good portrait lens for the d50?

[patticakes]

I'm going to be primarily using natural light...
any thoughts any one??? would love some input! Thank you so much!

[buruburu]

#1 choice that comes to mind is the Nikon 50mm f/1.8

the 85mm f/1.8 might be very interesting as well.

[coldrain]

Like buruburu says, the 85mm f1.8 Nikkor is a great lens. This one will be great for portraits, it has everything going for it.
But, at 85 x 1.5 = 127.5mm, it is a bit long so you do need to take some distance from your subject.

The 50mm f1.8 Nikkor is less long (50mm x 1.5 = 75mm), making the distance to your subject a bit smaller. While the 85mm one is maybe preferrable in image quality, the 50mm may be a good choice too. And it is very affordable.

If you want a lens that is even faster, the 50mm f1.4 Nikkor is another option. But beware of that the depth of field at f1.4 is VERY short, so it takes practise and technique to use that to good effect.

[eduardofrances]

Depending on your budget you could choose

Primes
Low Budget
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D it runs from 90-100 bucks, fast, solid, sharp!


Medium Budget
Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF-D it is nice, cause you wont be sticking the lens too near to your subject with helps to produce more natural portraits. t :D, 300-400 bucks


Deep pocket budget
Either the Nikkor 105mm f/2.0 AF DC or the Nikkor 135mm f/2.0 AF DC, great sharp lenses, the DC stands for a technology that allows you to modify the out of focus part of the photo*defocus control*, I have played with both and they are wonderful for outdoor portraiture. the con, is that they are expensive but worth every cent. (although I would had prefered a lower budget version without the DC to exist with the expensive ones)

Zooms

Well In this area to tell you the truth I havent played with low budget lenses :(, only with the nice and expensive Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 AF VR (and sadly it is not mine lol) wich is fast, sharp and the bokeh it produces is very nice!

Also as coldrain said f/1.4 lenses have tinier depth of field you would find many pictures that the tip of the nose is focused and the rest it isnt.