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Archive 2014 · Best prime around 50mm

  
 
StillFingerz
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Best prime around 50mm


thomashammer78 wrote:
Thanks for input, it would be my prime lens at portraits and potentially weddings down the road


IF you enjoy primes I'd suggest the EF 85 f1.8, it is fast and sharp, a gem of a lens, not unlike the 100 f2...both stellar, inexpensive and wonderful. The 100 has metal filter threads, the 85's are plastic...



Feb 15, 2014 at 04:56 PM
johnctharp
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Best prime around 50mm


Roy Morales wrote:
My 1.4 misses focus more than it hits it @ 1.4 . My 1.8 is slower is AF @ 1.8 , hits the focus more but it is also a mk 1 .
I just use the 17-55 now , missed focus on the 1.4 can upset me . The 1.4 SEEMED better on the / my XTI but I did not use it much at 1.4 .
From what I have read the Sigma has same problems . Which ever you get shoot it at 1.4 a bunch - give yourself time to take it back .
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Neither 50 worked very well on my T1i or 60D- but both the f/1.4 and f/1.8 work fairly well on the 6D.

Main reason to get the 50/1.4 over the 50/1.8- ergonomics, with full time manual focusing, a rounded aperture instead of a five-bladed aperture that produces pentagons all over your image, and that the 50/1.4 is Canon's sharpest 50 stopped down, barring the archaic half-macro 50/2.5 which has worse ergonomics than the 50/1.8 II.

Note that there is currently only one fast autofocus normal prime that's sharp wide open, and that's Sony's recently released and Zeiss branded FE 1.8/55, and it costs almost as much as a 50L. There's also only one fast normal prime that's sharp wide-open on any other DSLR mount- and that's the Zeiss Otus 1.4/55, that's manual focus only.

And the 40/2.8 is a completely different lens. As a pancake, it doesn't really get sharper when stopped down, and the vignetting doesn't dissipate- it shares these aspects with Canon's other pancake, the EF-M 22/2. I own both, and neither are substitutes for a fast normal prime.



Feb 16, 2014 at 03:53 AM
kevindar
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Best prime around 50mm


John, I guess sharp wide open is a subjective matter. sharp wide open means it reaches its maximum sharpness wide open? or that by general measure of what is considered good resolution on a sensor, the lens achieves it? are you talking corner to corner sharpness which is generally inconsequential for a fast prime, unless you are shooting flat subjects at f 1.4.
For example, canon/sigma 35 1.4, canon 85 1.2, canon 24 1.4, all are very fast primes that have excellent sharpness wide open by most peoples definition and requirements.



Feb 16, 2014 at 11:18 AM
ebiggs
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Best prime around 50mm


Also depend whether it is on a 1.6 or a FF.


Feb 16, 2014 at 11:24 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Best prime around 50mm


thomashammer78 wrote:
What is the best prime lens for around $3-400

Is the Canon F 1.4 the way to go? or does Sigma and Tamron have lenses that is as good?


Frankly, I wouldn't overthink this. If you can afford the Canon f/1.4, it is fine - optically great and not remotely the build problem that you would imagine it to have from reading forums. If you want to save some money you could get the f/1.8.

As always, it is worth asking "why a 50mm prime?" If you have a lot of photography experience yourself, and your decision to get such a lens is based on your seasoned assessment of your needs based on your prior work... well, go for it.

On the other hand, if you are getting this because you read somewhere that every photographer should start out with a 50mm prime or that primes are better than zooms or some combination of such things and you are relatively new to this business... wait. While there are some reasons to have such a lens, most photographers today do not need one and will find out that they use it far less than their zoom lenses that cover this focal length range.

(That previous paragraph is even more to the point if you happen to use a cropped sensor camera and think you are getting a "normal" 50mm prime lens and its old-school functionality. You aren't. An article here: http://www.gdanmitchell.com/2012/07/20/new-dlsr-you-do-not-need-a-50mm-prime)

Dan



Feb 16, 2014 at 11:28 AM
splathrop
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · Best prime around 50mm


Two non-50mm possibilities:

Canon 40mm pancake. I have never tried this one, but the pictures online look good, and lots of users like it.

Sigma 70mm macro f/2.8. This is sort of a lesser-known gem. I have used it, and found it impressively sharp with good contrast. Outstanding image quality, actually. Drawback is slow focusing, but I found it acceptable for any non-moving subject. Also some noise when focusing.



Feb 16, 2014 at 02:18 PM
kezeka
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · Best prime around 50mm



johnctharp wrote:


Hahahaha what? Have you been drinking the dxo kool aid? There are plenty of sharp decently fast lenses in the normal range if your benchmark for sharp isn't a $4000 lens. The zeiss 50MP is great, the canon 50L is plenty sharp if you stop it down to f/1.8. The canon 50/1.4 ain't half bad in that area either. The sigma 50 is sharp enough wide open if you can get it to actually focus on what it is supposed to. The 35L and sigma variant are both sharp wide open too, hell even the rokinon 35 is supposedly decent. I would consider all of these options for normal range fast-ish glass. (F/1.8 and f/2 aren't going to win any light gathering races compared to the half stop brighter f/1.2s).


