Nikon 50mm

I just bought the nikon 50mm f 1.4 and I was wondering if its possible to capture sharp photos? I know They are not

going to be VR sharp but I was not very happy with the ones I got. I was not using a flash and I was using aperture

priority. Also is it possible to freeze moving objects without a flash? Thannks

If you are using that lens wide open (at f/1.4), you will have a very shallow depth of field. If you're shooting someone's face from not too far off, for example, you might be able to get their eyes in focus, but not their nose. This means you have to be thoughtful about where you focus, and keep the focus tracking.

On the other hand, that f/1.4 aperture means you're gathering a lot of light - which means that you'll have a better chance at freezing moving objects (because you'll be able to use a faster shutter speed) than you would with a slower lens.

The 50/1.4 can be a very, very sharp lens. VR, on other lenses, doesn't provide more optical sharpness, it just helps compensate for the fact that you're moving the camera. Can you post a downsized-example of the sort of image you're having trouble with?

" I know They are not going to be VR sharp " - quite opposite.

Oserve what aperture you use with your VR lens that you know you get sharper pictures, and what aperture you use with the 50 mm prime that you know is less sharper. Also make sure that the shutter speed in both cases is fast so no motion blur in the pictures.

Your problem could be with depth or lack of focus and not sharpness, as Matt explained, unless you really used slow shutter. Increase ISO as needed and experiment

You can freeze moving object with fast shutter speed without the flash, in sufficient ambient lighting conditions and/or with help of high ISO setting.

If you are shooting "moving objects" the 50 mm lens is only AF, and perhaps your VR lens is AF-S - thus possibly tracking a bit faster in the continuous auto focus locked on moving object? How fast is the moving object, and how far away? what direction to your camera, etc.

With D70 much more experience is needed to get sport shots, when comparing to D1, D2X, etc. but you can learn by practicing, that follows understanding of D70 focusing modes.

With the 50mm F1.4, you should be able to capture sharp images. There are alot of factors affecting this though,

so it is really a matter of perspective.

Rule of thumb though, if you are shooting at a speed faster than 1/50 you should have no problems at all. Things

that will affect your sharpness though could be

1) Not having steady hands. (a) Use a tripod, or if a tripod is not handy (b) take a deap breath and then breath

out slowly. Take your image while breathing out this should help.

2) Using a higher ISO makes the images softer so Images taken @ ISO 1600 are softer (Not as sharp) as

images taken @ ISO 200. If you you are doing still life, rather use a lower ISO and a Tripod (again)

3) Using a inferior filter on the front of your lens with give you inferior quality photos (Even if it is only a UV Filter)

4) Depending on what you want sharp. If you are using it @ F1.4 and focus on the eyes, as stated the nose will

not be sharp. But if you drop your F-Stop to 11 the nose should be sharp as well.

Now to answer your question, Prime Lenses are sharper than Zoom Lenses without a question. Even if the Zoom

Lenses have VR.

I shoot with a 50mm F1.8 and have never had sharper images.

Here are some samples.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00PrGY&photo_id=7419582&photo_sel_index=0

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00PefL&photo_id=7332027&photo_sel_index=0

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00PefN&photo_id=7332034&photo_sel_index=0

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00PefM&photo_id=7332058&photo_sel_index=0

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00PgYN&photo_id=7353416&photo_sel_index=0

It could be a few things I'll try to simplify.

1) Too large an aperture. If you were shooging at F1.4 close down to 2.8 and see if that improves. Aperture is not the only thing that effects shallow DOF, there's distance to suject, distance from subject to background and focal lenght. You were probably too close for the selected aperture.

2) Camera shake. Use 1/60th or faster and you should be ok. Slect an ISO that allows this speed with F2.8.

3) Front/back focus problem with the lens. This is uncommon but it happens. You may need to send the lens in for calibation if it has this problem. To test for this use a test sheet (do a search here) or just line up some battereis or something in a row at varied distances. Shoot focusing on the one in the middle. If any of the batteries that are closer or farther than the one you focused on appear sharper, you may have the problem.