I'm looking for a fast pentax lens to use for portraits. I have an *ist dl with only the kit lens right now. I've seen many 50/1.4 lenses on ebay for a reasonable price, but I'm new to digital photography and am somewhat confused by the focal lengths. Will the 50mm actually be a 75mm on my *ist? Does the FA 50/1.4 that pentax makes for digital cameras have a focal length of 50mm and is it the same focal length as the older 50/1.4 with the M42 screw mount?
2006-09-14 05:43:45 · 2 answers · asked by spuality 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Photography
You're right on both counts.
The *ist DL has a 1.5 field of view crop, so a 50mm lens will effectively be 75mm.
And all (d)SLR lenses state the focal length as though used on a film body - even lenses made specifically for digital bodies.
2006-09-14 08:21:03 · answer #1 · answered by OMG, I ♥ PONIES!!1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Digital bodies have a CCD chip that has (I think) a 1.2 conversion, so your lenses will always have a slightly closer focal lenght than stated. It is a given for ALL DSLR's right now. So yes, your 50mm will be closer to a 75. I recently started using a Nikon 50/1.4 again - I just love the dept of field it provides for portraits. Pentax's quality in lenses isn't quite up their with Nikon, but they're still decent.
2006-09-14 05:54:29 · answer #2 · answered by myaddictiontofire 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