Any lens is as crappy as the photographer is. No lens that can resolve a picture should be called crap. A soft well made photo beats a sharp boring picture any day.
18-55 mm, vs 50mm,f1.8II
- Thread starter Sweetest Romance
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Any lens is as crappy as the photographer is. No lens that can resolve a picture should be called crap. A soft well made photo beats a sharp boring picture any day.
As long as there is no design flaw every lens can delivery sufficiently sharp images.
EF 50 f/1.8 II Review
Understanding Sharpness
Anson
Senior Member
Portrait and landscape are very different, I would say that 50mmF1.8 is good for portrait, for landscape ask yourself if you are alright with 50mm x 1.6 = 80mm FL?
NewbieInCS
Senior Member
Personally I feel that is the problem. At wide end still ok, at tele end many beginners will probably end up with very high ISO and slow shutter speed if not using flash. Then come here complain photo noisy and not sharp. When you use 1/3 or 1/4 second handheld how to have 100% hit rate sia. For me I will use a flash if got bring although I am not good at flash, coz lousy photo better than no photo.:bsmilie:
NewbieInCS
Senior Member
Portrait is ok, but I find myself using 50mm mostly for half-body shots when indoor with space constraint.
Macro is definately a big no-no because the magnification is worse than kit lens due to the minimum focusing distance.
Landscape with 50mm lens is possible, but really not easy and some people might not consider that as real landscape also.
It is impossible for a prime to do everything.
Try fixing your kit lens at 50mm and not using the zoom. Walk around and take some photos. If you are ok with it, you will be fine with the 50/1.8. Otherwise, you need a zoom lens when you need a zoom lens.
hm not do this...
b4 jumping into 50mm f1.8 lens...n as for the time being..(perhaps this 1 whole wk)...u jus use your kit lens but, only shoot with 50mm...don't zoom in to 18mm, not even 24mm or 40mm blah blah blah...
if u can really live with 50mm itself..i think u can go ahead n buy ur 50mm f1.8 n sell ur kit lens..(if u can only have 1 lens)
like wat i did mention previously, 50mm is pretty quite a short range n if u r havin budget issue... jus stick to ur kit lens. Shoot with perhaps f8 aperture with flash + diffuser lor...(for portrait..but the bokeh wun b tat stunning..)
also...can consider doing editing instead...sharpening...blah blah blah..haha....
ur kit lens provides a wider genre due to the available range compare to Just having 50mm...
so...go try out for 1 week first ya..b4 making decision which u might end up complaining at the end of the day for makin wrong decision...
cheers!
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Like what most others have already said, 50mm on a crop body will be a little tight and you won't be able to get a wide angle shot (when you need it) from your kit lens. Moreover, you can't zoom with a prime lens, so the only way is to "zoom" is to walk closer/further away from the subject.
Having said that, 50mm f/1.8 is a good buy. I have one too, but it's not mine. HAHA :bsmilie:
Keep your kit lens, though it's got its own limitations like having a smaller aperture. If you really want a replacement, maybe you can consider the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 for a start.
If mount on tripod.. maybe very slight difference at 100% crop.
http://photozone.de/canon-eos/160-canon-ef-50mm-f18-ii-test-report--review?start=1
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/181-canon-ef-s-18-55mm-f35-56-is-test-report--review?start=1
Consider this.. at 50mm, take a picture with the EF50 @ F2, 1/40sec, compared to EF18-55IS @ F5.6, 1/5sec, I would say the 18-55mm will be sharper (assuming no camera shake). The 18-55 have 4th generation IS, so 1/5sec with IS would be similar to 1/40sec w/o IS.
If using large apertures, the EF50 F1.8 is not very sharp. At smaller apertures (F5.6 for e.g.), you need similar shutter speed as the 18-55mm, in which case, the 18-55IS has an advantage with IS.
The above comments is based on practical usage in reality. If the lens is always mount on tripod, all the above can be ignored.
http://photozone.de/canon-eos/160-canon-ef-50mm-f18-ii-test-report--review?start=1
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/181-canon-ef-s-18-55mm-f35-56-is-test-report--review?start=1
Consider this.. at 50mm, take a picture with the EF50 @ F2, 1/40sec, compared to EF18-55IS @ F5.6, 1/5sec, I would say the 18-55mm will be sharper (assuming no camera shake). The 18-55 have 4th generation IS, so 1/5sec with IS would be similar to 1/40sec w/o IS.
