Is the 50mm still nifty?

Really?

In this time and age of handheld image capturing devices such as mobile phones, body cams, is the 50mm focal length still the focal length that should be in everybody's lens collections? Is it still the focal length that is a do it all, a must have, a nifty focal length, a beginner's focal length that will be enough for even the professionals?

I think so.

First of all, lets clarify. I am not actually talking about any specific lens. I want to discuss the focal length, the 50mm frame of view or the full frame equivalent. Its just so happens that this field of view is usually in the form of a 50mm lens. Most often than not, this lens is a prime lens, quite affordable and is usually very compact.

As the sensor sizes of many camera manufactures ranges from micro four thirds to APSC, to full frame, lets gravitate to the focal length and the lenses that provide the equivalence of it. Examples would be the 25mm lens for micro four thirds, and the 35mm for APSC. Thus to narrow it down, lets just be specific to prime lenses that gives a 50mm (FF) frame of view.

A 50mm prime lens for the Olympus OM mount.

As an amateur photographer, who loves collecting lenses, I have access to lots of lenses in varying focal length in my own collection. As such, if I were to just shoot with one lens, that is, a 50mm lens, I definitely would find that restrictive. But to somebody else, who is just starting out, would the 50mm lens, be enough? Enough to free the creative juices, enough to satisfy his needs to create the image in his mind until it becomes reality. or until of course, he or she finds something else to shoot with.

I think not. 

Hindsight is always 20/20. And that is where the magic of the nifty 50 comes in or starts to make sense. Using the 50mm lens (FF) or its equivalent, I would argue, would allow the user to locate the inadequacies or the restrictiveness much easier. The nifty 50 is arguably one of the more affordable lens and allows the user to experiment and to identify his needs. For example if he needs a wider field of view or a narrower field of view, faster cheaper and more objectively.

But I am digressing. My objectives is to see whether, using a 50mm lens (nifty 50) is enough or sufficient for photography genre such as landscapes, potraits etc etc. To do that, I will use, in the next 14 days or so, my trusty sony SLT a99, and the Minolta 50mm 1.7. I got the camera used at about SGD$200 and the lens, also used at SGD$140. Hopefully, I will not find out that the many thousands of dollars I spent on my many lenses would be just to feed my ego and vanity.

Minolta 7D and Minolta 50mm 1,7
Exif here

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Thank you for reading.

14072023