The Best Prime Lens For Nikon D5200 Cameras!

After seeing a few people reaching out for advice on what the best prime lens for Nikon d5200 cameras is, we decided to focus today’s article on that very subject. Now, rather than focusing on one single prime lens, we decided to focus on two. One with a wide angle focal length and one with a portrait focal length.

Both of these lenses are excellent little prime lenses that are fully compatible with your d5200. Additionally, we will be sharing a number of example photographs captured using each of the lenses throughout the article to show you the type of image quality that they can provide you in a range of different situations.

Click Here To Check For Prices On High-Quality, Budget Friendly Prime Lenses For Your d5200!

Table of Contents

The Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Ultra Wide Angle (Wide Angle)

When it comes to wide angle lenses, there should be no surprise that we feel that the best prime lens for Nikon d5200 cameras is the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 (Click here to check for product prices and availability). We really are massive fans of this lens and if you are one of our regular readers you could probably predict that this was going to be our recommendation before even reading the article.

The Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 has some of the best performance and features available at its price point while also offering some great functionality as well as coming with a solid build quality too at a very low price tag when you consider what you are actually getting. This has made the lens very popular with it earning a ton of reviews (click here to read some of them) for its customer base going over their own thoughts and experiences with the lens.

We absolutely love this landscape photograph captured using the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens showing the type of image it can provide for your Nikon d5200.

The lens comes with a high-quality metal mount that will attach to the mount on your Nikon d5200 seamlessly providing a solid seal to keep your image quality as high as possible. We know that some third-party lenses sometimes don’t fit your lens mount perfectly but in our experience, this is not an issue with Rokinon and their Nikon, Canon, and Sony variants all fit their respective lens mounts perfectly as if it was a same brand lens.

Now just quickly with us touching on the Canon and Sony variants of the lens. If you are planning to pick the lens up from your local photography or second-hand store you have to make sure that you are getting the Nikon variant as not surprisingly, the Canon and Sony variants will not mount to your d5200! Thankfully, the links on this page including this one will take you to the Nikon variant that is the one you need.

One of our favourite Astrophotography photographs captured with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. We feel that it does an excellent job of showing the type of low light or nighttime photograph the lens can provide. — One of our favorite Astrophotography photographs captured with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. We feel that it does an excellent job of showing the type of low light or nighttime photograph the lens can provide.

Being a prime lens based around the 14mm focal length the lens is perfect for landscape photographs and its f/2.8 aperture is perfect for low light and nighttime photography too as shown in the images above and below. This ensures that you are getting the best possible image quality no matter the lighting conditions that can be the downfall of many competing prime lenses.

A beautiful low light landscape photo captured with the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 showing off the level of performance it offers.

If you are wanting an excellent budget friendly wide angle lens for your Nikon d5200 then we would highly recommend that you pick up the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. The example photographs above do a great job of showing what it is able to do for you and its reputation is excellent amongst the community making it the obvious choice.

Click Here To Read Independent Third Party Reviews Of This Product!

Click Here To Check For Prices On This Product!

The video below offers an additional third-party, independent review for the Rokinon 14mm to offer our readers an independent opinion of the product. The lens that is reviewed in the lens is under the Samyang regional branding rather than the Rokinon branding but it is the exact same lens.

The Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G Lens (Portrait)

If portrait photography is more your thing then we would say that the best prime lens for your Nikon d5200 is the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G Lens (Click here to check for product prices and availability). It is without a doubt one of the most popular 35mm prime lenses on the market with a massive customer base of photographers who seem to love it. Over the years the lens has literally managed to earn itself thousands of reviews (click here to read some of them) online from its customers ranting and raving about how good the lens is.

A great little portrait photograph captured with the Nikon 35mm lens showing exactly what it can provide your Nikon d5200.

Being a prime lens based around the 35mm focal length the lens is perfect for portrait style photography as well as for use in a number of other popular photography niches too. The manual focus on the lens is really easy to use too allowing you to easily tweak your focus to exactly what you need without wasting yours or your subjects time.

As you can see from the example photographs captured using the Nikon 35mm lens in this section of the article, it offers some excellent image quality for your Nikon d5200 while coming with a very low price tag almost making the lens underpriced considering the amount of performance and features it provides for you. The low light performance of the lens is also excellent as shown in the photograph below helping to keep it ahead of the competing lenses at this price point and focal length too.

A low light action/sports photograph captured using the Nikon 35mm highlighting its performance in both low light as well as what it offers for a moving subject.

If you are wanting to get yourself a great little portrait prime lens for your Nikon d5200 then the Nikon 35mm would definitely be our recommendation. We feel that it is going to be able to meet the needs of the vast majority of our readers while also having the build quality to last them for years without you having to break the bank to pick it up.

Click Here To Read Independent Third Party Reviews Of This Product!

Click Here To Check For Prices On This Product!

The video below offers an additional third-party, independent review for the Nikon 35mm to offer our readers an independent opinion of the product.