50mm or 85mm on crop body?

dan_yorkshire

dan_yorkshire

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Dan
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Hi all,

I am considering a new lens for my D90 which I will mostly use for portraits, candids at parties etc and cant decide between the famous nifty fifty and the 85mm 1.8.

I already have the 35mm 1.8 and its great but obviously not ideal for portraits etc.

My worry is the 85mm will be too long on the cropped sensor of the D90.

Also could both lenses work well on a full frame body in the future should I upgrade.

Cheers
 
Well in your sig you have a couple of zooms so you could try using one at 85mm as a trial. I do prefer my Sigma 70-200 for portraits.
 
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for candids I'd be heading for the 85mm. for portraits it would depend where you're expecting to be shooting (space etc), but you might be a bit limited with the 85mm. the 50mm will work on FF, not sure about the 85mm.
 
I find 85mm on a crop a good length for portraits but it does depend on how close you want to get.
Using a 50mm I find you need to stand too close to the subject for head and shoulder pics or to fill the frame.

At the end of the day it comes down to personal preference- full length shots may be better using a 50mm lens as you need less room but it depends- get both:lol:
 
From 3 metres an 85mm will give you head and shoulders, the 50mm whole upper body.. I use both
 
For tight spaces I'd go 50mm every time for convenience. 85mm is better for when you have more room to work
 
I really didn't like 50mm on crop, the 85mm on the other hand was very nice indeed for tight portraits. Personally for crop I'd say a 30mm and 85mm, for full frame 50mm and 135mm.

That's what suits me anyway, I know lots of people who seem to really like 50mm on crop, and 85mm on FF, but I'm not one of them :)
 
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