Tried a 50mm lens

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stamatisg2002

Senior Member
A few days ago a friend pro photographer gave me for a few days to try an old 50mm/1:1.8 Series E Nikon lens. Man, this glass is really sharp! And lacking AF and light metering is really difficult to get any good photos (as a newbie that I am!)!. This is the only decent good photo I managed to get but I'll try more!

leaves_sm.jpg
 
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evan

Banned
if you like the focal length, go for the 50mm f1.8 af-d. razor sharp and insanely cheap. works great with the raynox dcr250 too if you want to do macro.
 
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Eye-level

Banned
If you had a light meter you'd be better off than not. It is a sublime dirt cheap lens... :)

That picture is good just underexposed...keep snapping with that lens I think you will discover that you like it...

I just shot the last of a roll today using the 50 1.8 E...I'll get it processed tomorrow and throw up some pics for you...
 
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EttVenter

EttVenter

Senior Member
As far as I'm concerned, every photographer needs a 50mm lens. Most start off with something like the 1.8D, and that's a great start. You'll eventually find that it's not up to your standards, though. I've still got mine, and I don't like shooting below f/2.8 on this lens, as it's just not as sharp as I'd like when it's that wide open. So I'll be buying another one soon, but this time I'm going for Sigma's f/1.4. Apparently that lens is remarkable, even wide open.
 
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Lee

Senior Member
I bought the 50 mm F1.8D at the end of last year and really like it. I hear what EttVenter is saying about it losing sharpness below F2.8 and also noticed this, although until I read your post I put it down to me being a newbie. However I have no regrets. It is a great little lens and was very affordable. One of the advantages of me having purchased this is getting a practical understanding from experience of how valuable it is to know the limitations of a lens. I have found the 'softer' side of the focus wide open has its merits for certain situations where I have had a lot of fun playing with that effect so I guess it can be both an asset and a drawback, depending on the situation.
 
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Eye-level

Banned
And now we are getting at something I always preach about shooting wide open...very very few lenses shoot great across the whole range of f stops...most of them you'll have light fall off in the corners and soft resolution. This is why I always shoot at 2.8, 4, or 5.6 (you can still get OOF and bokeh with 5.6) and rarely wide open.
 
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Eye-level

Banned
Oh you should be busting off actuations like crazy...I'd shoot that sucker at every fstop it had until I found the sweet spot...you can zone focus it too remember!
 
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EttVenter

EttVenter

Senior Member
The 50mm f/1.8D's sweet spot is usually around f/4. It'll be acceptably sharp at 2.8, but at f/4 it's golden. So try shooting at ISO200 (or even 100), f/4, and whatever shutter speed you need to correctly expose.
 
Pierro

Pierro

Senior Member
I forgot I already had some @ f2.... Shot 1, my pal Rob with his YZ490. Then we spun the bike round - 1st shot is a 100 crop, with zero processing. Just RAW to .JPG for posting, then the full shot, processed and resized for posting

I think the 50 1.8 AF-D is a beaut at F2

EXIFs intact

kl9b8myb11.jpg


uoyurbnqe4.jpg


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Eye-level

Banned
Pete that looks like a 84 model...most folks don't know what exactly that bike is all about. My dad had a yellow 83 model is similiar condition up until about two years ago when someone broke into his garage and stole it. In a flat out drag race on dirt those old 490's will run off from EVERYTHING old or new...they are superman fast!

BTW...that is pretty darn sharp... :)
 
Pierro

Pierro

Senior Member
Yup - bang on the nail, an 84. Its an animal :cool: Rob asked me to take some snaps because he's selling it. Poor old duffer ...when its gone he'll be down to 11 bikes ( I kid you not )

Thats not bad for a $100 lens .. I'm guessing at the £ - $ exchange. It was £70 here
 
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bobmielke

New member
Since I moved to digital photography from the world of 35mm film I've always own a 50mm prime lens. They used to the standar lens for every SLR. I purchased the Nikkor 50mm F/1.4G for a variety of reasons that include video and low light performance. It's also ideal to learn about bokeh in your photos. It's an extremely sharp but definitely not recommended for close-up portraits as all 50mm lenses suffer from barrel distortion that is unflattering in cluse-up portraits. Examples below:

Caracal-5-XL.jpg


Tiger-08-L.jpg
 
Pierro

Pierro

Senior Member
Beautiful shots Mike - that Tiger especially

Have you any samples of what 50mm lens barrel distortion looks like - i havent come across this myself
 
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bobmielke

New member
Pierro said:
Beautiful shots Mike - that Tiger especially

Have you any samples of what 50mm lens barrel distortion looks like - i havent come across this myself
Click to expand...

Since I'm careful not to use the lens for that purpose I have no personal examples. You can easily Google the problem and get lots of feedback on the subject. I watched an entire hour long discussion on one of Scott Kelby's "The Grid" broadcasts when a really top portrait photographer gave that tip to Scott and other professionals at one of his seminars. The actual subject for that Grid show was, why photographers can't grow in their photography? Part of the answer is that they will argue about tips from top professionals that know what they're talking about. I use an 85mm for close-ups.
 
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