My 50mm prime lens
Discussion
But soon you'll start to get angry at it's slow autofocus and the fact it's fairly soft at 1.8 and then will come the money for the 50mm 1.4 USM. Then you'll realise shooting at 50mm isn't that practical so you get a decent zoom, maybe the 24-105 f4 L which is nice with it's IS, but not really fast enough so you'll invest in the 24-70 f2.8 L which is great but it's showing up your body's weaknesses so you need the 1ds MKIII. This combination still isn't really fast enough or sharp enough so off you go to buy the 24mm f1.4L, 35mm f1.4 and the 85mm 1.2.
Then you realise you've spent over 10k on bits, your wife has left you and actually you don't like photography that much anyway.
Don't do it. It's all down hill from the innocent looking nifty fifty!
Then you realise you've spent over 10k on bits, your wife has left you and actually you don't like photography that much anyway.
Don't do it. It's all down hill from the innocent looking nifty fifty!
jon- said:
But soon you'll start to get angry at it's slow autofocus and the fact it's fairly soft at 1.8 and then will come the money for the 50mm 1.4 USM. Then you'll realise shooting at 50mm isn't that practical so you get a decent zoom, maybe the 24-105 f4 L which is nice with it's IS, but not really fast enough so you'll invest in the 24-70 f2.8 L which is great but it's showing up your body's weaknesses so you need the 1ds MKIII. This combination still isn't really fast enough or sharp enough so off you go to buy the 24mm f1.4L, 35mm f1.4 and the 85mm 1.2.
Then you realise you've spent over 10k on bits, your wife has left you and actually you don't like photography that much anyway.
Don't do it. It's all down hill from the innocent looking nifty fifty!
lolThen you realise you've spent over 10k on bits, your wife has left you and actually you don't like photography that much anyway.
Don't do it. It's all down hill from the innocent looking nifty fifty!
you forgot to add:
then you realise your £20 tripod from argos just isnt cutting the mustard, so you invest in a £200 top of the range manfrotto, then you realise that your huge manfrotto isnt practial all the time, so you get a monopod, then you fancy giving rig shots a go, so you give manfrotto some more of your hard earned money, then you want to see what all this strobist stuff is about, so you invest in a decent flash or 3, plus wireless triggers, then spend some more buying some external hard drives to accommodate all your pictures, then you realise buying lots of small external drives is getting silly, so you invest in some raided storage, then you figure, well i might as well upgrade my computer and get a dual monitor setup, and then of course you need a bigger house to accommodate all your extra gear....
I bought my Manfrotto monopod just because it's made of carbon and looks lovely - I don't ever actually use it 
The 50mm is infuriating to use in crowded places where, if you stand back far enough to use it, people keep walking in front and if you get in close the DoF is sooooo tiny that you end up using f8 and might as well be using the 17-40 L anyway!
The 50mm is infuriating to use in crowded places where, if you stand back far enough to use it, people keep walking in front and if you get in close the DoF is sooooo tiny that you end up using f8 and might as well be using the 17-40 L anyway!
Fordo said:
jon- said:
But soon you'll start to get angry at it's slow autofocus and the fact it's fairly soft at 1.8 and then will come the money for the 50mm 1.4 USM. Then you'll realise shooting at 50mm isn't that practical so you get a decent zoom, maybe the 24-105 f4 L which is nice with it's IS, but not really fast enough so you'll invest in the 24-70 f2.8 L which is great but it's showing up your body's weaknesses so you need the 1ds MKIII. This combination still isn't really fast enough or sharp enough so off you go to buy the 24mm f1.4L, 35mm f1.4 and the 85mm 1.2.
Then you realise you've spent over 10k on bits, your wife has left you and actually you don't like photography that much anyway.
Don't do it. It's all down hill from the innocent looking nifty fifty!
lolThen you realise you've spent over 10k on bits, your wife has left you and actually you don't like photography that much anyway.
Don't do it. It's all down hill from the innocent looking nifty fifty!
you forgot to add:
then you realise your £20 tripod from argos just isnt cutting the mustard, so you invest in a £200 top of the range manfrotto, then you realise that your huge manfrotto isnt practial all the time, so you get a monopod, then you fancy giving rig shots a go, so you give manfrotto some more of your hard earned money, then you want to see what all this strobist stuff is about, so you invest in a decent flash or 3, plus wireless triggers, then spend some more buying some external hard drives to accommodate all your pictures, then you realise buying lots of small external drives is getting silly, so you invest in some raided storage, then you figure, well i might as well upgrade my computer and get a dual monitor setup, and then of course you need a bigger house to accommodate all your extra gear....
