Can anyone suggest a lens in the 50-58mm focal length that would be good for portraiture?
I'm a 50mm person and currently use Nikon Z6III with a Nikon 50mm 1.8S for general photography and a Nikon ZF with a CV 50mm F2 APO for my "documentary-style" photography (pretending to be on assignment for National Geographic- its my form of meditation). I would like a lens with a larger aperture and more vintage draw. Either manual focus or (less likely) autofocus will be fine for use on either camera. My desert-island lens would be the CV 50mm F1, but I am not a professional, and feel that something less exotic is more appropriate for my skill level.
Appreciate you taking the time to make any suggestions.
Well, there's the Noct-Nikkor 58/1.2, which in my experience gives excellent results for portraiture (assuming you nail focus!), but prices are literally "a bit much". I don't own the 58/1.4G, but everything I've read suggests it's a very characterful lens, and fully Z-compatible with the FTZ adapter. I'm not much of a nifty-fifty guy (aside from my Noct), but there are a number of Voigtländer 50mm MF lenses that are very well-regarded (and all of the Voigtländer lenses I own are super high-quality both optically and mechanically)
grantgoodes wrote:
Well, there's the Noct-Nikkor 58/1.2, which in my experience gives excellent results for portraiture (assuming you nail focus!), but prices are literally "a bit much". I don't own the 58/1.4G, but everything I've read suggests it's a very characterful lens, and fully Z-compatible with the FTZ adapter. I'm not much of a nifty-fifty guy (aside from my Noct), but there are a number of Voigtländer 50mm MF lenses that are very well-regarded (and all of the Voigtländer lenses I own are super high-quality both optically and mechanically)
Best for portraits are lenses in focal lengths from 85mm to 105mm. They provide a far more flattering perspective for faces and a more comfortable camera to subject distance for your subjects. 60 years ago the 50mm focal length was used with rangefinder cameras as that was the longest that could be used with the frame designation of the camera. By 1970 with the availability of SLR cameras there was no longer that restriction on lens focal length. Difficult for me to understand why anyone in 2025 thinks that 50mm is a good choice for anything other than use as a macro copy lens.
The best focal lengths for people's faces are from 85mm to 135mm. If you have a zoom lens that covers these focal lengths you can try this out for yourself.
In my 60 years of photography I have seldom owned a 50mm lens. The only time I have used one was for wedding photography on dimly lit dance floors at weddings although a 35mm f1.4 was better and used the most for this situation.
The 50mm focal length was popular prior to the arrival of SLR cameras in the 1960s as rangefinder cameras could not be used with longer focal length lenses.
