May 9, 2010, 04:22
In the middle of a brutal work schedule I managed to remember that I wanted a fast prime, and Sony happens to be selling their fairly new 50mm F1.8 for $125 until mid-June.
The general consensus on the internet is that this lens is great, and that the low price makes it a must-have for Sony DSLR owners.
All I know is that I needed more light to get a faster shutter speed when shooting my bands, so I would have accepted lower image quality if I had to.
But this lens seems to be a really nice new design.
The internal AF motor is fast, but now I have MF/AF switches on both the lens and body.
Which one has priority?
The focal length suits my needs, being 75mm in full-frame equivalent.
A little tight framing-wise sometimes, but my previous favorite was using the 55-200mm wide open at a dark F4 and this lens beats that option by a mile.
The 18-70mm kit lens?
Never again!
At 50mm it was probably F5.6 !!!
At iso1600 I'm now shooting in the 1/60-1/80 range instead of 1/30, and not only is motion-blur greatly reduced, I'm also getting brighter results.
Looking forward to playing with manual focus next weekend--my left hand likes to twist things.
Working with such a wide aperture is good for me because in the cluttered world of a stage, the more out-of-focus that non-subjects become, the better I like it.
The short minimum-focus distance is also helpful for my other uses, plus I think it's going to be my main potrait lens.
I like to get the maximum value from my purchases and this lens is suddenly my favorite for image quality, too.
The general consensus on the internet is that this lens is great, and that the low price makes it a must-have for Sony DSLR owners.
All I know is that I needed more light to get a faster shutter speed when shooting my bands, so I would have accepted lower image quality if I had to.
But this lens seems to be a really nice new design.
The internal AF motor is fast, but now I have MF/AF switches on both the lens and body.
Which one has priority?
The focal length suits my needs, being 75mm in full-frame equivalent.
A little tight framing-wise sometimes, but my previous favorite was using the 55-200mm wide open at a dark F4 and this lens beats that option by a mile.
The 18-70mm kit lens?
Never again!
At 50mm it was probably F5.6 !!!
At iso1600 I'm now shooting in the 1/60-1/80 range instead of 1/30, and not only is motion-blur greatly reduced, I'm also getting brighter results.
Looking forward to playing with manual focus next weekend--my left hand likes to twist things.
Working with such a wide aperture is good for me because in the cluttered world of a stage, the more out-of-focus that non-subjects become, the better I like it.
The short minimum-focus distance is also helpful for my other uses, plus I think it's going to be my main potrait lens.
I like to get the maximum value from my purchases and this lens is suddenly my favorite for image quality, too.