31 Photos That’ll Leave You Wanting to Shoot With a 50mm Lens

posted on 15th July 2010 by Benjamin Reid with the tags: "50mm", "Photography" .

50mm lenses are the gem in most photographers tool kits. They provide great depth of field by allowing the aperture to open up really wide (most common apertures are 1.8 or 1.4) and pin sharp images that will leave your eyes sore staring at the details.

You can pick up a 50mm prime lens at pretty low price and it’s a great step in the right direction to give your photos that professional edge.

I’ve rounded up 31 brilliant examples of photos taken with a 50mm lens for your eye candy, enjoy!

Showcases ~ 19 comments read more...

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d i l i p 15 Jul 2010
Good compilation!
ash kingston 15 Jul 2010
Thanks for adding my photo guys!
Callum Chapman 15 Jul 2010
Cat at the top is so cute!
Benjamin Reid 15 Jul 2010
This was great putting together, I <3 50mm.
Lucas Cobb Design 15 Jul 2010
Thanks to Callum for pointing me on to this article.
All I shoot with is a 50mm prime at 1.4 – Sharpness and DOF cannot be beat, plus works great for low light conditions.
Great blog, I am now a fan.
Sergei Tatarinov 16 Jul 2010
Wow! Does that DOF comes only because of the lens itself, meaning DOF in the photos is not a photoshop’s trick? I’m not a photographer and I even don’t a photo camera, only video camcorder. So if that nice DOF is thanks to the 50mm prime, I’d buy such thing as a present for my girlfriend, she’s an amateur photographer and has bought her first DSLR a few months ago. Other than 50mm prime, what would you guys suggest? Question to photographers. It might be not an appropriate place to ask such question, but pardon me and please let this comment leave, maybe someone will reply to it.
Cheers guys.
Callum Chapman 16 Jul 2010
@Sergei, It’s the lens that gives you such a great DOF, I’m going to give Ben a shout to reply to your question(s) in more detail – he knows much more about it than me, hehe!
Benjamin Reid 16 Jul 2010
@Sergei – The DOF is from the lens. You’ll want to look at this lens: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Lens-50-1-8-II/dp/B00007E7JU/ You will not go wrong with that.
Rick Nunn 19 Jul 2010
Great round up.
While the 50mm isn’t my favourite lens (It’s my 2nd fave my 135mm F2 L takes the top spot ) these are perfect examples of why I very rarely take my camera anywhere without it.
Callum Chapman 19 Jul 2010
Cheers Rick, glad you like the post! I’m yet to get myself a 50mm – it’s on the to buy list!
Ali Designs 19 Jul 2010
I agreed with you Callum, that cat is soooo cute!!
Mutua 26 Jul 2010
I love these photos, and I love that lens. Since I got it, I use it 80% of the time, it has transformed the way I view photography. Thanks for sharing these
TimmiePics 26 Jul 2010
right off to buy a 50mm ,,, !!!
Callum Chapman 26 Jul 2010
@Ali: Me wants it!
@Mutua: Glad you liked the post! Yeah, I think I’ll use it 80% of the time when I get one too!
@TimmePics: Me too!
Ingrid 28 Jul 2010
Great Post – A 500mm is the best value bit of kit you can get!
laurence zankowski 28 Jul 2010
I use a 50mm on my Nikon D40, alas, all manual so tack sharp is a wee bit difficult at times. However, it is a wonderful lens to have. It opens up challenges and new ideas when just walking around.
Arnold Dalocanog 29 Jul 2010
Whats the difference between 1.4 and 1.8 aperture? 1.4 seems to be more expensive, what is that? is it better?
Callum Chapman 29 Jul 2010
@Arnold: Yes, it’s better. The lower the aperture number the higher the aperture is, and the higher the aperture is the more light it will let in. It also creates a much wider depth of field, so basically the background will blur even more with a 1.4 50mm lens.
Here is a comparison of the two lens (the Canon 1.4 vs 1.8 50mm lens): http://bit.ly/50mm-comparison
And here is a bit of information on aperture: http://bit.ly/photo-aperture
Hope this helped
Arnold Dalocanog 29 Jul 2010
yea that helped a whole lot, thanks. Do you think its worth getting a more expensive 1.4 over 1.8, to me i dont see much of the difference between the two. Also will these lenses make the images much sharper like the photos above?