Black & White Photography - September 2015 UK

60

B+W

TECHNIQUE

All images © Lee Frost

RAISE YOUR STANDARD

Think you’ve got every lens you need? If your collection doesn’t include

a 50mm prime then the answer’s almost certainly no! Lee Frost offers

a bunch of good reasons why every photographer should have one.

M

y very first SLR was

a Zenith EM; a lump of

Russian metal that was

so tough and heavy

I was convinced it had

been fashioned from

a spent missile cartridge. With it came a

screw-mount 50mm f/2 lens. No kit zoom,

just a good old fixed focal length, manual

focus 50mm. That’s how SLRs were sold

back then, with a ‘standard’ lens. If you

could afford to buy maybe a 28mm wide

and 135mm tele at the same time you were

laughing, but I was 15 and my paper round

money wouldn’t stretch to more glass, so

I had to make do with the nifty fifty.

At the time I felt short changed. Admittedly,

it was a decent lens; bright, contrasty and

sharp. And when I managed to get the

exposure right (my Zenith EM didn’t have

TTL metering – give me a break) it took a

half decent shot. But it was boring. Looking

through it was just like looking through my

own eyes. It didn’t bend and stretch the

world like a wideangle, or magnify it like a

telephoto. It just saw what I saw pretty much.

After a while though, I began to see

the benefits of that lens. I realised that

lurking inside its unassuming exterior was

a powerhouse of possibility, and though

my financial situation eventually improved

and I was able to invest in more exciting

optics, I hung on to my standard. Even

when zooms started to become de rigueur,

I still made sure there was space in my bag

for a 50mm. Fast forward almost 35 years

and it’s still the case. When I travel, my

Canon 50mm travels with me. I wouldn’t

contemplate leaving Blighty without it.

Obviously, I have a standard 24-70mm zoom

that covers the same focal length. But the

two lenses are like chalk and cheese. They

serve completely different purposes, and

the prime 50mm has got me out of more

sticky situations than I care to remember.

Wondering what all the fuss is about?

Then read on and all will be revealed.

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO

This shot was taken outdoors at night, primarily in the light of the flame. A fast shutter speed was

needed to freeze movement, so I opened up my 50mm to maximum aperture and hey presto!

Canon EOS 1Ds MKIII with 50mm f/1.8 lens, 1/500sec at f/1.8, ISO 800

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