If you been into photography for a while, chances are the first lens you owned was a 50mm prime. My first slr came with one – an f1.8 a front a Minolta SRT 101. It was the only lens I owned for years and I put it to work for everything – sports, people and landscapes. It’s what got me started, back in high school.
A lot of kit, brand flip-flops and thousands of images later I, like many amateurs and professionals, allowed my “50″ to fall from the radar. The lens that had been the workhorse of photographers like Cartier Bresson was no longer en vogue. It’s perspective similar to that of the human eye became seen as “boring” and “uninspiring” – too short for a conservative telephoto, too long to be a mild wide-angle.
Long story cut short, I came back. For the last few years among the digital bodies and zooms regularly carried by me about the world, again a prime 50mm is along for the ride. There’s good reason why.
The lens is light in weight and compact. My Canon f1.4 isn’t built like a tank, but it’s been bumped aboard helicopters and rattled in the back of trucks, sprayed with dust in the south of Afghanistan and continues to work without a glitch. I can shoot portraits from a comfortable, yet intimate distance, get the bokeh (soft, out-of-focus area of a photo) I want and still be able to work candidly like the proverbial “fly on the wall.” Best thing though, I can shoot in the lowest of light – naturally, without flash – very cool, indeed!
What else? Well – plenty! Great optical performance is another plus for this “normal” focal length. Since the 1930s the lens has been the mainstay of 35mm photography. Its pedigree carries one of the best understood and most highly corrected optical designs in the history of optical technology. Even the cheapest 50mm lens will be superior to any of the current crop of moderate-aperture, consumer zooms. In fact, 50mm lenses are often the sharpest optics in a manufacturer’s line.
Best of all though, using a “standard” 50mm prime is good training for seeing effectively with the camera. “Zoom with your feet” is the Modus operandi here – moving closer to eliminate the unwanted, backing away to include more context for the subject.
With a prime lens like a 50mm, a photographer becomes much more aware of the viewfinder as a compositional frame. In fact, after using such a lens exclusively for a while, pictures then made with a zoom will improve, since the former instills a much better understanding of just how focal length affects composition.
Photojournalist David Bathgate teaches the online-interactive course Rediscovering the 50mm Prime at the The Compelling Image.
Hi David,
I am super interested in taking this class. I am not a Pro this much is clear. I just started taking photography serious even though I have been playing around with cameras for many, many years. I soon realized that all I had been doing is dicking around and that if I really wanted to pursue this art then I needed to learn it from the ground up. This is what I have embarked on.
Here is where I am at. Today, July 6th, I started a class/ workshop taught by Deb Pang Davis, “Craft Your Photo Presentation”. Considering the fact that I work I am wondering if I can take your class to or if I should wait until I am done and then join up.
It would help to know what kind of workload/ time an average student would need on a daily basis to really get something out of the workshop. Just roughly. Obviously all this varies and if I could I would spend all my time working behind a camera trying to tell a story.
Thank you very much,
Cheers,
Peter Heinrichsohn
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the inquiry. I would advise you to enroll in the next session running 10 August – 7 September. To get the most from this and other TCI courses, one should schedule a good 2 to 3 hours of shooting time etc. per week. Therefore, after completing Deb’s information- and practice-packed course, I’d say you’d be “good to go” with my 50mm class. Let me know if you’ve any additional questions along these lines.
All the best,
David
Hi David,
I signed up for your course and look forward to learning more about this lens.
Till the 10th then,
Cheers,
Pete
I am a 64 year old former newspaper photog and AP contibuter and Vietnam Vet that had to retire a few years ago because of health issues.I still shoot stuff but had to really curtail the gear big time and I went back to the 50 and a D700 to lighten the load,ect.I think everyone ought to give themselves some time with a 50 because it opens up a whole new world and makes you look for pics and zoom with your feet and move around a bit and see there is a world beyond the “zoom”world out there.I started with this lens when I was young and healthy and liked it and I am finishing with this lens when I am old and beat up and loving every minute of it.Stay safe..Dave Kline