My First 50mm Lens...ever

[NorthernFocus]

Believe it or not with a locker full of glass I've never had a "standard" 50mm lens. Historically I've been a fan of zoom lenses. But with the crazy resolution and sharpness of the current fleet of bodies I find myself re-evaluating and drifting toward prime lenses in order to take full advantage of the sensor capabilities. Zooms with 3x or less range hold up well but Nikon's only current offering in "standard" range is the 24-70 which is pretty pricey and overdue for an update. So in the interim, I'm going prime time

[rpcrowe]

I have several lenses in the 50mm or so range: 17-55mm f/2.8 IS which is a great lens and my go-to mid-range lens; 50mm f/1.8 Mark-I (metal mount and distance scale) which I purchased when my standard lens was the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens but which I almost never use anymore but, am too lazy to sell; 40mm f/2.8 pancake. bought on a whim when it was on sale refurbished but which I almost never use...

My 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens is a super glass better than either the 50mm or 40mm...

[dubaiphil]

I'm on my 2nd 50, and still have to 'work it' - I don't find it a natural focal length for me. There's such an abundance of options at this focal length, and if you're stopping down most should be very sharp. It's at the wide open end that you see more of a difference in performance and there are a few out there which offer very good performance per $

[dje]

Dan I also recently bought my first prime lens (Nikor AF-S 50 f/1.8) and have been very pleased with it. I have been using it as a "walk about portrait" lens for family shots mainly and havn't had any problems "zooming with my feet". The quality exceeds my current zoom (AF-S 24-85 f/3.5-4.5) significantly.

These two shots were taken in the shop for comparison purposes. I won't say the tests were highly scientific but I was impressed with the extra sharpness and better contrast of the prime over the zoom. The shots were taken with my D610, the only processing was some sharpening in ACR (same amount for each) and the images are 100% crops.

50mm at f/3.5 1/40 ISO 320



24-85mm at 50mm f/4.2 1/25 ISO 320 VR ON

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, Richard. I've not completely abandoned zooms. But to stay within limits of 3x range, in full frame Nikon only offers 14-24, 18-35, 24-70, and 70-200. I've got the two ends bracketed and as stated, am going to hold out on the 24-70 for a while.

Phil I agree there are so many options out there that there's no need to break the bank. My need is for landscape shooting so I can't feature I'll ever shoot with it wide open. So who cares about wide open performance?

Dave, that's interesting. I just sold the same 24-85 and bought the same 50mm. And for the same reason. Thanks for posting the comparison shots. Some practical input is encouraging. Though I'm not sure about your choice of target for the test

[dje]

Though I'm not sure about your choice of target for the test

Well Dan there were a couple of Nikor lenses next to "Flash Harry" but the black and white gave the best test conditions !

Dave

[Shadowman]

Welcome to the club.

[xpatUSA]

I started in the late 70's with a Zeiss Pancolar f/1.8 42mm mount:



Mounted on this simple beast:



(The 28mm came later.)

On my 20.7x13.8mm sensor (1.7 crop) Sigmas, 50 is a bit long. 30mm is closer to 'normal' and currently a 18-50mm f/2.8 zoom is serving well on the SD14 4.7MP big pixel DSLR.

[JR1]

A serious question

What logic is there these days in wanting a prime of say 15mm, 28mm, 50mm

I use a 24-120 Nikkor and all the lengths are covered, what would a 50mm offer, surely the restrictions far outweigh the benefits

[dubaiphil]

Just take it as read that you don't get it, or need it.

But especially don't get it. And in the last post on this topic.

And the one before

And the one before

And the one before

[NorthernFocus]

...What logic is there these days in wanting a prime of say 15mm, 28mm, 50mm...

Believe it or not with a locker full of glass I've never had a "standard" 50mm lens. Historically I've been a fan of zoom lenses. But with the crazy resolution and sharpness of the current fleet of bodies I find myself re-evaluating and drifting toward prime lenses in order to take full advantage of the sensor capabilities. Zooms with 3x or less range hold up well but Nikon's only current offering in "standard" range is the 24-70 which is pretty pricey and overdue for an update. So in the interim, I'm going prime time

[Manfred M]

The feature film industry has come to the same conclusions and the use of zoom lenses seems to be dropping rapidly for HD production. Sets of prime lenses from companies like Zeiss, Cooke, Schneider, Leica and Red are pervasive in these productions. I think even Canon may have introduced a set of primes, based on their film lenses. The downside is that a set of high end primes seems to be running in the $100K - $300K range. The mid-range ones seem to be coming in at the $3000 - $5000 mark, at speeds in the T/2.1 range.

On the other hand, these cameras are shot on large, heavy duty tripods, so setup stability is certainly a major consideration in getting maximum sharpness out of these cameras, which use the same sensor sizes as we use in still photography.

In my testing, one can certainly get sharper images with primes that with "normal" glass under "close to ideal" shooting conditions. I have three that I shoot on the D800; a f/1.8 50mm Nikkor D, a f/2 105mm Nikkor DC and the f/3.5 24mm Nikkor PC-E (so in reality only one is a "true" prime). The moment I use a lighter tripod or handhold, the advantages of sharpness versus the zooms, especially the pro glass, disappears.

The f/2.8 24-70mm lens is certainly getting a bit long in the tooth, and I've seen enough rumours that Nikon is going to be introducing a new version using the fresnel technology, so that sounds interesting. I suspect that optical performance improvements will be marginal at best, but the new lens should be a fair bit smaller and lighter.

So, I tend to be more in the camp as Jeremy on this one; yes, the primes are sharper, but only when shot in a way that allows you to do so. Landscape photographers should be able to take advantage of the extra sharpness when they shoot using a tripod, but I'm not convinced that they offer any significant advantage IQ wise if we hand hold.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I find myself in possession of a number of different 50's and like using them all. Each has its own character shall we say.
Dan, I'd recommend you take a look around for a Nikon Series E 50 f1.8. They are fairly cheap now days, manual focus but sharp as a tack when properly used. It might surprise you and would be an inexpensive way to give a 50 a try without breaking the bank.

[NorthernFocus]

I agree, Manfred. If one isn't going to use technique that takes full advantage of the lens characteristics, then might as well stick with convenience. I will definitely continue to use zooms and a DX body for travel and my "walkaround" kit. The D810 and bag full of primes is for shooting locally.

[NorthernFocus]

...Dan, I'd recommend you take a look around for a Nikon Series E 50 f1.8...

Thanks, Alan. I may check the used counter in our local shop.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I'd give it a try on your DX body too. It really makes my D7000 a joy to handle since it's so light. It becomes a totally different camera compared to having the 18-200 on it.

[JR1]

Just take it as read that you don't get it, or need it.

But especially don't get it. And in the last post on this topic.

And the one before

And the one before

And the one before

I'm not alone though and it was a serious question

What can you do with a 50mm prime that say a Nikkor 24-120 can not do

[Black Pearl]

I'm not alone though and it was a serious question

What can you do with a 50mm prime that say a Nikkor 24-120 can not do

Shot at f1.4 or f1.8

[William W]

Shot at f1.4 or f1.8

. . . and F/1.2 and F/1.0 and F/0.9 . . . depending upon which 50mm lens that it is.

WW

[dennybeall]

Just looking at the two shots in dje's post illustrates the reason to have a 50mm prime. The prime 50mm is noticeably sharper even on this laptop screen.