Advice for 50 mm lens? OR a new Camera?

Thanks Thunderstorm, very informative... Thanks for the 35mm tip and explanation about the sensor. I do have a tripod. Very simple...

I appreciate the notes on lighting too!

thunder storm wrote:

Anon_camnew1 wrote:

Hello, I have a canon EOS Rebel T1i,

I am a painter, so I only use this camera to shoot work in the studio for stuff like catalogs and online documentation. This year a professional photographer documented my work and I was blown away by the quality granted he had a set up of lights, amazing high camera used primarily for objects and architecture hooked up to a computer.

In ending the session I complained my own photos are a hair blurry and he looked at my camera and lens. Off that bat he he said I needed a 50 mm lens thats full frame and that a 35 mm might be okay enough. I have a standard 18-55mm general canon lens now.

Your camera has a smaller sensor than a full frame camera. Therefore a 50mm lens on full frame gives the same perspective as a 35mm lens on an apsc-camera like your 500D.

You can really improve your results in terms of sharpness by just updating your lens. I would suggest to have a look at 35mm f/2.0 IS USM. This lens is sharp at f/2.8, and the IS enables you to use longer shutterspeeds.

If your workflow is fast enough for you using a tripod, you don't need IS at all. You can use shutter speeds as long as you like. In this case maybe a tripod +a used 6d mark 1 and a 50mm f/1.8 stm is the bang for te buck combination for you. Select an aperture of f/5.6 or even f/8.0, make sure your camera and subject are steady, and the longer shutterspeed will make up for any lack of light. Longer shutterspeeds will also enable you to use as much as available light as possible, making you independent from artificial light.

So its clear the lens it an issue of course. BUT, in walking through the local tech store I noticed all kinds of new Nikons, Sony etc and I have been reading about better sensors too etc... since my model was new.

This may be irrelevant... but lighting situation in the studio, lots of artificial light and about 40% norther daylight I used to do the two tungesten lights at 45 degrees but now I just flood the whole studio and it seemed to work okay until I saw the pros photos.

Off camera speed lights + softboxes might be better, and are not necessarily very expensive. If you want good light, use large softboxes on your speedlites.

Light is often the most important thing to update. In a lot of cases the updating priorities should be: 1. light 2. lens 3 camera.

I need wisdom from this community. Budget is a pretty big deal for me I need to spend money on paint and materials and not always new camera gear. The gallery hires a super photographer for show catalogs, but I need a good option for myself. So I can send applications that look good etc on my own. I am reading about mirrorless cameras too...to open another can of worms.

Totaly irrelevant in your case. A mirrorless camera does not have a better sensor because it is mirrorless. Just choose the best lens+camera combination. If you buy used gear, a dslr is perfect, a mirrorless too.

Is would a new 50mm lens be okay or should I just upgrade to a new system? Lets stress the word newbie, I basically put it on the auto setting but have some manual experience.

Looking around at different 50mm lenses I am confused at which to choose. Sigma... Canon... other makes? Thoughts? I am told lens quality is actually one of the biggest issue overlooked by many.

If:

- you can use a tripod

- there is enough room for a 50mm on an aps-c camera. (50mm is a little zoomed in, so you need to be able to back up to get everything in the frame. You can test this with your zoom lens. )

You could even use a 50mm f/1.8 stm lens on your existing camera. This is a very affordable lens. It is also usable at full frame for if you want to update your camera later. Buy it.

I would also investigat if 2 speedlites, a trigger for your speedlites, 2 tripods for your speedlites, and 2 large softboxes will work in your case to improve the light. Yongnuo is affordable. sometimes things come in kits.

Thanks, M