Back to the OPs question: if you want a cheap fast lens just pick up a 50/1.8 used - for the price it is an excellent starter lens compared to the craptastic kit zoom.

Edited on Feb 16, 2014 at 03:49 PM · View previous versions



Feb 16, 2014 at 02:54 PM
kevindar
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · Best prime around 50mm


I would not buy a 2.8 mid range prime, unless size or cost was an issue. as such the 40 pancake certainly satisfies. The modern zooms are so good now that I would buy a prime for aperture and size options. aperture for both isolating subject as well as low light shooting.
I am in a group that finds the 50 mm fov on full frame a very useful one. But that has to do with my style, and admittedly I use my 85 a lot also for portraits, and use 24 and 35 also.

I take a lot of family pictures, and at the end of every year make a dvd of images to music, about 400 images. looking at my exif, I used my 50 a fair. here are some of the shots, at 1.6 or 1.8 on the sigma 50 on 5d3. As I said, I like the color and contrast on this lens, as well as bokeh

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5508/12571473634_6994665e86_b.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3713/12571017555_0b891ffd8b_b.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2870/12571019845_859812e913_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7416/12571021485_678b328f7f_b.jpg

One taken by my wife
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7299/12571135233_d017ddec12_b.jpg

between the canon and sigma, I liked sigma better. Canon was smaller (a plus for me), cheaper at the time, and has better corner performance stopped down (not an issue to me). I liked the built, sharpness, color, contrast, af speed of Sigma better, and it was at least as good focusing.



Feb 16, 2014 at 02:54 PM
kaycephoto
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · Best prime around 50mm


i'll chime in as the 50mm focal length is a favourite for me for both portrait sessions (encourages intimacy with subject) & weddings/events (just far away to get candid moments, just close enough to feel the closeness or sense of the present within the frame - sometimes looking at telephoto shots, I feel like it's sniped from 4 blocks away & it isn't as intimate, might just be me being odd)

i've used extensively the Canon 50 1.4, Sigma 1.4 & Canon 50 1.2 in that order.. the Canon 50 1.4 is the most affordable, great bang for buck & not much more. relatively soft at 1.4 when you factor in the haziness it features.. yes, you can fix this in post, but i generally want to get the best results straight from the camera, then improve the image even more in post, not start with a weak photo & "fix" it. i remember the Canon 50 1.4 being tremendous at f/4 to f/8 for studio/catalogue work with controlled lighting.

my copy of the Sigma 1.4 was considerably sharper to my eye & i mention "my copy" because Sigma's weakness is definitely sample variation. I didn't find the AF reliable or consistent enough for me to depend on for any kind of professional work.. I didn't like the warmer Sigma colours that sometimes rendered skin tones oddly under certain lighting conditions (that I didn't feel a event photographer should need to avoid)

in the end, I settled on the Canon 50 1.2 as the best all-around performer of the bunch, though it comes at a premium. AF isn't perfect, relative to the 24-70mkII or 70-200mkII that I'm now spoiled by, but generally i found the AF more reliable than the other 50s mentioned above. Canon's 50L also has the best micro-contrast & renders skin tones & OOF areas beautifully, which is very important to my style of work. the main weakness I found in the 50L was absolute resolution at f/1.2 to f/2 as i often found myself opting to stay above f/1.6 when i shot it.. (so, though I love the 50L's look, lately i've been really planning posed portrait sessions around the 85L instead & i sold my 50L late last year)

looking forward to seeing if Sigma can fix their AF inconsistencies with the 50 Art lens later this year!



Feb 16, 2014 at 03:29 PM
popinvasion
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · Best prime around 50mm


Spend $100 on the 50 1.8. Then wait for the new sigma coming. All other 50mm available to canon users have some compromise.


Feb 16, 2014 at 03:35 PM
johnctharp
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · Best prime around 50mm


kevindar wrote:
John, I guess sharp wide open is a subjective matter. sharp wide open means it reaches its maximum sharpness wide open? or that by general measure of what is considered good resolution on a sensor, the lens achieves it? are you talking corner to corner sharpness which is generally inconsequential for a fast prime, unless you are shooting flat subjects at f 1.4.
For example, canon/sigma 35 1.4, canon 85 1.2, canon 24 1.4, all are very fast primes that have excellent sharpness wide open by most peoples definition and requirements.


Not necessarily sharp corner to corner, and certainly not 'maximum sharpness', sharp wide-open means to me that the lens has functional sharpness across the frame where a subject within the focal plane outside of the central third of the image is as sharp or almost as sharp as a subject in the center. Further, it means that said central third of the image is actually 'sharp', meaning both resolution and contrast.

Another way to define a lens as 'sharp wide-open' would be for the lens to retain most of it's resolution and contrast across the frame at maximum aperture without an extreme drop off at the edges or corners, as it performs two or three stops down.

The above mentioned Sigma 35/1.4 | A is sharp wide-open, while Canon's 35L isn't, for example. I can agree that wide-open sharpness isn't close to a hard requirement for fast primes, but it's not the sharpness that's the problem as much as it's the lack thereof.



Feb 16, 2014 at 05:46 PM
Parkertinsley
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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · Best prime around 50mm


I have never had problems with my Sigma 50 1.4 and I love it. It is small and sharp and I use it for everything.


Apr 17, 2014 at 07:39 PM
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