Good choice with the 50mm, it's a great little lens for the money!
It's a great lens, especially value for money. I use mine a fair amount.
I have confess to have bought an old Canon F1.2; FL mount and have found a guy in the US to convert it (remove mount, mill 2mm off, remount a Canon or SIgma AF fit mount); no AF or focus confirm, but it's an amazing piece of glass. Should be fun at about 1/10th the cost of a 1.2L which I could never consider....
I have confess to have bought an old Canon F1.2; FL mount and have found a guy in the US to convert it (remove mount, mill 2mm off, remount a Canon or SIgma AF fit mount); no AF or focus confirm, but it's an amazing piece of glass. Should be fun at about 1/10th the cost of a 1.2L which I could never consider....
LukeBird said:
Mine is winging it's way to me now, from Mr Kerso. 
I reckon the next expense will be a 430EX flash and a 17-55 f2.8.
I know the latter will be a bit of an impulse purchase...
It's a great lens and will go down to amazingly low handheld lighting conditions. 1/2 second handheld at 17mm has been okay. I reckon the next expense will be a 430EX flash and a 17-55 f2.8.
I know the latter will be a bit of an impulse purchase...
Image quality wise it is a L, no question. Build quality, less so.
If I were buying again, I would have hired the 17-40L and the 16-35L as well to compare for a day. No IS I know, but my only regret is getting tied into EF-S. All my other lenses are EF and I want to move to a 5dMkII next...
plg101 said:
LukeBird said:
Mine is winging it's way to me now, from Mr Kerso.
I reckon the next expense will be a 430EX flash and a 17-55 f2.8.
I know the latter will be a bit of an impulse purchase...
It's a great lens and will go down to amazingly low handheld lighting conditions. 1/2 second handheld at 17mm has been okay. I reckon the next expense will be a 430EX flash and a 17-55 f2.8.
I know the latter will be a bit of an impulse purchase...
Image quality wise it is a L, no question. Build quality, less so.
If I were buying again, I would have hired the 17-40L and the 16-35L as well to compare for a day. No IS I know, but my only regret is getting tied into EF-S. All my other lenses are EF and I want to move to a 5dMkII next...
jon- said:
Second hand canon glass holds it's value surprisingly well, more so if it's L. You might be surprised how much you can get for it, a couple of frends bought last year when the prices were rock bottom and their glass is worth more than they paid for it second hand.
True, though I don't think 'lens futures' is a sustainable investment model! There's certainly been a big increase in prices over the last year but I think that's a one-off exchange rate issue. I was astonished to see that the Nikon 17-55 f2.8 which you could buy for about £850 last year is now over the £1,000 mark! (I'll have to treat it more carefully!)plg101 said:
It's a great lens, especially value for money. I use mine a fair amount.
I have confess to have bought an old Canon F1.2; FL mount and have found a guy in the US to convert it (remove mount, mill 2mm off, remount a Canon or SIgma AF fit mount); no AF or focus confirm, but it's an amazing piece of glass. Should be fun at about 1/10th the cost of a 1.2L which I could never consider....
I've got an 85mm f/1.2, but FD mount. It's gorgeous I have confess to have bought an old Canon F1.2; FL mount and have found a guy in the US to convert it (remove mount, mill 2mm off, remount a Canon or SIgma AF fit mount); no AF or focus confirm, but it's an amazing piece of glass. Should be fun at about 1/10th the cost of a 1.2L which I could never consider....
Use it on my A1 - I don't want to convert it though if it's a one way process.Reminds me, I need to buy some film...
Famous Graham said:
plg101 said:
It's a great lens, especially value for money. I use mine a fair amount.
I have confess to have bought an old Canon F1.2; FL mount and have found a guy in the US to convert it (remove mount, mill 2mm off, remount a Canon or SIgma AF fit mount); no AF or focus confirm, but it's an amazing piece of glass. Should be fun at about 1/10th the cost of a 1.2L which I could never consider....
I've got an 85mm f/1.2, but FD mount. It's gorgeous I have confess to have bought an old Canon F1.2; FL mount and have found a guy in the US to convert it (remove mount, mill 2mm off, remount a Canon or SIgma AF fit mount); no AF or focus confirm, but it's an amazing piece of glass. Should be fun at about 1/10th the cost of a 1.2L which I could never consider....
Use it on my A1 - I don't want to convert it though if it's a one way process.Reminds me, I need to buy some film...
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