Two different 50mm lenses

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 11:33pm

Last week contained both a Perl Mongers meeting and a Web Standards Group meeting. I have just finished sorting through the photos I took and have uploaded the best (not so much for WSG) to Flickr.

Wednesday night was Perl Mongers at a new location, across the road from Federation Square. Wes brought along his 50mm f/1.4 lens which is a significant improvement over the 50mm f/1.8 lens that I had used previously.

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Melbourne Perl Mongers (May 2008) – a set on Flickr

(That raspberry wheat beer was very popular…)

On the Thursday night was a WSG meeting, tied in with the Web Directions South conference, where I was back to borrowing the 50mm f/1.8 lens. There was hardly any light and the lens (and camera) really struggled.

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Web Standards Group (May 2008) – a set on Flickr

While most of the photos look ok when small, some are really bad when the large versions are viewed. Adjusting the light levels just made it worse.

The upshot of all this is that I have more practical experience with different lenses and I now know that in the situation where a 50mm lens (on a crop body) is suitable, I should really get the f/1.4 over the f/1.8. A pity about the massive price difference.

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2 Responses to “Two different 50mm lenses”

  1. “A pity about the massive price difference.”

    Well I’ve come to the conclusion that in photography its certainly a case of you get what you pay for. At least the lens’ should be compatible if and when it comes time to upgrade the body.

    Wes - May 22nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm

  2. The underlying issue I have with price is that so far I have spent more than I originally planned on the camera and lenses. It doesn’t help that I just got a 28mm f/1.8 USM lens.

    Stephen - May 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 pm