Dr_Q
Well-Known Member
I have just had a scanned film photograph accepted at an image agency. I believe hell may have just frozen over.
For the future, I want to save up for an L lens, and I'm wondering what a good first L lens is. Already have a nifty fifty (f/1.4 USM), so I feel like it would be worthless to get 2 of the same focal length.
On the wide end, I'm considering the 35 f/2L, and the 8-15 f/4L fisheye. On the telephoto end I'm considering the 135 f/2L and the 70-200 f/4L IS.
Ah, right.But what in the name of all that's holy is the M/Av/Tv that's on Canon?
How weird is it that I've had my camera for 4-5 years and I'm literally only just starting to actually look at what the light meter is saying. As in I know what settings to use because I learnt by trial and error over the years...
A fixed focal length definitely is a helpful tool to get someone deeper into photography, because said person has to learn to think about and execute more things by himself instead of just turning a zoom ring. Also, the option of a much more shallow depth of field opens a new world that's very hard to conquer with a zoom lens. The only potential problem I see is that the first steps are so frustrating that he gives up.
I've been thinking about giving my sister the very same lens for her D40, and while I'm sure she would understand the difference in handling and be able to transform the new possibilities into viable results, she would soon return to her kit zoom with a simple explanation: a fixed focal length brings her to a level of photography she simply doesn't intend to reach because she only uses the camera very rarely.
Yeah, that took me a lot of time as well. I did read about this as a fact, but understanding the impact on composure and how to use it to my advantage took really long.I think the thing that took me a few years to grasp is the difference of using a fixed FL prime to compose a shot by moving back n forth vs using a zoom while standing in the same place, is that despite capturing things in the same field of view, your image will look different at different focal lengths. Meaning a shot made at 24mm will look dramatically wider and more distorted than a 50mm at the same FOV. This really hit me when shooting for portraits and other living subjects.