50 or 60 mm. lens?

[igmolinav]

Hi,

Most brands make a 50 mm lens
and a 60 mm. lens with f/2.8 or f/4
that can be used as a normal lens.

The question I would like to ask is,
is it an advantage to take a 60 mm.
over a 50 mm.?

I would use the 60 mm., as if it were
a 50 mm. lens. For example, to shoot
a video scene from a distance of three to four meters,
where two people engage in a
dialogue, one could use either lens;
but perhaps for close up shooting one
can only use the 60 mm. lens because
it allows to get closer than with a regular
50 mm. lens.

If you were me, would you rather have
or get a 50, or a 60 mm. macro lens?

Thank you, kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!

 

[fermat-au]

What camera are you intending to use the lens on?

Most 60mm macro lenses are f/2.8, while many 50mm lenses are f/1.8 or even f/1.4 or f/1.2. So the 50mm will probably be a faster lens, while the 60mm can be used for macro. It probably comes down to if you need macro functionality or not.

What particular 50mm and 60mm lenses are you looking at buying? I would only compare particular lenses not 50mm v 60mm in general. One 50mm may be sharper than one 60mm for example.

I would be interested in what film makers think, my experience is in still photography.

 

[Unami]

macro lenses are often more sharp at close/macro distance, while plain lenses tend to be more sharp at normal distances. normal primes often offer a wider aperture, so they can gather more light and have a more shallow focus range. on the other hand, macro lenses often have less distortion which might be an advantage when panning. and, obviously, a 50 is wider than a 60, so you'd have to get farther away to get roughly the same picture, which might be a problem in close quarters. i say "roughly" because a longer zoom also "compresses" the image more, so a 60 looks a bit different from a 50, even if you correct for the distance to your subject.
also, it depends on your chip size - on an m43 system some differences might be more pronounced than on a full frame camera. and lastly, as fermat-au said, it depends on the particular lens. and what you're looking for. a 60mm zeiss will obviously blow a 50mm canon fd for a tenth of the price out of the water, but that soft vintage canon look might just be what your project needs. when it comes to lenses in a comparable price range, i'd go for the one with better optical properties (read: more sharpness, less chromatic abberation/distortion) and better built quality.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi,

Most brands make a 50 mm lens
and a 60 mm. lens with f/2.8 or f/4
that can be used as a normal lens.!!

What is the sensor size? Is this a "full frame" SLR.

The 50mm lens is only "normal" on a full frame sensor. Typically the normal lens for a camera is roughly equal to the length of the sensor across the diagonal (the corner to corner size) This is not exact

Mount a cheap zoom on the camera and set it to 50mm and then 60mm and you will be able to test those lengths. Then if you like that length buy a prime lens. But notice that the 50mm might open up to f/1.4 but the 60mm might only do f/2.8 If you like using the wide f-stop then you need the 50mm lens.

BTW of course you can frame the same shot with either lens. If using the 60mm you'd simply back off about 20%. This changes the perspective slightly but 20% is not much. But how big is the room? See, practical issues like camera to subject distance and f-stops matter.