For me, 40mm-50mm is where I'm the most comfortable - preferably with a fast lens (f1.4-1.8) - though f2.8 lenses have served me well too. Btw, that Nikon D600 sure delivers characteristic colors. I have one myself, and the first thing I thought, when I saw this video was, that usually your photos have different colors compared to my own photos, but this time I recognize the colors. I always figured the difference in colors was because of how different natural light is in Kuala Lumpur compared to Denmark, where I live, combined with processing. But, with the D600 that is not the case.
I like 40 or 50mm because there is less distortion and they are equivalent to the eye so they are what it is called normal lenses. For me is the best option
I like this angle of view so much, that I bought the oly 25/1.2. Right now, a 17/1.8 is on its way to me, I wonder how it will work for me - especially since I'm definitely a telephoto type of person.
@@robinwong I have already figured things out for myself. I have a friend though, who is just starting the adventure in photography, and right now it's very hard to find real educational content. Most of the stuff is focused on "sony good, nikon bad, m43 dead", not on photography itself.
I have access to my brother in law's D600. It is still one of the best FF DSLR ever made. I do also still shoot with my film SLR and did so for many many years, although getting /good/ development these days is a problem, I may well have to get a home B&W Patterson kit. So I am well used to the framing. I find the perspective and foreshortening off a FF 50mm is not that of a 25mm on mft even though it is the same angle of view (the crop equivalent). To say the human eye is complicated is an understatement, however the field of view, perspective and foreshortening seems to have the most appeal to us from a lens of about 43mm focal length, on any format i.e. a 50 on mft will have the same look as a 50 on FF but with a smaller field of view.
I wish I had the freedom to photograph like you do. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to do free street photography here (because of stupid laws here...). Sometimes you wish you were in another country.
I did a walk around yesterday with a mft 25mm, pretty much the same thing, and it went really well. I was getting so many good shots that I even did a little "Let's DO THIS" in my head.
@@robinwong It would be interesting to see a discussion of how you go about photographing people on the street for your street portraits. Do you chat to them first and get their agreement?
I love your perspective, but there is such a thing as a candid portrait, lol. I've been using a 55-200mm Nikon zoom lens and getting beautiful shots of people who're clearly in their own world at the moment. If they do eventually notice me, typically I've already gotten the shot by then and am not pointing the camera at them. 🤪🤪 Not traditional I know, but them shots is candid AF.
I'm nervous when doing street photography so I went alittle tighter and chose 60mm using the sigma 30mm on mft. I've never got on with wider focal lengths.
This is an excellent video, with some first rate photos, thanks Robin! I started using a 50mm lens when my Dad bought me a Nikkormat FT2 with a Nikkor 50mm f/2 lens in 1975 (!) I used the 50mm exclusively for the first four years or so until I could afford a general purpose zoom. During this time I used the 50mm for portraits, landscape, and general travel photos. I was often advised to get a 35mm lens as well, but when using the zoom I could never really figure out that focal length for the way I envisioned compositions, and found that 28mm made more sense for wide photos of the city centre, such as photogenic Italian piazzas. The lenses people choose just depends on what kind of photos they like to take. Ranking focal lengths in absolute terms is pointless. I prefer simplicity in composition with more occasional wide sweeping photos. Fast forward to today, and I use a Canon 6D with the EF 50mm 1.8 STM and a Canon 28mm f/2.8 for those wide shots. Recently, I purchased a K&F converter to use the old 50mm Nikkor lens my Dad bought me on my 6D using aperture priority with manual focus: very cool, and really nice rendering 🙂
Unless my eyes are playing tricks Robin there seems to be a completely different look to these images with this combo than your usual Olympus images . I think it’s the colours that are noticeably different. Great video as usual
Hello Robin You have spent à lot of energy and many vidéos arguing (with conviction and success) that M43 was to you the best format. I now understand that you jump to full frame : is it because you are no longer satisfied with Olympus or with M43 ? Thanks
Hi Robin, İ was see vintage prime lenses set on local market. For example 28-35-50-135mm focal length f2.8 İ want to learn about what this lengths are special
Hi Robin--OK,,,first off--I confess to being a 35mm (or similar) lens snob when I go out with a 1 camera-1 lens setup. Probably for no better reason than it is what was always done before. In my case it's usually a Panasonic GM-1 or a GX8 body with the Pana-Leica 15mm 1.7 (30mm FF equiv). After watching your video this morning I decided to give a 50mm-ish a try and swapped out for the 25mm 1.4. Normally I don't do people photography on my walks,,it just doesn't work in my area on a Sunday,,, either not many people around or they are engaged family/friends I don't want to intrude. I tried the proximity and distortion aspects like you mentioned in your video on some life-size statues and I have to agree that approaching a stranger with a 30-35mm lens is a bit invasive and the short leg effect on a head and shoulder frame doesn't render a real looking result. Thanks for the tip and I will attempt to push my boundaries a little harder to make some interesting people shots. Always enjoy your posts!!
