Nikon 35mm f/1.8 vs 18-105mm VR Lens?

Both go for about the same price. So which one is the best? I'm under the impresion that prime lenses are always best.Am I right to believe this?

Your impression is a little tilted by anecdotal comments made on this and other sites.

The best lens is the one that suits your needs.

Prime lenses only practical advantage is that they are faster than any zoom lens.

They are limited by the single focal length.

I have a few prime lenses, but rarely use them.

The most used lenses I use as an editorial photographer are the following

12-24 mm, 24-70 mm, 70-200 mm and 18-200 mm lenses

My guess is that you have the 18-55 mm lens. If so, tape it set at 35 mm and walk around for a week only using that focal length.

Forty years ago, YES the image quality you could expect from a prime lens vs a zoom was very different, but since then zoom lens design has become very sophisticated and any image quality difference between a prime and zoom lens is going to be negligible except in lab tests.

The "best" lens is the one that you use the most.

However, you're really comparing apples to oranges here.

The 35mm f1.8 prime lens on a crop sensor DSLR is considered a "normal" lens since its angle of view approximates that of your eyes. If your goal is to have an image that is close to how you saw it then the 35mm is the lens for that. With its fast f1.8 maximum aperture its also a good choice for low-light photography where you don't want to use flash.

The 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 zoom is a good walk-around lens for outdoors. Its not a good choice for low-light photography though unless you use a tripod and have a stationary subject or use a very high ISO which will cause an increase in digital noise in your images.

So before buying any lens first determine why you need it and how you'll use it.

Best for what?

These lenses exist for different reasons - if you need a zoom, then a prime lens is useless.

If you don't need zoom or want a faster lens, then the prime is better.

The best lens is the one you will use and you will use the 18~105 much more.

I know, I have 4 prime lenses that are sitting in pouches waiting to be used again.
My 18~105 on the digital has so far been used 90% of the time once it arrived.
I do carry a prime lens with me when out and about as a back up lens and I have used it
a cpl of times when I wished to have a faster lens OR when my plan was to use it for a shot
before I left. That is becoming less and less the case however.

Now, as to the impression that a "prime" fixed focal lens is always better, if you look at the specs
and contrast and all those things, yea, they are, SO? Once upon a time this mattered due to the zooms being often very bad. Stick with the camera makers lens and your fine.