What Lens Should I Get? Nifty 50!
Hey Everyone! Hope you're doing great today! Today I want to talk about lenses. I get asked from time to time by new photographers, "What lens should I get next?" Well, today I'm going to answer that question. Some experienced photographers should listen also. The lens that I'm going to talk about either already is or will soon become the most versatile lens in your kit. For the experienced photographers, they probably have this lens stuck in a bag somewhere not using it. But they should dust it off because it is awesome. I'm of course talking about the Nifty 50 lens. The 50mm lens is the most versatile lens, and old-timers like me remember that this was the lens that came on a film camera. It is a great all-around lens and is said to have the same look as your eyes do. This is the most natural lens that you will use. If you are using a crop sensor camera, a 35mm will give you the same focal distance as a 50mm on a full-frame camera. So if you have a crop sensor as I do, a 35mm is the same as a 50mm. It can be used for all types of photography from portraits, landscape, street, low light, product/food, and everything in between. So I have 10 things that make the Nifty 50 so great.
1. The 50mm is sharp! It's a prime lens. People use zooms so much because they are easier, but primes are
known as a general rule to be sharper. That was very much so 20 years ago but not as much now. But they are still sharp!
2. They are small. These little lenses are small and lightweight. They are usually made mostly of plastic which keeps the weight down. These lenses are perfect for street photography where you're carrying your camera around with you all the time. The small size does not intimidate people when you approach them to take their photograph.
3. These are great portrait lenses. These prime lenses are great for portraits! They do not distort the facial features like a wide-angle lens or a telephoto lens would. And the sharpness is really great!
4. They are great for street photography! These little lenses, as I said before, are not too wide or too telephoto. They are just in the middle of the focal range, which means you can really frame your scene to keep in what you want and leave out what you don't.
5. They are super for landscape photography. I know people think of wide-angle lenses for landscape, and yes they
are great. But they have a distorted view. By using the 50mm and doing pantographs, you have more of a natural-looking scene than you do with a wide angle lens which distorts the edges of the frame. And did I mention that they are lightweight? LOL
6. They are great for product/food photography. They are the perfect focal length to shoot product or food photography. I just got into food photography, and this is a great lens for shooting food. The sharpness of the lens is a great asset when doing this type of photography.
7. They have a wide aperture. These lenses, like all primes, have wider apertures than zoom lenses. They can come in any size from f2.8 to f1.2, but they're most commonly found in the f1.8 range. These wide apertures make them great for shooting almost anything where you can control how much of the scene is in focus.
8. They are great for low-light photography. With the wide aperture as mentioned above, when they are opened up they catch a lot of light. This makes them great for shooting indoors or in low-light situations. They can even be made to shoot astro photography.
9. Bokeh!!! These lenses are bokeh machines! Bokeh is the amount of blurry
goodness that is found on great portraits. The bokeh can be used for art interpretation or just for isolation. If you have a busy scene behind your subject you can open up this lens and really blur out the background. People who love bokeh love these lenses.
10. Inexpensive! These will be some of the most reasonably priced lenses that you can buy. Now don't get me wrong, you can spend a lot of money on big f1.2 glass. But if you're not making a living out of your photography, an f1.8 will do just fine, and you can find them well under $300 and sometimes in the $150 range. I paid about $250 for mine.
There you go! Ten reasons you should have a Nifty 50mm with you all the time. And maybe after using it a lot, you might start thinking about getting rid of some of your other lenses to lighten the load. Until next week, get outside with your Nifty 50 and keep shooting!
