Ahhhhh, the beauty of the wide open aperture and a fixed focal length. Its a wonderful thing lost in the mire of handy (but often not that good) 28-80mmm f3.5 to f5.6 give away lenses.

I find a fixed focal length lens not only gives much better sharper results but makes you work that little bit harder for the shot.

I guess people buy the 50mm 1.8 II for reasons of cost, Ä100,00 or so, and the quality is good for the money.
For me the 28mm focuses alot faster for biking shots and the small dof from the 1.8 is not an issue.

If you are looking to buy a lens, I suggest you think about the type of pictures you are going to take and but the appropriate lens.

Read some of the reviews here.

This place has some good reviews and a forum which seems OK.

More reviews here.

dpreview seems to have its fair share of fans.

Good luck and keep taking pictures…

had a read about 50s and crop factor, so in theory a 28/30 might be nicer but in reality most folk use 50?

The 80/85mm lens was the one to have for portraits hence the lust for the 50mm on APS (pretty close at 75mm equivilent).

I’ve got a 28mm. More generally useful but I’ve got zooms for “generally useful” so doesn’t get used as much as the more specialised 50.

i shall keep reading (and taking pictures) cheers for the links
here are some pics from this evening, I don’t think they’re too bad given manual focus and the drink 🙂