Portrait Photographer, 35mm or 50mm?

[bluesguy]

hi all,
I shoot mainly portraits, and I am looking for a fast lens for this needs. I use 7D, thus having a 1.6x crop.

I am really confused whether to get the 35L or 50L. both seems to have a very nice bokeh, and very sharp. for years 50mm is the standard lens that photographers used, and I like the look of the 50L lens, not to mention that it is the newer design compare to the 35L lens.

but on the other side, there seems to be a very great reviews on the 35L. and on crop factor body 35mm is pretty much a 50mm lens.

I need to know whether 35mm on a crop body for portrait shooting, close up, will it be distorted? I mean on the nose and face? I heard that 35mm is not suitable for close up portraits, is this true on the crop body also?

for right now I tend to like the 50mm more, because I don't want to have distortion if I do lose up photo. But the 35mm seems to have better reviews.

Please help with the input. it is needed.

Thanks a lot before..
Confused Photographers

[OsmosisStudios]

Strictly speaking, for portraits you generally look at 85-135 range, sometimes higher. 50 was the standard "kit" lens for ages, and so they became cheap and plentiful.

If youre looking strictly for portraits, the 85/1.2L would be the ideal. Either that, or the 135/2L. Yes, even on a crop.

Crop sensor cameras have a crop factor that gives an apparent equivalent field of view: it doesnt alter the distortions, perspective or "quality" of an image. It's just working distance.

[sk66]

85mm "used to be" the choice for portraiture. The reason for using a slightly "long" lens is that it tends to "flatten" features so a big nose doesn't stick out so much etc. Longer lenses also have a shallower DOF for a given aperture.
However, you have a 1.6 sensor so you have a compromise to make. A 50mm will get the FOV of a 75mm lens, but not of the other attributes. An 85mm will give you the added benefits, but a narrower FOV and therefore require a longer working distance...

[inkista]

The (unofficial) Holy Trinity of the L Portrait Primes are the 35L, 85L and 135L. This is probably because the original 50L (the f/1.0 version) had a little softness wide open and was such a bear to shoot with.

The 50L is a terrific lens, but it does suffer from a known focus shift issue the other Ls don't (when the lens is stopped down one or two stops the AF accuracy gets less accurate. Some folks think it's a huge deal, others consider it a minor inconvenience.).

Personally, I'd go for the 35L because it would be more of a "general purpose" lens and focal length. I once put a Leica-R 35/2 on my XT, and only discovered about three months later that I'd never taken it off. It'll focus closer than a 50. You can do available light. And it's wide angle enough that you can street shoot, portrait shoot, and do some landscape/architecture with it, too. It's much more versatile, especially on a crop body, and will still be useful on a full-frame.

I say do some searches on the fredmiranda board for threads like this one, and look at the reviews on the lenses there. Those guys know their glass, and you'll be reading opinions from people who have actually shot with the lenses in question.

Also, you need to really figure out what your own personal preferences are. Focal length choices typically come down to what's your most comfortable working distance? Not everybody frames with a 50 the same way. Maybe doing a portrait shoot with a zoom lens outside, and then looking at your EXIF to see where you chose to sit might be a worthwhile exercise?

In terms of the distortion issue--remember that the majority of the distortion will appear in the corners...which are cropped off on a 1.6x body. Even fisheyes have slightly less pronounced distortion on a crop. Corner weaknesses, vignetting--all of these are mitigated or eased by working on a crop body. So be careful when reading reviews about how the lens tested on crop vs. full frame.

And if you still can't decide: rent 'em each for a week and try 'em out first. Those L primes are big heavy suckers.

[BCampbell]

35mm is not a typical portrait lens, even on the crop bodies, but you can surely get good results with it.

The 50mm L lens will not give you a boost in quality commensurate with the price over the 50mm f/1.4. You should probably have this lens anyway, for general purposes, but it makes an excellent portrait lens on the cropped bodies.

You could also look at the 85mm and 100mm lenses. 135mm might feel a bit too long on the 7D, that's over 200mm effective focal length; certainly not unheard of for portraiture but not really suggested for learning purposes.

Note that the high-price, high-quality primes generally feature improved corner sharpness over the mid-range lenses. This is virtually meaningless to you since you're not even using the corners of the lens. Center sharpness on most of them is nearly identical, and at least enough so that you won't notice a difference once stopped down for portrait work.

[inkista]

Here, I found a Flickr thread about the distortion of the 35L with lots of juicy examples. Bear in mind, nearly all of the examples are taken with full-frame bodies.

Agree with BCampbell, that considering the USM non-Ls is a good idea, too. The 50/1.4, 85/1.8, 100/2, and 135/2.8 SF are all good performers for considerably less cash and room in the camera bag. Ls are if a) you can afford it, b) you really really need the wider max. aperture, and c) you actually can see/need the (relatively subtle) image quality improvement from the L glass. A lot of the time, an L can be overkill.

[Elmo]

In years past the "STD" lens for 35mm was 50mm This was based on the normal focal length was the diagional distance across the frame which for 35mm was 48mm so 50 was close enough. The rule of thum was a pot lens should me about 1.5 times the normal lense focal length. So 80 to 85mm became the 35mm choice.

As a 1.6 factor sensor is actually .625 x FF sensor. THe normal lens for 1.6 sensor would be 30 mm focal length. therefore a good port lens needs to be a minimum of 45mm. So the socalled nifty-fifty makes an ideal port lens for a 1.6 sensor camera.

[bluesguy]

hi all.. thanks a lot for the responses. for now I am settled with a 50mm. Thanks for all the links. the flickr links helps a lot in seeing the distortion a 35mm Lens gave to a close up port. So if my understanding is correct, in crop body, the distortion will still be there? the crop body is not going to change the lens behavior then?

Apart from that, just pulled out my 24-105 lens, and trying to find what focal length works best for me. I am finding that 35mm is far too wide for what I want to achieve. I am finding it hard to compose my picture very well.

right now I am crossing my finger to find a good copy of the 50L, I am hoping that I won't get some backfocus problem like some of the 50L users in the internet.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Elmo

e.

As a 1.6 factor sensor is actually .625 x FF sensor. THe normal lens for 1.6 sensor would be 30 mm focal length. therefore a good port lens needs to be a minimum of 45mm. So the socalled nifty-fifty makes an ideal port lens for a 1.6 sensor camera.

Except that this, as I mentioned, doesnt take perspective into account. 45mm is still 45mm in terms of DoF, bokeh, perspective and distortion. The only thing it alleviates is working distance and field of view.

This is why P&S cameras, with their 6-18mm (standard 3x zoom) lenses cant do DoF and bokeh well: they're inherently going to have a very deep DoF

[Elmo]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Except that this, as I mentioned, doesnt take perspective into account. 45mm is still 45mm in terms of DoF, bokeh, perspective and distortion. The only thing it alleviates is working distance and field of view.

But when you change working distance (to get subject the same size in capture) the DoF, bokeh, perspective and distortion all change.