Canon 24mm 2.8 pancake lens

[Andybris]

Hi,
I'm going down to Melbourne for xmas and have a eos 600D with kit lens 18-55mm and 55-250mm and want to shoot city/street photos, been looking at primes, is it work buying a 24mm 2.8 pancake lens? will I get better photos quality wise?

pro's and con's

[ricktas]

What do you call 'quality wise'? The best photos are those where the photographer has contributed about 80% to the outcome. Give an advanced photographer a phone and they can take some stunning photos. It is about knowing the settings, 'seeing' the scene, composing the shot and understanding the light. These are things the camera has nothing to do with. A camera just takes what it is given. What you give it, is the photographers skill. And THAT is what makes a photo great!

Getting a new lens will not make your photography any better..or worse.

So my suggestion is that as you have signed up here as a beginner, start posting some of your photos for critique and read, absorb and implement the feedback. Cause I could take your 450D and your 18-55 or 55-250 and get advanced competition quality images, easily.

[Andybris]

Thanks so much for your reply, one typo was "work" I meant "worth" I guess you got that :).
You mentioned 450D as that was my first post, I was having problems with it doing EOS Utility AF - turns out it could not do it as it was too old so I posted it on ebay sold it and moved up to a 600D for only $100 change over and ended up with 2 extra batteries! bargain, plus I can now do video and have iso 6400 from only 800 with the 450D.

Quality was maybe he wrong term, after watching reviews of the 24mm 2.8 pancake I thought for city type shots the 2.8 would give me more light in low light conditions as I move around side streets being in building shadows, shooting at slightly higher shutter speeds being hand held.

Thanks for your feedback.

[ricktas]

Thanks so much for your reply, one typo was "work" I meant "worth" I guess you got that :).
You mentioned 450D as that was my first post, I was having problems with it doing EOS Utility AF - turns out it could not do it as it was too old so I posted it on ebay sold it and moved up to a 600D for only $100 change over and ended up with 2 extra batteries! bargain, plus I can now do video and have iso 6400 from only 800 with the 450D.

Quality was maybe he wrong term, after watching reviews of the 24mm 2.8 pancake I thought for city type shots the 2.8 would give me more light in low light conditions as I move around side streets being in building shadows, shooting at slightly higher shutter speeds being hand held.

Thanks for your feedback.

2.8 is 2.8.. It will give you more light..at 2.8 for any given shutter speed, over a smaller aperture (say 4.5)... but it will also give you a very shallow depth of field (area in focus. front to back in the photo). So lots will be blurry, outside the focus point. Just cause a lens can go to 2.8 doesnt mean you shoot at 2.8 all the time. If you want the whole street, in focus, you need to look at a smaller aperture (larger f number) for that shot.

Here is an example.

Street scene, focus point (the point you lock focus on) is 10 metres from you

using 24mm at f2.8
Subject distance 10 m
Depth of field
Near limit 5.18 m
Far limit 144.4 m
Total 139.2 m
In front of subject 4.8 m (3%)
Behind subject 134.4 m (97%)

Same shot but this time at f11
Subject distance 10 m
Depth of field
Near limit 2.12 m
Far limit Infinity
Total Infinite
In front of subject 7.9 m
Behind subject Infinite

See the difference? At f2.8 anything closer than 5.18 metres to the camera, will not be in focus. But at f11, that comes down to 2.12 metres.

and if you shoot at f22
Subject distance 10 m
Depth of field
Near limit 1.18 m
Far limit Infinity
Total Infinite
In front of subject 8.8 m
Behind subject Infinite

There is a lot more to aperture than just having an f2.8 lens to get better photos. Your 18-55 lens will be quite capable for getting good low light shots with good depth of field at f11 f22 etc. As long as you know what ISO and shutter speed to use. All three (Aperture.ISO.Shutter speed) work together in what is called the Exposure Triangle. Considering one (ie an f2.8 lens) without considering the others, and what you want from your photos, will just result in frustration.

Now the ONE area an f2.8 lens is good, is focusing. When a camera lens auto-focuses, it uses the largest aperture it has. So an f2.8 lens will autofocus at f2.8, an f4.5 lens will focus using that. Once focus lock is achieved, the lens then adjusts to the aperture selected by the photographer, to take the shot. Eg, You press the shutter, the lens opens to f2.8, focuses, then goes back to f11 (which you set) to take the actual photo. This is why people refer to lenses as fast... they can focus better/faster in low light. Not cause an f2.8 lens is actually any faster than an f4.5 lens at the same aperture setting.

Hope all this makes sense and helps you gain more knowledge of how it all works.

[Andybris]

wow! way more than I understand, I went in to the city today and played around with 18-55mm I got that you can get great DOF with just 18-55mm could not work out how to add the pic from my hdd

[ricktas]

wow! way more than I understand, I went in to the city today and played around with 18-55mm I got that you can get great DOF with just 18-55mm could not work out how to add the pic from my hdd



Add to where? Do you mean on this site? If, so, go to Library on the main menu, and then in the How Do I section are instructions for various aspects of using the site, including how to add or link photos in.

[William W]

. . . I'm going down to Melbourne for xmas and have a eos 600D with kit lens 18-55mm and 55-250mm and want to shoot city/street photos, been looking at primes, is it work [sic] [worth] buying a 24mm 2.8 pancake lens? will I get better photos quality wise? . . .

No. It is not worth it for you, at this point in time.

Set your "Kit Lens" to about FL = 22mm and you will have F/3.5 as the maximum available aperture; I'd further suggest using a small bit of GAF tape to lock the lens at that Focal Length.

You will the have a facsimile 22mm F/3.5 Prime Lens with which to learn and it will cost you nothing.

Apropos shutter speed in low light, there's not much difference between F/3.5 and F/2.8 and the 600D has reasonably good High ISO.

The slightly wider Focal Length allows you to 'shoot wide and crop in post' a little more easily - and if you really want to try 24mm then set the kit Lens at FL = 24mm, you will probably have F/4 as the Maximum Aperture.

There are lost of interesting street scenes in Melbourne, and, not always does one necessarily want to have a very shallow DoF for all "Street Photography":

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/9197170-lg.jpg

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