Is the 50mm lens boring?

[Darko Pozar]

IMO the 50 is an allrounder. Long enough for portraiture, fast, low in distortion and aberration, great for perspective and very convenient. I'm astounded at how it can be an underrated lens.
After many years playing with all sorts of different focal lengths I have returned to the 50 (or similar in different formats). My photographs "feel" grander.

 

[Eric Rose]

When I was a kid and just starting out in photography my dad would only let me use a 50mm lens. He said when I could knock it out of the park with the 50, then he would let me use a tele. A wide angle came next but much later in my photographic endeavours. Today anywhere from 40mm to 55mm is my "normal" walking around focal length. I use the focal length for the job when shooting specific subject matter and looking for a specific look.

 

[John Bragg]

50mm lenses tend to be optically some of the best lenses for any given make with less distortion and better sharpness across the field and I find myself using mine much more than I ever did when I started out. I never find a 50 boring and after over 30 years shooting film I am still exploring it's potential. Case in point, when My other half gave birth to our Daughter last year, I had just bought a 50mm f1.4 af D Nikkor and this lens was fast enough and sharp as a tack when I took the first ever photos of our pride and joy in the maternity hospital. I hate flash and it would have killed the atmosphere and been totally inappropriate.

My Daughter Emily 8 hours old. by E.J. Bragg, on Flickr

 

[CMoore]

For the last 2 years i carried a 50 and a 105.
Now i carry a 35 and an 85 on two different bodies.
Its heavy and i probably look like either a Idiot/Nerd or a Pro/Somebody
But i have Sold/Tried to sell all my zooms. I never even used them. Who knows, i might have preferred that route, but i have a hard enough time dealing with exposure and focus. I do not really want a third "thing" to fuss with.
However.....if i could only have one lens, i would probably choose the 50mm.

 

[Ai Print]

No, I find it a very versatile and relaxing lens to shoot.

Optically stunning versions of it like the Zeiss 50mm F/2 Milvus and Leica 50mm 1.4 Asph are lenses I could travel the world with for a year and nearly never get bored of.

Boring photos start and end with the one using the camera.

 

[ParkerSmithPhoto]

Just wondering how many people here use a 50 as their main carry-around lens and/or for street photography?

My everyday carry is the Canon 40mm pancake. Little wide in the corners but nothing a 5x7 crop won't fix. The 50mm is a bit tight for me, the 35mm a bit too wide.

 

[Leigh B]

My everyday carry is the Canon 40mm pancake.

My everyday lens is a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 AF.

It's rather large. I wouldn't carry it through the Everglades or up the Himalayas.
But then I don't travel in those areas.

It's quite happy napping on the passenger seat as I drive around surveying the world.

- Leigh

 

[Les Sarile]

Is the 50mm lens boring?

Absolutely . . .

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Lenses for 35 mm cameras in the 45 to 55 mm range appear to have a perspective that most people equate with the human eye. So if you are making a personal statement then they would be the focal lengths of choice.

 

[ac12]

It depends on when and which camera I use/used:

• My father's Exacta, 50mm lens was used 95+% of the time. (first 35mm camera I used)
  
• My Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL, 50mm lens was used 95+% of the time. (2nd 35mm camera, sold and replaced with Nikkormat)
  
• My Nikkormat then Nikon F2, I use/used a mid-range zoom as my normal lens; 43-86, 35-105, 28-85. (3rd camera and current system)
• My Olympus OM2, the 50mm lens is used 90+% of the time. (my light weight alternative to my Nikon)
  
• 
  
• My brother and his Nikkormat, 50mm lens was used 95+% of the time.

• My 6x6, 80mm (basically same as a 50mm on a 35mm camera), 95+% of the time.
• My 4x5, 150mm (basically same as a 50mm on a 35mm camera), 98+% of the time.

I like the standard lenses 50mm on 35mm, 80mm on 6x6, and 150 on 4x5. It matches the way I see. And I don't find it boring at all.

However, I have shot with a mid-range zoom on my Nikkormat/Nikon F2 since the 1970s. This is because it gave me more flexibility, and with slides you can't crop the shot in the darkroom like you can with B&W film, what you shoot is it. I started with the 43-86 and used that for decades. Then recently replaced the 43-86 with the wider and longer 35-105, and a 28-85 on my other Nikon. Yes I like the mid range zooms. Will I get a 50? Eventually, just for the FAST speed, for when I am in a DIM venue.

YOU have to determine what focal length makes sense for YOU and what you are shooting; a prime 28/35/50 or a mid range zoom.

But back your question.
IMHO it is not that the 50mm lens is "boring." It is that you are not pushing yourself to really see.
Or as my former teacher would say, that is just an excuse to not work harder to get the shots.

 

[Chan Tran]

Many of the 50mm lenses were used 100% of the time (because the owner has only 1 lens) but that doesn't mean it's not boring. I don't find it's boring myself though.

 

[mshchem]

Have a look at the work by HCB.

+1+1+1+1

 

[mshchem]

I love 50 1.4. I don't care if it's my old beautiful Nikon or Pentax glass. I used a 50mm f2 on my Leica M6ttl before I sold it. (Temporary insanity ). I love 50mm AF-D I have a Japan made version before Nikonmoved production to China. . I despise zoom lenses. Dim and bulky and obtrusive.
I have a Nikon 85 1.4 AF-D all metal, no plastic lens elements, that too is a thing of beauty. 77mm filter, I use one of my RZ rubber hoods perfect lens and it's compatible back to the First Nikon F
Mike

 

[Alan Gales]

There are no boring lenses. Only boring photographers. Believe me. I've made boring photographs with all my lenses.

