Lens Advice

gaza4

Hey guys looking for a lens for my 550d similar to my 50mm f1.8 but with a bit more flexability in terms of zoom. i love the results i get with my 50mm but often find it limiting as i am too close or too far from my subject. the problem is because i'm so new and inexperienced in photography i dont even know what it is about the 50mm that gives it its sharpness to begin looking into lenses myself.

thanks guys!!!

kelly1

Hello Gaza, the 50mm on a cropped sensor body is ideal for portraits of one person or a couple (head and shoulders). It's the equivalent of 80mm on a full-frame body.

What makes the 50mm great is that it's a "prime" lens i.e. it has a fixed focal length. But what you loose out by not having zoom, you more than gain in terms of image quality (fewer elements) and a much wider aperture. The fastest (large aperture) zooms you can get are f/2.8 but you can get primes as wide as f/1.2 or even f/1. With the wider aperture, you can shoot in darker conditions or get faster shutter speeds. It also gives you shallower "depth of field" meaning more of the foreground and background are out of focus which is great for portrait and artistic effect.

If you want a fast, good quality lens, you'd want to be looking at a prime around the 30-35mm mark for general purpose use. Similarly the 50mm is a general purpose lens on a full frame cam.

Hope that helps.
Noel.

Finnt

Hi sorry to cut across bit what lens can you get that's f/1 ?

Finnt

Hi sorry to cut across but what lens can you get that's f/1 ?

gbee

Almost no zoom will give you the same sharpness as is achieved from prime lenses. Your 50mm is a prime lens.

That said, if you can finance a good lens, then the 24~105mm ႒/4 is pretty good with sharpness approaching that of a prime.

Is it actually the sharpness of the lens that you like, or the shallow depth of field it achieves?

I ask because when i first got my 50 1.8 i was thrilled with the isolation i could achieve with my subject, rather than the actual 'sharpness' of the glass.

(shallow depth of field = sharp subject, blurry background).

stcstc

Finnt wrote: »

Hi sorry to cut across bit what lens can you get that's f/1 ?

http://noktor.com/


there one for starters

canon used to do an f1 too