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50mm Prime Lenses List
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I’ve just been doing the rounds on eBay to find rough ideas of price, availability and compatibility of 50mm Prime Lenses for the different Camera makes. In rough terms they seem to be as follows:
Canon 50mm f/1.8 (approx ?130 local, ?90 internet) and f/1.4 and f/1.2
Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (approx ?130 local, ?90 internet) and f/1.4
Sony/Minolta 50mm f/1.7 (approx ?70 internet)
Pentax 50mm f/1.7 (approx ?90 internet) (Manual Only???)
Olympus 50mm f2 (approx ?190 internet)Is this information correct? What’s missing?
Dave
joe_elway wrote:
Aren’t there Canon EF 50 F1.4 and F1.2 lenses around?
Yup. Not sure what “EF” means in Canon Speak, but I have a 1.4 and a 1.2 Canon listed.
digitalbeginner wrote:
joe_elway wrote:
Aren’t there Canon EF 50 F1.4 and F1.2 lenses around?
Yup. Not sure what “EF” means in Canon Speak, but I have a 1.4 and a 1.2 Canon listed.
I’m not sure what “EF” actually means but I think it means “Electro-Focus”. “EF” distinguishes lenses that are for use on Canon’s EOS bodies, compared to the older “FD” all mechanical mount used on their earlier generation manual film cameras. The EF mount was launched in 1987, hence the recent Canon 20-year anniversary cashback offers on select cameras. The EF mount essentially changed the way lens and body communicated. The FD mount was fully manual with a pin that provided aperture information feedback to the body. The EF mount introduced electrical contacts to carry power and information relating to the aperture and autofocus motor.
The much maligned 50mm fixed focal lenght has undergone somewhat of a revival in recent years and deservedly so too. It makes quite a good portrait lens on APS-C format digital cameras and working with a fixed focal length like that forces you to look more creatively at your photography rather than taking the lazy option of using a zoom lens. Every photographer should have one in their kit bag. At that price there is no excuse not to!
Is there anything you don’t know thorsten!! Good ol’ FD Canons – did you know you can use FD lenses for filming with some video cameras (again real film users). Anyway, you might also see a used Canon EF 50mm F1.0 super mega lens. Discontinued now.
or there’s the Leica, 50mm f2.0 Summicron-R which you can pick up for around $250-75 and use with a converter.
There is a nikon f1.2 MF AIS discontinued now, probably over ?350 second hand, i have the 1.4 MF and i love it, amazing sharpness, beautiful DOF, zoom’s just arent the same for portraits :)
I’ve got one of those 1.2’s and its gorgeous-
though less money than you mentioned-Somewhere between 270 and 380 euros, according to ebay completed listings-
plus postage and whatever-Focussing at f/1.2 is not an exact science;
at portrait distances, depth of field is measured in millimeters-
and its not always easy to be sure of focus in the viewfinder-Stopped down to f/2.8 helps a lot,
though a smaller aperture is better for ? views-
if you need both eyes in focus-High contrast subjects in brighter light are less successful wide open,
leading to halos around bright areas,
but nobody would use a lens like this in bright sunlight wide open-
well, unless you were testing-
(1/8000 sec, or less, iso100)Stopped down a little is just fine-
And in lower contrast ratios, its fine wide open-
oops, going on a bit again-
j
chris_make wrote:
There is a nikon f1.2 MF AIS discontinued now, probably over ?350 second hand, i have the 1.4 MF and i love it, amazing sharpness, beautiful DOF, zoom’s just arent the same for portraits :)
Can be found going with some old nikon film SLRs on ebay….
Will only meter on D200 or better. Below is full manual.
Some others….
OLYMPUS OM SYSTEM ZUIKO AUTO-S 50MM 1.8
OLYMPUS OM SYSTEM ZUIKO AUTO-S 50MM 1.4 (rare enough)
OLYMPUS OM SYSTEM ZUIKO AUTO-S 50MM 1.2 (hens’ teeth)
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