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OMD: Can I take the same pictures with the 12mm f2.0 and the 17mm f1.8 ?

Started Nov 27, 2012 | Discussions thread
Vlad S Veteran Member • Posts: 3,766
Comparison of 12 and 17mm angles of view (image)

dustpuppy wrote:

I like taking a lot of portraits and shots of people, and lots of candid shots. Would those two lenses basically be equivalent for me, with the 12mm being a wider angle ? So I could crop my shots and end up with the same thing ? Or is the 17mm more adequate for taking shots of people / portraits ?

Below is a comparison of the 12 and 17mm angle of views. The stairs are 4 feet tall, and the distance between me and the bottom step is 4.5 feet. I'd say it's too close for candid shots, and would require too much cropping if I were to move further away.

I don't think the 12mm would work at all. Depending on what sort of portraits you want to do, you will want either 45mm (head and shoulders) or 25mm (full body) lens. The candid shots would be easiest in the 17-25 range, depending on how close you want to be and how much surroundings you want to include. You might be able to use 17 and crop to get framing similar to 25, but you would throw away a lot of pixels, and forget about blurred background.

Vlad

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-45mm F3.5-5.6 ASPH OIS Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 Panasonic Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH Panasonic Lumix G Vario 100-300mm F4-5.6 OIS +2 more
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