Introduction, New Member, and a question about lenses....

[reaver]

Hey guys, new member here. Before I get to my question, I wanted to give a little bit of an introduction about myself.

My name is Brian, and I'm a veteran post production and 3D artist in Seattle. I recently started my own business, and as such, have purchased a Sony NEX-5N as a starter cam. I don't have a lot of experience shooting things, and honestly, the world of cameras is still quite foreign to me, but I'm doing massive amounts of reading and learning pretty much everything I can. My sister is a photographer, so we're trying to see about getting into the wedding photography/videography side of things, as a way to fund other ventures.

Now, my equipment is as follows:
Sony NEX-5n with 18-50mm kit lens
Ravelli Fluid Head Tripod
Opteka Camera Cage (I mainly bought this so that I could build some bolt on plastic panels, and enclose the entire camera, so that I can take it on the paintball field and get some killer action shots, while protecting my camera from getting hit)
Tascam DR-05 for recording audio

There seems to be a general consensus that a 50mm prime lens is a must have, since it's close to what the human eye sees, and it's considerably sharper than the kit lens. That leads me to my question....

Is there really a huge difference, other than price, between a 50mm f/1.4 and a 50mm f/1.8? Is there a good completely manual 50mm lens with full manual controls that people seem to recommend or like? Zeiss glass is somewhat out of the question right now, as it's well out of my price range just starting out. I've looked at some sigmas, but I'm curious what everybody thinks is a "good" budget lens.

Any help would be appreciated.

Brian

 

[True North]

Hey Brian

What is your budget ?

With weddings you will be doing lots of indoor and outdoor stuff. A faster lens will help with low light indoor stuff which is where most of your work will be. That being said a faster lens will likely require an ND filter for bright outdoor stuff, so keep that in mind as well.

Nikon NIKKOR lense are quite nice and easy to get. A 1.4 will run under $500 brand new and about 1/2 that amount on the used market. Not sure if that is budget enough for you. You can also get this lens 'declicked' which will make it more of a cine type lens. You will also need an adapter like this one;

http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-NIK-...34&sr=1-2&keywords=F+mount+to+E+mount+adapter

Rokkinon/Samyang are apparently working on a 50mm lens for the cine range but haven't released a target date as of yet.

Hope that helps, cheers

Rob

 

[reaver]

Thanks for the tip. As far as budget goes, right now, I don't really have one. With that in mind, I'd like something GOOD, while spending as little as possible, if that makes sense. I've seen 1.8's go for under 200, but I don't know if that's new or used. I know my sister has a 50mm, but I don't know exactly what it is, but I could ask her. The only possible reason I wouldn't consider Nikon lenses is due to the focus ring being reversed, but considering the follow focus I've picked out is very quickly reversible, I don't really see that as being an issue.

 

[xenogears]

I'm a postproduction guy too, and use the Nex FS100 and the 5n for my video work, let me give you two little tips.
-The 5n is a overheating machine at video recording, sadly is very unpredictable when it's gonna happen, also remember the 5n have a 29mins limit between recordings.
-For video work i can recommend you the Sony SEL50 f1.8 ($220 used at ebay) is a fast lens with optical stabilization, vintage lens work great but for tripod work, micro jitters are very annoying.
-If you can consider and little invest the Alpha A57 have very similar image as he Nex 5n, no overheating, mic input, in body stabilization and cheaper lenses, i'm tell you this because if in the future you want add a viewfinder and the La-EA2 to the Nex 5n both together can cost you the A57 price.

Good luck.

 

[reaver]

I'm a postproduction guy too, and use the Nex FS100 and the 5n for my video work, let me give you two little tips.
-The 5n is a overheating machine at video recording, sadly is very unpredictable when it's gonna happen, also remember the 5n have a 29mins limit between recordings.
-For video work i can recommend you the Sony SEL50 f1.8 ($220 used at ebay) is a fast lens with optical stabilization, vintage lens work great but for tripod work, micro jitters are very annoying.
-If you can consider and little invest the Alpha A57 have very similar image as he Nex 5n, no overheating, mic input, in body stabilization and cheaper lenses, i'm tell you this because if in the future you want add a viewfinder and the La-EA2 to the Nex 5n both together can cost you the A57 price.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip on the lens! I'll definitely add that to the list of lenses I'm looking at. As far as the over heating goes, I was aware that it could be an issue before purchasing the camera, and I know that people have had great success adding some heat sinks and a fan to the back of the camera, which is what I plan on doing. I'm less concerned with the 29:50 record limit, as I feel that will be more than adequate for 95% of situations. I've seen vg-20 bodies on ebay for 600 or so, but they go really quickly. I just wish the 5N had clean HDMI out, but I suppose that's something I'll have to live with for the time being.