Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (2024)

Understanding Lenses: Part II, and is part of a series of lessons about camera lenses. Links to the others are at the bottom of the article.

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (1)

Before zoom lenses became the norm most cameras came with a 50mm lens as standard. Since then, the humble 50mm prime has fallen somewhat out of favour. Which is a shame, because 50mm prime lenses can give you high quality and versatility at a low price point. On an APS-C camera it’s one of my favourite focal lengths. Let’s take a look at why.

50mm prime lens vs. kit lens

If you own a kit lens or zoom that covers the 50mm focal length you may be wondering why you would buy a 50mm prime. After all, you already have that focal length covered. The answer is that 50mm lenses have some advantages that kit lenses don’t:

Better image quality

50mm lenses are simple beasts from a design point of view. Lens designers figured out a long time ago how to make a good quality 50mm lens, and the result is that the optical performance of even the least expensive 50mm prime outshines many zooms.

I used a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II lens (Canon’s cheapest) on a full-frame camera to take the photo below, my first time using it for photographing architecture, and I was amazed at the detail it captured when I enlarged it to 100%.

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (2)

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (3)

Price

50mm lenses are simple. They tend to have six to eight elements inside – zoom lenses may have more than double that. That means manufacturing costs are lower. It is likely that the cheapest lens in your camera manufacturer’s range is a 50mm prime. Most 50mm lenses represent excellent value for money.

However, when making a purchase (of any lens, not just a 50mm) it is wise bear in mind that more expensive models of the same lens have better build quality, autofocus performance, weatherproofing and maybe a wider maximum aperture.

Canon, for example, has three 50mm prime lenses (plus a 50mm macro lens) in its current range. You may not notice much difference in image quality between the 50mm f1.8 II and 50mm f1.2L – but you will notice the difference in build quality and autofocus performance. I opted for the middle option and bought the mid-range 50mm f1.4.

Wide maximum apertures

For me this is the most exciting aspect of 50mm primes (indeed, any prime lens). If you have a kit lens the long end (around 55mm) has an aperture of f5.6 or thereabouts. A prime 50mm lens has an aperture of f1.8 or wider. That’s over three stops. It makes a difference when shooting in low light as you can open up the lens rather than increasing ISO. It also helps you take photos with shallow depth-of-field.

This photo was taken at f1.8 with a 50mm lens:

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (4)

Getting the best out of a 50mm prime lens

Once you have a 50mm prime lens the next step is learning to get the best out of it. These are the things that I use my 50mm lens for:

Walk-around lens

A 50mm lens is a nice walk-around lens to take on a day out. I took these photos with my 50mm f1.4 lens in China. On a full-frame camera it’s a convenient focal length for this very casual style of photography. On an APS-C camera it will help you close in on interesting details.

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (5)

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (6)

Portraits

On an APS-C camera a 50mm prime lens effectively becomes a short telephoto lens, ideal for portraits. It works well on a full-frame camera as well, as long as you don’t mind a little distortion. The photos below show a couple of portraits taken with an 85mm lens.

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (7)

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (8)

Close-up photography

You can use a close-up lens or extension tubes with a 50mm lens to take close-up photos. You can also reverse mount it onto another lens to take macro photos (the techniques are covered in detail in the linked articles). This greatly increases the versatility of the lens. If you already own a 50mm lens these are cheaper options than buying a macro lens.

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (9)

Previous articles

These are the previous articles in the series:

Why your Kit Lens is Better than You Think

7 Ways to Get More Out of a Wide-angle Lens

Why Lens Quality Doesn’t Matter Quite as Much as You Think it Does

How to Prevent Lens Flare

How a Humble 85mm Lens Became my Favourite

Understanding Lenses: Part II

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (10)

If you liked this article then take a look at my latest eBook, Understanding Lenses: Part II – A guide to Canon normal and telephoto lenses.

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (11)
Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses (2024)

FAQs

Nifty Fifties – Why I Love 50mm Prime Lenses? ›

50mm lenses are fast lenses with a fast maximum aperture. The most basic 50mm lenses are typically F1. 8 - a very wide aperture. This means they are great for low-light photography (e.g. low-light portraiture or indoor shooting) as they allow more light into the camera's sensor.

What is so great about a 50mm lens? ›

50mm lenses are fast lenses with a fast maximum aperture. The most basic 50mm lenses are typically F1. 8 - a very wide aperture. This means they are great for low-light photography (e.g. low-light portraiture or indoor shooting) as they allow more light into the camera's sensor.

Why do people prefer prime lenses? ›

Prime lenses, because of their fixed focal length and wider maximum aperture, let more light in. This creates sharp images and footage with stunning shallow depth of field. Prime lenses also have fewer optical elements and moving parts, which means prime lenses provide faster focusing.

