What is this lens for??

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PaulSanderson

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Hello everybody..

This is a total newbie question so please excuse my ignorance.

At the weekend I bought a Canon 1100D and it came in a twin pack with a 18-55mm a 75-300mm lens. Having never done any macro photography before I asked the shop assistant if i needed a macro-specific lens and he suggested a dedicated 50mm macro lens. Brilliant i thought, everything i need and paid the extra money for this additional lens.

Over the last few days having played with my new kit it has become apparent that the 50mm lens is now where new as good as the 18-55mm lens for close ups.

Have I bought this extra bit of kit unnecessarily? if not, I'm probably not using it correctly so any info would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,
paul.
 
redddraggon said:
That's not a macro lens. It's a nice lens (for the money) tho.
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ah....i was told by the guy in the shop it was a macro lens (it doe shave the little macro flower icon on it), but then the 18-55mm actually says macro on it. What is the purpose of this lens then?

cheers...
 
IF, it is the NiftyFifty, which it sounds like it is, then although it has the macro mark, the little 'tulip' it is not dedicated macro, as mentioned above.
It is however, a brilliant little lens for the money. Not being nosey, but how much did you pay for the lens? Should have been around the 75-100 pound area. A dedicated macro lens will cost a fair bit more than this new! However, you can get tubes (macro rings) to give you better magnification, or a Raynox macro lens. Both will attach to your NiftyFifty.
 
ah right...i paid 80 (and this was in Harrods!)

so its not a complete loss then :) bonus!! I have seen the magnification lenses for not very much money. Is there a dedicated reason for this lens? the reason I ask this is because my other 2 offer zoom where as this is fixed with only the focus being adjustable.

Thanks for all your help...everyday is a school day and all that...
 
PaulSanderson said:
ah right...i paid 80 (and this was in Harrods!)

so its not a complete loss then :) bonus!! I have seen the magnification lenses for not very much money. Is there a dedicated reason for this lens? the reason I ask this is because my other 2 offer zoom where as this is fixed with only the focus being adjustable.

Thanks for all your help...everyday is a school day and all that...
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The 50mm is a prime lens, it only does 50mm or in the case of the 1100d it'll give you the equivalent 80mm due to the crop sensor.

Prime or fixed lenses generally give you better quality images and wider apertures, 1.8 with your lens, than the equivalent 50mm on your zoom lens.

It's a very nice lens for the money, i own the same one.

You can get a converter that allows you to mount the lens on the camera in reverse to get some very nice macro shots but the focus will only work in manual if you do this.
 
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PaulSanderson said:
ah right...i paid 80 (and this was in Harrods!)

so its not a complete loss then :) bonus!! I have seen the magnification lenses for not very much money. Is there a dedicated reason for this lens? the reason I ask this is because my other 2 offer zoom where as this is fixed with only the focus being adjustable.

Thanks for all your help...everyday is a school day and all that...
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By 'magnification lenses' do you mean the Raynox? Should be around the £40 mark new, £35 second hand.
the NiftyFifty is a 'Prime' lens, ie no zoom, you zoom with your feet!
It is incredibly sharp and is good for portraits, but not just portraits.
I have used mine for lanscape, macro, low light indoors, pet portraits etc.
There are many places that do not allow flash photography, the NiftyFifty steps in nicely.
 
thanks for all the info guys...this is some great stuff...im clearly out of my depth when it comes to the technicalities of photography but i'll get there.

it seems the fella in the shop was out of his depth too...still, he got an extra £80 from me and it is probably something i would have bought in the near future.

thanks once again...i'll post some of my attempts when i figure out how.
 
No it's not a waste of money ...quite the contrary.
Shame you were sold it under the pretext that it was a dedicated macro lens!
Nonetheless it is a cheap good quality prime lens.....the difference with this lens is that you have to zoom with your feet...ie: you have to move closer or further away from your subject by physically moving as against zooming like you can with the other lenses.
As you learn, you will find this is what is known as a "fast" lens with a large F/1.8 aperture which will offer you more oportunity to capture shots in inferiour lighting conditions and will also offer more creativity with DOF (depth of field) than your other lenses.
 
