Lens Question.

Nozebleed

hi...im thinking of buying a cannon nifty fifty on the advice that its a good all round lens and very handy to have when shooting in poor light...but as a noob i don't quite understand why/when or under what..circumstances would you use certain lens' ....take the 50mm lens or 10-20mm lens for instance? are they used for particular type of shot..close up but not macro shots!
Obviously telephoto lens' have the large zoom which is great for shooting from a distance..so what should a 10-20mm be used for..
any advice would be very helpful indeed..
thanks

Paulw

10-22mm is great for wide angle large group shots, or wide landscape shots.

Rb

Nozebleed wrote: »

hi...im thinking of buying a cannon nifty fifty on the advice that its a good all round lens and very handy to have when shooting in poor light...but as a noob i don't quite understand why/when or under what..circumstances would you use certain lens' ....take the 50mm lens or 10-20mm lens for instance? are they used for particular type of shot..close up but not macro shots!
Obviously telephoto lens' have the large zoom which is great for shooting from a distance..so what should a 10-20mm be used for..
any advice would be very helpful indeed..
thanks

10-20 is considered an ultra-wide angle lens, used for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, skyscapes, seascapes....you get the point. Can be used for funky portraits too.
At 10mm it'll distort vertical and horizontal lines, which gives a cool effect if it's what you're going for. 10mm is 16mm on a Canon xxxD, xxD and 7D, not made for full frame cameras.

Here's a good link on lens types and uses http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html and wikipedia on lens optics and uses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_%28optics%29

Different lenses have different purposes but yeah, 50mm is a solid, fast portrait lens that is very sharp and works well in low lit situations, but it's a short telephoto lens on a 1.6x crop as it's the full frame equivilant of 85mm.

Nozebleed

thanks...its a lack of practical experience with me on this..i had it backwards in a round about way...i get it now...much appreciated.

CabanSail

May I suggest that you take some time to find out about the fundementals of Photography before you go spending money on equipment. This will allow you to make much better decisions on what it is that may be required.

The Nifty Fifty can be really good value for money but it can also be an expensive paperweight if it's a lens that doesn't suit your style of photography. It can also depend on the body to which you will fit this lens. A lens with a focal length of about 50mm has been called a "normal lens" as it gives an angle of view which is approximately what the human eye sees on a 35mm camera. These lenses used to be the Kit Lens on SLR Cameras before zooms became popular, where they somewhat fell out of "fashion". In recent times they have become quite popular again because they are relatively cheap, quite fast and, being a prime lens, very sharp. They can be very useful but also can have severe limitations too. As said above, on a cropped body DSLR body (all but the top end Pro Bodies) they are no longer a "normal lens" but rather a "mid telephoto lens" as the angle of view becomes more narrow. The focal length stays at 50mm but the sensor is illuminated by the centre section of the lens. These lenses are quite fast at f1.8 but if you want it for low light work indoors then being a mid telephoto can be restrictive in a lot of situations. You can also have problems with the Auto Focus not being compatible with some bodies & even when it is it can struggle in low light. Many people are not comfortable with manually focussing these days & with a lens like this accurate focus is very important as the depth of field will be very narrow.

All of above is to demonstrate that correct lens choice comes from an understanding of the characteristics of the particular lens with a vision of what results you want to achieve. I have a Nifty Fifty myself & in certain situations it is fantastic. I do find that I don't shoot with it as much as some others do as it often does not suit my subject matter. I also have an 85mm prime which probably gets less use but I really like. It is really kept just for the Studio as that is it's natural hunting ground.

Ballyman

Nozebleed wrote: »

hi...im thinking of buying a cannon nifty fifty on the advice that its a good all round lens and very handy to have when shooting in poor light...but as a noob i don't quite understand why/when or under what..circumstances would you use certain lens' ....take the 50mm lens or 10-20mm lens for instance? are they used for particular type of shot..close up but not macro shots!
Obviously telephoto lens' have the large zoom which is great for shooting from a distance..so what should a 10-20mm be used for..
any advice would be very helpful indeed..
thanks

Forget buying a lens for the minute and buy yourself this instead. You are going to waste money buying lenses now if you have no idea what they are for.
Trust me on this