Lets see some of your Fiddy shots (50mm)

SteveOBHave · 20 Oct 2008 at 08:55

This is a much loved lens and cheap as chips. I find it a little more difficult to compose a meaningful image with it than my other wider lenses due to it's narrow field of view but when it goes right I love the results. Lets see what you guys have been up to with this lens.

Here are a couple of my recent ones:

1. Sleeper car in Egypt - Cairo to Aswan

2. Cairo Alley

blastman · 20 Oct 2008 at 09:23

Only got my nifty fifty on Friday so I'm still very much getting used to it.

This is the best I've produced so far...

SteveOBHave · 20 Oct 2008 at 09:28

Nice - you gotta love the sharpness of it. Good to see you're not shooting at F/1.8 - it's tempting but the image quality is better at around 2.5 - 4.

blastman · 20 Oct 2008 at 09:52

Cheers. Yeah I agree that shooting at F1.8 gives a very shallow DOF but readers the image pretty bad compared to the sharpness you get at say F2.5 - F4.

I like the Sleeper car picture but I feel my eye wonders a little, however it's still very good.

SteveOBHave · 20 Oct 2008 at 10:07

Thanks man - it's a fairly unconventional shot - my aim was to get the window and the sunlight coming through onto the door in focus. The sunlight lights the door and the door handles which were hopefully the focal point in the image. I think the lights and the vanishing point in the centre may detract from that a little but I'd hoped that the focus would override that a little.

D.P. · 20 Oct 2008 at 11:41

SteveOBHave said:
Nice - you gotta love the sharpness of it. Good to see you're not shooting at F/1.8 - it's tempting but the image quality is better at around 2.5 - 4.

On the Nikon the best is from 5.6-f/8. F/11 is fantastic still.

Check out SLR Gear or photozone.de to check out the objective IQ measures to find the sweet spot of your lenses

EnglishMack · 20 Oct 2008 at 11:58

SteveOBHave · 20 Oct 2008 at 12:06

D.P. said:
On the Nikon the best is from 5.6-f/8. F/11 is fantastic still.

Check out SLR Gear or photozone.de to check out the objective IQ measures to find the sweet spot of your lenses

From http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/97/cat/12 they seem to indicate that F2.5-4 is an acceptable IQ - I guess it depends on what you want to get from your image. If you're shooting with the intention of getting decent DOF and/or bokeh then you want to sit a bit lower on the end of the scale. Overall sharpness then for sure - hit the higher F stops.

Nice sites by the way - cheers for the heads up!

@ EnglishMack - Love them - great characters, especially the first one!

blastman · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:06

out of interest guys, how are you shooting these??

I had a load of trouble with not getting pictures sharp and in focus and it was because my shutter speed was too low.

Are you shooting in manual??

How have you found the (canon) 50mm F1.8 in low light??

I've found that to get a sharp pic I've got to shoot at a 1/640 (or just below) which means I can only shoot when outside on a sunny day. (a bit of a disappointment I'll agree)

Any comments?

Raikiri · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:11

Shutter speed shouldn't make a difference to focus accuracy, here's a low light one for you:

F2.2 / 1/60s / ISO 800

Granted, it's not the sharpest but he was jumping about the stage a fair bit.

D.P. · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:13

blastman said:
out of interest guys, how are you shooting these??

I had a load of trouble with not getting pictures sharp and in focus and it was because my shutter speed was too low.

Are you shooting in manual??

How have you found the (canon) 50mm F1.8 in low light??

I've found that to get a sharp pic I've got to shoot at a 1/640 (or just below) which means I can only shoot when outside on a sunny day. (a bit of a disappointment I'll agree)

Any comments?

What are you shooting? Anything with movement will need something around that speed to freeze the action if you want a sharp shot. otherwise you must have the worlds most unstable hands. 1/80 should be fine for this lens.

blastman · 20 Oct 2008 at 15:16

Sorry I should have said I'm shooting my daughter (with a camera...) who doesn't like sitting still.

SteveOBHave · 20 Oct 2008 at 16:01

This is the EXIF from the Ally shot - no flash - done handheld

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/6 EV

Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution: 240 dpi
Y-Resolution: 240 dpi
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time: 2008:10:13 13:02:04
Timezone Offset: 1, 1
Exposure Program: Shutter priority
Date and Time (Original): 2008:10:04 18:10:15
Date and Time (Digitized): 2008:10:04 18:10:15
Shutter Speed: 3906891/1000000
Maximum Lens Aperture: 16/10

muttclugg · 20 Oct 2008 at 16:41

blastman said:
Sorry I should have said I'm shooting my daughter (with a camera...) who doesn't like sitting still.

Wrap a blue first aid plaster around her thumb to keep her still and entertained long enough for a picture. That is of course providing she's not older than 5 and just likes moving around

.

robertgilbert86 · 20 Oct 2008 at 18:24

Just deciding whether to buy the f1.8 or 1.4 version :/

famas · 20 Oct 2008 at 19:01

only had the lens a few weeks, i like this one.

Raikiri · 20 Oct 2008 at 19:47

robertgilbert86 said:
Just deciding whether to buy the f1.8 or 1.4 version :/

[IM]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2419215690_4f49c8bd5a.jpg[/IMG]

If you have the money the 1.4 is worth it, faster, better built, better focussing and sharper wide open. But the 1.8 is so cheap it worth having it to see how you get along with the focal length/shallow DOF.

Mr Jones · 20 Oct 2008 at 20:23

One of my first shots with my 20D and 50mm f1.8 lens (My first lens!)

One of my good attempts at a portrait shot with the 50mm

robertgilbert86 · 20 Oct 2008 at 21:01

Raikiri said:
If you have the money the 1.4 is worth it, faster, better built, better focussing and sharper wide open. But the 1.8 is so cheap it worth having it to see how you get along with the focal length/shallow DOF.

If you're talking Canon I agree.

If you're talking Nikon I really don't think the new AF-S version is worth almost £300, and the f1.4/f1.8 AF versions are about the same build quality.
I think I want the f1.4 for bragging rights more than anything though!

Back to the thread, 50s are great lenses. I really should get on and buy my own and stop borrowing!

-TA- · 20 Oct 2008 at 22:18