Photographing Newborn / Toddler with X-E3

Hello,

what is the best choice for newborn and then toddler photography with X-E3? I have a 18-55 kit lens and now would like to complement it with a prime.

I'm trying to decide – 35mm f/1.4 or 35mm f/2.0? I plan to take pictures both indoors and outdoors.

I think I've read all the existing threads and I'm leaning towards 1.4, the only thing that's bothering me about it is autofocus speed. Is it really hard to make it work, especially with a toddler?

So your advice and experience are welcome.

In my experience (I have a maniac 20 month old toddler...!) I used the 35mm F2 (with X-T20, now X-T30) when he was a newborn. They're not moving anywhere so it was a nice focal length to get some portraits.

Now that he's on the move and running everywhere, to be honest, it's hard to get a good shot! I'm more inclined to use the 23mm F2 and crop or wait until he's sitting down eating to take a few shots. Or since I've got the iPhone 11 Pro, I've been using that a lot more and have been pretty happy with the candid shots I get with it.

Good luck! When the new one arrives, it's going to be a pretty crazy time but it gets easier.

The 35mm is oh at f2 You can use iso 800 which should be sufficient if the ambient light is just standard At 1600 Iso the noise begins to be present spoiling the portrait

I have the 1.4 and I recommend the 2 for anything babies

baobob wrote:

The 35mm is oh at f2 You can use iso 800 which should be sufficient if the ambient light is just standard At 1600 Iso the noise begins to be present spoiling the portrait

ISO 1600 spoiling the portrait...with the X-E3? That is hard to believe. At ISO 3200 the noise is visible but not enough to spoil a portrait IMO. At ISO 6400 the noise can be disturbing but if using good denoise software (like Topaz) the result is acceptable.

.lars

I have both a 3 year old granddaughter and a new baby granddaughter and a year old granddaughter and I went from the 35mm 2.0 to the 23 2.0 because I wanted a little wider field of view. and I like the 23 a lot...it is fast to focus and plenty sharp of course...I could share a gazillion photos, but nobody wants that.  here is one as an example of up close personal on Thanksgiving:

staring contest

I went with the xh1 and the 16-55. At f/2.8 you give up a stop, but the zoom is so handy and af is very speedy.