Why 50mm lenses?
I admit, my relationship with 50mm has been on again and off again in my photography career. It seems like I have a lot of company and many people either love 50mm or hate 50mm. There is also a lot of mythology around 50mm lenses that I will not even try to rebut. Just know that I have had a 50mm lens about as long as I have had a camera. During that time I have loved and sometimes hated the 50mm focal length. So, in no particular order, here are the reasons I keep coming back to 50mm:
50mm lenses duplicate the world mostly as I see it: Technically, the human eye has a field of vision much wider than 50mm. 28mm is probably the closets to you eye. So… why do I say 50mm duplicates the world as I see it? You eye is constantly changing focus as you look around with the best focus right in the center. So while you can see things in the edge of your eye you have to look at them to focus. So to me, the 50mm duplicates what my eyes can usually focus on without turning.
50mm lenses are easy to design with a fast aperture: Most 50mm lenses are double Gauss design which can deliver very high light collection with minimal aberration. They also can be small in size and not too heavy.
50mm lenses are good all around: You can shoot landscapes, portraits, studio, outdoors, low light and great depth of field with a 50mm lens. Shot wide open they give awesome separation between the subject and the background but stopped down they deliver great depth of field and edge to edge sharpness.
Awesome fast 50mm lenses are available for minimal cost: Both Canon and Nikon offer super fast and super sharp 50mm lenses for just over $100. They are the best bargain in the lens world! And the quality to cost ratio is about the best of any lens out there!
Below are some of my favorite 50mm lenses. I have been a Canon shooter since I was a teen so the list is more Canon centric. This is not a dispersion on Nikon or any of the other awesome manufacturers out there. Every camera you can buy today is awesome and we are lucky as photographers.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8
The EF 50mm f/1.8 is the crack cocaine of prime lenses. Cheap & fast and a bit loud (focus motor). This is the first “good” most people buy and after learning on a kit lens it is a bit of a shock how good pictures can look through a good lens.