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I have a Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses. I am planning to buy 50mm f1.8G lens for which I've checked reviews and they were pretty great. I came in here and browsed through other similar questions which eventually converted me to get 35mm f1.8G lens.

One thing that bothered me was, some of the comments here said that auto-focus doesn't work on D3100. Is it true?

I still need a final suggestion as to which one I should go for. The price difference is 20$ so overall I don't care. My primary aim is better photos in low light conditions, portraits and obviously taking a next step in learning to take better photographs.

Aniruddha
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    Autofocus will work on the D3100 with this lens. – mattdm Sep 05 '13 at 02:47
  • I am well aware that this question may be duplicate of few others, but they all confused me and I wanted a bit specific answers pertaining to what I am planning to do. – Aniruddha Sep 05 '13 at 02:52
  • The linked to question is literally verbatim what you are asking, same camera, lenses, etc. If something confused you about it, please note exactly what confused you here otherwise there is no reason to leave this question open. To sum it up, they both are great and both can be found in many photographers bags. The 35mm on the D3100 is typically a better match that allows indoor photography(which is what most people want from a wide prime). 50mm on the D3100(crop sensor) gets a bit tight in indoors so it isn't always the best. Put your 18-55 on and test out the lengths to find what you like! – dpollitt Sep 05 '13 at 02:59

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I don't know If you want to slowly build up a collection of primes or just this one. All things being the same, if you get the 35, then you can always crop images when you want a 50mm equiv shot. You can't do the reverse. So if you plan on getting both, maybe start with wider, but this is just an opinion.

David Goldwasser
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I think the 50mm f1.8 would be a better choice for portraits. On a DX camera the 50 acts like a short telephoto which is pretty good for portraits while the 35 acts more like a normal lens which is a bit wide for individual portraits.

On my FX camera I really like my 85mm for portraits and on your DX camera the 50mm will have a slightly wider angle of view but will work almost as well.

You need the AF-S version of the 50mm lens (i.e. the newest one) there are older versions that are not AF-S and those older ones will not AF on your camera.

Ian Lelsie
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