Best Lens for the Rides?

[OneDisney]

What's the best lens for taking pictures on the rides? I'm talking about the dark rides such as Splash Mountain, PotC, etc. I'd assume one with a low aperture so it could take fast photos.

 

[El Nebuloso]

For short money and great low light performance you would be hard pressed to find anything betther than a 50 mm f1.8.

 

[mike_r]

What kind of camera are you using?

 

[Master Mason]

I have done pretty well with my 24-70 f/2.8

 

[ukcatfan]

For short money and great low light performance you would be hard pressed to find anything betther than a 50 mm f1.8.

I have had decent luck with my Pentax 50mm f/1.4, but there are times I wish it was wider. That usually means much more $$$ though.

Kevin

 

[MarkBarbieri]

You want a "fast" lens. That's a lens with a wide aperture (low f-stop). The cheapest of those are prime (non-zooming) lenses. The cheapest of those are 59mm lenses. You can get f/1.8, f.1.4, f/1.2, and even f/1.0 versions. The lower the number, the more light the lens will gather. The price rises exponentially as well.

 

[rtphokie]

For short money and great low light performance you would be hard pressed to find anything betther than a 50 mm f1.8.

Gotta agree with El Nebuloso here. Setting the aperture wide open on a dark ride with a prime lens like a 50mm lets you focus on getting the shot and not worrying to much about framing it (you can crop later).

 

[OneDisney]

What kind of camera are you using?

Nikon(D80).

You want a "fast" lens. That's a lens with a wide aperture (low f-stop). The cheapest of those are prime (non-zooming) lenses. The cheapest of those are 59mm lenses. You can get f/1.8, f.1.4, f/1.2, and even f/1.0 versions. The lower the number, the more light the lens will gather. The price rises exponentially as well.

Well I've seen a lot of people recommend the 50mm so that one sounds pretty good. I assume you meant to type 50mm instead of 59mm?

 

[rtphokie]

Nikon(D80).
Well I've seen a lot of people recommend the 50mm so that one sounds pretty good. I assume you meant to type 50mm instead of 59mm?

50mm or 59mm it doesn't really matter that much. The important part on a dark ride is to use as low of an f stop as possible to gather as much light as possible. The 50mm lenses offer the lowest f stop for the money. You'll also want to crank up the ISO on your camera as high as possible to gather as much light as possible. Any noise produced can be removed with something like Imagenomic's Noiseware Community Edition (free). Experiment in very dimly lit room at home first to see how high of an ISO setting you can get away with and still get some detail to the photos.

50mm lenses used to be the ones that came standard on new SLR cameras, it was the kit lens of the day. It's a great lens to learn with because it keeps you from worrying about zooming in on the subject and forces you to think more about the composition of the shot (at least that was what I've always been told). When I took photos for my college newspaper, the photo editor wouldn't allow any new photographer to use anything but a 50mm lens for the first few months.

 

[Groucho]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Mark meant 50mm. I am not aware of any 59mm lenses, though some certainly may exist.

If you want something wider, C/N/P have 35mm F2.0s that are all supposed to be pretty good, and not too terribly expensive (pretty similar to C/N's 50mm F1.4s, I think), and only a tad slower than a 50mm F1.8.

Sigma also has a 30mm F1.4 and a 28mm, 24mm, and 20mm in F1.8.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Mark meant 50mm. I am not aware of any 59mm lenses, though some certainly may exist.

Sorry. I'm still struggling with my metric conversions. I'm talking about 1.97inch lenses, which is the same as 50mm lens. I got my math wrong and ended up with 59mm somehow. Or maybe it was just a typo. I can't recall.

They're the most common prime lenses. They make them by the bushel or hectoliter or whatever.

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

I just purchased a 50mm f1.8 and I am very impressed with it. I can't wait to use it at WDW this summer.

 

[Mousenut8]

Sigma 20mm f/1.8 and high ISO speeds.

 

[DVCRon]

Take a look at the focal length you use more often by going through some of your prior photos. That will tell you what focal length you need, 28, 35, 50mm etc. Althought fast primes are great in low light, you will still need relatively fast shutter speeds if you want to freeze the action of a ride.