PaulSanderson said:
thanks for all the info guys...this is some great stuff...im clearly out of my depth when it comes to the technicalities of photography but i'll get there.

it seems the fella in the shop was out of his depth too...still, he got an extra £80 from me and it is probably something i would have bought in the near future.

thanks once again...i'll post some of my attempts when i figure out how.
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Just remember that the Nifty has a very narrow depth of field at 1.8, so you have to be very accurate with your focus and what you focus on. (That could be why your macro was unsuccessful) Open it up a couple of stops and focus is not so critical. Good luck and we wait for your attempts.
 
wow - thanks for that link. some of those images are fantastic. looking forward to playing around with it...
 
All crappy customer service stories should be like this... You were stitched up by an incompetent employee, and as a result you now have to live with... well... one of the best lenses you'll ever own!
 
NickD said:
All crappy customer service stories should be like this... You were stitched up by an incompetent employee, and as a result you now have to live with... well... one of the best lenses you'll ever own!
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ha ha yeah its not often a story like this turns out to be for the customers benefit :)
 
haha sorry....im playing around with this and liking the results :) think i'll hold on to it for now...
 
Wise choice that lens is awesome for the price. I spent 800 u.s. dollars on my 17-55 and really like it but it's still not as sharp as my 100 dollar 50mm. I'm using a crop body so I wish it was a bit wider although making request on a 100 lens seems a bit tacky. Lol.
 
Ofc another option for Macro is to buy extension tubes, Canon do there on dedicated ones 12.5 and 25mm and dont cost a fortune.
 
No, extention tubes allow you to focus closer, at the expense of losing infinity focussing. It's an extender or tele-converter that multiplies the focal length, usually by a factor of 1.4 or 2.

The extender contains optical elements to increase the focal length of the primary lens. An extention tube contains no optical elements, just the electrical contacts for aperture and focussing, and reporting focal length.
 
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In case you're still interested in getting a macro lens, there's a few options, but I use the canon 100mm f/2.8 and it's been good, there's an L version too. It can be worth having a chat on here about lenses, I've found it to be invaluable in finding out what i should do :P.

Have fun with the 50mm though, its a cool looking lens
 
Classic case of bloke in shop talking out of his arse

however all is not lost - as has been suggested you could use tubes with the 50mm prime, or a reversing ring , or you could use a reversing adaptor to reverse the nifty onto the front of your kit lens - All sorts of low cost options

With regard to maginfication lenses (which screw on the front) - the raynox ones are good , but i'd be wary of the ultra cheap ones which will add more distortion than maginfication.

And if you want an actual Macro lens make sure you get one that is 1:1 (that is a subject that is 1cm long will also be 1cm long on the sensor ) usual suspects are the canon 60mm , the Tamron 90mm (Ive got one of these), the Canon 100mm, the Sigma 105mm, & 150mm , and the Tamron 180mm (the latter two are over kill for static subjects but very handy for flying dragon flys and butterflies)

If you are feeling seriously minted there is also the Canon MPE 65 which gives a 5x lifesize maginification - but they are silly money.

Also if you are interested in Macro - I'd strongly suggest buying or borrowing a copy of "small things big" by Paul Harcourt Davies
 
big soft moose said:
And if you want an actual Macro lens make sure you get one that is 1:1 (that is a subject that is 1cm long will also be 1cm long on the sensor ) usual suspects are the canon 60mm , the Tamron 90mm (Ive got one of these), the Canon 100mm, the Sigma 105mm, & 150mm , and the Tamron 180mm (the latter two are over kill for static subjects but very handy for flying dragon flys and butterflies)
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:plusone:

If you are shooting still life / static objects, then there is also the Sigma 50mm 2.8 Macro lens, which is very good and at the lower end of the price range, but if you're wanting to shoot bugs etc, you really do need a longer lens than 50-60mm.

Just a note of caution, depending on where you are shopping, the older Canon 50mm Macro lens is not a true 1:1 Macro lens

Hope you are enjoying your new purchases ...
 
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andyred said:
....
Just a note of caution, depending on where you are shopping, the older Canon 50mm Macro lens is not a true 1:1 Macro lens...
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Maybe not but it's an excellent lens :D

I don't get the hype over the 50mm 1.8 - I agree it's a great lens for the cheap price of it but spend more on some of the other available lenses & you will definitely get more

Op, I've read a couple of your threads & love how enthusiastic you are, have a fab time exploring your new found interest
 
NickD said:
All crappy customer service stories should be like this... You were stitched up by an incompetent employee, and as a result you now have to live with... well... one of the best lenses you'll ever own!
Click to expand...

And one of the worse! I can't believe anybody is still selling the 75-300 instead of the vastly superior 55-250.
 
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