Nikon 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8

the nifty-fifty (equivalent) for a Nikon 1. Refurbished is the way to go! I bought this lens refurbished, I have used it for over 400 shots so far, and have had no problems. It has great optics, and works well for ultraviolet imaging as well as infrared and visible-light imaging. The auto-focus seems to be quite accurate for run-and-gun photography, but I find myself using the "manual focus" options on this for digitally-zoomed focus confirmation. On the Nikon 1, you have to use the dial on the camera to focus (argh!) because there is no true-manual focus dial or aperture setting on this lens whatsoever. Thankfully, it comes with a 40.5mm filter thread mount over the front lens, and comes with a cap. One can purchase a lens hood to fit this lens, but I have not needed it yet. Filter thread adapters are available for this thread size. It is a bright lens, and in full-color imaging, the images are nice and sharp, even wide open (granted, do not image images with a lot of depth wide-open and expect clarity - not going to happen with any lens!). Having the equivalency of a 50mm lens on 35mm format due to the 2.7x crop, it is my go-to lend for most photographing on the Nikon 1. At F1.8, ISO up to 3200, and a steady hand or tripod, it works reasonably well to photograph dim images. I dud update the firmware on it, but I have no idea if it improved its optics...Read full review

I nice little lens in a limited ecosystem The ecosystem of the Nikon 1 is certainly very limited. I have most of native lens there are to this camera. The zoom lenses are serviceable but nothing outstanding. However I have the 18.5mm prime and the 10mm prime and they are really both pretty good lenses. The 18.5mm in particular is pretty fast and makes the Nikon 1 system take some fairly respectable shots even in low light. Understand of course that the small size of Nikon 1 sensor means that the pictures will always come out a bit flat compared to a larger format sensor. That however is a very different topic.

18.5mm the Nifty Fifty equivalent. Everyone who has taken pictures with a film based SLR can remember there first lens, “The 50mm” For some it was the only lens they had and others a go to lens when you needed to shoot in low light. Well this is a perfect replacement for the CX size sensor. Video is great! Pictures are sharp with plenty of contrast. Quick focus and shooting, this is a nifty 50 lens.