I'm finally back blogging, I hit a bit of a funk after damaging that lens and my K1 (see my previous post), and I am a feel based photographer, vibes if you will. If I am not feeling it I tend to not try to push it too much, I have found that I tend to take rubbish when I force things. Though I will occasionally run into a good photo here and there.

This post is going to be a musing post (as opposed to amusing) on the concept of "Everybody needs a fast 50." I started in photography in 1982... ish... when I talked my dad into paying half of a Canon AE-1 Program with 50mm f1.8 lens. That was the way the came, no zoom lens as a "Kit lens" like you get now days. Zooms were routinely terrible unless they were EXPENSIVE back then, with a few exceptions. You had the choice of a f1.8 or f2 lens for the poors, and if you had a little money then f1.4, or as a pro maybe f1.2. There are several reasons for this behavior on the part of the lens makers. First, as I said, zooms were either affordable rubbish or good but expensive, primes were typically pretty good to amazing and way cheaper. Second, 50mm lenses were pretty much figured out by then, everyone made a least a few good ones, many were exceptional. And they were easy and cheap to produce meaning that everyone could afford one. They became ubiquitous, and the common wisdom seemed to be that they were the most essential lens to own, you could do about anything with one. Which I knew at the time was hogwash, and it continues to be hogwash. That said, you can do a lot with them and they can be a lot of fun. 

Why?

That large aperture of course, it allows more light in and you can shoot in darker situations with less light and still get enough light in to the film. In the days of film that was a big deal, like, a cannot be overstated big deal. I loved shooting film, but if I had Kodachrome 64 ISO loaded I wasn't going to get a decent photo indoors without a flash, if then, though I had a better chance at f1.4 than f5.6. Those of you who have only known digital where you can just spin the ISO dial and increase the sensitivity at a whim just don't know the pain. So, film days, a fast 50mm was an important tool, nearly indispensable really. Is it really THAT needed on Digital?

Here are a couple cell phone shots of mine in my K1. Yes the K1 is a big honking beast, I love it. The 50mm handles nicely and fits well.

What about on digital I asked? Well, this is where another lens design feature comes into play that we have talked about before. The larger the aperture the thinner depth of field (area that is in focus) so with f1.4 you can get a pretty thin slice of your subject in focus, blurring the rest. Focal length affects this as well, longer focal lengths have thinner DOF at a similar aperture and shorter give more DOF. On a 50mm this opens up creative possibilities you can SIMULATE in post processing (Cell Phone cameras are starting to do this type of stuff with software but it looks crap in my opinion) but you cannot authentically create it without a lens with a large aperture. Like this photo below.

And this one, do you see how shooting wide open allows for isolation of only part of the image from the rest?

The problem with having the ability to do this, is that you tend to want to ALWAYS do this, shooting wide open for everything, even when the shot doesn't need it, just for the effect.  

Extreme effects can be had with closest focus distance and maximum aperture, but it requires very careful focusing technique, everyone has postural sway when you are standing "still" and that can move the part of the image in focus around. Making it harder to get the exact shot you want. I* believe the photo above was at f1.4, but, with these old lenses not recording the aperture and taking this photo 2 years ago I don't know.

A photo like the one below is a good compromise of distance to subject giving you a decent chance at getting the focus right, as distance from the lens increases the depth of field. I am not a portrait guy but something like this distance from the subject would work for a portrait blurring the background at f1.4. The background blur is another coveted part of owning a lens with a large aperture.

One of the biggest drawbacks with old fast 50's is they are not always sharp wide open but do get better stopped down, as most lenses are wont to do. More modern lenses are better at this, something I hope to test in a month or two as I am planning a 50mm comparison test that will either kill me off or be amazing... or both. And give me more information as to how sharp this lens really is. Lack of sharpness can be relative, and most are sharp enough, this particular lens seems to be just fine wide open for me though I have not really tested it, casual shooting can only go so far. Say hello to a viking helmet clad Sinclair Dino in Ephraim Utah. Decorating these is a hilarious custom here.    

Normally I would try to wrap things up and move on here, however, I wanted to try something a little different. A big criteria for me when testing a lens is it's suitability to be a walkaround lens, meaning one lens, one camera body and wandering around town. This is a FAVORITE activity of mine, I often try to do it after work if I can sneak out a little early and it isn't too hot. I do not get to indulge it as much as I would like to. In part due to life, responsibilities and getting a little lazy in my middle age. But I WANT to, and when I get to, it can be a lot of fun!

I HAD to take a day off of work, you see when I work on a holiday or a holiday occurs on a day I would not normally work, I bank those hours as paid time off. The caveat being that those hours expire at the end of June each year. (Use it or lose it.) I tend to be pretty scrupulous about keeping on top of those hours, but got down to the wire this year, having Memorial Day hours to use and June 27th being my last scheduled day for the year.