Why is the 50mm lens called the Nifty Fifty? ›

A nifty fifty is a fast 50mm lens. The “nifty” part comes from a very wide aperture—under f/1.8. The “fifty” refers to the focal length. A fast 50mm lens is the closest you can get to the human eye.

What is the Nifty 50 lens best for? ›

A nifty fifty is an excellent walk-around lens, ideal for capturing candid moments, making it a favourite for street photography (guide). When it comes to shooting people, it's less intimidating and intrusive than a large, pretentious zoom, and can make your subject more relaxed.

Do professionals use 50mm lens? ›

This 50mm prime lens has so many perks that it's easy to see why most professionals reach for this lens first. It's not too wide, or too long, meaning you can use it in cramped spaces (like a studio, or narrow street), or back up to get those killer wide shots of buildings and landscapes.

Why 50mm is better than 35mm? ›

Is 35mm or 50mm better for portraits? Both are great portrait lenses, however, a 50mm will generally give you more depth of field (thus offering better subject separation), show less distortion, and still have a wide enough field of view to capture enough of the surrounding context.

Do professional photographers use prime lenses? ›

Many professional photographers only use prime lenses because of the superior image quality. Prime lenses are cheaper – zoom lenses are fairly complicated, while prime lenses have been around since the introduction of the 35mm SLR film camera.

What are the disadvantages of a prime lens? ›

Prime Lens Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage of using a prime lens is the fixed focal length. You will experience the limitations when you start shooting with a prime lens. There is no zoom, which implies that you have to compose the frame by moving further away or by going nearer to the subject.

What is the most versatile prime lens? ›

Discover why a 50mm lens is the most versatile lens for any photographer. Achieve crisp images with little flare, even at the maximum aperture, and enjoy the f/1.4 speed perfect for available-light shooting. Discover the benefits of owning a 50mm prime lens: Superb image quality with minimal flare.

Why is NIFTY 50 the best? ›

The returns generated are way better than many other investment avenues or sitting idle on cash. Hence, even if the market corrects from here, your money invested at this point is likely to give you inflation-beating returns in the long run.

Why did Cartier Bresson use a 50mm lens? ›

In an interview years later, Henri Cartier-Bresson told some details on his choice of lenses: “The 50mm corresponds to a certain vision and at the same time has enough depth of focus, a thing you don't have in longer lenses.

Which lens is better than 50mm? ›

The 35mm lens focal length is more versatile when shooting indoors for its wide field of view and capturing more scenery when traveling than the 50mm lens which is more zoomed-in making it difficult to use indoors but ideal for traditional, headshots and portraits.

Is Nifty Fifty good for low light? ›

The nifty-fifty performs well in low light. A 50mm f/1.8 lens is not only faster than a variable aperture kit lens at f/3.5-5.6, it's faster than the fastest shorter focal length zooms like the 24-70 f/2.8 lenses. So it's a great lens to use inside when the light just isn't there for you.

Is a Nifty Fifty lens good for landscape photography? ›

The Nifty Fifty is an amazing lens for beginner landscape photographers, and it's great for more experienced shooters, too.

How to choose NIFTY 50? ›

Nifty 50 ETF can be bought by any investor on stock exchanges using a broking and demat account. It can be bought live during trading hours and scores over an index fund, which is bought at only the day-end NAV.

When should you not use a 50mm lens? ›

It's one of the most popular lenses on the market, and it can be used for anything from portraits and car photography to landscapes and nighttime shots. The only time you can't use a 50mm lens is when you're so far away from your subject that capturing it requires a telephoto lens.

Is 50mm focal length boring? ›

The 50mm lens sometimes has a bad reputation for being a boring lens. Unlike a wide angle lens which takes in a wider view of the world or a telephoto lens what lets you see things further away, the 50mm lens doesn't do anything special.

Is 50mm prime lens good for landscape? ›

35mm to 50mm can be used for landscapes, and particularly if the scene is further away and you don't incorporate foreground.

Should I get an 85mm or 50mm lens? ›

A 50mm produces less background blur, so your subject isn't as isolated from the background. An 85mm is more expensive than a 50mm and has better sharpness, autofocus speed, and chromatic aberration control. If you're willing to pay extra for these features, then it's definitely worth it.

Should I get a 50mm if I have a 35mm? ›

There is no winner between these two lenses, as they both have pros and cons. They work differently for every scenario. You can often start with 50mm on a shoot and then switch to 35mm when you need a wider angle. This is especially relevant if your position is a little cramped.

Why is 50mm cheaper? ›

50mm lenses can be made inexpensively because: The optical formula for making a good 50mm lens has been worked out long ago, so there is not a lot of R&D cost. In fact the very first lens made for the 35mm format was a 50mm. 50mm is a very popular lens, so there are economies of scale.

