Vacation Pictures

We are getting ready to go on a vacation overseas. I have both the standard 18-55mm lenses that came with the camera and a Nikkor 50mm AF-S 1:1:8G lenses. My question is what would be the best lenses to use at night inside a cruise ship and at what settings. Also which lenses at night and setting for outside building pictures.

well, the 50mm will definitely be better for inside since you get get a much higher aperture than the kit lens. To put it simply, it will allow more light to enter the camera and the shutter speed to be higher. Put the camera in A mode and dial the aperture to a low number. The camera will take care of shutter speed and ISO. I would experiment a bit with that to get the best results. It sounds like you may need to use the flash in some cases though.

Depending on the buildings you're taking pics of I would want something wide like the the kit lens at 18mm. I've found with traveling and taking pics of building the wider the better. See my blog on here for some examples (link under my username).

Your 50mm is going to allow more light in, so you can shoot at lower ISO and/or faster shutter speed without flash, so it would likely serve you better in both the indoor and night situations. If you can manage to bring a small tripod to help with the night photos of buildings that would allow you the most flexibility to capture what you have in front of you, and keep you from having to raise the ISO too high. The 50mm alone may not be wide enough to get some of what you want when you are out in the streets so if you can only take one lens on a walkabout I'd go with the 18-55mm. Wide open at 18mm will still give you decent light, and again, if you have a tripod you're golden.

I'd vote for a 35 1.8. Light fast and sharp. Even if it's not as wide as a real wide angle, it can get the picture.

For indoor and night shots, I love my Sigma 17-70mm/2.8-4. Its kind of heavy and bulk, but it shoots great low light photos and is easier to shoot with than a 35mm prime. The placement of the focus ring takes getting used to though.

Don't over encumber yourself. Keep it simple. During the day use the zoom lens. Only at night and on the boat do you need the 50. So when you go on excursions take the zoom when you come back to the boat change to the 50.