Digital photography

ikr

Not exactly pocket friendly, is it?

Wow that's fugly.

indeed!

I take it back! Fugly! I though it would be half the size.

That's what she said.

Want!

http://petapixel.com/2014/02/13/50mm-tele-conversion-lens-fujifilm-x100s-spotted-cp/

Sound great, gotta see how it work in practical, I don't think I know of a convertor that give you equal result to a native 50mm lens.

Fuuu.

More shit to spend money I don't have on.

^Story of my life.

I am very much a noob in all things photography,

but I look at this image and think great looking sky, but the building on the right is well overexposed?

Will, those are really nice shots. care to share some details - location at very least?
Cheers
Steve

Also, I am swiftly learning that this photography business is pretty expensive.

The second hand prices of Canon 50mm 1.4 lenses on eBay are so close to brand new prices from online shops (with added warrantee etc) it would be stupid to try go for a used one?

50mm 1.8 work just as well, you can easily get one from next to nothing.

I initially was looking at the 1.8 (again might as well buy new the second hand prices are so inflated)

I probably should still be considering the 1.8 rather than 1.4 for the money involved. But the 1.4 does sound like a decent upgrade if not for the wider aperture, then for the better manual focus ring and USM.

All this is quite true, I had both the 1.8 and 1.4, I liked how the depth of field look with the 1.4 when using it for portrait, but it's not like you can't achieve similar effect with the 1.8

Full frame or crop? if latter, best to go for a 28/30mm.

I am very much a noob in all things photography,

but I look at this image and think great looking sky, but the building on the right is well overexposed?

Will, those are really nice shots. care to share some details - location at very least?
Cheers
Steve

They are Venice - taken off Google street view. I have only limited control over how Google expose their pictures. You write them letter after letter and do they listen? No, they do not.

I was suspicious at first due to the strange wide angle, feel a little bit silly now...

where are you looking for the 1.4s? and how close is the price?

i wouldn't trust most places that can offer prices close to those of second hand equipment.

Full frame or crop? if latter, best to go for a 28/30mm.

Definitely crop, see above noob comment.

I was wondering this myself actually, would be interested to hear why you think 28/30 is better? Tried googling about it before and didn't get too much useful info

When I borrowed a 50mm and used it on my crop I found that it wasn't particularly tele, and might be nice to have the space between myself and people should I want to snap them. But I haven't been able to compare

where are you looking for the 1.4s? and how close is the price?

i wouldn't trust most places that can offer prices close to those of second hand equipment.

Seems legit right?

http://www.eglobaldigitalstore.co.uk/canon-ef-50mm-f1.4-usm-lenses-interchangeable.html

Edit: now you mention it... Mixed reviews on the web, some quite bad
[URL="http://www.eglobaldigitalstore.co.uk/canon-ef-50mm-f1.4-usm-lenses-interchangeable.html"][/URL]

I was wondering this myself actually, would be interested to hear why you think 28/30 is better? Tried googling about it before and didn't get too much useful info

When I borrowed a 50mm and used it on my crop I found that it wasn't particularly tele, and might be nice to have the space between myself and people should I want to snap them. But I haven't been able to compare

the 50mm have a field of view of a 75mm lens, usually the 50mm look great with a full frame camera, but can look rather compact on a cropped sensor camera.

the 28mm lens give you a field of view of a 50mm lens (or close), so it look much more like a 'standard' lens than the 50mm on a cropped sensor, the Sigma 30mm F/1.4 is the answer to this issue.

Here's some example (50mm on cropped and full frame sensor);

ive never bought from them, and dont know anyone who has, digitalrev tend to be the cheapest trusted website, but you do here occasionally that people get stung at customs on import taxes (however i hear they now have a UK warehouse) cheaper prices will however usually mean that it is a "grey import" and the warranty will be useless in the UK as it was made for sale in asia.

I think it's the case that the 50mm only became the 'standard' lens because at the time wider angle lenses couldn't be made to produce adequately sharp pictures. Once they could the 35mm became much more commonly used by professionals than the 50mm. One of the reasons the 50mm fetish continues is because that is what Henri Cartier Bresson used (most of the time, he did use a 35 occasionally). It's become a totem of 'simple' and 'authentic' photography but I am still very unconvinced that the benefits of using a single prime lens outweigh the disadavantages for most people, most of the time. Steve McCurry only uses a 24-110 f4 (on a full frame sensor) and he seems to do ok.

The other factor of the 50mm being the standard on 35mm is that the field of view match what we see, if you understand my meaning.

This is how I interpret as standard.

Human field of view is more like 42mm, I always thought.