wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

I have an old 100mm portagon lens by spiretone. Only one fstop f/4. It is a single element lens and is somewhat sharp in the middle and then gets soft on the sides. Gives the looks of the soft focus lenses from the 30's. Probable the lens baby tele would give the same look. - Dave

greymule Loc: Colorado

How's this Jerry-

It's razor.

:wink: :wink:

SENSORLOUPE

Needle Sharp!!!

marty wild Loc: England

That's a good DOF with a macro the lens you have used here will suffice as a portrait lens.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

On my list of things to do is taking a picture of the edge of a razor.

greymule Loc: Colorado

Please post it.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I will.

FLandWVMIKE Loc: Daytona Beach, Fla.

It used to be, that the 90mm was the most used lens for portraits.

Julieb Loc: LaSalle, Colorado

The 85mm is kinder than the 50mm to the look of a portrait. The proportions are modified just a bit, leaving the model with "prettier" features, i.e. slightly shortened nose.

I love my Canon 1.8 85mm on my Canon t3i. My models love the results, too.

DougW Loc: SoCal

I use a Pentax 645. 75mm lens adapted to my Canon t1i.
Strictly manual focus, but with the 1.6 crop sensor makes a wonderful portrait lens. About the equivalent of 122 mm.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

80 to 85 mm is actually optimum for portraits on a crop sensor dSLR. 50mm is a general-use "nifty fifty" that isn't meant to be best for portraits although some people use it for that. There seems to be many newbies (no offense intended) "hearing" about 50mm being best for portraits these days and I'm not sure why or who's spreading that around - it's not correct according to what has been the unofficial "rule of thumb" for multiple decades of full-frame 35mm film portrait work using 100mm to 135mm fixed length lenses.

Typically, the lower the f/number (the widest aperture the lens can open to) the better - and the more costly as well. You will likely be using artificial, or sun, light in portraiture so I'd research on lens brand and glass quality more than whether it's 1.4 or 1.8.

You didn't say what brand of camera, what brand of lenses you're looking at, what your budget is, or any details so we're in the dark for offering recommendations.

Right now I'm using about 80mm of my 28 to 100 Minolta zoom on my Sony Alpha 55, although I'd like to buy a prime fixed lens for portraiture in the near future.

omorell

Back in the pre-zoom lens days the pros used 135mm. I think with digital cameras zoom setting of 85mm will do just fine.

texased42 Loc: Houston, Texas

Nice

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I believe that's incorrect. It's true that a 50mm lens that came from a film camera when put onto a dSLR acts as an 80mm because of the length multiplication formula. But if it's a 50mm that came with the digital camera, it's more likely a "50mm equivalent" not a true 50mm.

If you could put an APS-C crop sensor matched digital "50mm equivalent" lens on a film SLR body, you would most likely get the view of a full-frame focal length of approximately 32mm.

The smaller the sensor, the smaller the true mm of the lens to have a "50mm equivalent" view. A cheap Point & Shoot might actually use 5mm or 10mm for their tiny sensor to get a "50mm equivalent" view.

According to Wikipedia: "...manufacturers label their cameras and lenses with their actual focal lengths but in some cases they have chosen to instead multiply by the crop factor (focal length multiplier) and label the 35 mm equivalent focal length. Reviewers also sometimes use the 35 mm-equivalent focal length as a way to characterize the field of view of a range of cameras in common terms."

So a 50mm lens for an SLR is not necessarily the same focal length as a "50mm equivalent" lens built for an APS-C crop sensor digital camera. Thus you can't say you put on your 50mm digital lens and suddenly had an 80mm lens length for portraits - you may still have equivalent to a 50mm lens length.

To achieve the correct digital equivalent of a portrait lens on film, one should use a true 80mm digital lens on an APS-C crop sensor camera to be equivalent to 130mm on full-frame film. Or you could say, buy a "130mm equivalent" digital lens that is actually a true 80mm in the full-frame world. Those in the full-frame digital world would need a real 130mm lens to achieve the same view.

For example, on my Sony Alpha 55, the 70mm end of my digital kit zoom is very different than the 70mm position of my Minolta Maxxum film-era zoom that I bought later. The 70mm Sony kit digital lens is equivalent to 70mm on 35mm film when mounted on the Alpha body. The Minolta 70mm setting for 35mm film bodies is equivalent to 112mm when mounted on the Alpha body. The difference is very obvious. One must be careful to learn if a lens length you are buying is "digital equivalent to 35mm full-frame" or the true focal length.

Which is the long way around to saying 50mm lenses of either kind are a long way from optimum for portraiture on a APS-C crop sensor camera although they'll work if you don't have anything else. But this thread author and others have asked what is the BEST for portraits. I really wish people would stop recommending 50mm.

Wacotim Loc: Phoenix, AZ

I also use the Canon 100mm macro and it works very well.