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[ESzczesniak]

I am a relative novice and looking for help selecting my first non-kit lens.  I have a D7500 with both the 18-55 mm and 70-300 mm AF-S VR lenses.  While the camera is a "family" camera for general purpose, I primarily use this for photography aircraft at airshows and photographing scale model aircraft I build.  The 70-300 mm lens from the kit works fairly well for airshows, but I've been thinking about getting a new lens for photography model aircraft.  These in are typically about 15" in size and 18-24" from the camera, although sometimes close detail shots from closer range are desirable.  I have a light/photo tent that I use for these photos.  I find I typically take pictures around 30-40 mm focal lengths on the 18-55 mm lens.

 

I think the Nikon AF-S 40 mm f/2.8 micro lens is more likely what I'm looking for.  However, most of my work won't be true macro, but a large object at 18-24".  It seems that this lens will work well throughout the range.  I do not need a faster lens, as typically, DOF is limiting here and I'm usually shooting with f/11 or f/16.  The difference between the f/2.8 and f/1.8 on the next lens I do not think would be valuable. 

 

However, because I may not be doing much true macro, I thought about the Nikon AF-S 50 mm f/1.8 lens.  It is likely a more versatile lens.  However, purely by focal length, it seems these two lens should be similar.

 

Could anyone help me understand what differences I would expect to see between these two lens with fairly similar focal lengths and minimum apertures?  And which one they'd recommend for what I'm looking for?  And beyond that, what makes it better to use these than the 18-55 mm kit lens that comes with the camera?...everything seems to suggest they'd be preferred, but I'm not sure why.