You have your swanky new DSLR camera with its kit lens, or even two kit lenses – you’ve had a bit of a play around, got to know the camera and it’s features and like many of us before, you’re hooked on photography and now you’re wondering what to buy next. The best advice out there is to invest in “good glass”, a quality lens. The right lens will improve your image quality and failing a catastrophe, outlive your camera body so it’s important to choose the right one.

Most professionals agree, for your second lens you can’t go past a 50mm prime lens.

Lenses come as either a zoom lens or prime lens which has a fixed focal length, why would a photographer choose a fix over the ease of a zoom lens? Prime lenses are naturally simpler in design, have less moving parts and therefore generally have better image quality as a result, particularly at the budget end of the lens spectrum.

With all the choices out there; wide-­angle, telephoto, macro, why does the 50mm get such a strong vote?  There’s a few good reasons.

Shallow depth of field

When you see portraits with gorgeous soft burred backgrounds behind the subject, it’s called a shallow depth of field. One of the key ways to achieve this is to use the lowest aperture or f-­stop you can. Most kit lenses go down to f/3.5 at the most and truly shallow depth of field starts at around f/2.8. The nifty fifty will go down to f/1.8 for around $150 AUD.

Great for low light

Another bonus of being able to shoot at low apertures is you can shoot in much darker places than before. Shooting your family with natural light indoors will be easier and brighter with the nifty fifty.

It’s versatile

Some lenses are perfect for one or two uses such as landscapes, portraits, wildlife or sport but aren’t as good at anything. The Fifty does a great job at all of these. As an added bonus it’s small, lightweight and fast at focusing, making it a really nice lens to use

Value for money.

It’s close to what we naturally see. A 50mm is the closest to capturing what your eye sees naturally. Your images will naturally look like you see.

Now you know what to put on your christmas or birthday list!

Your welcome 🙂