50 mm for interview

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ingoandfloyd

Active member
I need a good 50 mm with a nice DOF for interviews i have been using canon fd 50 mm 1,4 its ok, but not perfect for me i want a sharper lens the fd gives a bit of vintage look which a dont want in my next interviews. I am open to both new and old lenses and budget is about 1000 euro. I also tried the pankake lens, very good lens but not for this situation cause you need to get relay close with the pankake to make it look good not perfeck for interviews. A nice looking dof and filmic look is very important for this project.
 
Ive been trying that but i dont get that nice dof as with the 50 mm, and what do i got with the pankake in crop mode? 40x2,6 is like 106 but the dof is not there at all in the same way as the 50 mm wich is actully 100 mm with gh2 sensor.
 
50mm 1.8 @1.8 might be sharper than 50mm 1.4 @2.0, but you never know the extra .75 stop might do some wonder sometimes. Also the price difference isn't huge.
 
farfromsubtle said:
Use the pancake with crop mode.
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I know the OP isn't going this route, but one thing to remember about this idea is that while the frame might be comparable to a 50mm the optical properties will most certainly not be. The depth compression offered by a 50mm lens will be much more flattering for faces in interview settings. Just FYI.
 
+1. ETC can't replace good bokeh from longer lens because longer lens compresses the background more. I love carrying a set of 20mm 1.7 and 50mm 1.4.
 
ingoandfloyd said:
So both the Nikon and the zeiss is sharper than the Canon fd? Big diffreance?
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No. The law of diminishing returns has kicked in whenever we talk of "fairly good" lenses like the Canon FD and then amazing lenses like Zeiss and Nikon. Expect to pay 3 times the price for a better lens, 10 times the price for an amazing lens, but all scope of quality is within the last 15% of perfection. With 50mm lenses though, you can get near perfection for a lot less, as they're so common and also so many of them are good.

Having said all that, it is certainly worth buying a Zeiss Planar if you want sharpness and amazing bokeh and in/out of focus 3D effect that Zeiss is so famous for.
 
Lucas Adamson said:
No. The law of diminishing returns has kicked in whenever we talk of "fairly good" lenses like the Canon FD and then amazing lenses like Zeiss and Nikon. Expect to pay 3 times the price for a better lens, 10 times the price for an amazing lens, but all scope of quality is within the last 15% of perfection. With 50mm lenses though, you can get near perfection for a lot less, as they're so common and also so many of them are good.

Having said all that, it is certainly worth buying a Zeiss Planar if you want sharpness and amazing bokeh and in/out of focus 3D effect that Zeiss is so famous for.
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Very good answer.
 
I find it hard to comprehend how there can be (apparently) such marked sharpness differences among any of the lenses being discussed, when their images are being recorded to 1920x1080 pixels of compressed AVCHD. Just sayin' ...
 
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