The Lumix S 50mm F1.8
The Lumix S 50mm F1.8
As mentioned in my last blog on the Lumix S 35mm F1.8, I decided on testing three focal ranges for street photography. I’ve written and tested the 50mm F1.8 before in Tokyo, but I have not purposefully set out to compare focal ranges for street photography.
The Lumix 50mm F1.8
This blog takes on one of the most iconic focal ranges for street photography. The focal length of 50mm has a standard, documentary feel. This focal range is very close to how the eye views the world. The amount of distortion in faces and objects is at its lowest amount with the 50mm focal range. This is why the 50mm focal length has a ‘documentary’ type feel. The image present itself as the eye would experience it.
The Lumix F1.8 Prime Series
As mentioned before in the blog on the Lumix 35mm F1.8, Lumix has produce a series of F1.8 primes. Those primes come in the focal length of 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm. These primes all have these things in common:
Each prime lens uses the same housing lending to each being the same size and using the same filter thread size of 67mm.
Each prime lens weight about 300 grams. The weight difference is some minimal that when used in gimbal operation there is no need to re-balance the camera switching between the F1.8 series lenses. This is a large time saver for those running video operations.
Each of these F1.8 prime series have the same color rendering and sharpness profile.
Each of these primes has a aperture range from F1.8 to F22.
Since the introduction of these primes, Panasonic has also released a 100mm F2.8 prime which uses the same body, filter size, and weight. That means all six of these prime lens can be swapped on a gimbal without changes. This really makes video work much more efficient.
Taking It To The Streets
For this competition series between the three primes I used the 50mm on some of the residential streets of Tokyo Japan. I took the Lumix S 50mm F1.8 starting from Ohanajaya station, walking along a waterway, and ending at Kamichiba Sunahara Park. Let me share some example photos below.
Wrap Up
I really connect with the 50mm focal length. Getting that documentary view has a real appeal. A large part of street photography for me is show a sense of reality through the lens of my camera. There is a reason the 50mm focal length was one of the most popular focal length lenses sold with in kits with 35mm film cameras. Those film shots allowed the first time film camera buyer to get a great deal on a camera kit and did not break what the beginning user would experience with their eye.
This challenge between the 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm focal length continues though. We still have the Lumix S 85mm F1.8 coming up next though, Join me in the next blog where we wrap up this comparison.