Is the 50mm lens boring?

[Harry Stevens]

Field of view is 'kind of important' with regards to perspective and how elements within an image fall in relation to one and other. "Zoom with your feet" only works if you have no care of complex 3D geometry and how you are projecting it onto a 2D plane.

No time for that twaddle I just take pictures that look right and it involves my feet.

 

[flavio81]

No time for that twaddle I just take pictures that look right and it involves my feet.

You take self-portraits of your feet?
How feet-ishist!!

 

[MartinCrabtree]

No time for that twaddle I just take pictures that look right and it involves my feet.

Makes for some unusual family portraits.

 

[MattKing]

No time for that twaddle I just take pictures that look right and it involves my feet.

You use a fisheye lens for all your photos?

 

[mgb74]

In the past, I've generally avoided the 50mm except when I need something fast. Lately have been using a 35-70 zoom for a walk-around lens. I've been a bit surprised by how many shots end up between 45 and 55mm.

 

[Craig75]

Depending on the street:

up to 1 lane: 90mm
up to 2 lanes: 50mm
up to 4 lanes: 35mm
4 or more lanes: 28mm

Humor aside. 98% its the 50 for me. Generally I don't like distortion and very few people get the wide angle to work to my taste. Winogrand and Kubrick being rare exceptions.

I actually think there is truth in this. A wider lens in tight winding alleys is often more useful than a 50 but a 50 more useful in boulevards and wider streets.

Hip shooting i like a 35 to give me margin for error but shooting with finder then 24mm 28mm 35mm 40mm 50mm its all good.

Most important is manual wind on, manual focus, shutter noise, iso range for night street shooting if its an auto or semi auto, size of camera, and robustness of camera (its not going to be in camera bag or case if im shooting in street) for me for street shooting. Focal length is a long way down list.

 

[cooltouch]

I don't always use a 50, but if I'm carrying primes in my bag, a 50 is always one of them. Sometimes this is exactly the focal length I need, which is why it's always in my bag.

A couple of things to consider that most folks don't, I'll wager. The 50mm is most likely the best optically corrected lens in ones collection. A good 50 is usually an APO lens, although seldom, if ever, indicated as such. It's also usually the fastest. So for these reasons alone, it's always a good idea to keep a 50mm within easy arm's reach.

 

[Photic Visions]

50mm is definitely not boring. My everyday carry-around is a 50mm Summicron-R. It's my "discovery lens," the one I use when I wander aimlessly, without agenda or pre-conceived notion of what I'm going to find. I like that it comes close to rendering scenes as I see them, as opposed to a wide-angle or tele.

 

[xtolsniffer]

I tend to go wider, my standard is 35mm, I find a 50mm a little too telephoto for my liking, but you could argue that 35mm is boring

 

[bvy]

Too long for a landscape and too wide for portraits. I don't use it much.

 

[Shawn Rahman]

Definitely not boring. Also, I think shunning the 50 becomes the cool thing to do if you read these forums too much.

 

[Platelayer]

I tend to go wider, my standard is 35mm, I find a 50mm a little too telephoto for my liking, but you could argue that 35mm is boring

I'd tend to agree with this; 35mm is quite suitable for the type of photography I do most. On a recent day out, I took a new (to me) 50mm lens and a zoom covering 35mm and 50mm. I ended up using the 50mm lens for the whole day. Most subjects would have worked with either length, but 50mm gives the photographs a bit more impact. I think any focal length can become boring if it's used too much - for me, 35mm had become boring and using a 50mm lens for a day improved my photography.

 

[Trangia]

Is the 50mm lens boring?

I'll get back to you on that....

 

[Dali]

A 50mm lens is not boring, it is demanding as it is the least intrusive lens. So if you find your pictures boring, it may be time to reconsider your practice.

 

[Wallendo]

I used to primarily use a 35-70mm zoom lens, but now routinely use a 50mm instead. I actually find the zoom boring, even though in certain cases it is still the right lens to use.
With the zoom, I can twist the lens to compose a shot. With the 50mm, I have to think about the shot and decide what to leave out or what unwanted imagery to leave in - zooming with your feet is not always an option when dealing with oceans, mountains, rivers and cliffs.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

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.

I see myself jumping between 50 and 35mm but the 50 never feels totally wrong. Wouldn't want to be without.

 

[TheTrailTog]

50mm boring? Not a chance! I tend to change regularly between 50mm, 35mm, and 24mm as my walk-around prime. Each FL is perfectly capable of making a wonderful, dynamic image (at least in my mind's eye). That said, since each has its own sweet spot composition wise, I just adjust my "vision" based on what I've got in hand at the moment.

 

[cooltouch]

I prefer to ask the question a bit differently: "Is the normal lens boring?"

And I ask this because I have several medium format cameras with non-interchangeable "normal" lenses, and I've used these cameras to take many of my very best photographs. So, no a normal lens is not boring. It is anything but boring. It can deliver exceptional images if the photographer is patient and perspicacious enough to use them.

The Queen Mary, Yashica Mat 124G, Fujichrome 100

A Japanese style bridge over a koi pond. Zeiss Super Ikonta BX, Fujichrome 100

And using just a regular old 50mm on a 35mm camera:

 

[RalphLambrecht]

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

Good Advice