Thnks Clint! Don't worry about being a 35mm snob, we all have our own favourte focal lengths, and you are free to choose and use whatever works best for you! Mine just happens to be 50mm, and there is no right and wrong! And yes, as you mentioned, it is good to push boundaries and try different things, me too, have been experimenting with different focal lengths, which you will see in coming videos! The only constant that we must do, is keep shooting!
I seldom shoot street portraits, not wanting to bother people (I would hate it if anyone took my picture), so 35mm works best for me. If I did photograph people, I would probably go for an 85mm to increase the distance as much as possible. All that said, I think the 50mm is a great compromise for those who can do that.
The nifty 50 used to be a favorite of mine too but being on a tight budget and wanting the 25mm or a macro lens the 30mm macro won out at that time. I always intended to buy the 25mm later but it's now 3 years later and I've not ended up missing or buying the 25mm focal length.
A 50mm has always been a go-to lens for me. When MFT cameras came along, I was happy to learn that 50mm was in effect 100mm on those cameras. It brought my subject in closer without a major lens upgrade. One other thing comes to mind.... with a Tessar 2,8 50mm lens built for the Zeiss Icarex line of cameras, you can ad an adapter for an 8x30 monocular (also Zeiss). That setup on a film body is the equivalent of a 400mm lens. So, 800mm on a MFT body. It does not sound like much, but if your camera has some type of IBIS you can take some pretty interesting shots with a setup not too much bigger than your hand. Otherwise, there's always a tripod, which helps for when you use the in body zoom to 2x or 4x. Regards!!
I Like somewhere between 28 to 85. Well a 105 can be fun too. 71 y.o. & I've never settled on one. So 50 sounds pretty dar n good.I think Bresson used a 50 so you are in good company.
Yeah he did, and we don't have to stick to one focal length like you mentioned, we are free to work with any focal lengths that we want. My favourite just happens to be 50mm.
50mm all the way! Was the first focal length I ever shot and still my favourite. Fine on its own, but usually I'll bring a 28mm so it doesn't get lonely. That combo can cover just about everything. Fuji 33/1.4 and 18/1.4 in my case, along with Rokkor 28/2.5 and 50/1.4 for the old Minolta bodies. Also your enthusiasm is contagious! Was going to go mountain biking, guess the camera is coming with now!
Always love the combination of practical tips, great shots, view of life in Malaysia, and best of all the super positive attitude! As natural and pleasing as 50mm can get!
God, I have tried so hard to make a 50mm more of my daily use lens. I guess my brain prefers more of the environment around what I like to photograph. But I do love a 50mm for product photography.
Hi Robin. thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! I want to add an (old) fullframe camera and 2-3 lenses (for people photographs) to my old om-d e-m5 gear to complete my stuff. I wanna use the fortunes of both systems. What are your thoughts about Nikon d610 vsd750 vs. eos5dmii vs. eos 6d vs Sony a7ii ? All body’s will be attached with 35mmf1.4 50mm1.8 85or105mm f1.8/2.8.
Thanks Sven, appreciate the kind words. I personally would go higher end for DSLR models, because lets face it, once you go DSLR it is no longer small and compact. If I want portable, really lightweight system I'd go for my Micro Four Thirds any day. Havin said that, it is clear what I would choose. For Nikon, the D750 is a powerhouse. I'd get that over D610, unless the D610 is much, much cheaper. Same with 5D vs 6D, 5D is the clear winner. I'd shy away from Sony, unless you are getting their newer generation cameras, like the A7 Mark IV. Anything older, they just had too many issues.
About your white wall test: doesn't an SLR switch to contrast-based autofocus automatically when using the rear LCD instead of the optical finder? The "pumping" you see suggests that my thought could be correct - so it's slower but much more accurate than phase-based AF I think... Good video, thanks for that, and I agree with what other people commented here: direct and to the point, no click bait, wonderful. I also like your blog a lot, would like to comment more often, but I don't like to log into Google that often (like for comments here on YT as well). Oh, and about focal lengths: on our Olympus cameras, we have the 17mm/1.8, the Panny 20mm/1.7, and also the PanaLeica 25mm/1.4. Of these three I'd prefer the 20mm - but that one is on my wife's camera most of the time ;) Terimah kasih Robin :)
The white wall test was a response to people criticizing me about my AF test of OM-1 on white wall, which failed miserably. My point is this - if a 10 years old, dinosaur DSLR can AF on white wall, both with or without live view, with very high hit rate, why then is the latest and greatest from OM Digital Solution fail so badly? It just does not make sense. Whether it was contrast detect or whatever method, does it really matter? All I want is for the camera to work. Thanks for the visit Wolfgang, I do miss seeing your comments but I can totally understand the cumbersome commenting system. Don't sweat it, I am happy knowing that you are still here, and that means a whole world to me.
Seriously - you need to start a series dedicated to photography techniques, postprocessing workflows etc. Gear is secondary, and the hype trains are getting ridiculous. We need some quality gear-agnostic photography content from a good photographer - like you :)
Thanks for the support. In fact, I have made videos on various topics - composition, story-telling via photography, doing mini-projects, how to improve photography without upgrading gear, shooting discipline, etc.
