Neat Article about The Forgotten Lens

[dr_zero]

http://www.vothphoto.com/spotlight/articles/forgotten_lens/forgotten-lens.htm
(snippet)
Why You Should Ditch That Zoom for a Classic 50mm "Normal" Lens

So there you are, the proud parents of a beautiful new baby, and you can hardly contain your excitement as you unwrap that new 35mm camera kit you bought to document your child's early years. Although you've had a point-and-shoot camera for a while, you wanted to step up to a "real" camera for the kind of quality pictures you see in the popular media and in the camera maker's brochures. You fumble a little as you mount the 28-80 zoom lens and load the film, but pretty soon everything is ready to go.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Good article. (I would ask that you post it on The Learning Curve thread and I'll add it to the lens section, that way we can keep all the info in one place. Thanks.)

I just purchased my first prime lens and can't wait to try it out.

 

[dr_zero]

Good article. (I would ask that you post it on The Learning Curve thread and I'll add it to the lens section, that way we can keep all the info in one place. Thanks.)

I just purchased my first prime lens and can't wait to try it out.

You got it!

Done!

 

[Furgus]

I have yet to take one photo of my daughter with my 50....I think that may change tomorrow....nice article

 

[Groucho]

Whoever called a fast 50mm lens "forgotten" hasn't hung around here very much - they collectively easily get more recommendations that any others.

 

[Jeanne B]

Whoever called a fast 50mm lens "forgotten" hasn't hung around here very much - they collectively easily get more recommendations that any others.

So true!!

 

[0bli0]

so true! the fast 50s are recommended for pretty much all flavours of camera around here. the manufacturers really should make some better fast 35mm as it's a closer 'normal' perspective on cropped sensor bodies than 50mm. i use primes far more than zooms for day-to-day shooting. most days i have my leicas and 2 or 3 lenses total for the two bodies.

 

[DueyDooDah]

...the manufacturers really should make some better fast 35mm as it's a closer 'normal' perspective on cropped sensor bodies than 50mm...

So true. After reading the article, I started looking for 35mm offerings, and they pretty much suck. Either they have dust issues, cost a fortune or are non-existant (Canon mounts) - depending on vendor.

 

[dr_zero]

Yes I have seen the 50mm recommended here quite a bit in my short time over here.

The fellow in the article really put's it into perspective I think many can relate to and that is why I really liked it, they should make stuff like this mandatory reading for new camera buyers.

I remember as a kid dad talking about the Porsche school and before you could buy certain model you had to take a class in how to handle it since it was not like your average car. Same thing would be nice if it was offered when you buy a camera like a free class in the basics or even a online class.

With so many people who would have never touched a SLR getting a DLSR there are lots of cameras that will never even be used for anything close to their potential.

 

[Groucho]

So true. After reading the article, I started looking for 35mm offerings, and they pretty much suck. Either they have dust issues, cost a fortune or are non-existant (Canon mounts) - depending on vendor.

I thought most OEM 35mm F2.0 lenses are pretty well regarded. Certainly brief glances at Canon's 35mm F2.0 are pretty decent and it's cheap, too.

35mm on a Canon works out to 56mm... Sigma's 30mm F1.4 is equivalent to 48mm on a Canon 1.6-crop sensor... that's pretty darn close, and there are several happy owners here, and it's available for all five major mounts. But I think the article's point is more about the benefits of a very fast prime, less than exactly 50mm.

Other than that, there isn't much at that length... IIRC, Olympus does have a 25mm that equals 50mm on their 2x sensor but it's only F2.8, and Pentax has a 30mm DA* lens in the pipeline. They've been replacing full-frame lenses with 1.5 equivalents so that'll be the 50mm F1.4 equivalent - being a DA*, it'll have SDM focusing and probably weathersealing, speed is unknown but hopefully F1.4, unlikely to be slower than F1.8, and they already have the 31mm F1.8. The rest seem to be jump from 35mm (cheap F2.0s or superpricey F1.4s) to 28mm F2.8s.

For better or for worst, I think most manufacturers put most of their effort into zooms. Without doing too extensive research, most of the few primes being released or updated by the OEMs in the past couple years have been very high-end ones - probably makes sense from a business perspective, certainly zooms are the big sellers... and Canon and Nikon will be happy to sell you a full-frame DSLR if you want your 50mm to be equivalent to 50mm.

 

[Scott_Sheppard]

My #1 used lens...

Canon EOS 50mm f1.2L

Go look what Jay Maisel uses...

http://www.jaymaisel.com/

I have NEVER seen him without a 50mm lens on his Nikon

Enjoy !!

 

[thomas998]

I think part of the reason the manufacturers seem to push the all purpose zooms is because they don't want us swapping lenses all the time with primes... mostly because they know that dust is a sensors enemy and every time we swap lenses we are probably letting in lett dust demons... I know I try to swap lens less on my digital than I do on my film camera for that reason. When I'm outside I try not to swap at all...

 

[Miqee]

I love my nifty fifty - only problem i have now is that its like a pimple on my D3.

 

[pjacobi]

http://www.vothphoto.com/spotlight/articles/forgotten_lens/forgotten-lens.htm

Most of the example photos in the article show little subject movement. These photos could be easily taken with a zoom lens with IS. Even though the zoom IS lens may be limited to f/4, IS will allow +2 or +3 stops of lower shutter speed without camera shake. This will allow the IS zoom lens to get the shot under the same light conditions as the faster lens. The higher aperture of the zoom lens with also give the photo a greater DOF.

A fast lens is useful when you need a low DOF or high shutter speed to freeze subject movement. This cannot be duplicated on an IS zoom lens.


-Paul

 

[Anewman]

I always remember to pack my forgotten lens.

 

[orchjoe]

Heck I even forgot I live in a 50mm kind of world.

 

[handicap18]

I love my nifty fifty - only problem i have now is that its like a pimple on my D3.

LOL. Yeah, even on my D50 it looks kind of small. I can only imagine how tiny it looks on a D3 or even on a Canon 1Ds Mark III. Those are some seriously large bodies and the 50mm is a itty bitty lens.

I think Genie said it best..... "Phenomenal Cosmic POWER.................. itty bitty living space"

I always remember to pack my forgotten lens.

I usually just put mine in my pocket. Its really not much bigger than my wallet and it fits nicely in the oversized pockets on my shorts.