Blagging a fast prime

Twigman

Twigman

Suspended / Banned
Messages
238
Name
Ian
Edit My Images
No
Before I start let me just say I am a hobbyist.
The marketing person at work seems to think that I'm not too shabby at taking pictures ( and far cheaper tha her pro snapper ).
I have been asked to do some promo shots of bits of hi-tech equipment.
I use a Canon 80D
I've had some reasonable results with a Sigma 17-50 f2.8 and my Canon 24-70 f4L but this marketing person would like a bit more bokeh.

So I was thinking of a Canon 50mm - either the 1.4 or the 1.8

Now I know that the 1.8 is dirt cheap and the 1.4 is around £350 or so - I suspect that I could cheekily get the marketing dept to pay for one of these two lenses......well the marketing department has thought little/nothing of flying me to Germany for a day to take some pictures, so a lens to get the bokeh she wants should be fundable ( - not sure I could blag an L lens or I'd be after a 35mm 1.4IIUSM or a 24mm 1.4IIUSM LOL)....so I'm looking at the two Canon 50mm fast offereings with a view to blagging one.

So which should I go for? and why?

Or should I be looking at something else a bit wider like a Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM ? - not sure I could get away with blagging a 35mm 1.4 ART !!

Basically what I'm asking is:
On a 80D APS-C body which would likely be more useful 30mm or 50mm?
Is the 50mm 1.4 a better lens than the 50mm 1.8 ?
If someone else was paying would you go for the dearer of the two?
Is it worth considering the Sigma 30mm 1.4 ? = I ask because to me on APS-C I could see myself using the 30mm more often.

Is there another fast prime I should be trying to blag? I don't think I could get away with a £600 blag but a sub £400 is realistically do-able.
 
IMO might help if you explain the sort of subjects as "hi tech equipment" covers a wide range from hand sized to kit large enough that you need a crane to move it.

Also, with the lenses you have what focal length were you using and why is that guiding you to a 50mm or indeed a 35mm?

Plus bear in mind the bokeh and separation from the background also needs careful handling of the DoF..........and the DoF depending on distance from the subject can become razor thin. So more needs to be considered than just(?) getting an f1.8 or f1.4 lens

Is the marketing person confusing bokeh and control of DoF to render the background out of focus?

Edit ~ definition of bokeh ~ is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light".

The rendering of the bokeh is not 100% the same in all lenses..........you will need to read lens reviews to "see" what the bokeh is like and is that "look" acceptable???
 
Last edited:
OK - so in general lines of flight cased equipment

Here we have projectors out of their cases - marketeer wants first in focus then line behind out of focus...didn't achieve this here withSigma 17-50 f2.8 wide open
projectors1small.jpg



This one was closer but still the bokeh wasn't blurry enough:
Proj1Small.jpg


I'm sure you get the idea
 
Or focus on a projected screen with the foreground out of focus.....

Struggling to achieve this at f2.8
Pana1Small.jpg
 
Tilt-shift.

Here me out. Nothing is moving there, you can take your time, and even though it is 2.8, by tilting the focal pane (or plane ?) you can make everything you want in focus and everything you don't want out of focus.

Not easy to use mind….
 
Last edited:
Pete B said:
Longer lens shot further away?
Click to expand...
I could but it's in a working warehouse and there is not much space without getting in the way or getting run over by a fork lift

I'll take my 100-400 to work and see what happens....
 
Last edited:
Here is an online DoF calculator that takes account of the body, lens, camera to subject distance and aperture. Worth running through various combinations to aid determining a solution and possible new lens????


http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
 
50 1.4 will be very good for bokeh, you will probably find that many shots will have more out of focus that you thought, ruining the photos in some cases.
 
Pete B said:
Longer lens shot further away?
Click to expand...
I tried blagging a 70-200 f2.8L ii yesterday - thought the iii might be a bit OTT and couldn't wait til august....

That would certainly have helped here.

Think I'm going to try to blag a freebie 50mm 1.8 STM - don't want to get too greedy and all reviews tell me it's a must have.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Tilt-shift.

Here me out. Nothing is moving there, you can take your time, and even though it is 2.8, by tilting the focal pane (or plane ?) you can make everything you want in focus and everything you don't want out of focus.

Not easy to use mind….
Click to expand...

I think this is the correct answer for OP's use case.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It's not a fixed aperture lens ;)
Click to expand...
It's a fair point though, when you get a F1.4 you are going to keep trying to use that and the in focus area can be paper thin.
Much more usable at about 2.0
50mm might actually not be wide enough for those close up shots on that camera, basically it's like you are taking portraits, often in a somewhat confined area.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It's not a fixed aperture lens ;)
Click to expand...

