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Anyone using 5D MOSTLY with 50 1.4?

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Carlo Chiopris

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Certainly you will enjoy the available light possibilities of the 5D. The 50 1.4 will be nice, but you might like something wider like the 24-105L although it's only f 4. It's a great walkaround/travel lens and at higher ISOs, f 4 is not too limiting.
--
Juli
http://www.pbase.com/julivalley/galleries
Canon FiveDee, 2oD, Canon Gee3, and Canon S7o, Fuji Eff30.

 
Juli Valley said:
Certainly you will enjoy the available light possibilities of the
5D. The 50 1.4 will be nice, but you might like something wider
like the 24-105L although it's only f 4. It's a great
walkaround/travel lens and at higher ISOs, f 4 is not too limiting.
Click to expand...
I'm surely thinking of adding a zoom too. Either the 24-105L or the much cheaper Tamron 28-75 (I own one for Nikon, and like it a lot). The fact is I'm fascinated by primes. I'm currently carrying my D70+50 1.4 around as my P&S. Being limited to a single focal length is actually improving my photos.

--
Carlo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cchiopris/
 
Carlo Chiopris said:
I'd like to know if anyone's using a 5D mostly with 50 1.4, or 35 2
or 1.4.
Click to expand...
I used my D60 exclusively with a 50/1.4 the first month or two I had it; that was my only lens at the time. And a pretty good set up, although I find 80 mm a little awkward.
Carlo Chiopris said:
I also badly want a 50 1.4 to behave as such.
Any experience, or advice?
Click to expand...
Well, the lens is a gem; it just isn't one I use very often, or feel especially fond of. Closed down to f/2.5 it's "critically" sharp, moreso than a lot of lenses with commas in the price tag. At f/1.4 it's acceptably shar. Don't let anyone tell you different. And the bokeh can be very nice wide open.

But mine is probably my least used lens. I haven't really shot with anything else since I got my 135/2 a few weeks ago, so it's not that I have a problem with not zooming. I just don't like the focal lenght. And it's slower to focus than the rest of my lenses, which is only a problem in a few particular situations when I'm shoot at f/1.4 because of the light level.

So I don't know if my excuse is helpful at all. The 50 is capable of fantastic images, and since it seems like you're already pretty fond of normal lenses, you'll probably be very happy with the set up. And it's not that I dislike the 50, or have any reason to fault it ... it's just that I like all of my other lenses more, for some particular and unique reason, where the 50 is more general, maybe less exciting.
 
The 35 and 50 1.4 are quite fine. The 35mm F2 is not as good (wide open). The 35 1.4 is very big and heavy - the 35 F2 is quite small and light.

These lenses vignette on the 5D.

I use all of the high speed primes from 24 to 135mm for low light work.
--
tony
http://www.tphoto.ca
 
Forrest said:
Well, the lens is a gem; it just isn't one I use very often, or
feel especially fond of. Closed down to f/2.5 it's "critically"
sharp, moreso than a lot of lenses with commas in the price tag.
At f/1.4 it's acceptably shar. Don't let anyone tell you
different. And the bokeh can be very nice wide open.
Click to expand...
I expect it to be more or less on par with the Nikon one. My 50 1.4 can be quite sharp wide open. Problems usually come from blur (I've got pretty shaky hands) and imprecise focus in low light.
Forrest41926 said:
So I don't know if my excuse is helpful at all. The 50 is capable
of fantastic images, and since it seems like you're already pretty
fond of normal lenses, you'll probably be very happy with the set
up.
Click to expand...
I'd say so. A normal zoom for all occasions, a fast prime for low light.

--
Carlo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cchiopris/
 
Juli Valley said:
when most people who owned a 35mm camera had only the 50mm lens.
Certainly, you will enjoy that lens.
Click to expand...
Wasn't that :) one of the moments in photography?

Carlo
 
Carlo Chiopris said:
I'd say so. A normal zoom for all occasions, a fast prime for low
light.
Click to expand...
The 5D has an ISO 50 setting, if you dig into the custom functions to enable it. ( Only have to do that once, though. ) You probably couldn't use f/1.4 in bright sun at midday, but if you really like the lens, you could get away with that in the shadows.

If you like prime lenses, it's not at all unreasonable to mostly use them. Zooms definately have their place, but you don't need to have one. And I do think a prime lens can improve your photography ... although once you really get the lesson down, you can apply it to shooting with zooms, too.
 