Thanks Robin. I used the 50mm (25mm 1.8 Oly) for several years (at your recommendation) and loved it, but always felt a tiny bit tight. Now I have the 40mm (20mm 1.4 Oly) and while it is wider, I cannot say it has made me happier, but there is a bit more flexibility for shooting more than one person in indoor setting. I wonder if you would agree - I think the 50mm field of view matches closer what people who wear glasses see (the frame tightens the view). It works for me this way when I take off or put on my reading glasses.
My Fuji 35mm f/2.0 (50mm equivalent) is my sharpest lens. I have been a photographer since 1959 and it is what I started with. If you look closely at photos you took on the sly, often the eyes look right at you. Good video.
24, 28, 35, 40, 50.... All great really. Also, not ever seeing any comments on using a 180mm prime for street photography. That can be really great... also one of my favorites as it's almost like a spy glass. Has anyone here used a 180mm 2.8 prime for street?
Many thanks for this video! I'm also a Nikon camera guy, and I lost my beloved nifty 50mm 1.8 last year, I replaced it with a 55mm Nikon macro MANUAL Lens, and once I got used to the manual fiocusing, I fell in LOVE with it! But your down to earth tips for the 50mm lens are GREAT! Again, thanks......HG
Hi Robin. Just found your channel. Love it. Learning so much about my OMD M5II. Your in camera settings helps an amateur like me take photos 100% better than I did prior. Appreciate it. Greetings from Australia. Michael.
I absolutely LOVE your feelings about 'pretending you're invisible' being ridiculous. Letting each moment develop in a respectable way is lovely. If it's successfully candid or not, it's fine if it flows comfortable for the subject.
I admit that 50mm is the best all-around lens, but I go for 42, probably because I rarely do portraits. I won't use 50mm for architecture, as the field of view is too narrow, but like Robin, I appreciate the distortion control of 50mm.
Yep. 50mm for life. Not too far and not too short. Good for environments so long as you stand far away enough and great for portraits as it has minimal distortion. Close second is the 40mm focal length.
The Olympus 25mm f1.8 is a perfect lens. Good sharpness, and color, and not too large -- what a great fit for a MFT camera. The autofocus is fast and accurate when used on newer models of Olympus and Lumix cameras. I use it a lot on my GX-9. -Loren
I mostly shoot with wider lenses than 50. Today I have been shooting street with a 20mm lens on an Olympus E-M10 MkII, which is a full frame 40mm equivalent. I prefer 35 to 40mm equivalent field of view, and even 28mm rather than 50mm. The Olympus cameras give the option of a 2X digital teleconverter if I want more and my Leica Q2 28mm has a button which cuts the field of view to 35 or 50mm jpeg in an instant while retaining the full sensor 28mm in raw. I often crop in camera in this way and if not there’s a good chance that I might crop some images in post.
I'd recommend not to use the digital teleconverter. Just crop the image if you need to. By activating the digital teleconverter, you get only 5MP instead of 20MP (or 4MP, if you shoot with 16MP image sensor). That is too much of a compromise if you ask me, and the degradation of image quality is quite severe.
@@robinwong I find the 2x convertor just fine on all my cameras. However I prefer to use the correct focal length and distance from the subject and usually just crop slightly in post. The Leica Q2 positively encourages the photographer to take cropped images of course and has a button dedicated to jpeg cropping with four different frames. It does retain the full 28mm fieldof view as a raw file if shooting jpeg+raw. 28,35,50 and 75mm equivalent are available. It does help that the sensor is full frame and has 47mp of course. I find sticking to ‘rules’ very limiting and try not to impose any such limits on my photography, although some habits do inevitably happen.
I’ve used 34mm and 50mm. I sorta like both but I really think maybe the OM 20mm f1.4 pro might give me the best of both worlds! 85-90mm is definitely my favorite professional portrait focal length though
Very interesting! I was curious that all your shots were F1.8-5.6. I understood that choice for street portraits, but even your buildings and full shots. Why is that?
Why not? F1.8 to get some shallow depth of field effect (for foreground blur, creative play) and not going beyond F5.6, because diffraction. At F5.6, things that are in focus far away, everything is already sharp. And the lens is at the sharpest at about F4-5.6. Going further brings no extra benefit. The only reason to narrow down the aperture more than F5.6 is to achieve more depth field, say if you are doing product shots up close, or shooting a group of people and you want every single person to be in focus (because people shots are not being far away).
I'd love to do a walkaround street shooting with you. Plus, you remind me of the times when I traveled to Malaysia, back in 2011, one of the best trips of my life. By the way, why are you wearing your T-shirts so tight? XD Cheers man!
@@robinwong Ha ha! For sure! One day I'll return. My curiosity comes from the fact that I know precisely how much you sweat in such a hot and humid climate, so I was much more comfortable in loose clothing
