odd question: 30mm or 85mm?

[jamiebonline]

Hi everyone

So I mentioned something about the Sigma 30 2.8 before. I mean the DN Art lens for Sony e-mount not the Sigma 30mm 1.4.

How useful is a 30mm lens (on an apsc body)? Street photography? Full-length portraits?

I am interested in portraiture. I already have a 60mm. Now I see the Rokinon 85 1.4 is also in my price range for the Sony A6000. It is manual focus but with focus peaking that is OK. I just wonder which is more useful. Your thoughts please. I shoot almost exclusively outdoors using natural light. I am interested in environmental portraits as much as headshots.

Thanks

 

[Designer]

Your question is not really odd, considering we see that or a similar question nearly every week.

What's odd about it though is you're considering two dissimilar focal lengths, one of which is good for portraiture, and one that would not be my first choice.

The 30mm would probably work well for "street".

 

[Dao]

Do you have a lens that cover both focal lengths? If yes, try it out yourself. Set the focal length of the lens to 30mm and start shooting and see if that is what you are looking for. Then set it to around 85mm and try again.

Regardless the aperture settings, sharpness or colors, the field of view and the how things are rendering in the photo with your camera/lens is the key. There are people out there use wide angle lens for portraiture shoot. It is his/her own style and there is nothing wrong with that. So take a look at what is going to be like by trying them and see if that fit your style as far as street or portraiture goes.

Once you know what focal length best fit you, then find which lens to get.

 

[PaulWog]

If you don't know what you want: 30mm on an APS-C body is going to be *far* more versatile than 85mm. However, 30mm is not 85mm, and vice-versa. Both have their uses. On APS-C, 60mm is definitely good enough for portraiture already, and 30mm is going to provide more flexibility. You can also look to something like a 105mm macro lens.

Choosing a lens depends on your own artistic needs (minus environmental/situation limitations that you will find yourself in).

You can shoot a portrait with an ultrawide at 15mm on a full frame body. You can shoot a landscape shot at 600mm. Either could turn out to be amazing. I'm not talking hypothetically: Just about any focal length could be useful for any area of photography, minus any ridiculous scenarios like carrying a 600mm prime lens on the streets.

I would say these are the main things you need to consider between the two lenses:
1) Your style.
2) The technical requirements of your photo, which includes: How close do you need to shoot? What sort of environment will you be in (does compression / elongation of the background matter)? Does distortion matter in the shot, given the way(s) you will frame the shot? Etc, etc, etc.