Any prime lens recommendations?

[MountainGoat]

I am looking for some prime lenses for doing some portrait photos.

Anybody know of any decent F-mount lenses that will not break the bank? Sigma, Tamron, etc, or would I be wise sticking to the stock Nikon lenses for the primes?

I use a few Sigma zooms, and I have not had any problems with them in terms of image quality, saturation, flaring or distortion. All are comparable to the Nikon products of equal spec; however I have not used any primes for years, and am unsure of the quality.

[rvince]

I have a 30mm f/1.4 and a 50mm f/1.8 on my Canon and I love them; the picture quality is really top-notch (except of course in the picture corners at full aperture).
For portraits I'd recommend a longer focal lenght than my lenses through... something like a 85mm f/1.8 (or f/1.2 if you have too much money) for example.

[MountainGoat]

I was thinking of the 50mm and an 85mm, but I have just bagged a 24 - 120mm (35mm) pro-Nikon lens, and it is really great.

The problem is still, that it don't drop down wide enough through the range. Ho, hum... All this and then the flash fails!

[gzone]

My Lens of choice, and one I still (for that matter the only one I ever owned) is the AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D. From a technical stand point it is the lens used to measure all other focal lengths.

It has least amount of glass between you and the subject; Lens (Elements) 6 in Lens(Groups)5.