50mm 1.8 for mountain biking?

O

OllyHudson

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Hello,
I'm looking at starting taking photos at local mountain biking events. I am wondering if I can get some feedback on if a 50mm 1.8 lens would be okay for shooting mountain biking. The races will be in dark woods.
Any advice will be appreciated.
Thank you
Olly
 
What body will it be going on - the crop difference could make a difference to the replies.
 
you'd have to be pretty close to them to get nice sharp shots shooting at f1.8 too as the DOF on 1.8 is pretty narrow for that sort of event (if you are picking the 50mm f1.8 for the light factor) or just use your kit lens (18-55mm) and pump up the ISO to compensate for light issues
 
I am choosing the 50mm for the light factor. Already tried the kit lens and can't seem to get any usable pictures.
 
The pancake 40mm is another great option and is only a few dollars more expensive. The problem I found with the 50 1.8 is the lack of aperture blades.
 
Depends a lot on the type of shots you want to take? If it's full bike and rider then at a distance of a few metres from the subject that's achievable but at f1.8 that's going to be very shallow dog and I would think not too sharp. Set the camera up on a tripod and/or use a flashgun to get the best shots especially under trees.

Like others have said a 70-200 zoom is more flexible.

Good luck
 
Have a look on flickr, see what sort of shots you fancy then look at the exif data to see what focal length they're taken at. I think you'll find that you'll want something a little wider if you're going to be in the woods- you'll be relatively close if you want profile shots without trees in your way.
 
Bear in mind that is a mark II lens whch I assume will be faster focussing than the mark I.
You may need to use AI servo to help focus - it's not easy capturing a fast moving object coming towards you.

Get a secondhand one and see how it performs.
 
As you've already tried with the kit lens, which covers 50mm, I'll assume you know whether 50mm is a workable focal length for what you're wanting to do.

The one problem I can see for the 50mm f/1.8 II is that the autofocus is really rather poor so you'll probably be prefocusing and letting the bikes come to you. If you were wanting to focus track with the bikes you'd want something with USM but USM and a fast aperture don't come cheap so there isn't much point guiding you in that direction.

For the sake of £60 second hand you might as well try the 50mm.

It might also be a good idea to post some of the shots you got/failed to get with the kit lens as even if the kit lens is simply too slow there may still be some technique points to work on.
 
I have now ordered a second hand 50mm 1.8 II. Will be testing it out on the 31st at a local race and will post back here then.
For now , here is a picture I took using the kit lens. This was the only spot on the track that I could get a picture due to most of the wood being very dark. View attachment 18650
 
A second hand 75-300 would probably work best for you, just bump your iso up. I get the feeling that price is the main factor here and understandably so. Oops didn't read your previous post! Good luck with the nifty fifty it's a great lens for the money but again not really suitable for what you require.
 
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Hey Olly,

Try to put your ISO up to 3200, even on 'older' DSLR's you will get good IQ, especially if you process ln lightroom.

Also that lens is rubbish at AF (well its 'ok' with most canon bodies centre AF point), try it see if it works...................if it hunts to much and you miss your shot go Manual focusing..............quick tip is focus on a tree at the same distance the rider goes past you in and simply wait for the rider to be in the frame where they pass, you will NEED iso 3200, try F4 (keep the F stop up as high as you can due to Depth of field.......the higher the F stop the more likely the rider will be in focus).............also see if the high ISO gets your shutter speed up above 1/160, im sure it will.

ANd final tip if your shutter speed is to low (less than 1/160~1/200) then stop down the F stop to 2.8....2.5 etc, but never drop the iso below 3200

Hope this helps :)
 
Okay , thanks a lot combat squirrel , I'll try and get back to you with some hopefully half decent images. Thanks again .
 
Is was bright enough that I didn't need to use ISO 3200, and I used shutter priority so I could freeze the action. I did adjust the contrast on all of them, it's just one of those things that I do to all my images but have no idea why.
 
If I were Photographing events such as this I would use my Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 I feel a 50mm is too short in my opinion

Les
 
So Yesterday I attended my first event. I very much enjoyed it and believe I did very well, but I am going to let you be the judges of that. I have attached a link to the place where I have uploaded and selling my images. Also do you think I could charge more? Everyone else's photos are twice as much as mine? Anyway, here you go - https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/oliver-hudson/
 
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