Anyone have the 35mm f/1.8 lens with a Nikon D3000?
I have ben reading a lot about the 35mm f/1.8 lens (recommended from another questions I posted earlier). I'm about 90% convinced this is what I need, but I came across a review that this lens with the D3000 in particular can act like a 50mm due to the way the camera is (smiting about the wide angle).So, I'm want to see if anyone has experience with the lens and the D3000. I take pictures mostly of my son. I have a hard time getting low light indoor pictures to come out great, which is why I may get the lens. No stores in my area have it in stock to go test!
Added (1). I have the SB400 and am learning to use it as well. It allows me to point the flash at the ceiling, but it still doesn't produce the quality pictures I was hoping for indoors.
The 35mm f 1.8 AF-S DX is a nice, sharp lens with a normal field of view. It may not be the magic solution to your indoor motion blur problems. The wide aperture can allow you a little faster shutter speed, but it may not be enough. Your depth of field gets shallow at the wide aperture. That can have a pleasing effect, but it makes accurate focus more critical. With people shots you normally want the subject's eyes to be in sharp focus.
You might get better frozen motion with a Nikon SB700 flash. That can be used as bounce flash, which is more pleasing than direct flash. It can work well if your ceiling is white or very nearly white. It can look terrible if your ceiling is colorful.
The D3000 like many DSLRs is a cropped camera. Being cropped means the sensor is a bit smaller, so the camera internally uses a smaller area of the lens - i.e. The center.
This is often said by many to change the effective focal length of the lens by 1.5x, so a 35mm lens would act like a 52.5mm lens.
This is a bit of a mis-nomer as it leads to confusion. The reason being is that the 35mm lens is a 35mm lens, whether it is used on a cropped or full frame camera. That being the case, the 35mm lens will retain the characteristics of a 35mm lens on a cropped camera - namely a tiny bit of perspective distortion.
What should be focused on though is the field of view, which is in reality what is changed when using a particular lens on a camera, rather than saying the focal length changes ( or at least caveat the focal length as "effective" focal length).
You can see what a 35mm lens will be like by putting your 18-55mm kit lens into the 35mm position - and that will show you what a 35mm lens will look like (but of course, the 35mm lens - at f/1.8 will be faster)
Also, the SB400 is not a very powerful flash, so bouncing it will probably not provide much power to the subject you are trying to illuminate.
Typically bouncing is used to soften the flash. For low power flashes such as the SB400, why not try a diffuser such as a Mini Soft Box (Opteka SB-1, etc). This type of diffuser points directly at the subject rather than bouncing, so you should get more power to the subject.
This lens is wonderful. A 35mm lens on your crop-sensor camera will have the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a full frame camera. This works out well for shooting indoors where you generally are shooting pretty close to your subject (5 to 10 feet). I use this with a D40 and it's great for low light shooting. See if a store has a f/2.8 lens with 35mm focal length (a 17-50mm lens will work fine). This will give you a good idea of what the lens can do. Be sure to compare with your kit lens.
Set your kit lens to 35mm and see how you like the field of view. In fact, put a small piece of blue tape on the zoom ring so it will stay at 35mm and try shoot for a day. It takes getting used to zooming with your feet. Also set you lens to 50mm for a day and see if you like that better. Nikon has a nice 50mm AF-S f/1.8 lens (don't get the AF version, it won't auto focus on your camera).
I have a SB400 which I use for travel (small & light).It works fine as a bounce flash with low ceilings (8 feet or less). You may need to set your ISO to 400. You may need to place an index card behind it to give a bit of direct (catch) light. See for ideas on a better bounce card. I put some strips of velcro on my flashes so I can attach various modifiers.
Ignore folks who say that the 35mm lens will give more distortion over a 50 mm lens. For normal lenses (rectilinear) the distance to your subject controls distortion, not focal length. Shooting closer than 5 feet will start to noticeably increase perspective distortion which can be fun in a cartoonish way.