5 low-cost fixed lenses

Canon 50mm f/1.8 EF II

This lens has been produced for almost 15 years, which indicates its huge popularity and demand in the market.

The classic focal length of this model is the most in demand, because when used on full-frame cameras, we get an angle of view approximately equal to that of a person. This provides excellent FR for shooting full-length portraits. But when used on crop cameras, we have an EGF of approximately 80 mm (50 mm x 1.6 crop factor). And this is the beginning of the tele-range, more suitable for facial portraits.

This lens will work seamlessly with all Canon digital SLR cameras. However, the use of a conventional motor as a focusing drive makes this process noisy, slow and not very accurate, especially when used on low-cost and outdated models. But when shooting staged shots, this is unlikely to create problems.

Lens blur can hardly be called artistic. The reason for this is only 5 aperture blades, which leads to the appearance of the notorious ugly “nuts” in the background. But here much will depend on the uniformity of the background and the presence of point light sources on it.

Another feature of the lens is the difficult manual focus mode, which is caused by too small a stroke and an unfortunate location of the focus ring. Moreover, the design of the autofocus system is such that in the “A” (auto) mode, the ring cannot be touched at all in order to avoid breakage!

Based on the foregoing, I’ll modestly note: if you don’t consider yourself an ardent fan of the manufacturer, but you really need a good fifty dollars, it makes sense to take a closer look at third-party lenses as well.

Experienced photographers will surely remember the Japanese brand Minolta. It was after his purchase that the electronic giant SONY decided to intervene in the distribution of places on the world photo Olympus. The release of "SLR" cameras required the release of a line of various optics, which was not long in coming.

The small Sony 50mm F/ 1.8 has a classic focal length and a maximum aperture of 1.8. These parameters confidently classify it as a portrait lens, although it will perfectly capture everything that falls into its field of view. But you need to take into account the fact that the lens is designed for use on cameras with an APS-C crop matrix and, therefore, the effective distance will be 75mm (50 x 1.5). And this already somewhat narrows the range of use, making the lens more suitable for waist and front portraits than full-length ones.

The aperture of the lens is quite enough for shooting in low light conditions. But its main purpose is to get a short depth of field to “separate” the object from the background in portrait frames. The lens for unhurried thoughtful shooting, for a reportage style is clearly not suitable due to the slowness in focusing. But it will be a good help to a novice photographer who is no longer satisfied with the "whale" lens.

But if you close the aperture, then he will perfectly cope with any plot that falls into this range of focal lengths. Of course, that the device in a plastic case does not have dust / water protection. But if this is a “minus”, then the rounded 7-blade aperture is a clear and significant “plus”, since it allows you to get a beautiful blur of the background, without “nuts” around point light sources.

It also has one not very good property inherent in many low-cost “fifty kopecks”: the lens confidently focuses only up to 5 meters, misses start as the distance increases ... But the price and aperture ratio more than compensate for these shortcomings.

All the main characteristics of Nikon lenses can be found in their markings. Nikon 50mm f / 1.8G AF-S Nikkor is: - focal length 50 mm;
- maximum aperture 1.8;
- electronic aperture control type (letter G);
- the principle of autofocus - an electric motor (letters AF-S).

The absence of the letters DX in the marking indicates that the lens can be used both with full-frame expensive models and with low-cost ones. The presence of a focusing motor allows you to use it with any digital SLR cameras from this manufacturer, regardless of the class and year of manufacture.

The focal length of 50 mm is the most popular. When using such lenses on full-frame cameras, we get an angle of view close to that of a person. Therefore, a huge number of different modifications are produced. At the same Nikon, I had a chance to try 6 different lenses with a 50 mm focal length.

One of the most important characteristics of any lens is its aperture ratio. It is for the sake of this parameter that “fixes” are acquired, the value of the Depth of Sharply Rendered Space (DOF) depends on it. If you do not know what this term means, then it is quite possible that it is too early to acquire such a lens.

