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favorite portrait lens

Started by monica , author of Pixel Perfect 9/20/2010 7:05:20 PM

What is your favorite everyday portrait lens. I love the Canon 50mm 1.2. Sometimes I find it can be a bit slow and I've heard the canon 50mm 1.4 is faster. 

Any experience with either one?

What's your favorite portrait lens?

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Reply by Beth

author of Laugh until you Cry. 9/20/2010 7:37:40 PM

I have the nifty fifty: the 50 1.8 and love it. I'd LOVE to upgrade to the 1.4 or 1.2 though. Someday :-) The 50 1.8 is always on my camera, though.


Reply by Katie

author of Texas Tigers 9/20/2010 7:44:13 PM

I also use my 50mm 1.8 nearly all the time. It's currently the only lens I have other than the 18-55 that came with the camera. I'm trying to figure out what lens to get next - my birthday is next month so I'm thinking that's what I want. 


Reply by monica

author of Pixel Perfect 9/20/2010 7:46:00 PM

I still use my 1.8 and love it! The 50mm is just a great lens to have in the collection. 


I love my 50mm 1.8, and will hopefully be getting a 1.4 for Christmas, but my heart currently belongs to my 85mm 1.8

Now, when I shoot portraits inside, it can be a bit too long......but for outdoor ones, it's amazing!

I use my primes 10 times more than I use my zoom lenses though!


Reply by laney

author of My Sweet Dreams 9/29/2010 11:39:15 AM

I have the 50mm 1.8 and used it quite often, but I found it to be slow and it would get stuck sometimes. It was less then a year old.  I bought the 50mm 1.4 and now it is permanently on my camera.  I love the sharpness it has given me.  I can definitely see the difference betwen the 1.8 and 1.4.  I highly recommend it.

 

Mama Monkey-

I completely understand where you coming from about eyes in photos.  If they are not crystal clear...I'd toss it too!!   

Here is a trick I learned reading the Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby and it has helped big time.

 Shoot at your lens' sharpest aperture or "sweet spot"  Every lens has one.  Most lenses that is about 2 full stops smaller then wide open.(so the f-stop number you use will go higher by 2 stops.)  ex, if you have a f/2.8 lens,the sharpest aperture for that lens would be f/5.6 and f/8(two full stops down from f/2.8).  Now you won't always be able to shot at that aperture, but when the situation lets you...go for it!  Hope this is helpful...Good luck!


Reply by Linsey

author of Organized Chaos 10/8/2010 10:15:15 AM

50 1.2 for sure!!!


Reply by monica

author of Pixel Perfect 10/13/2010 1:23:30 PM

Mamamonkey,

I wasn't impressed with it at first either. I don't use it for my professional shoots but it's great to have a lens that I can use everyday and not be scared about it getting broken. (since it is so inexpensive compared to other lenses) 

The pictures on my current post were taken using the 50mm 1.8. I did have to sharpen the images but I do that with most of my images anyway. 

MamaMonkey's profile picture
MamaMonkey said ...
Okay all you 50mm lovers ;)  I recently recieved the 1.8 for a birthday gift.  I'm not all that impressed!!!  I have a terrible time getting crystal clear shots, and let's face it, if the eyes aren't sharp I toss the photo!!!  Any suggestions?  I've heard bumping up to 2.8 or even 4.  I wonder why I just didn't ask for a 2.8 lens to begin with?


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