35mm on Cropped senor
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Why wouldn't it? 35mm would be fine, but I'd think 85mm would be a better length for portraits on crop anyway. 50mm equiv. is too short IMO except for full length stuff, 85mm equiv. better, but 135mm (for heads and shoulders) equivalent the one to go for.
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Don't you get quite a bit of distortion on a 35mm when your in someones face trying to get a headshot? I know i do! Also, i find that another issue, being in someones face, doesn't make them comfy. 85mm+ has always worked best for me. But i do admit to using my 50mm on a cropped and really enjoying it.
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My dad always tells me this too. He used to shoot in black and white film, in studio sessions.
Stupidly when he moved house he left all his equipment in a shed and water damage and fungus nasties ate most of it
woof woof
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No. Not on APS-C, not if you're about the same distance away as you'd be with 50mm on FF.
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if you have enough room use an 85mm lens. I love mine on both full frame and cropped frame.
magicaxeman
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35mm on a crop with a subject distance of 2.5m will cover the whole of a person sitting down, from head to toes.
An 85mm will cover head an shoulders at the same subject distance.
I would grab both second hand, ie a nikkor 35mm f2 & a nikkor 85mm f1.8 that way everything is covered.
An 85mm will cover head an shoulders at the same subject distance.
I would grab both second hand, ie a nikkor 35mm f2 & a nikkor 85mm f1.8 that way everything is covered.
odd jim
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Nope!
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I always found the 50mm to be better for portrait type photos where the distance is about 8-10ft from the subject. Well, on a crop camera that is.
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In my personal experience, and also bear in mind this is also a personal preference too, I prefer 50mm on a crop and 85mm on full frame. It just seems natural to my way of looking at things
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I shoot pretty more all my close up portraits with a 50mm f1.4 on my D7000. I also have an 85mm but for on the go work I rarely have the necessary working distance to use it
I would recommend a 50mm or 85mm prime for portraiture on a crop camera. 35mm has a couple of disadvantages. The first is that up close you'll notice the it tends to exaggerate noses and lose ears. The second is that, although you get a field of view that's roughly equivalent to 50mm on full frame, you still only get the depth of field of a 35mm. Consequently it becomes more difficult to throw backgrounds out of focus, which is a popular look for portraits.
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only if you have enough room for the shot you want to take. there is no specific lens for taking portraits
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This^
All of my portraits are shot between 17mm and 200mm.
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There is no specific lens or focal length for any type of photography but there are lenses that are better used for certain type of photography. I ve taken portrait shots at 14mm but 99% of my portrait photography is at 50mm and above. I have taken landscape shots using my 70-200 but again 99% of my landscape shooting is at 35mm and below.
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...very true! infact the majority of my work is shot on a 12-24 UWA
if you want the specific effect then yes you would use a wide or ultrawide lens
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To the OP: Wide lenses are much better for environmental portraiture and showing your subject in context. Longer lenses have less distortion but tend to be used to show just the subject and rarely show the context that the subject is in i.e professional surroundings, living conditions etc. Basically it depends what you are shooting. Fashion, commercial headshots etc are going to be a long lens whereas documentary work tends to be shot on wide lenses.
woof woof
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Not that I shoot people much as I don't but I find that one problem with longer lenses is getting a clear shot... as with longer lenses you're going to be further away and if it's a busy place you can get people walking between you and the subject. Plus if you want or need to interect with the subject distance can make it more difficult.
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There's no such thing as a portrait lens. I've taken portraits with a 400mm, and I've also taken portraits with a 14mm... and everything in between.
Nothing wrong with a standard lens for portraits... and don't let anyone tell you there is... because they're talking nonsense.
Nothing wrong with a standard lens for portraits... and don't let anyone tell you there is... because they're talking nonsense.
Tizer said:
Yes, at least I do. Using a 50mm on a crop camera for head & shoulders shots I can see the facial distortion setting in, With a 35mm it would be even more obvious. The working distance is too close if you want to fill the frame. Stepping back for a full length/environmental portrait or filling half the frame and cropping to size will reduce the problems.
Have a look at this link, it's a comparison of focal lengths when used to take headshots 19mm to 350mm:
http://stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/lensdistortion/tilepage.htm
(Taken with a full frame camera, so divide the focal length by 1.5 for the equivelent field of view/working distance on a crop body.)
IMO the shots around 200mm look the best which would be like using a 135mm on a crop.
There is another comparison somewhere online with full length shots, longer lenses and greater working distances win there as well.
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To the OP: Wide lenses are much better for environmental portraiture and showing your subject in context. Longer lenses have less distortion but tend to be used to show just the subject and rarely show the context that the subject is in i.e professional surroundings, living conditions etc. Basically it depends what you are shooting. Fashion, commercial headshots etc are going to be a long lens whereas documentary work tends to be shot on wide lenses.
Thanks
Quick question. Am I right in thinking a 35mm = 52.5mm on a cropped sensor? (D3100)
This is the reason I bought it. My understanding was a 50mm lens gives the most accurate presentation of things as they appear in real life making this a good all rounder prime lens.