Are prime lenses really sharper? ›

Prime lenses are known to generally be sharper than their zoom counterparts. The reason is that they don't have the moving parts that contribute to lens diffraction. This is a phenomenon that causes light particles to bounce around when hitting your camera sensor, thereby decreasing the sharpness in your images.

Can you shoot a wedding with a prime lens? ›

The absolute safest bet for wedding photography is a set of 2-3 fast zooms and 1-2 fast primes. For example a 70-200 plus a 24-70 and/or a 16-35 zoom, and a 35mm, 50mm or 85mm prime thrown in for creative shooting and low-light. That right there is many wedding photographers' go-to setup.

Why is prime lens better than zoom? ›

Better image quality

Generally speaking, there is less distortion and chromatic aberration in prime lenses when compared with zoom lenses. Distortion changes with focal length, making images taken with zoom lenses more susceptible to image distortion than with a fixed focal length prime lens.

Do prime lenses have better image quality? ›

Because of the way they are designed, prime lenses often have a higher quality look than a zoom lens. This is because the build of a prime lens is much simpler than that of a zoom lens. They use less glass, which means that less light is diffracted, which will make for sharper images overall.

Why are prime lenses better in low light? ›

Good in Low Light Environments

The wider aperture of prime lenses makes them better suited for low light settings than zoom lenses. The aperture of a camera, which is the opening through which light passes, determines how much light is captured in your photographs.

Why are prime lenses more expensive? ›

Prime lenses can be more expensive due to their wider apertures and superior optical quality. That said, it really depends on what you're comparing: if you want a zoom lens of comparable focal length and quality, it will likely cost more.

What is the sharpest prime lens? ›

The 50mm f/1.4 is the pick of the litter, capable of astounding image quality, sharpness, and bokeh. It's a little bigger than other 50mm f/1.4 lenses, but it's available for Canon and Nikon DSLRs and goes toe-to-toe with any lens those companies have right now.

What is the sharpest lens ever produced? ›

When Peter Karbe, Leica's lead lens designer, described the Leica APO-Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH. as the sharpest lens they have ever produced, it certainly pricked up many ears.

What lens do most movies use? ›

As such, the question of which focal length is most cinematic is essentially subjective. That said, 28mm lenses are often cited as the most used in cinema history. Offering a view a little wider than the average person's field of vision, the 28mm lens emulates a sense of reality in the viewer.

How risky is NIFTY 50? ›

Since Nifty 50 is an index, the overnight risk tends to be much higher than it is for stocks. Overnight risk is basically the risk of the market going against your expectations during the aftermarket hours.

Is Nifty Next 50 better than NIFTY 50? ›

While NIFTY 50 and NIFTY 100 are quite similar in terms of their performance, the Next 50 index is an outlier that carries relatively higher risk and has the potential to deliver better returns.

Which is better Nifty 100 or 50? ›

More specifically, If you look at the combined weights of Nifty50 stocks in the Nifty100 index, then it is almost 86%. Meanwhile, the combined weight of all the Nifty Next50 stocks in index Nifty100 is just a small 13-14%. The top 10 stocks of Nifty50 hold 51-52% weight in Nifty 100.

What lens is most like the human eye? ›

Understanding Human Field of View

We often hear that a 50mm lens on a full frame camera is the closest to the human field of view. We call the 50mm a standard lens because the focal length is equal to the diagonal size of its sensor. Our eyes' focal length is approximately 22mm.

Why is a 50mm lens good for portraits? ›

For portrait photography, 50mm lenses are great for full-length and waist-level portraits, both on location and in the studio. This is thanks to the wide field of view compared to an 85mm or 135mm lens, and you don't need to be too far away from the model to achieve these crops.

Can I use 50mm lens for product photography? ›

Understanding focal length is important in product photography because the goal is sharp, magnified images that display important details. That's why you should not use a wide-angle lens. Instead, use a lens of at least 50mm. Anything smaller than 50mm could produce wide-angle distortion.

Which is the best lens in the world? ›

Included in this guide:
  • Nikon. AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. ...
  • Canon. RF 28-70mm f/2L USM" lens. ...
  • Canon. RF 24-70mm F2.8L IS USM. ...
  • Sony. FE 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master OSS. ...
  • Sony. E 16-55mm f2.8 G. ...
  • Sigma. 70-200mm f2.8 DG OS HSM Sport Lens - Nikon F Fit. ...
  • Canon. RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM. ...
  • Sigma. 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sport for Nikon.
Mar 14, 2023

Which lens is better 18 55 or 50mm? ›

The 18-55mm has a variable aperture of F/3.5-F/5.6, while the 50mm is a fast F/1.8. With a wider aperture, the 50mm can perform better in more situations. Whether you're shooting on a bright sunny day or after the sun goes down, having an aperture of F/1.8 will let you shoot in any lighting conditions.

