Guan Yang Team 23

great buy! congratulations

No, the new 35mm f/1.8. It's DX, but covers >90% of FX.

(When is the last time Nikon released a 50/2.0?)

On a DX format (1.5x crop factor) Nikon digital body like mine, it covers the same field of view as a 53mm lens would do on 35mm or FX, so you could use it as a cheap prime lens for walking around, like people might have done with the 50/1.8.

This is a cheap and light lens and might be seen as the 50/1.8's successor, but it still costs twice as much as a 50/1.8. It weighs nothing, like the 50/1.8, but it is physically larger; the 50/1.8 takes up no space.

Another problem is that Nikon's cheapest DSLR, the D40, is only sold with a kit lens, so there are limits to how cheaply you could get started with digital photography in this way.

A lot of people prefer the 35mm focal length (on FX, about 24mm on DX) for ordinary street photography.

It would probably be a good choice for head-and-torso portraits. Or you should just find a cheapass medium format camera for that. I would use my 105mm Micro-Nikkor (or the long end of my 18-200) for a headshot, and my 28mm AI-s for an environmental portrait.