# Poll: 35mm Vs 50mm Primes



## RLPhoto (Sep 14, 2012)

This focal length generally will determine the first set of primes someone will buy.

EX:

35mm - 85mm - 135mm

24mm - 50mm - 135mm

What is you preferred standard lens choice?


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## chabotc (Sep 14, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> This focal length generally will determine the first set of primes someone will buy.
> 
> EX:
> 
> ...




Funny I'd say that for a first set of primes, having both a 85mm and 135mm seems a bit overkill and weak on the wide angle abilities - personally my goto prime set is the 14mm 2.8, 35 1.4 and 135 2.0 - all fast focusing, great color & sharpness, and the 14mm .. man do i love those dramatic wide angles!


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## IIIHobbs (Sep 14, 2012)

The 50L was my first prime, the 135L followed a few months later, the 24L a few months after that, then finally the 300L. My kit essentially doubles the focal length with each prime. I then and since have sold all my zooms.

I hear that the 14L is amazing; too wide for me. I had the 16-35L for awhile but found that I did not use the wide side very often. I sold it when I bought the 24L.


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## Halfrack (Sep 14, 2012)

This needs a crop reference - on a crop body the 35mm, on a FF, the 50mm


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## mws (Sep 14, 2012)

Crop of FF? 50 is a little tight on a crop. It's fine for outdoors, but not so much inside. Also really depends on what you are shooting most of the time.


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## sandymandy (Sep 14, 2012)

I voted for the 50 cuz im using a 35mm on my APS-C so thats roughly a 50mm Fullframe. Id love to use a 35 on my aps-c but i dont find any appealing 20mm lenses.


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## thiflyingtomato (Sep 14, 2012)

sandymandy said:


> I voted for the 50 cuz im using a 35mm on my APS-C so thats roughly a 50mm Fullframe. Id love to use a 35 on my aps-c but i dont find any appealing 20mm lenses.



Why not the Zeiss 21?


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## PVS (Sep 14, 2012)

I can't remember any point and shoot camera from the film days worth mentioning that didn't have 35mm stuck on it - Olympus mju2, Hexar AF, Nikon 35ti, contax t3..
35m is the most usable lens on "full-frame" format - take afew steps back and you have the FoV of 28mm, take a few steps ahead and you got yourself a fifty. 
Definitely the best all around focal length.


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## pz-photography (Sep 15, 2012)

+1 for PVS and chabotc. When I'm walking around in the streets, my most favorite lens is the 35 1.4, since the 50 is a little bit to tight in my opinion and in termes of sharpness wide open its really really good. For the long end i'd go for the 85 1.2 II (higher budget option) because its more versatile than the 135 2.0 (lower budget option). Both are absolutely sharp wide open and have a super beautiful bokeh. The thing is: If you wanna do a portrait of just the upper part of the body, both are excellent, if you wanna get more in the picture and be more versatile, you can only do that with the 135 by yelling at your model. Until today I had skipped the 135 2.0, just because I own the 100L and the 70-200, so its a bit of an overkill for me, but I got a lot of overkill in my setup and right now I'm seriously considering buying one because it's just a great lens for the money!
About the wide end: I find the 35 1.4 to be a slight tick sharper than the 24 II (I compared various copies and hat a chat with other people who own both) so I ended up selling mine and I'm now considering the 24 TS-E as prime. At the wide end I'd go for nothing but the really outstanding 14 2.8 II since its one of the most interesting lenses canon has to offer and its way better than the zoom options. So my suggestion would be 14, 35, 85 and for everything above just the 70-200 2.8 II. Then you have a wide spreaded field of focal lengths with reasanable distance between each other. just my 2 cents


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## Danielle (Sep 15, 2012)

I tend to like 35mm more now. I spent years in the film days shooting almost exclusively 50mm but now I prefer slightly wider, even on full frame. 35mm on crop ends up being around 50mm so its also a dual purpose normal focal length on crop or full frame (bonus).


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## glb2012 (Sep 15, 2012)

RLPhoto said:


> This focal length generally will determine the first set of primes someone will buy.
> 
> EX:
> 
> ...



50mm was my first prime, but I have replaced it with a 35mm (I am shooting full frame).
I have only 3 lenses (primes) and no zooms.

35mm f/1.4
Sigma 85mm f/1.4
200mm f/2.8 II


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## sandymandy (Sep 17, 2012)

thiflyingtomato said:


> sandymandy said:
> 
> 
> > I voted for the 50 cuz im using a 35mm on my APS-C so thats roughly a 50mm Fullframe. Id love to use a 35 on my aps-c but i dont find any appealing 20mm lenses.
> ...



Because i want to have a wide open aperture and that gets less and less realistic considering i need a ca. 20mm lens for my APS-C. Plus the Zeiss is really expensive to me!!
Next thing i will buy is the Samyang 35mm 1.4. Im used to manual focus anyway with my tons of m42 lenses even without manual focus screen through my viewfinder  My eyes are still fine ^^
At the moment using zeiss 35mm 2.8 Zebra a lot


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## mirekti (Sep 18, 2012)

I'm using 35mm and it is an awsome lens. 
My next purchase will be 85 1.2L

I'm still wondering which way to go in wide angle. Never had a chance to really try it out.
Wide angle will either gonna be 14mm II or 24-70 II. 
I've never had a 24mm lens so how far away should I step back with 35mm to get 24mm?

If I can get 24mm with 35mm easily, I might not need 24-70 and I'll buy 14mm instead.


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## Random Orbits (Sep 18, 2012)

mirekti said:


> I'm using 35mm and it is an awsome lens.
> My next purchase will be 85 1.2L
> 
> I'm still wondering which way to go in wide angle. Never had a chance to really try it out.
> ...



The smaller increments at the wide end get more significant the shorter the focal length. The 35mm has a horizontal AOV of 54 deg. The 24 and 14 have HAOVs of 74 and 104 deg, respectively. The 14 is hard to frame well and is about twice as wide as the 35. The 16-35L II covers the wide range with AF and takes filters. Another way to do is with the 14 and 24-70/24-105/24 prime, but that is more expensive.


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## pz-photography (Sep 18, 2012)

LETS GO SIGMA!!!! http://www.canonrumors.com/2012/09/sigma-announces-three-new-lenses-35-f1-4-17-70-f2-8-4-0-os-120-300-f2-8-os/
if it's near as good as the 50 1.4 then its a pretty sweet option!


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## pdirestajr (Sep 20, 2012)

A question I always wonder:

Why do people say the 50mm is a little tight on a crop body, but the 85mm is never too tight on a ff. Same goes for the 85mm on a crop vs the 135 on ff.


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## rpt (Sep 20, 2012)

50 mm but I have mostly had zooms! I had a 50mm on the AE1 and had a 28-80 and a 80-200. On my 300D I had the 17-55 and the 100-400. On my 5D3 I got the 24-105 as the kit lens and just 2 months back I bought the 40mm.
So if I average the focal length of my primes I still get 45 so I am staying with 50


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## Random Orbits (Sep 20, 2012)

pdirestajr said:


> A question I always wonder:
> 
> Why do people say the 50mm is a little tight on a crop body, but the 85mm is never too tight on a ff. Same goes for the 85mm on a crop vs the 135 on ff.



Different uses. The 50 can be used a general walk-about lens on FF; a lot fewer people would use a 85mm on FF for street. In practice, it doesn't really matter because one can use 35/50/85 on a crop or 50/85/135 on FF and they would give roughly the same framing but different DOF. The difficulty is that there is a lack of fast glass on the wide end. The 24 f/1.4 would require a fast 15mm lens, which does not exist...


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