I never said it wasn't. He will have to try and preview the shots and adjust like everyone else to get specific dof he is looking for.

I'm saying that many shots when using 1.4 and 1.8 will have very thin DOF, more than desired.

I never said there was nothing he can do about it.
 
My vote would go to either the 35mm f/2 IS, or 50mm f/1.8 STM.
Ive got both and the 35mm is sharper, has IS so can be hand held at very slow speeds, and as its wider you will get more in. Worked really well on my 80D (and does on my M50).
Out of the 50mm lenses id go for the 50 f/1.8 STM, as it seems more usable compared to the 50mm f/1.4 i had. That always needed to be stopped down to get sharp images, so i would normally lose a stop or two anyway.
 
If it's simply blur that you want then just smear some vaseline over the righthand side of a UV filter.....cheap and worked for many decades.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't want to go any wider than 30/35mm on crop, otherwise you'll get too much of the warehouse background in shot, which could be messy.
f1.8 should be fine for getting decent bokeh. The amount of bokeh is dependent on your distance from the subject and the distance from the subject to the background.
Here's a rather obvious example, taken at f1.8 (50mm on full frame). Note the fence in focus is less than 1m from the lens and the phonebox is another 4-5m behind that.

Make the call by Alistair Beavis, on Flickr

As for lens choice, I have the 50mm f1.4 and would say it's probably better to get the 50mm f1.8 STM. As mentioned f1.4 is nice, but often I shoot at f1.8 to keep it sharp and the STM is as fast to focus as the USM.
If you go wider, the Sigma 30mm f1.4 is ok, but at least the non-Art version of the lens (that I've tried) does suffer from distortion when up close, which wouldn't look good on the straight lines of your flight cases and projectors.
The 35mm f2 IS is a good lens, but quite pricey by comparison to the 50mm.

What you're trying to achieve with the shot down the line of flight cases to a screen at the end, I think you may be better with a longer lens and use compression to give you the nice out of focus areas. A 70-200 2.8 would work well for that, but probably out of budget.
So, I'd actually think about suggesting a combination of the 50mm f1.8 STM and the Canon 85mm f1.8 for the long lens shots. Both are going to be good shooting wide open and cheap enough (especially if you get the 85mm s/h from MPB or Park) that should suit the bean counters.
Another option would be the 100mm macro, that way you can get the long shots at f2.8 and get nice close-up detail shots which look good in marketing material.

Make sure there's a clear understanding (ie written down) about whether any lens purchased is yours even if you leave the company or it's theirs. Some companies are happy to buy stuff "for you" but won't let you take it if you leave.
If they are going to make an investment in kit, perhaps it's worth renting/borrowing a couple of lenses to try out.
 
ABTog said:
Make sure there's a clear understanding (ie written down) about whether any lens purchased is yours even if you leave the company or it's theirs. Some companies are happy to buy stuff "for you" but won't let you take it if you leave.
If they are going to make an investment in kit, perhaps it's worth renting/borrowing a couple of lenses to try out.
Click to expand...

I am a shareholder and the finance director - I only really have to get this past one of my colleagues :)
He seems to buy an awful lot of power tools which seem to disappear from the warehouse pretty promptly, if you get my drift.
 
ABTog said:
Make sure there's a clear understanding (ie written down) about whether any lens purchased is yours even if you leave the company or it's theirs. Some companies are happy to buy stuff "for you" but won't let you take it if you leave.
If they are going to make an investment in kit, perhaps it's worth renting/borrowing a couple of lenses to try out.
Click to expand...

Twigman said:
I am a shareholder and the finance director - I only really have to get this past one of my colleagues :)
He seems to buy an awful lot of power tools which seem to disappear from the warehouse pretty promptly, if you get my drift.
Click to expand...

Also the joys & pitfalls of BiK.........though I think this gets more complex where directors and their remuneration are concerned.

Hope the project and resultant images meet your marketeers expectations and enjoy the new kit ;)

PS looks like an interesting industry you are in, what with those large scale projectors.
 
Box Brownie said:
Also the joys & pitfalls of BiK.........though I think this gets more complex where directors and their remuneration are concerned.

.
Click to expand...

The joys of the P11D
In my experience this area does get very blurred when director shareholders are involved.....many is the piece of equipment that isn't kept 'on site' but could be produced at any audit as required....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top