7 Reasons why all photographers should learn using a 50mm lens
- Thread starter hirenpatel85
- Start date
Thanks for posting. I read this in a number of places, but also often see comment that, with an APS-C camera like mine, a 35mm lens is the better option as it is equivalent to a 50mm for a FF camera. I've bought a 35mm, which I'm finding a joy to use. Welcome comment from others on the need for a 50mm as well.
RockyNH_RIP
Senior Member
Nice Read.... Thanks for sharing...
Pat in NH
Pat in NH
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Whether a 50mm, 35mm, 85mm or any other fixed length lens, learning to shoot with a single Prime lens is essential to developing your eye as a photographer. Zooms can be a crutch (that I will lean on often) as they allow you to find the photo in a given area and bring it to you, rather than hunting for the photo and then going and getting it. Even if you've learned how to work with a single lens it doesn't hurt to go back and do it again. I've seen blogs from experienced photographers where they take a single camera and fixed lens and shoot with nothing but that for a year. I imagine that you'd struggle at first, but keeping with it I think you can do nothing but become a better photographer. I'd love to try it, but I also know that I'd cave when I'm presented with that once in a lifetime opportunity to visit somewhere in the middle of it. That said, I'd benefit from making a 50mm my one and only "walk-around" lens for, say, 3-6 months. I might just need to do that.
suggest you have to do one year, one camera, one lens.....and NO cropping.
Exactly. This is the point behind it. I like using only my 50 sometimes, just did that Saturday evening
Tapp'n on the go
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
I make it a point to revisit my primes regularly and to that end will leave my 35mm on for a week or two at a time. I don't know that going a full year is required to get the benefit, but then too I'm sure if I could commit to a full year I'd be nothing but a better photographer for it. I have found that surrendering my zooms is a bit like going to the dentist; the anticipation can be the worst part of the whole thing. After a while I quit thinking about zooming altogether and moving becomes second nature.
This also helps keep the NAS under control because when I go back to my 18-105mm I feel spoiled.
This also helps keep the NAS under control because when I go back to my 18-105mm I feel spoiled.
RockyNH_RIP
Senior Member
I will also use the 50 for 1 day... all shots, then another day it will be the 35... It is challenging but helpful.
I tend to do it just a day at a time...
Pat in NH
I tend to do it just a day at a time...
Pat in NH
Yes, that is of course correct. This article must not know that. It mentions:
5: Perspective: The angle of view of a normal 50mm lens comes close to that of the human perspective .This can give a natural look for a number of types of photography.
Which was considered true for 35mm film size since about 1925. It is written in stone somewhere. It is not perspective however, perspective depends on where we stand. It is about angle of view, matching what we thought our human eye saw there.
However, DX cameras have a smaller sensor, with a smaller cropped angle of view. About 30mm would be considered "normal" view for them. For DX, 50mm view would be equivalent of a FX 75mm telephoto view.
Of course, we use zooms to get other angles of view.
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Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Am I missing something? I'm finally breaking down and asking because I've never understood how the FOV of any lens -- be it 35mm, 50mm or 400mm -- on a camera I'm *not* using is in any way relevant to what that same lens, or focal length, does on the camera I *am* using? It seems to me I may as well ponder the melting point of aluminum or the outrageous price of name-brand laundry detergent because both of those things have about as much relevance as far as I can tell. 50mm on my DX sensor is 50mm on my DX sensor; regardless of how 50mm looks on an FX sensor.
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not sure if I would advocate a whole year that is a lot of time, and well, a bit to restrictive, because in my view, it would effect the type of perspective I want to get some time with the relationship of the foreground and background perspective. I agree with the prime and thinking the composition, but,,
sometime you just can't back up,, and nice to zoom back,, if you don't have time to switch lens.
and well,, on the zero cropping,, ouch,,, with today's high resolution cameras, having a bit of wiggle room is priceless. sometimes a bit of shift can be priceless.
so.. sure, a great learning exercise, but,, all in good balance..
my favorite primes
laughs,, all of them...
but.
