Black & White Photography - September 2015 UK

65

B+W

MANDALAY, MYANMAR

Despite their low price, 50mm lenses offer fantastic image quality. As well as being the cheapest lens in your kit, it could quite easily be the

sharpest too – just one of the many reasons why it’s worth buying one!

Canon EOS 5D MKIII with 50mm f/1.8 lens, 1/800sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

BUMTHANG, BHUTAN

The close focusing capability of the 50mm standard lens, coupled with its shallow depth

of field when used wide open, makes it a great lens for detail shots.

Canon EOS 1Ds MKIII with 50mm f/1.8 lens, 1/640sec at f/2.5, ISO 400

50mm gives you no choice, so as well as

taking great pics it can also make you a

more considered photographer and keep

you fit. Surely that’s a win-win situation?

maximum aperture of f/3.5 or smaller,

you’ll notice a big difference if you use

a 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4 wide open. Depth

of field will be reduced to a few inches,

so you need to focus carefully – on the

subject’s eyes when shooting portraits.

The bokeh (the way out of focus details

are rendered) is also pleasant with most

50mm lenses used wide open.

6 COST

Compared to most other lens types, the

50mm standard is cheap. Dirt cheap.

Ridiculously cheap considering the benefits

it offers and the creative doors it can open.

I bought a new Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

recently, to replace an older lens that had

given up the ghost after years of abuse,

and it cost me under £90. That’s around

the price of a decent ND grad filter for a

whole lens. A really sharp, super-fast, highly

versatile prime lens. If you want to spend

more on an f/1.4 or go mad and splash

out on an f/1.2, be my guest, but the basic

50mm f/1.8 will do the job perfectly well for

a fraction of the price.

7 FIXED FOCAL LENGTH

Zooms can make you lazy. Instead of using

your feet and physically moving closer to

or further away from the subject, you flick

your wrist and the lens does that for you.

Sometimes, though, it’s better to move

yourself. A fixed focal length lens like the

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