For those not interested in photography, you may as well stop reading now… 
This is the lens I always wanted to couple to my Nikon D100 and, more recently, my D300. Small, lightweight, fast, a useful focal length and relatively cheap.
I have a 50mm f/1.8 – and love it – but I find it a little tight for general shooting (pretty decent for portraits though). The 35mm length would be perfect. I can’t justify buying another lens but I’m considering swapping out my beloved 50mm…
It’s been such a gaping hole in Nikon’s range I had begun to think they were never going to release anything in this focal length.
I recommend that anyone who owns any Nikon DX body (like the D40, D60, D80, D90, D200, D300) seriously consider purchasing this lens. I haven’t seen any reviews for it yet but I’ll wager it’s a cracker optically. Nikon rarely produce poor glass – especially for primes.
Kudos to Nikon for finally making the lens that everyone wants! What took you so long?!
Update: DPReview cover the 35mm f/1.8. "Highly Recommended".
Or just get an old manual focus 35mm (either f/1.4 or the f/2)?
I’ve got the old 35mm f/2, and despite metering on my D70s, I reckon it’s a beaut of a little lens!
Yeah, it’s not a bad option if you’re prepared to focus manually.
I’ve shot a number of weddings though – in low light with my 50mm wide open – and there’s no chance I would have had so many successful photos focussing manually.
So yeah, if you can afford to focus manually an old manual-focus lens is an absolute bargain.
(BTW matrix metering works great for AI-s lenses on the D300…time to upgrade??
Actually, I’ve been considering getting a D70 as a backup body, primarily because of the 1/500 sync speed!)
Yeah, I know all about that brilliant metering on the D300! Just need to be able to justify the upgrade cost over other priorities
My boss recently brought the D700 and i’m rather envious of it!
btw, you might be interested in some sample photos.
http://nikongear.com/smf/index.php?topic=14710.0;all
(you’ll have to register/login before you can see anything)
It sounds like a great lens, but if you can’t afford to hold onto both a $100 and $200 lens, why did you get a d300? Why not a d90 and decent glass?
@Will Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out. And yeah, I’d be jealous of the D700.
@Jake For starters, I don’t want to carry around *another* lens – my bag is as packed as I want. Also, it would be *much* easier to justify to my gf that I was swapping lenses rather than buying another.
Also, the lenses aren’t trivially cheap out here in Australia – the 50mm is AUD$220 and I expect the 35mm to be double that when it lands…
Why did I get a D300? Many reasons but the first that springs to mind is that the D90 didn’t exist when I bought it!
However, even today I’d buy the D300 over the D90 for a number of reasons, top of the list is the *significantly* better AF system. Try ‘em side by side in low light to see what I mean.
Thanks for your comments!