Many years ago when I bought a brand new Contax 139 with 50mm lens, I couldn't wait to get more lenses. When I did, I shot mostly with my 25mm and 100mm lenses. I did not want to be normal and shoot a boring normal focal length. I kept coming back to the 50mm though. Some subjects just demand a normal perspective.

I eventually learned that lenses have much less to do with the quality of a photograph than the photographer.

 

[Arklatexian]

If your photographs are boring the first thing that you should do is move closer and get extraneous objects out of the composition.

I probably should not write this but once when a well known representative of Leica was here lecturing to a bunch of photographers about new long focal length lenses for the Leicaflex, he, during a break, said if these new lenses were too costly, go out and buy a used VW bug, put a 50mm lens on the camera and drive close to the subject i.e. mountains. If you did that you would probably save money. He also told me his favorite personal camera was an M rangefinder Leica.......Regards!

 

[ciniframe]

The 50mm f1.7~f2 is fast, cheap and usually good enough resolution and contrast. Time was almost all 35mm SLR's were sold with a 50. For myself, that was a used Miranda D with a 50mm f1.9 Soligor. And a little later an Olympus Pen F with a 38mm f1.8. For quite a while these were my only lenses and you might (or might not) be surprised at what you can do with a fast 50. A cheap set of close up lenses and it's a macro (stopped down to f8 or less not too bad) and with a cheap 2X it's a short tele portrait lens, nice and soft wide open at around f4 (but it will still focus to 18 inches).

Those items by the way were my first accessory purchases for my camera, those and a all matte focusing screen. What else was a dirt poor 22 year old supposed to do?

 

[flavio81]

Never boring, and I spend most of my spare time thinking in which is the best: 45, 50, 55, or 58?

 

[CMoore]

How many Excellent, Canon FD, 50mm, f/1.8 lens do you think there are, still, in the world.?
I do not have near the shutter-time as most of you guys, but i have taken Hundreds and Hundreds of Sharp and "Quality" pictures with that lens.
Thousands upon Thousands of photographers have. Nothing wrong with them at all.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I want to remind everyone on the dangers of boredom. Verse from The Irish Ballad by Tom Lehrer. Tom Lehrer was a professor at Harvard that wrote several dozen humorous songs including his most famous The Elements

One day when she had nothing to do
Rickety-tickety-tin
One day when she had nothing to do
She cut her baby brother in two
And served him up as an Irish stew
And invited the neighbors in, -bors in
Invited the neighbors in

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hsimp=yhs-att_001&hspart=att&p=tom+lehrer+video#id=8&vid=dbe32c43e43918bed9f9b3d5d16b1f14&action=view

 

[flavio81]

How many Excellent, Canon FD, 50mm, f/1.8 lens do you think there are, still, in the world.?
I do not have near the shutter-time as most of you guys, but i have taken Hundreds and Hundreds of Sharp and "Quality" pictures with that lens.
Thousands upon Thousands of photographers have. Nothing wrong with them at all.

as a Canon brochure said: "it passes lens tests with flying colours"

A true classic, together with the Nikkor-H 50/2 and the Takumar 55/1.8

 

[darkosaric]

On Leica: 50mm 95%, 90mm 5% of the time.
On Nikon: 50mm 95%, 105mm 4%, 200mm 1% of the time.

I second Pioneer: Best 50mm lenses for me are Elmar f3,5 and Summar f2 (but for totally other reasons). Elmar is so great that I often wonder what are the improvements in lens design in the last 90 years ?

 

[film_man]

50mm is what >95% of my shots are taken with. I have had lenses from 17mm to 300mm and it always come back to 50mm. On medium format too, I've tried wider, longer and all sorts covering from 17mm to 300mm (and medium format equivalents) and it always comes back to the standard lens for the vast majority of shots. The Nikon 50/1.2 is one of the most interesting lenses I've owned actually, given it's versatility wide open and stopped down.

The only other focal length I could use as much is 40mm, currently own a Canon 40STM, also had a Voigtlander 40/1.4 and their 40/2. All wonderful lenses that can work like a 50 as long as you don't get too close to the subject (where it starts showing a bit).

 

[Ian Grant]

The only boring part about a lens is the way it's used, creativity isn't dependent on Focal length.

Ian

 

[benjiboy]

as a Canon brochure said: "it passes lens tests with flying colours"

A true classic, together with the Nikkor-H 50/2 and the Takumar 55/1.8

If you think the Canon FDn 50mm f1.8 is good try the 50mm f1.4n I have both it's a better lens than the former, it's also multi-coated which none of the 50mm 1.8 Canon FD optics are, in fact the 1.4 is a much better lens than I'm a photographer.

 

[mhanc]

definitely NOT boring... i like the one camera, one lens paradigm and its the only 35mm format lens i have really ever owned / used -- i guess i just learned how to make it work for me in any situation.

that said, i have been considering switching to a 35mm for my rangefinder camera. however, i really like to use selective focus which is harder to on shorter lenses -- so maybe i just leave well enough alone.