Best uses you have found for a 50mm prime lens.

[CurtEastPoint]

I have one but don't use it a lot. Do you all and what situations do you find it best for?
Thanks!

[Major Nikon]

1. Photographing people during events, indoors when flash is used

With an APS-C sized sensor, I use a 50mm (or my 55mm) for pretty much everything I used my 85mm back in the film days because it becomes a short telephoto. It's also very good for full length portraits or group portraits. It's good outdoors when you want a more realistic photo as zoom and telephoto lenses tend to give the appearance of expanding or contracting perspective. So wide angle lenses are great for when you want to get both near and far objects in focus. Zoom lenses are good when you want subject isolation of a subject that doesn't have a lot of physical depth, like a person. Lenses that fall closer to the normal range are good for everything else. Many great street photographers use normal lenses exclusively. Ansel Adams also used normal lenses quite a bit, although he was typically using them on a medium or large format camera with tilt-shift capability.

I current have three prime lenses which are either 50 or 55mm and I use all three of them quite a bit for different things. I have a 55/2.8 macro manual focus, a 50/1.8 autofocus, and a 50/1.4 manual focus. I love them all for different reasons. At least one of them is in my camera bag or on the camera at all times.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Major, thank you. Let me ponder these ideas!

[alfredo]

3. It's a good all around, every day lens.

i would have to get a 25mm lens to get the 50mm FOV.

So my 50mm is used as a small telephoto, and for Macro teamed up with extension tubes.

If you have an APS-C sensor your 50 would be around 75mm, and more than suitable for portraits. Still, it is good to put it on and do a shoot just break out of old habits.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Eh....here's where I get kinda lost. I have a Nikon D800 so it's full frame.

That's not APC-C, right? So what's the effect on the 50mm lens? I never get this...

[alfredo]

5. It is the same FOV of a 35mm camera. It hits the sweet spot.

50mm was the standard lens on your new Minolta or Nikon film camera.

What lenses do you have now?

[CurtEastPoint]

6. Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G

Plus I have these so I think I'm covered pretty well:

Tamron AF 90mm f/2.8 Di SP AF/MF 1:1 Macro

Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom

Nikon 16-35mm f/4G ED VR II AF-S IF SWM Nikkor

[alfredo]

7. You have very good range of lenses.

[Major Nikon]

8. That's correct. "full frame" = 24x36mm

Full frame (35mm or 24x36mm) and APS-C(16.7x25.1mm) refer to the size of the film or sensor in the case of digital, aka format. A normal lens is one that reproduces perspective similar to what the human eye sees. Each format has it's own focal length which is considered normal, but in practice lenses considered "normal" actually fall within a certain range of focal lengths. For instance, with your camera the normal focal length is actually 43mm, but the creator of the first 35mm camera decided 50mm was the normal lens, so that's what you see most often. 50-58mm lenses are often considered normal for 35mm, although in reality they are a short telephoto.

The normal lens for APS-C is 30mm. What this means is the field of view for a 30mm lens on an APS-C camera will be the same as a 43mm lens on a "full frame" or 35mm camera.

One advantage to normal lenses is that everything else being equal, they are cheaper to produce a high quality lens. So in general lenses that fall in the normal range are the sharpest corner to corner, although this is not always true as an expensive telephoto or zoom may be sharper than a cheap normal lens.

[CurtEastPoint]

9. So... the fabled Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor

is super expensive due to more glass and that it maintains a constant 2.8 throughout, right?

[Major Nikon]

10. Exactly

It's easier and cheaper to build a zoom lens that has a reduced aperture at longer focal lengths. It's also true that all other things being equal, the larger the format, the larger the lens. That's why lenses designed primarily for APS-C cameras can be smaller and lighter.

I have the first version of that lens and it's very large and heavy because it contains so much glass. I don't use it much unless it's with a monopod or a tripod.

[jmowreader]

11. It's super expensive because of some of the glass in it

ED glass is very expensive.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. I like the 50 for people pictures,

and also it does nice macros with the extension tubes.