The photographer's best friend

It was a dark Saturday in Duluth. The sun was out earlier in the day up on the Iron Range, but downtown on the lakefront, the clouds had won for the day. I was chasing the Lexington Group inspection trip from Two Harbors back to Duluth, and fighting the diminishing light along the way. Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve for the final shot of the day: a 1.8 lens. I was able to keep shooting until the end of the chase, at a reasonable ISO setting, too.

Yes, the classic 50mm f/1.8 SLR lens is a necessity for every serious photographer. It can certainly extend your shooting on a dark day, or evening. With its deeply recessed front element and a good lens hood, it can shoot on the rainiest of days and keep the front element well protected. Its typically simple optical formula can increase your chances of successful night photography by decreasing the chance of in-lens reflections. And, in a pinch, it can serve as a 4X magnifier, too!

The options, of course, are plentiful. In the Nikon system, you can purchase the 50mm f/1.8, which on some camera bodies looks like a 75mm lens due to the crop factor. To compensate for that, Nikon also offers a 35mm f/1.8 for DSLRs, which then becomes roughly the classic 50mm field of view. Some folks even pay more for an extra one-third f-stop, and get the f/1.4 version. You'll find similar options from Canon, Pentax, and Sony/Minolta, as well on some mirrorless camera systems.

Dollar for dollar, you'd be hard pressed to get more use out of your next photographic purchase. Fast prime lenses are so useful, in fact, that I have two: one for each of my camera systems, as shown above. Look around on the secondary market and you will find plenty of specimens for about $100 in most popular camera systems.

Late on Sept. 30, as the sun was fading, the Lexington Group inspection trip ambles along the Duluth waterfront on the final leg of its daylong journey. This was shot at ISO 800, 1/320 sec., and f/2.2. Photo by Brian Schmidt