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Thanks
Quick question. Am I right in thinking a 35mm = 52.5mm on a cropped sensor? (D3100)
This is the reason I bought it. My understanding was a 50mm lens gives the most accurate presentation of things as they appear in real life making this a good all rounder prime lens.
This might help
http://photographylife.com/dx-or-fx-for-sports-and-wildlife-photography
Basically this taken from the above link:
"1) The Myth of the DX Built-in 1.5x Teleconverter
A lot of people seem to be very confused about the effect of a crop sensor on the focal length of a lens. Stating that a crop sensor increases the focal length of the lens or acts as a teleconverter is completely wrong, since focal length is an optical attribute of a lens and has nothing to do with the camera. I talked about this in detail in my “Equivalent Focal Length” article that I published a while ago. Simply put, a DX sensor can never change the optical parameters of a lens, so if you are shooting with a 300mm lens, it stays as a 300mm lens no matter what camera you mount it on. The confusion of “equivalent focal length” comes from manufacturers that initially wanted to make people understand that the field of view on a cropped sensor camera is tighter than 35mm, because the image corners get chopped off. The word “equivalent” is only relative to 35mm film. So you cannot say that your 300mm lens becomes a 450mm lens on a DX body. It does not and never will. All you are doing, is you are taking an image from a 300mm lens, cropping it in the center area and magnifying that center with increased resolution."
as ok so my thinking as wrong then.
so a 85mm prime would general be better then a 35mm prime for studio portrait for example?
I do have a 18-55 but I like the 35 as it gives a much crisper shot. But a fellow photographer says Im mad to use my 35mm for studio portraits. I haven't noticed any distortion in my work but maybe Im just not seeing it. (Ive only been shooting for 8 months). I think I will shoot a self port with all my lens at the same distance and compare.
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I have only posted the link above to give an explanation of what you get from lenses when you mount them on a cropped sensor camera.
IMO and for my portrait shooting I prefer my 85mm lens whether its on my FF camera or DX camera. I have taken portraits with my 105mm and 70-200mm but my 85mm will always be the go to lens for my portraits
IMO and for my portrait shooting I prefer my 85mm lens whether its on my FF camera or DX camera. I have taken portraits with my 105mm and 70-200mm but my 85mm will always be the go to lens for my portraits
can I ask - When we talk about 'portraits' are you referring to headshots mainly?
This maybe why I dont see any problem with my 35mm. I tend to shoot half or full body.
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Headshots, to full body. Mainly outdoors.
As mentioned above, there is no specific lens for portrait photography. If you are happy with what you are getting from your 35mm lens, then that is all that matters
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What I do wonder between the two lens, the 35mm and the 50mm, I guess you are looking at both f1.8 versions? is that one is a DX lens (35mm) and one is not, does that mean the 35mm DX is equivalent to a 35mm on a crop and the 50mm is equivalent to a 75mm?
Something to consider, as I don't really know, also is the kit lens 18-55mm as it is a DX lens or does the crop affect the DX line of lenses?
Something to consider, as I don't really know, also is the kit lens 18-55mm as it is a DX lens or does the crop affect the DX line of lenses?
woof woof
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Lenses are described as their actual focal length so a 18-55mm is always a 18-55mm no matter what you fit it to but the field of view you get when it's mounted on different cameras will change and that's when you apply the "crop" factor.
So, a 30mm (to keep the math simple
) will give you the field of view of a 30mm lens when you mount it on a 35mm "FF" camera but when you mount it on an APS-C camera it'll give the field of view of a 45mm (30 x 1.5.) lens on 35mm FF.
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Lenses are described as their actual focal length so a 18-55mm is always a 18-55mm no matter what you fit it to but the field of view you get when it's mounted on different cameras will change and that's when you apply the "crop" factor.
So, a 30mm (to keep the math simple
This is where it's confusing me, that's fair enough, but Nikon designates some lens as designed for ''DX'' which will not work on a full frame sensor, do you see where i am coming from?
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http://www.nikonusa.com/en_INC/IMG/...009/DX-FX-Formats/Media/DX-FX-Diagram-NEW.jpg
DX lenses have a diameter that is only big enough to cover the 4 edges of a cropped sensor. This should help design smaller lenses (in theory). FX lenses need to cover a bigger sensor area.
Nikon's DX lenses will work on FX cameras but the image will be cropped to avoid the heavy vignetting you will get on the edges.
That would be why
If you get close enough to fill the frame for a headshot you will see the difference. Try it with the kit lens at 17mm It's having the camera too close to your subject, not the focal length, which causes this effect. However using a longer lens or a crop camera will mean you need to stand further back to get the same framing.
A standard lens on a crop camera will still project a full sized image inside the camera but only the middle part of it will cover the sensor, the rest is 'cropped'. As a smaller projected image is needed, 'Crop only' lenses can be made smaller and cheaper. Focal length with the lenses is still the same; 30mm Dx = 30mm Fx.
For Canon cameras, you can't use a crop lens on a FF body but all EF/EF-S can be used on the crop bodies.