Which Portrait lens to get?


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And so the aperture will change? Doesn't make sense to me. It's a 90mm f/2.8 constant aperture lens. I believe you were talking about internal focusing, not aperture ;)



What lenses? 85mm f/1.8 yes, 50mm f/1.8II yes, and I also tried out my friend's 50 1.4 (until he dropped it and it has a lensbaby effect now, pretty cool!).

None are very sharp wide open. Doesn't mean they're unusable, just not sharp to me. It's not ever going to be 70-200 f/4IS quality wide open.

With that being said, 85mm wide open is better than 50mm 1.8 wide open, which is better than 50 1.4 wide open. If they're all at f/2, the sharpness difference is negligible.

Buy the focal length that you need.

And ombre, just don't think about teleconverters. They won't work.
They work well on 70-200 series, 200 2, 200 2.8, 300 2.8, 300 4, 400 2.8, 400 4, 500 4, 600 4. They "just about work" on 100-400L, 400 5.6, 800 4.

As you can see, you don't need to think about tcons until you spend a sizable amount of money.

Cheers,
Zexun

Perhaps just the post I needed! Thanks =)

Guess its just 50mm F1.8 for me then. =)

Anyway I think its safe to say that the Tamron 90mm F2.8 isn't a constant aperture lens as the name suggests. however it will be really weird if the name was 90mm F2.8- X, dont you think so ? If 3 users agree, I think it is what they say then.
 

Hi, thanks for replying, I don't really understand what you mean by 90mm is not a constant aperture. Isn't F2.8? and its a prime lens too.


Hm actually seems like I should stick to the 50mm F1.8. I pretty much would love a 85mm F1.8 but its kind of expensive, anyone knows the average 2nd hand price these days?

tammy 90mm is a macro lens. macro lens usually don't have constant F stop. i don't really call 90mm a prime lens.

when yr focus is at infinity, u will get 2.8, anything less(meaning focus closer etc. 1-2m)... u may get a F stop of 3-3.2(just an example, the number may not be correct).
 

tammy 90mm is a macro lens. macro lens usually don't have constant F stop. i don't really call 90mm a prime lens.

when yr focus is at infinity, u will get 2.8, anything less(meaning focus closer etc. 1-2m)... u may get a F stop of 3-3.2(just an example, the number may not be correct).

Ah I see. Cool =)
 

Perhaps just the post I needed! Thanks =)

Guess its just 50mm F1.8 for me then. =)

Anyway I think its safe to say that the Tamron 90mm F2.8 isn't a constant aperture lens as the name suggests. however it will be really weird if the name was 90mm F2.8- X, dont you think so ? If 3 users agree, I think it is what they say then.

it is not weird, just that marco lens is like that.
 

When you read up on how macro lens work and how the aperture value is calculated, this is all normal.
 

tammy 90mm is a macro lens. macro lens usually don't have constant F stop. i don't really call 90mm a prime lens.

when yr focus is at infinity, u will get 2.8, anything less(meaning focus closer etc. 1-2m)... u may get a F stop of 3-3.2(just an example, the number may not be correct).

Prime lens = Lens with fixed focus length.

Therefore

Tamron 90mm = Prime Lens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_lens
 

What lenses? 85mm f/1.8 yes, 50mm f/1.8II yes, and I also tried out my friend's 50 1.4 (until he dropped it and it has a lensbaby effect now, pretty cool!).

None are very sharp wide open. Doesn't mean they're unusable, just not sharp to me. It's not ever going to be 70-200 f/4IS quality wide open.

70-200f/4IS is a constant f/4 lens

Why are you comparing sharpness of f/4 to f/1.8 or f/1.4?????? :dunno:
 

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yup... u r not wrong... but it is just me, i will rather call it a macro lens than a prime lens.

A rose is still a rose by any other name, but by altering names and labels or using them not in their entirety, you might help mislead others less informed and experienced than you Bernard. :bsmilie:
 

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For 1.6x crop bodies I'd suggest the 50mm 1.4 which converts to 80mm equiv FOV. I have had some nice results in terms of head + shoulder portraits with this. I haven't used an 85mm but judging by the fair amount of jumping backwards i have to do to get a good framing of my shots with the 50 I'd expect you'd have to do more backpedaling to get those shots. Might work for you though. A second hand 50mm 1.4 can be had for $300-400 ish.

Oh and though f/1.4 is not the sharpest aperture of this lens its an absolute treat for available light photography.
 

Has anyone experience the 50mm F1.8 being torn apart? I was surfing flickr and it seems that there were quite a few cases of the lens coming apart just because the user pulled their camera out of their bags holding the front of their lens. I would never want that to happen, haha.
 

Has anyone experience the 50mm F1.8 being torn apart? I was surfing flickr and it seems that there were quite a few cases of the lens coming apart just because the user pulled their camera out of their bags holding the front of their lens. I would never want that to happen, haha.

Have you felt the 50/1.8 before? It's plastic. It feels cheap. It is cheap! Pulling the camera out of the bag holding the front of the lens is a bad idea imho.
 

I dunno about how canon makes their lenses, but I wouldn't reccomend that you yank cameras out of the bag just by the lens itself.

;)
 

er i guess u have to take care of both your lens and cam...no matter is nikon or canon..they are fragile!
 

er i guess u have to take care of both your lens and cam...no matter is nikon or canon..they are fragile!

Haha, well I heard Nikon lenses are made of real glass while Canon's 'glass' is made of plastics. Is this true? Maybe not for the L lenses? Apparently it was a Pro photographer (CSer) who traded with one of my friends who mentioned it.
 

Haha, well I heard Nikon lenses are made of real glass while Canon's 'glass' is made of plastics. Is this true? Maybe not for the L lenses? Apparently it was a Pro photographer (CSer) who traded with one of my friends who mentioned it.

I shouldn't think so, not for the 50mm. It's only got four elements and they all distinctly feel glassy. Haha.

How would I know? Mine's one of the "split" ones, but no, it does not rip apart so easily as by pulling it out of the bag. -.- Oh, I even glamourised it:

7c349bc9855807df6f85f3210253c009.jpg

At the end of the day though, this lens has made me a lot of impressive images, and if I was paid for these images (I wasn't, because they were all personal portfolio, not commercial shoots), they would cover the cost of the lens easily five to ten times over.

Some images:
715db76b2c7d58bd707d5f3090eaa73f.jpg


0afdf188e376a9a3.jpg


Lost-92430645
 

they should feel glassy, somehow high quality plastics, but it makes sense if it werent true glass. Nikon lenses weigh much heavier, statistically. Don't they? Comparing the equivalents of course.

Anyway yea I think I'll settle for the 50mm F1.8, healthier for my budget too.
 

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