideal 85mm focal length for portraiture. The 50mm lens, however, would be very limited in it's ability to capture any kind of group or full body shot without being a relatively long distance from the subject.

There are several lens rental shops from where you could rent one, or both, of the lenses to test out to see which you like best:

http://www.lensrentals.com/

495 people have already asked this same question.

On a 35mm film camera or full-frame DSLR a 50mm lens is considered a "normal" lens because its angle of view closely approximates that of the human eye.

On a 35mm film camera or full-frame DSLR a focal length of between 85mm to 105mm is considered an ideal portrait focal length. On your 1.5x "cropped sensor" D3000 the 50mm lens will have the angle of view of a 75mm lens which makes it a good choice for portraits.

A 35mm lens on your D3000 has the angle of view of a 52.5mm lens which makes it a "normal" lens on your camera.

Use the 50mm lens for portraits and the 35mm lens when you want to capture a scene close to how it actually looked to your eyes.