Your Photography

wolffman1 · *by **wolffman1** on Tue 27/Jul/10 1:06pm*

I can add to the recommendation for a 50mm lens. I have become addicted to primes recently, especially chasing the kids round indoors without using a flash. I have a few primes and the main thing for me is the speed and the sharpness. The minimum DOF makes an untidy background disappear
With a zoom at 50mm you will probably be at f4 or so, so you can be up to 2-3 stops faster with a prime lens.
I mainly use them for portraits, but occassional outside stuff.
The first one was shot at f4 and is really sharp
The second is f1.8 and shows the dof

Conners · *by **Conners** on Tue 27/Jul/10 1:34pm*

Cute feets :love:

Just one more question on the 50 mm prime then - are you guys using full frame or crop sensors? I'm wondering if on my crop sensor 50 mm might be too zoomed for close up stuff like that? (seeing as it's almost full tele on my 18-55). I guess it's nothing that stepping back won't fix, and I suppose with a prime that's how you have to compose your shot anyway...

RJD · *by **RJD** on Tue 27/Jul/10 1:44pm*

Crop here. Its a great potrait length on a crop, a little too tele for general use. (tho IMO 70-200mm is better for potraits)

A 'normal' prime would be 30-35mm or so, IMO canon is missing out on a decent cheap option here compared to the 35mm f1.8AFS nikon has (but I'm guessing this will be sorted soon).

Stepping back works, so long as you can step back far enough. I dont use mine as much as I did now I have the 17-55f2.8 but it still gets used.

wolffman1 · *by **wolffman1** on Tue 27/Jul/10 3:15pm*

Crop sensor as well, its 1.5 for nikon so a little shorter than canon, but not much.
The Nikon 35mm lens which is effectively 50mm which is very nice, light, cheap and sharp.
I have a 24mm which becomes 36mm which is a useful wider angle as well, but its only f2.8 and more expensive again, but I've had it for f'n years
RJD, my browser cropped your cat picture right down the middle of its nose which looked really interesting.

RJD · *by **RJD** on Tue 27/Jul/10 3:19pm*

Heh I should upload here or resize but they get posted all over so I just ignore issues....

wolffman1 · *by **wolffman1** on Tue 27/Jul/10 3:30pm*

I think I like it better cropped than the full frame shot

Bigfoot · *by **Bigfoot** on Tue 27/Jul/10 4:06pm*

I too have the cheapy 50mm - it works wonderfully, I just find I don't use that particular length all that much... is very nice though - especially at the price.

Crop sensor - works great for portraits.

Fango · *by **Fango** on Tue 27/Jul/10 6:36pm*

Conners wrote:I'm starting to think about more glass, but wondering which way to go
Currently got the two kit lenses that came with the 450D (18-55 + 55-250), crop sensor in the 450D leaves me wanting to get further away at times, so something wider would be nice for landscapes. But a bit more on the tele end could be useful at times too...

I guess what I'm asking is what the "normal" progression would be when buying more lenses - but I know full well that it depends entirely on what you want to shoot
I hear a lot of people saying a 50mm prime is worth having in the bag?

Also - is there much difference between Sigma and Canon lenses?

Cheers in advance.

I guess I've thrown a few $$ at my collection of Canon glassware but it goes like this: 10-22mm; 24-105mm; 70-200mm I think Canon will out-do Sigma on a bench test every time but if you are using middle of the range f stop (8 or 11) you'd probably not notice too much - you might get more flare with a cheaper lens, but it varies from lens to lens of the same model even.

RJD · *by **RJD** on Tue 27/Jul/10 6:55pm*

Heres a few sigmas I think are as good as most canons
8-16 - Actualy sharper than canons new 70-200f2.8L IS mkII!
10-20
18-50f2.8 OS - very close to canon for 60-70% of the cost
50f1.4 HSM - a better lens than canons
70mmf2.8 macro - sharpest lens slrgear have tested
120-300f2.8 HSM - no canon alt (or even the 100-300f4) a good one is superb
300-800 - a huge but amazing lens

Theres plenty others worth a look, 17-70, 50-500OS, 50-150f2.8 etc.