So, the aperture ratio of the lens is quite sufficient to not only shoot in low light, but also “tear off” the subject from the background, while getting a beautiful blur of the background. The lens gives a sharp image already at maximum aperture, reaching maximum sharpness at a value of 5.6. It holds backlight and side light well, which is very good when shooting portraits in the open air. The blur is soft and very pleasant.

It is extremely light, which is important when used with heavy professional cameras. Perfect for street shooting in the style of "street photography". I note the "A / M" mode, which allows you to "twist" the focus by hand without switching the focus mode. The mount is metal, which is only a plus for him in terms of reliability.

When using the lens on “crop cameras”, the effective focal length will be approximately 75 mm (50 mm x 1.5 crop factor), which makes it not so attractive anymore, since this is a lot for full-length ones, but not enough for a facial portrait. But if you are buying full-frame optics, then this choice is more than justified!

Among the manufacturers of photographic equipment there are a number of companies that practically do not produce cameras, but are manufacturers of excellent and not expensive lenses. The Japanese brand SIGMA is one of them.

It follows from the marking that one of the main tasks of this lens is to shoot "macro", which imposes specific requirements on its characteristics. Most lenses allow you to focus at a distance of at least 40 cm from the object, which reduces such a parameter as a magnification ratio to 1:4. But this lens allows focusing from a distance of 10 cm, which made it possible to obtain a 1: 1 magnification.

This is what determines the possibility of working in the macro-shooting genre.

No less important is the minimum aperture, which allows to maximize the depth of field at extremely small shooting distances. The lens has this parameter equal to 1/32, which is more than enough. At the same time, the presence of a maximum aperture of 2.8 allows you to use it as a "portrait", although in this case, the sharpness may even turn out to be excessive.

The lens uses a simplified optical design, which manifests itself in a change in dimensions when focusing: a movable rotating block of the front lenses can lead to a change in scale when shooting “macro”.

The focus ring is well thought out. It has a large stroke, more than 180 degrees. There is a switch (limiter) for manual focusing, which allows you to limit the course of this ring and speed up the focusing process.

The lens has a pleasant coating, very resistant and wears little. A trifle? Any macro photographer will attest to the importance of non-slip fingers in a genre that requires fine precision in movement.

All SIGMA lenses are available with various types of mounts (bayonets), which allows them to be used with almost any modern digital SLR camera. But when buying, you need to pay attention to the marking, which should contain a mention of the camera brand: Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc.

The lens is strikingly different from its "colleagues-fifty kopecks" even in appearance. This is not a tiny "pancake" of 170 grams of weight, but a huge lens of half a kilo and with a front lens diameter of 77 mm! By the way, it is this diameter that is standard for top-class optics and allows you to use the same filter on different lenses. Given the price of good filters, this is not a trifle at all.

The lens is very comfortable in the hand, the coating of the focusing ring prevents slipping. The ring itself is wide and with a large stroke. But with autofocus, not everything is so smooth: in low light, misses are sometimes possible. And, like most of the fifty dollars I know, there are problems when focusing on distant objects. Although up to 5 meters my copy focused quickly and confidently.

According to my observations, I will say that the main purpose of this lens is a portrait. With a slow, thoughtful approach, it allows you to capture great shots, especially when combined with a full-frame camera, for which this focal length is the base. When using it with crop cameras, we get an effective focal length of 75-80 mm depending on the crop factor (Nikon 1.5x, Canon 1.6x), which allows it to be used for waist and even front portraits.

The lens has its own design, very interesting and original, radically different from most inexpensive brothers in the class. But personally I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. The use of lenses with such a large aperture and extremely low depth of field requires the experience of more than one day and month. I would also recommend it to owners of cameras that have the ability to adjust autofocus. On low-cost “DSLRs” of the Nikon D3xxx / Canon EOS 1200 class, there will be a lot of autofocus misses, and the camera will not allow you to enter corrections.

Like all lenses of this company, this model is available with mounting options for Nikon/Canon/Sony.