50mm 1.8 lens

[davidquillin]

What would be the primary use of a 50mm 1.8 lens? (newbie)

 

['Daniel']

Well there can be many uses.

• Portaiture
• Street Photography
• Product and Studio work

Among others. It is a stpale lens for most photoographers. It is very good in low light conditions due to its large aperture. You can use them for alot of things, those three are probably the most common but they are not then end.

 

[Big Mike]

50mm is the standard "normal view on 35mm film. Shorter than that is considered wide angle and longer is considered telephoto.

For some reason, 50mm lenses are the cheapest to buy. Maybe it's because they are cheap to make...or maybe it's because there are so many of them....but it's the cheapest way to get a nice wide aperture of F1.8

Primary use? Could be anything.

 

[cbay]

50mm always come in handy for the ocasional shot and they arent too expensive either at under £100 so well worth having if you got the money.

 

[Soocom1]

Many, Many things…

Because it is a f1.8, it is faster than a f3.5 or 4.0. Meaning you can take portraits in low light, with a lower ISO rating vs. an f3.5 with a higher ISO rating.

Landscapes: Mornings and evenings..

Action shots, Sports events.. faster lens, better stop motion.

Animals, see above.

It is also a standard lens with most cameras of late, similar to the 50mm 1.7 or 1.4 on the older SLRs.

 

[spiky_simon]

I mainly use mine for portraiture (as the crop factor on my Canon means it has an effective focal length of about 85mm), but as the others have said, they're prettty versatile.

 

[Corry]

I'm in love with mine...I use it for everything now.

 

[Johnboy2978]

I am planning on getting one in the next month (pentax 50mm f/1.4) to use primarily for portraits I suppose. Looking forward to seeing the fed-ex guy!

 

[hammy]

50mm 1.8's are great lenses. The biggest plus with these is their price. There are very, very many of them out there so prices stay low. They "see" like your eyes see, so the shots look can look very natural. With my 50mm I also sometimes use a 2x teleconverter to get me a nice low telephoto.

 

[ksmattfish]

Before computers it was really hard to make a good zoom lens that anyone could afford, and the standard lens a 35mm SLR would come with was a 50mm f/1.8 (or something close). For me the main reason to carry a 50mm f/1.8 is that it's a cheap (often the cheapest lens in any line) and speedy companion for my zoom lens for using in low light conditions. With my x1.6 DSLR it's a good portrait lens.