I am a newbie in photography and just bought a second hand Nikon D80 with a Tamron 17-50 mm f2.8 lens. A lot of people on this forum recommend buying the Nikon 50mm f1.8 for its shallow depth of field. My question is is it worth the $700 to buy the 50/1.8? How different is the depth of field and the picture quality for 50/1.8 vs. 50/2.8?
50 1.8 is one of the best buy of Nikon lens. Quality should be better than Tamron, which is a zoom lens. Also, depth of field should be much obvious for 50 1.8.
But Tamron is much more flexible in use.
This is a trade off of quality and flexibility.