Monday, June 11, 2012

35mm F/1.8

Broke down a few days ago, and decided to get the 35mm F/1.8. Going to E3 was what really put me over the edge in getting this lens. The kit 18-55 F/4-5.6 lens did much better than I was expecting in the low light of the exhibit floor. I had the auto ISO on, with a max of 6400. It did actually go all the way to that ISO a few times. It worked out pretty well, because of how dark the whole scene was, it really helps mask the grain. It was the first time I was really able to see how to work with what I had. I took enough pictures, and had enough time, that I could think about what I was doing.

After reviewing the pictures afterwards, I was able to salvage quite a few with lightroom, but it was pretty clear that a faster lens would have been great. That, plus the unanimous praise I'm always reading about the 35mm finally pushed me over the edge. It is normally $200 everywhere, but recently its actually gone up to $220. I found it locally at Best Buy for the original $200, and I had a $25 Gift Card for Best Buy. It seemed destined to be. I bought it on friday and have been playing with it ever since.

 Lens:

 It's pretty tiny. Its amazing how small it makes my D5100 look, compared to when the kit 18-55, or especially the longer 55-200 is on it. I can only imagine how tiny it would make a smaller bodied DSLR, such as the D3100. I do agree that the lens is very "plastic", there's no doubt that its plastic through and through. This isn't really a negative for me, since all my other lenses have the same feeling ( the 55-200, feels super light compared to its size), but I can imagine how "cheap" it must feel for someone used to the more substantial metal bodied lenses.

 Pictures:

 The 1.8 aperture creates a razor-thin DOF. Its taking some getting used to. I naively though, her thats a wide open aperture, that's great for low-light. Just shoot wide open, never need a flash. I was sorely mistaken. I've taken to stopping it down to 2.8, which gives me a decent amount of DOF. Its still much faster than the 4-5.6 of the kit. It's also weird to be shooting with a prime. I knew this would take some getting used to, but I never imagined I used the zoom so much. The first few shots I took, I actually unfocused the camera because I was trying to find the zoom ring. I'm just now remembering to frame using my feet, instead of sitting in one place and trying to zoom. I've been reading online, how using the same focal-length gives your photos a bit of uniformity. I didn't think that was big deal, and to be honest, I still don't. But since I've been shooting so much at 35mm, then I could imagine that it would. Whether this becomes a significant thing, we'll have to see.


 Pics to come later.