15mm 3.5, 20 3.5, 50mm (any of them),, 85 1.4, 105 macro (lovely), 100mm e (super small), and 180 . oh and the super compact 200 mm F4.
my last class, I only brought manual primes for the shoot,
but my last weekend shoot
2 primes and then a trio of zooms
sometime you just can't back up,, and nice to zoom back,, if you don't have time to switch lens.
and well,, on the zero cropping,, ouch,,, with today's high resolution cameras, having a bit of wiggle room is priceless. sometimes a bit of shift can be priceless.
so.. sure, a great learning exercise, but,, all in good balance..
my favorite primes
laughs,, all of them...
but.
15mm 3.5, 20 3.5, 50mm (any of them),, 85 1.4, 105 macro (lovely), 100mm e (super small), and 180 . oh and the super compact 200 mm F4.
my last class, I only brought manual primes for the shoot,
but my last weekend shoot
2 primes and then a trio of zooms
No, it won't help at all if you are beginner, and never saw anything but DX.
But if you grew up with 35 mm film, you know all about how much which lenses will show.
Equivalent views to compare FX to this new DX size is extremely useful. How much will a 50 mm lens show on DX? The same view as 75mm lens on FX is very much to know. 35mm film size was in wide use for 75 years, and old dogs and tricks, you know? The relatively new FX cameras are like old home week now, they work as they should.
The views are quite different. The DX field of view very definitely is 2/3 of a FX view, or the same view as FX with a lens 1.5x longer.
If that comparison helps you to plan it, you will bless knowing this.
If you don't know and don't care, it won't.
But when articles speak of the advantages of old classic 50mm and 105mm film lenses, and you use DX, then it helps to know a thing or two about converting the principles.
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Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
I did...
To me, this a classic example of Over Thinking It.
Okay, I understand someone getting used to one way of doing something, but times change and my understanding of how things work change as well. DX camera's might, to you, NOT "work as they should" because you're stuck in 35mm film mode; for me, DX cameras work exactly as they should because they're DX cameras. Do micro-four-thirds cameras also not "work as they should"? This concept confuses me because it only holds water as long as you compare old to new. One is not "correct" and the other "incorrect"; they are simply different.35mm film size was in wide use for 75 years, and old dogs and tricks, you know? The relatively new FX cameras are like old home week now, they work as they should.
I fully understand the difference and do not dispute it. I simply fail to see the relevance.
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Newbie question - tolerance please.
Is setting my kit lens at 50mm the same thing?
I seem to understand that it is from what I have read and I think it was Horoscope Fish who suggested setting it at 35mm for one week and leaving it there and then switching to 50 (or was it 55) for a week to see what I am more comfortable with.
Oh and like Fish I don't want to over think things ever. It is what it is or they are what they are.
Is setting my kit lens at 50mm the same thing?
I seem to understand that it is from what I have read and I think it was Horoscope Fish who suggested setting it at 35mm for one week and leaving it there and then switching to 50 (or was it 55) for a week to see what I am more comfortable with.
Oh and like Fish I don't want to over think things ever. It is what it is or they are what they are.
You should ignore it then, if it won't help you.
But every lens made for 4/3, for compact, for DX, etc, all show equivalent FX focal length (which is about field of view). The popular notion is that one standard is useful to compare the different views they will show. FX is the one anyone with experience already knows about.
How else could we explain to DX novices that the article about classic 50mm really means 30mm for them? Or that classic 105mm really means 70 mm for them?
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Same thing as what? Zoom at 50mm is same view as a fixed 50mm lens. (it may not be f/1.8 though).
On DX, 50 mm will be a more narrow telephoto view than what FX or 35mm film would see with the same lens (equivalent to their 75 mm lens).
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Useful how?
Maybe if you could cite one real-world, truly practical, example where this difference is *actually* relevant?
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