Is 50mm better than 24mm? ›

When it comes to photographing people, a 50mm lens emphasizes the subject, whereas a 24mm lens shows the environment. Image taken with a Canon 60D and a 50mm lens. That's why a 50mm lens is great for head and shoulders portraits, while a 24mm lens is great for photographing people in the context of their surroundings.

Does NIFTY 50 change everyday? ›

It changes, depending upon the liquidity of the market. Indeed, the time-series of the NIFTY 50 impact cost is one of the best measures of changes in market liquidity over the years.

Is 50mm good for sunsets? ›

The “right” lens for sunset photography depends on the subject you're trying to shoot. For example, if you're shooting a portrait, you'll want to stay with a lens that has a 50mm focal range (a 50mm prime lens is even better!) as it offers the best crop and the closest to what our eyes can see.

Can you do real estate photography with a 50mm lens? ›

For general work, from normal-sized property exteriors to decently spacious interior shots, you can probably photograph almost everything at around 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, or maybe 70mm or 85mm if there are distant or detail shots to be had.

Is a 50mm lens good for sunset photography? ›

To recap, wide angle lenses are great for shooting sunset landscapes because of their ability to capture large features like mountains, the ocean, or skylines. Prime lenses like the 50mm lens are incredibly sharp.

What is the US equivalent of Nifty 50? ›

The Dow Jones Industrial Average.

What is the minimum lot of Nifty 50? ›

The market lot size for Nifty Bank futures and options has been reduced to 15 from 25, effective from the beginning of July 2023 contracts.

How many types of Nifty 50 are there? ›

NIFTY contains a host of indices – NIFTY 50, NIFTY IT, NIFTY Bank, and NIFTY Next 50; and is a part of the Futures and Options (F&O) segment of NSE which deals in derivatives.

Is a 50mm lens good for beginners? ›

50mm prime lenses are great for many different types of photography, from street to landscapes to candid shots and much more. It is a great lens to purchase as a beginner because you can use it to shoot many different subjects.

Is a 50mm lens good for street photography? ›

The 50mm is the ideal street photography lens. Actually it's an ideal lens full stop. It has the most applications of any focal and hence why they are often referred to as the “nifty fifty”, the versatile lens.

How far away can I shoot with a 50mm lens? ›

The focal distance for a 50mm lens is about half a meter to a meter and a half. So a 50 mm lens is best for still life or portrait style photography. Quite close to the subject.

What is the best use for 50mm prime lenses? ›

It's one of the most popular lenses on the market, and it can be used for anything from portraits and car photography to landscapes and nighttime shots. The only time you can't use a 50mm lens is when you're so far away from your subject that capturing it requires a telephoto lens.

Which is better 85mm or 50mm? ›

A 50mm produces less background blur, so your subject isn't as isolated from the background. An 85mm is more expensive than a 50mm and has better sharpness, autofocus speed, and chromatic aberration control. If you're willing to pay extra for these features, then it's definitely worth it.

What is the 500 rule for 50mm lens? ›

Nikon's 500 Rule for Crop Sensor Cameras

For a 50mm lens, the formula is 500 / (50 x 1.5) = 7 seconds (approximately).

Can you take family pictures with a 50mm lens? ›

If you're shooting a big family, a 50 or 85mm lens will give you the wide angle you need to get everyone in the frame. If you're shooting family portraits with only a couple of subjects, you can use a lens with a slightly longer focal length, like an 85mm, to fill the frame without having to stand too close.

Is 50mm the best focal length? ›

50mm is considered to be the most “normal” focal length. It is the midpoint between two very common categories of lenses: wide-angle and telephoto. 35mm, as its lower number implies, is a slightly wide-angle focal length, but not by much. In other words, 35mm fits more into your composition than 50mm.

Is 50mm lens good for night photography? ›

A regular 50mm will do just fine. Since it's not a wide-angle lens, it doesn't create distracting distortions. Furthermore, its maximum aperture between f/1.2, and f/1.8 is perfect for night time photography. Although not always necessary for portrait photography, it would also help if you have a tripod with you.

Why do I only shoot with 50mm? ›

I wondered, “Why do you only shoot with a 50mm lens?” Well, here are the reasons why he shoots about 90% of his images with a 50mm lens. First, it's sharper. It's a fixed focal length lens. It has a great fast aperture if you get a good 50mm.

Is 50mm closest to the human eye? ›

A 50mm lens has 46 degrees angle of view. The center of our field of vision, around 40-60 degrees, is where we get most of the information. This means that our perception depends on this part. It is close to the 50mm angle of view.

Can you zoom in and out on a 50mm lens? ›

For starts, a 50mm lens is kind of like the king of lenses.

The 50mm length doesn't zoom, crop, or widen the scene. It simply captures what's right in front of you the way that you view it yourself.

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