Carlo Chiopris said:
Juli Valley said:
...when most people who owned a 35mm camera had only the 50mm lens. Certainly, you will enjoy that lens.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Carlo Chiopris said:
Wasn't that :) one of the moments in photography?
Click to expand...
LOL, that "moment" lasted 24 years for me. That's how long I held onto my trusty Minolta SR-T 101 and 50MM f1.2 before it jammed and had to go into the shop, and I ran out and bought something new (Nikon N70) and started buying other lenses. As it turned out, the lubricants in the Minolta morphed into glue after 24 years and gummed up the works. Nothing that $120 and a good cleaning and some new lub wouldn't fix. I can't imagine any of my three Canon D cameras still operational 20 years from now. Paperweights at best, by that time?
  • Cecil
 
Carlo Chiopris said:
I'm surely thinking of adding a zoom too. Either the 24-105L or the
much cheaper Tamron 28-75 (I own one for Nikon, and like it a lot).
The fact is I'm fascinated by primes. I'm currently carrying my
D70+50 1.4 around as my P&S. Being limited to a single focal length
is actually improving my photos.
Click to expand...
I love working with primes also and have a whole collection of them. 20mm f/2.8, 28mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, 100mm f/2.0 and 200mm f/2.8L w/1.4x and 2x TCs. I only need one more and my prime collection will be complete: the 135mm f/2.0L.

They are all excellent lenses and perform well on the 5D. Here are the issues I have had with them. The 20mm vignettes pretty badly wide open but by f/4 is pretty good and it is an exceptionally sharp lens. My 28mm has developed a back focus and I need to send it in to get it recalibrated. The 50mm is a fantastic lens that I have no complaints with, you'll enjoy it. The 85mm suffers from CA wide open but other than that is pretty darn good. The 100mm is about the same. The 200mm is pretty much flawless and performs well is either TC and is even usable with stacked TC's (though I don't use it that way).

So anyway, that's a quick run down of my experience, warts and all.

--
---------------------------------------------------
Marcus Rugger
Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/rugger
 
Rugger said:
I love working with primes also and have a whole collection of
them. 20mm f/2.8, 28mm f/1.8, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, 100mm f/2.0
and 200mm f/2.8L w/1.4x and 2x TCs. I only need one more and my
prime collection will be complete: the 135mm f/2.0L.
Click to expand...
That's my new favorite lens. It didn't take very long for it to find its rightful place at the top of the list, either. The optical quality is just beyond anything I've ever seen, even from my 50/1.4 or 300/4 IS, although a lot of that might be the magical bokeh.

Anyway, when you pick your 135/2 up and complete your collection, I'm sure you'll love it. Plus, it works very well on a 5D.
 
when I put it on. Each time it is a rediscovery that reminds me what luck I had in getting my particular copy of it. It is either this or the 24-105. Soon, I will get more fast primes once I decide what focal lengths.
 
Carlo Chiopris said:
I'd like to know if anyone's using a 5D mostly with 50 1.4, or 35 2
or 1.4.

I'm considering switching from my aging D70 to Canon FF because I
mostly shoot indoor in available light, see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cchiopris/

I also badly want a 50 1.4 to behave as such.

Any experience, or advice?
Click to expand...
http://www.pbase.com/sillius

I am just starting to get to love this lens again, on the 5D its a gem, it also makes you think about composing, with the zoom you stay in the one spot, with the 50mm you have to move about, reminds me of the old days again. I hardly ever get vignetting with the 5D, I think that is hyped up too much in the nikon forum

1/40s f/1.4 at 50.0mm iso640 no flash



1/60s f/1.4 at 50.0mm iso640 no flash



1/4000s f/1.4 at 50.0mm iso100 no flash



1/50s f/1.4 at 50.0mm iso250 no flash



1/50s f/1.4 at 50.0mm iso250 no flash



1/40s f/1.4 at 50.0mm iso250 no flash



Regards, Lawrence
--
I Wish I Had a Monkey's Paw
 
Lawrence Murray said:
I am just starting to get to love this lens again, on the 5D its a
gem, it also makes you think about composing, with the zoom you
stay in the one spot, with the 50mm you have to move about, reminds
me of the old days again. I hardly ever get vignetting with the 5D,
I think that is hyped up too much in the nikon forum
Click to expand...
Beautiful shots, just my kind. There are "defects" in a lens that I like, or I can live with: some vignetting, some PF. The main issue is getting the shot in low light, the rest comes after.

Carlo
 
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