What do you do with your 50mm f/1.8 II Lens?

[bostran1]

I've noticed that a lot of people have bought this lens (I assume because of the low price and the wide aperture?). I'm just curious as to when you use it and what sorts of things you shoot with it? I'm thinking of picking one up in the coming months but I want to see how people use before I decide. I generally shoot some portraits, landscapes, sports, etc. (pretty much anything during the daytime and at night).

Thanks.

 

[Master Mason]

I use it for lowlight shots, I have used it at DL for dark rides, and parades, I have used it at home for shots of kids etc.

 

[Steve's Girl]

Oh, lots of great uses for this lens. I use mine for indoor, no flash pictures of my kids

it's great for Spectromagic

lots of fun stuff

Highly recommend this lens. It allows you to get nice closeups of people without being so close to be intimidating.

 

[Furgus]

I use mine all the time. Although mine is a Nikon, but it is pretty much the same. I use it cause it has sweet Bokeh, and is very sharp even wide open. I use it most of the time for low light, and to take pic of my pets.
Very good lens for the money. You can not go wrong with this lens.

BTW here is a pic of my cat taken with this lens, (I know I have posted this all over this board)

 

[handicap18]

I like using it for portraits of the kids and natual light candids indoors. Its also fun to play around with for other low light stuff and works great in Disney for indoor rides and SpectroMagic.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I rarely use mine. It's easily my least use lens (unless you count the 2x teleconverter). I prefer zooms. I tend to shoot longer focal lengths most of the time and a fair amount of shorter ones. I'm not too often in the 65mm equiv range. I have an f/2.8 zoom that covers 24-70mm, so it's only a 1.5 stop advantage for me.

I'm not saying that is a bad lens or that you shouldn't use it. I just wanted to counter the enthusiasm for with the point that not everyone who has one uses it often.

 

[iluvdisnee]

is this a Canon only lens or do they make it for different Brand's? I'm a newbie to the lens thing!

 

[jann1033]

nikon has one and i think pentax as well...i'm with mark though, i rarely use mine although it's nice to have if i need something really low light. for some reason i have a terrible time getting the focus right with it. when i do it's sharp but i just kind of forget it's there mostly. it's relatively inexpensive lens though and sometimes comes as part of a deluxe meal platter in restaurants.

 

[photo_chick]

I love this lens. YOu do have to be right on with the focus with it though. I use it for inddor shots of the kids, cats, DH... whoever will stay still. Also use it for it's shallow depth of field. As others said, it is nice and fast for low light.

This one was late at night, no flash just the overhead light.

 

[bostran1]

Thanks for all the responses. I definitely see the benefits of having one around. I'll need to bring the new camera around a lot and see what I want to do that I'm missing out on. But the performance in low-light is definitely reason to get the lens for me I think. I' may wait and put the money towards a decent zoom or both... haha

 

[Master Mason]

I rarely use mine. It's easily my least use lens (unless you count the 2x teleconverter). I prefer zooms. I tend to shoot longer focal lengths most of the time and a fair amount of shorter ones. I'm not too often in the 65mm equiv range. I have an f/2.8 zoom that covers 24-70mm, so it's only a 1.5 stop advantage for me.

I'm not saying that is a bad lens or that you shouldn't use it. I just wanted to counter the enthusiasm for with the point that not everyone who has one uses it often.

To echo Mark, since I got the 24-70 f/2.8 I haven't used it once either, but if you don't have a lens in that range, it is fantastic for the price.

 

[wdwpluto]

I don't have any IS or L lenses, so I can't speak on that but I think the nifty 50 is way sharper than any of the zooms I have. I use it for anything and everything. However it is kind of a bummer on my xti because of the 1.6 crop factor (which makes it somewhere around an 80mm if my math is right) so that kind of makes it hard to use indoors w/ small spaces unless you reallllly want to fill the frame. But I love it. And for the price, I feel like it can't be beat!

 

[0bli0]

although i don't have the 50 1.8 (my dw does, though), i do use my 50 1.4 quite a bit - even though i have a 24-70 2.8L.

since the 50 1.8 is a prime lens, it's going to be much sharper than most high end zooms. since it's a fast lens (light wise), it will be very useable in low light situations. since it has such a shallow DOF, it is very useable for portraits. and it's a very useable focal length, even on cropped sensors.

 

[Groucho]

I use mine all the time. Although mine is a Nikon, but it is pretty much the same. I use it cause it has sweet Bokeh, and is very sharp even wide open. I use it most of the time for low light, and to take pic of my pets.

The Nikon F1.8 has 7 aperture blades vs the 5 in the Canon F1.8, so you'll probably get better bokeh with the Nikon.

is this a Canon only lens or do they make it for different Brand's? I'm a newbie to the lens thing!

The fast 50mm is one of the most common prime lenses, nearly everyone makes one or has, it was a particularly nice focal length for film cameras. On DSLRs, it's can be a little long long sometimes, but the quality is still there.

Pentax doesn't make a 50mm F1.8, they used to make a 50mm F1.7 (and many other speeds, including a F1.2), currently they only make the 50mm F1.4, which is absolutely wonderful. Canon and Nikon also have 50mm F1.4s which are generally superior optically (and build-wise) to their F1.8s, but at a healthy price premium, hence the popularity of the low-buck-but-still-very-nice F1.8s.

 

[Lachesis00]

Mine isn't the IS, but I love this lens (1.8) I use it all the time. It's my primary probably 50% of the time.

Daddy and Aiden 6.13.07

"Big Brother" (really his cousin-- they are 6 years apart. Andrew WAS the baby LOL.

I want to try my concert photography with this lens too!

 

[dburg30]

I love mine for the price. It's great for low light when you dont want to disturb the surroundings with a flash, also for that blurry background (bokeh) that makes pictures look very nice.

I do see me upgrading to something like the 24-70 2.8, so I get more wide angle. Hmmmm, have to go look into that

The 1.8 is really tough to beat though IMO.

 

[bostran1]

So in the darker rides or indoor pictures do you just open the aperture all the way to 1.8 and fire away?

 

[handicap18]

So in the darker rides or indoor pictures do you just open the aperture all the way to 1.8 and fire away?

Pretty much. Set it to Aperture priority, f/1.8. ISO 1600 and the camera will choose the correct shutter speed. More often than not I got at least a 1/40th shutter. It depends on how much light is available for the particular scene in the ride. PotC is the hardest as it has the least amount of light. Peter Pan is pretty tough too.

Be careful of your focus point. VERY little depth of field with f/1.8.

 

[bostran1]

Yeah, that's what I figured. Lately, I've been taking a lot pictures indoors so a lenses that can open up a little more would be nice.

 

[Lizziejane]

I have a love-hate relationship with my 50mm 1.8 lens. When wide-open, the DOF is very narrow, and I haven't quite figured out the distance to subject to get everything sharply in focus.

I did manage to get these shots over the weekend using the 50mm though, and I'm happy enough with them.