My favorite normal lens is a Helios 44m-2 58mm f2. It is an old Russian knock off that produces a swirly background and glow effect. I bought two on eBay 8 years ago for maybe $30 each and connect it to my mirrorless body with a $9 adapter.
Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
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Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#22These aren't dead! You can still find a variety of fast 50mm lenses, from a cheap f/1.8 for like $150 (which is still way better than most kit lenses) to a very nice f/1.4 upgrade at like $400 all the way to absurdly expensive ones. https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/comparisons/premium-50mm-le... Their primary advantages: * Amazing "bokeh" -- the quality and look of the background blur that modern phones mostly try to…
Agreed, there are a number of these that are fast and considered high quality.
Canon had/has some great 1.8 50mm (and pancake 40mm) lenses. I kept my 50 when I moved to mirrorless and it's long been my go-to.
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#23My go to 50 is an odd, but extremely (razor) sharp, Canon 50mm f/2.5 compact macro. Sadly, it is no longer made. AF is slow and loud and prone to repeatedly hunting and missing focus but the images it makes, particularly portraits, are really good. On full-frame, it does have some loss of sharpness at the edges but on a 1.6 crop sensor camera it is simply great.
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#24I love a good prime lens. Took this with a Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 (https://roambyland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ss-1-of-1-...).
50mm is probably too 'in the middle' for my uses, as a 24 + 70-200 has really replaced my need for a 50, and the ability add in a little compression of the foreground with the zoom is really nice. If I had infinite space in my bags I'd have a 50 for sure.
If I was just using one camera I'd still probably want a 24 or 28 prime (ie: Leica Q2).
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#25My brain sees in 4:3 40mm, 50mm on 3:2 cameras feels too crammed
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#26I love a good prime lens. Took this with a Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 ( https://roambyland.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ss-1-of-1-... ). 50mm is probably too 'in the middle' for my uses, as a 24 + 70-200 has really replaced my need for a 50, and the ability add in a little compression of the foreground with the zoom is really nice. If I had infinite space in my bags I'd have a 50 for sure. If I was just using one camera I'…
You could historically get pretty fast 50mm lenses with good optical quality for relatively little. Not sure of technical reasons why 50mm fell into that standard role. If I had to pick one standard prime lens it would probably be 35mm.
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#27What's limiting new digital cameras from becoming faster? A decade ago a friend showed me his digital camera with an ISO setting in the thousands and I was amazed at how little noise there was. I've since been a little disappointed that I'm still balancing noise and aperture shooting indoors. Phones take on the problem with heavy image processing, but I'm interested in hardware solutions.
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#28If you have an SLR or mirrorless camera, don't yet own any prime lenses (a lens that doesn't zoom), and you want your photographs to get a lot better very quickly, go buy the 50mm f/1.8 lens your camera manufacturer makes and only use that for a couple months.
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#29My favourite portable cheap full frame lense is 40mm summicron (yeah cheap and summicron, weird right?) https://www.35mmc.com/02/04/2016/leica-40mm-summicron-review...
Re: Classic 50mm “Normal” Lens
#30I've had a couple of Fujifilm X100 cameras with their fixed prime lenses over the last few years. For me I've grown to love the 35mm eqv. focal length they provide. I have 50mm and 28mm eqv. converters for it but hardly ever use them. Recently I've really got into shooting landscapes with it, which is daft as no one shoots landscapes at 35mm. It would generally be regarded as not quite wide enough or not quite long e…
I use A Fuji body as well (xe3) and also find the 35mm f/2 my go to lens (52mm FF equivalent). Fujinon glass is excellent so if you want to walk around on a vacation instead of a wedding I’d definitely just grab the 18-55 zoom instead.