Lens for mainly childrens portraits.

[Miss Ella]

I have the 50mm 1.8D and i LOVE it. I went with that while im still learning and for $175 i could not be happier. Once i know what im doing i want to get the 35mm 1.4 (wont be for a year or 2).

[Othrelos]

funny how people always refer to 85mm lenses as ideal for portraiture, I prefer the old Nikkor pre AI-S 105mm f/2.5 on my D3, sure it's manual focus but it gives me more working distance and I love the old-world rendering of the sonnar lens design. The current AF-S Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF ED VR macro lens is also an excellent choice - plus it's a macro lens.

As the poster above said there isn't much margin for focus errors at f/1.4 so getting the fastest lens isn't necessarily the best choice with fast moving subjects. In my experience I get the best images when my nieces and nephews are oblivious to the fact that they are having their photograph taken, try doing that with a big 85mm f/1.4 or a 70-200mm f/2.8.

[peterb666]

If you are going to upgrade to the D7000, for portraits - I would go for the 85mm f/1.8. For more indoor work, maybe the 50 f/1.4 and if you intend doing candids and small group shots, the 35mm f/1.8.

Another option would be a medium, fast zoom like the 24-70 or 28-75 f/2.8 zooms. The Nikon 24-70 is quite expensive but Sigma and Tamron make reasonable priced lenses in this range which are very good. If you don't want to do group shots, there is a very good Sigma 50-150 f/2.8 zoom too. Very good for tight cropping and when the kid is running around the back yard.

[johnnol1]

I have been researching the web on the Samyang 85mm 1.4 manual focus lens for use in pretty much the same circumstances as you describe. It seems to get consistently good reviews and is only a quarter of the price of Nikons AS F Lens.

[I @ M]

Johnnol, if very still subjects were the main ones that you were using the lens on the samyang does have some very good qualities at the price point but with rapidly moving children autofocus lenses are going to enable a higher keeper rate if shooting at wide apertures.
An AF lens won't guarantee a 100% keeper rate but I would rather trust one to get some good shots over trying to manually focus on totally unpredictable persons.