New lens makes me a happy man!
Before I start blogging anything..
just want to wish Catherine Happy Birthday!
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Anyway, I don't really know what to blog about, so I decide to just blog about my new "toy".
On the last post I said "All I want for Christmas is a AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens..xD ", obviously no one actually did get that for me for Christmas, and unfortunately my dad did not visit my blog either. So I decide to go and buy it myself, with my OWN money and treat it as a Christmas gift from...myself!
Oh yes, this is a beauty! Always wanted this lens since I played with Uncle Jeff's one during VBS, but always gave myself reason NOT to buy the lens everytime when I'm close to buying it, until now.
A little about this lens, it is a fixed 50mm lens, with a maximum aperture of f/1.8. And this is the newest version with a "D" marking there, this new version gives distance information to my speedlight so the speedlight can make adjustments more accurately. 50mm lens is also known as "prime lens" or "normal" lens. Why "normal"? It is because it has a 46 degree "view", which is roughly the same as a human eye. And why prime lens? It is because the first lens every created was also 50mm lens. So this kind of lens is around for ages and people judge the quality of the manufacture lens through their 50mm lens. 50mm lens are simply the sharpest lens you can get from any manufacturer, and with a added bonus, 50mm lens comes wit huge appertures, all the way down to f/1.0, but that will cost a bomb!
Huge aperture lens are great for depth of field photography, and also portrait shots. And they are also very useful for low light photography, because more light can enter the sensor. I totally love this lens, every pic u take with it is simply beautiful. But sometimes it gets very irritating when it focus wrongly, cause there's too little room for error. At the largest aperture, you focus on someone's nose, their cheeks and ears will be out of focus already!
Anyway I shall stop talking like a geek...and here are a few sample shots from my new found "toy"...
(The picture above of Catherine is also taken by this lens)
posted by Jeffrey Lim @ 5:52 PM
4 Anything to say??
4 Comments :
Nice meeting you!
Actually the 50mm is 'normal' not because of its 46 degree angle (50mm on a medium format is wider, and 50mm on a cropped digital SLR is smaller, and the angle is even smaller on the Q1.) What is true about the 50mm is the perspective; wider focal lengths mean that the background becomes smaller, while longer focal lengths make the background bigger. So, 50mm (on a film SLR or better, medium format) gives an accurate view of say, a building, and should technically NOT put any pounds on anybody. :D
Conversely, a long focal length should give a slight slimming effect.
I only figured this out properly just a few hours before the gig, so pardon the (possible) confusion. I'll write an entry about focal length soon!
Also, I think it's a funny tradition that the first shot dSLR owners take is of their lens cap. :D
Eh I'm confused now. 50mm on a dSLR is still normal, but with a 1.5x crop; it retains normal perspective... right? And 50mm on medium format gives a 'uncrop' but still correct normal perspective?
Hi Albert, thanks for stopping by, nice meeting to you too. Thanks Khai for stopping by also..long time never hear from you =).
Albert:
Hmmm..according to Nikon's website, they call their 50mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.4 lenses "Normal" lens because of it's 46 degrees picture angle, which is approximates the human eye. Or is it just advertising gimmick? I'm no professional, just love taking nice shots ;p
Khai:
Isn't those lens you're talking about nick-named "what you see is what you get" lenses? At least that's what I hear some people calling it in forums. Those are the 24mm lens for my Nikon which gives about almost the same field of view as our eyes at 36mm in 35mm format. Wanted to buy that but it's quite expensive, and it's brightest aperture is only f/2.8.
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