 The 50 millimeter, is normal boring? My name is David Patton. When I started photography, I wanted to make art. I wanted to be a landscape photographer. But with a family to feed and bills to pay, I decided it would be better to be a working photographer than a starving artist. So I took a job as a photojournalist. 25 years and thousands of assignments later, it was time to go back to my first love. It was time to follow my passion. Come along on my journey to become the best photographer I can be. Whether it be film or digital, I will be sharing what I learned through my successes and my failures, in hopes to inspire and educate. This is my journey. This is Bright in the Edge. When I started photography, the 50 millimeter lens came with on just about all new cameras. It was, I guess what you could call, the kit lens of the day. So for those that don't know, a 50 millimeter and 35 millimeter frame is considered by some people, the normal focal length, what you see, what best represents what you see with your eye. It might be a little less than that. Maybe it's the 40 millimeter, but these have always been called the normal focal length. Recently I was watching a YouTube video and a pretty well-known landscape photographer was asked if he used a 50 millimeter lens. And his response was, a 50 millimeter lens is normal. And normal's boring. I laughed out loud when I heard that. And the reason I laughed was, that was me probably most of my life, at least at the beginning of my photography career. I probably heard it from someone else. When I started working as a professional many years ago as a news photographer, I just carried wide angle lenses or wide angle zooms and short telephoto. Usually carried two bodies. The 70 to 200 would be my telephoto. And I really just never concerned myself with the middle with the 50 millimeter. I just left, I've had this lens for many years and it just set on the shelf. Fast forward 25 years and I find myself feeling naked if I don't have the 50 millimeter in my bag. There are times when I'm going out and I want to save weight and space. And I think, well, I'll just take my 20 and my 85. But there's always that voice nagging in the back of my head. Take the 52. I mean, it weighs nothing. It's very compact. I mean, it'd be silly not just take it. And there's so many times where I'm really glad I did. It was just the right focal length for the shot I was making. So why have I changed my mind? Why is it that I value the 50 millimeter so much now? Let's start with the size. Now, this is a 1.8 aperture, which keeps it pretty small, but still fairly, fairly fast lens. But the size of this thing is incredible. I mean, it is very light. It is very compact. I mean, there's really, it's like when I'm carrying it, it's not like I'm really carrying anything anyway. I might as well have it. I don't use wide angle zooms right now. I just have my 20 millimeter. I've kind of settled in on a wide angle that I like the most. And so this fills the gap between the 20 and the 70 to 200 or the 85, just depending on what I'm using that day. Now, if you go up in faster apertures, like a 1.4 or 1.2 or something like that, then you're gonna be increasing the size and weight. And for me, I would prefer to have a little bit slower lens and stick with this size. Now image quality with the 15 millimeter is another attribute that I really enjoy. It's really very sharp lens. I've been so impressed with the image quality that I get out of this really affordable lens. I'll even use this thing at F16, I know. What about diffraction? I've tested this lens at F16. And it really, there's very little difference. It looks great. So why not, you know, get that extra depth of field. 22 might be, F22 might be pushing a little bit, but F16 works great, at least on my copy. Price is another thing that is very attractive to this 15 millimeter. I mean, they're very affordable. You could probably go on just about any site online and pick these things up for under a hundred bucks. I mean, extremely, extremely affordable, at least for the 1.8 aperture. When you start going to the faster lenses, they do the price does go up quite a bit. But for my needs, for landscape photography, I really don't need those fast apertures. The 1.8 is plenty fast, works plenty well. You're not gonna find a better bang for the buck than the 50 millimeter lens. It's just sharp, affordable, and extremely compact. Sometimes I feel a super wide angle lens pushes that background just too far away and it stores the image so much that I feel like all you're really seeing is the effects of the lens and I don't think sometimes it's doing justice to the subject. In this mountain scene, I really think the 50 millimeter is was the perfect choice for this shot. I also shot this photograph, more telephoto, but I really liked that I'm still getting the presence of the mountain. But with some interest in the foreground, it's more of a balanced image, I think. It's less of a portrait of a mountain and more about the overall scene. I think the 50 millimeter does an excellent job on the intimate landscape. Those middle distance landscapes, like a trail heading through the woods or a path or a road going through a field. I also find myself using this lens for detail shots, for close ups, maybe not macro, but just the detail shot showing some of the elements in the nature and landscape. But for just detail and textured shots, the 50 works great for that. And for those shots where you wanna isolate the subject, but still have the presence of the environment that it's in, you can get that nice separation. You still get a little bit of blur in the background, but it's still wide enough that the environment is giving context to the photograph. I think for portrait photography, the 50 millimeter is a very good choice for full length, through quarter length shots, for people and couples. I like using it for engagement photos. So when I'm doing portrait photography, it's probably my most used lens. I don't do a lot of tight stuff with the 50. I prefer a little bit longer focal length. I still feel like if you get a little close, it's still a little bit distorts the features a little bit. The 50 millimeter lens, may not be the best choice for every shot. But there are times where it's just the right lens for the subject or the scene. That's what keeps it in my camera bag. I don't see that changing anytime soon. Well, I hope this little video on the 50 millimeter lens has maybe got you thinking a little bit. Or you may have one and it may use it all the time and it might be your favorite lens. I wouldn't call it my favorite lens, but I appreciate what I get with it. And I definitely wouldn't call it boring. If the photographs you're getting with the 50 millimeter are boring, maybe it's the subject or the composition. I don't really think you should call any focal length or any lens boring. This is a purpose for everything. So give the 50 a try if you don't have one. You might find that it's worth having in your bag. Well, I'm just going to end today's video right here. Until the next time, if you're coming along to the rise.