Nikkor 50mm Vs 50mm ...

Recently I am searching for a high speed lens for my Nikon D200 camera, and had looked at options like the Tamron 17-50 mm F2.8, Nikon 50mm F1.4, Sigma 30mm F1.4, etc. And recently when I visited Nikon's website, I found a new variant of Nikon 50 mm F1.4, which is costing atleast twice as much as its older counter part.

I will have to look into the details, .... As for now, I am zeroing in on the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8. Recently one of my friend wrote the following about the lens

"I have been using Tamron 17-50mm for almost two years now and it is one damn good general purpose lens other than my nikon 50mm f1.8.

As far as image quality goes, It is a fantastic lens... may be pretty close to Nikon 17-55 at one third of the price. You will not regret spending on this lens.

But, the built quality is not something to boost about, i do take extra care about my equipments - but two years of travel and use (not very extensive -no time for that!!) clearly shows up on the lens. There are no marks or dings on the body, but you can hear & feel the front element and lens barrels shaking. But, i guess we can ignore it for what it gives in terms of flexibility and the quality of images!! And it comes with 5 years warranty (in US), that i think a reasonable deal.

AF is bit slow if you compare to nikon AF-S lenses, but pretty acceptable since the zoom range is small."

You can see some of his wonderful photos in flickr and picasa.