If using large apertures, the EF50 F1.8 is not very sharp. At smaller apertures (F5.6 for e.g.), you need similar shutter speed as the 18-55mm, in which case, the 18-55IS has an advantage with IS.
The above comments is based on practical usage in reality. If the lens is always mount on tripod, all the above can be ignored.
definitely, it's a PRIME lens... however it also depends on how you hold and use it... and i will say 18-55IS will not be too far off to the naked eye as i own both...
agree. both lens produce decent pic. for 50mm f1.8, it will be good under low light condition. but i can tell u, it is not clear on f1.8, even 2.8, i consider the pic is still blur. tried. if i were you, good budget, get either, canon EF 17-40mm f4 L lens or EFs 17-55mm F2.8 , no much budget, save to get tamron 17-50mm f2.8 or if u wan prime lens, get 50mm F1.4
i did not test as much as you, just tried hands on. 50mm f1.8 is really not a lens i wanna get. since i got tamron 17-50mm f2.8. at 2.8, it much sharper than 50mm F1.8...
I thought the 24-70 was really sharp too, until I thought 'what the heck about all those people going on about the nifty fifty' and bought the 50mm. Based on sharpness alone I was rather pleasantly surprised at how much bang for the buck this little lens was.If you are in low light and 2.8 won't get you your shot, what will you do? Bigger aperture does have it's time and place. You can always look around for a 50 1.8 that's pretty sharp fully open.
i did not comment on 24-75mm rite? i personally did not test this lens though i really wanna try it . for 50mm f1.8, different ppl have dif needs, to me low light condition and decent sharp image is impt. it cannot really perform on my expectation. However, 50mm f1.8 II is quite a decent lens to carry. cost it is very light. oh i just test on portrait.
. for 50mm f1.8, different ppl have dif needs, to me low light condition and decent sharp image is impt. it cannot really perform on my expectation. However, 50mm f1.8 II is quite a decent lens to carry. cost it is very light. oh i just test on portrait.Sweetest Romance
New Member
Thanks for all the feedback and advice. Will there be any difference if i get the 50mm lens to shoot landscape shots or I should just stick to my kit lens since both lens are kind of similar when come to landscape shooting. Is 50mm lens more for portrait shooting than landscape one? Can anyone give me somemore advice on this. Cause I don want to waste that little amount of money to buy on lens that provide the similar performance with my kit lens.
Alex chong
Member
Quality issue yes, crappy not necessarily. I still have a copy of the non IS 18-55. I think that lens I have is a dud copy. Every shots I took with my 350D came out blur. But after testing my Dad's new 500D and 18-55 IS version, I have a new found respect for the kit lens. I even tested my copy with my Dad's 500D. Same result, blurred images. Wished I had a better copy before. Would have enjoyed photography more.
Alex chong
Member
What you are getting with the 50 prime is the bokeh effect with the f1.8 which you can't get with your kit lens at minimum f3.5. So they are different lens although at 50mm on kit, its the same as your prime. But remember, your prime will be f1.8 while your kit will be f4.0 or f4.5. Alot of difference. Get the prime and keep your kit as suggested.
Sweetest Romance
New Member
ohh i see. You own a 50mm lens right? What you usually use it to shoot? More of portrait shoot or just general shooting. Tell me more about your opinion on this lens. I intend to keep my kit lens already. I need a slightly cheaper lens just for my portrait shoot.
since u intend to keep ur Kit lens...n u nid a budget portrait lens..50mm f1.8 it your ONLY CHOICE!...
coz the rest will be like..$400plus n above...lol...so..not much area for you to consider....
haha....is pretty much zoom down tat..u shd jus get the prime n keep ur lens..lol
icelava
Senior Member
Not to say you cannot use 50mm, but one typically does not use 50mm for capturing a wide landscape; that's where wider angle lenses come in, like 10-35mm range.
Use your kit lens zoomed at 50mm and see if that is the kind of FOV you like your landscape pics to have. If so, go ahead with the EF 50mm f/1.8. Personally, I do not use my 50mm prime for landscape because i use the wide aperture options to capture subject(s) with blur background.
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