So... I took a Saturday off (I work Wed-Sat if anybody cares, and normally Sat is too thinly staffed to take off.) and engaged a photo walkabout and another favorite activity, riding trains. We have a commuter rail line called Frontrunner here in Utah that I like to ride, and it's northern terminus is in Ogden, which has a really cool rail museum, with a gun museum dedicated to John Moses Browning a Utah Local and a small car museum as well. I planned to find a breakfast place, wander, take some photos and just have a relaxing morning. Turns out there was a farmers market/festival going on too!

I had never really done walkabout with a 50mm, being more of a wide angle vision guy but wanting to try, I bravely set out for your and my benefit, here are a few shots that I took with commentary and a final sum up.

Narrow depth of field, that is what f1.4 gets you, the photo is not super interesting without it, and only slightly interesting with it.   

Stopping down, more of the sign is in focus, though with some background blur simply because the lens was focused as closely as it could. I am already wishing I had my 28mm.    Back to f1.4 but focusing further away allows for subject isolation, at 1:1 resolution on my computer things are acceptably sharp.   

My transport arrives, a picture cannot convey the throb of the diesel engine, I LOVE that feeling in my chest. I had to step back to get things in the frame I wanted, then I ended up with too much in the frame and needed to crop. So not ALWAYS to narrow of an angle of view but it feels like it.

One of my favorite tricks when I'm moving is to stop down and induce motion blur, I love the sense of movement. Nothing here is really sharp, but I still like it. It is easy to get hung up on wanting the sharpest image possible sometimes.   

Here, I like what I was able to get, but was wishing for 35mm or 28mm, due to having to stand in just that spot I could not zoom with my feet and didn't get quite the shot I wanted. I still like the building though, it has character.

   That door was fun, the textures were magnificent. 

Cornell was kind enough to let me take his photo, this was f2.8 or f4 I found that worked well for reasonable depth of field and sharpness with reasonable ease of focusing. Manual Focusing is hard.

I am really pretty shy about taking pictures of people so this is my compromise, performers normally won't give me a dirty look.   

Walking back past Cornell I couldn't help getting one more shot.   

This amused me. Greatly. The longer focal length helped me here.   The car museum was somewhat dimly lit, and required f1.4 and increased ISO to 800.     

 The rendering of out of focus highlights as circles of light in the center getting more oval towards the edges is very common in older lenses, some even render with "swirly" bokeh, I can produce this with a Helios 58mm lens I have, this one not quite as much. Do look for an upcoming post doing a 50-58mm lens comparison test with multiple lenses, hopefully I can reproduce that effect in studio. 

Hood ornaments on these old cars are just COOL! I love taking their photo.   

 One problem with faster lenses is chromatic abberation, you can see it around some of the bright spots on the archers arm, there is quite pronounced purple fringing, this lens and most older lenses will have that and some green as well. With modern digital post processing you can remove it fairly easily.   

Moving outside to the trains. Here I started to see more of the value of increased sharpness at f4 and f5.6 compared to say a zoom lens. I could have framed this exact shot with my 28-105mm zoom, but I don't think the front logo would have popped the same. That may be a subject for further tests as I keep learning and playing. Except for some early stuff with my SMC Pentax 24mm f2.8 I haven't done much comparing in the field instead of indoors/controlled environments. What I do know is this image, seems to have what I would call "POP" with that UP logo just seeming to stand out more. As an aside this locomotive is pretty cool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_GTELs    

Locomotives, particularly steam locomotives, are among my favorite things, especially to photograph. They have details and symmetry, leading lines and are just a visual treat. UP 833 here is one of the best.

Parting shot of the old passenger platform. 

Conclusion: This is a good performing and useful lens! Like all the K series Pentax lenses, the handling and tactile feel is great smooth focusing and clicky aperture rings. Optically the lens performs well, good sharpness even wide open, though you have to work to get it focused as f1.4 gives very thin depth of field especially in closer focus situations and you can get some chromatic abberations, though is hardly unique to this lens.

Stopped down a little it really gets VERY sharp, out resolving my sensor. Not going to get too excited about that without seeing more formal testing later, it may disappoint me, who knows. For me the limitations of the lens have to do with the focal length. I tend to see scenes somewhere between 24-35mm and find 50 a little constrained. I like to be up close to the subject and show environment for context, and that is more easily done with a wide angle. This lens will not displace my SMC 28mm f3.5 lens anytime soon, but it CAN be useful. Pentax makes five 50mm lenses currently, an inexpensive 50mm f1.8 called the "Plastic Fantastic" as it is very cheaply made, but seems to produce good images, a thoroughly modern 50mm f1.4 that is beastly large and has a reputation as an excellent performer two versions of the FA 50mm f1.4 with the old SMC coatings and one with the new HD coatings and a 50mm f2.8 macro that goes to 1:1 reproduction. I hope to be able to borrow an example of all three of them for my 50mm test.

If I had no 50mm lens in my kit right now I would lean to the macro f2.8 lens, I think. Let ya know after I test some stuff... That said I have no reason to not use this lens in the right situation.

As always, thanks for reading to the end and happy to hear from ya!

Lloyd