This is kind of a follow up to my previous post asking for help.  I’ve since acquired a Nikon D7200’s body and a Nikon 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3g ED VR lens.

Looking around on Black Friday deals on B&H I see they have a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G Lens on sale.  Being as this camera is for my mom and the simple fact I am totally clueless I hope someone can help explain what this lens is for and if it would offer any benefit over the current lens I already bought.  My mom primarily takes nature/wildlife pictures and possibly family type pictures now that my nephew was born.

Thanks again guys!

The 50/1.8 is a great all-around lens. Very sharp and useful for a lot of photographic work. Not a very long lens, though, so not really suited to nature/wildlife.

The 50mm 1.8 is a prime lens whereas your 18-300 is a zoom lens.  The prime lens has a fixed focal length while the zoom functionality of the 18-300 allows the focal length to change, just like a zoom rifle scope.  50mm is considered a "Normal" lens in that on a full-frame camera it would reflect the same zoom ratio as you would see with your naked eye (think 1x rifle scope) however on a D7200 is is actually more of a very mild telephoto lens due to the crop sensor of the D7200.

The f/1.8 refers to the amount of light that is transferred through the lens.  It's actually a ratio of the aperture to the focal length, but in general the lower the number the more light transferred.  That sounds like a good thing but it also means that the depth of field is narrower.  Your mother might choose to use f/1.8 for a photograph of the kids and get the tip of a nose in focus and the rest of the face out of focus.  At close distances it can be that narrow.

The 18-300 is what is referred to as a "Super Telephoto" lens because it has such a wide focal length variance.  The design of super telephotos is always an optical compromise and they won't have the optical qualities of a zoom lens with a lower focal length ratio or of a prime lens.  That said, I use an 18-300 Sigma lens and love it.  I'm not a photography noob, been at it for 50+ years, and I'm perfectly pleased with the photograph quality I get from it.  I can go from wide angle to long-ish telephoto without changing my lens, and I love it.

Prime lenses do not offer the flexibility of a zoom however, as mentioned, their optics are not a compromise so the optical quality is normally better.  These days, with computer-aided design and manufacturing, that gap has narrowed significantly though.  I don't even own any prime lenses any longer however I do own a number of zoom lenses.

In my opinion, for what that's worth, I feel that your mom will be perfectly happy with the zoom lens as it will give her far more flexibility than a 50mm prime would.

Thank you! I’ll be passing on this one

I just bought the Nikon 35mm lens for my D7200....now Im still learning as well so what I explain below could be off.

The 50mm got great reviews, but what SACraig mentioned, we have crop sensors so we have a bit of magnification already.  From what I read, the 35mm will pan out close to the 50mm prime lens on a full frame camera.

That is my first prime Lens, I feel like the picture quality is better than on my 18 200 Nikon lens.

Primes offer two general advantages:

They're usually very fast (i.e. have wide maximum aperture).

They're usually very sharp with little abberation

For a DX sensor I'd recommend the 35mm f/1.8; it has approximately the same field of view as a 50mm on an FX sensor.

Everyone should have at least one prime in their inventory, IMO.

It looks like all the technical stuff was already covered.  I have a D7200 and a 50 f/1.8; for my use it is just slightly too long to call it perfect.  I think I would have been happier with a 35mm for my one prime lens.  That said, it takes amazing pictures.

A 50MM lens is a portrait lens.  It's one of the prime lenses to use in, for example, indoor situations photographing people.

Just remember, the smaller the focal length, the wider the angle.  50mm gives about the same relative field of view as does your eye.

When you place the camera in front of your eye as if to take a picture, and then lower the camera, you'll see that looking through a 50mm lens looks about like you see without the camera.  Things are in about the same place.

Smaller number focal lengths, like 35 or 28 or 14 mm, all offer progressively wider fields of view.   Larger numbers are for high magnification/long distance photography.

The two most common lenses used for portrait photography are the 35mm and 50mm prime lenses.   You SHOULD have one or the other in your lens kit.

Remember when shopping for Nikon lenses,  the focal length in mm is effectively different if you have a crop sensor camera and you're looking at a full frame lens.  Or vice versa.

The 18-55mm kit lens for a crop sensor (DX) D7200  is the equivalent in terms of relative angular field of view and zoom range as a full frame (FX) 24-70mm lens. They do the same job, but one is FX and the other is DX and the FX version is much more expensive.

If you put an FX full frame lens on your DX camera then you will get LESS zoom, wider field of view.  (Because the FX lens makes a larger image that is intended to fall on a larger sensor.)

If you put a DX crop frame lens on an FX camera then you will get MORE zoom, narrower field of view, because the DX lens makes a smaller image intended for a smaller sensor.)

The difference is about the ratio between 18 and 24,  or 3/4.  Or 1.333 looking at it the other way.

I recommend that you should eventually have the following lenses in your lens kit, to cover most applications.

18-55mm VRII for general everyday walkabout photography
55-200 or 55-300mm lens (varying price points) for medium zoom range photography
A prime lens, 85, 50, or 35mm for portraiture at different ranges
If you're into birding, aviation photography, sports events, or wildlife, you WILL want a big zoom lens.  The Nikkor 200-500mm F/5.6 lens is very good and at about 1500 dollars it's not exactly cheap but it's actually something of a bargain.  I have one and it just delivers the goods. (Yes, it's an FX lens but that just means you'll get free extra effective zoom range out of it. It'll behave as if it's a 266-670mm lens. )

You may want a macro lens for serious up close photography of bugs and flowers.  If you do,  the Nikkor 40mm lens may be just right.

I'll just add to what Zack said by saying a 50mm FX lens and a 50 mm DX lens are both going to be 50mm.

Put an true FX 50mm lens on a DX body and you're going to get the same field of view as if you put on a 50mm lens made for DX bodies.  Both of them will have a full-frame equivalent view of about 75mm on a DX body.

Putting a full frame lens on a crop body doesn't do anything different than putting a crop lens on a crop body.  My 24-120 is an FX lens and I only use it on a DX body.  It's full image circle is wasted, but I wanted the build quality, constant aperture, zoom range (which is about 36-180 for a full frame body), and image quality of that particular FX lens.