we cross posted on that one - I was referring to the Jessops one not the e bay one.

ok so this one;

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/...9693/show.html


disregard distance etc.... is autofocus?... will technically perform well in rubbish light???

if so i'll have me one of those to put me on until i can get my SL through!

This should help.

http://www.bythom.com/lensacronyms.htm

So if it's for D60 then no, unless it's AF-S or AF-I which according to the jessops site it's not.

ok

can i bang my head against the wall right about now?!

Seriously, work with the kit lens you have.

Up the ISO slightly to allow faster shutter speeds. Save up and buy the right thing first time.

I'm slightly concerned for you that you think this is going to fix your lighting problems.
While it will certainly do better than some other lenses, if the light is really as rubbish as you describe, I think you may well still struggle even with the 50mm.
However, I have no experience of indoor arenas, so I could be wrong.

I have the canon 50mm 1.8 which I am guess is similar in performance, and if I am taking indoor shots of my kids, unless they are flooded with light from a window I still need to use my speedlight or up my ISO so high that I have lots of grain.
I would be very worried about using it to get decent shots in dim light with fast moving subjects.
But as I say - have no experience so hopefully someone more qualified will step in with words of wisdom.

It is a lovely portrait lens though so will be good for your other work.

Well said.

thanks all

will stick with what i have for now

I'm not a fan of Ken Rockwell as he seems to fall over backwards to praise everything Nikon, so when he criticises a Nikon lens then it must be bad

Distortion back to performance back to top The 50mm f/1.4 AF-S has relatively strong and visible barrel (bulging) distortion.
It's plainly visible, so if straight lines and architectural items are your thing, pass on this lens and get the 50mm f/1.4 AF-D instead , or get the 50mm f/1.8 AF-D which has no distortion at all and sells new for only $110.
The distortion of this 50/1.4G easily can be corrected for critical use by plugging these figures into Photoshop CS2's lens distortion filter. These aren't facts or specifications, they are the results of my research that requires hours of photography and calculations on the resulting data.

so steve - 1.8 af-d good or bad?

no 100% following what you have put