Why is the 50mm lens so popular?

The 50MM lens is great as a handy travel lens and can create very pleasing views. I found it perfect for countless scenarios and versatile, not only because of its focal length but also because of its aperture range.

Super versatile and easy to carry, the 50mm lens is amazing. In this tutorial, I will explain why is the 50mm lens so popular.

Why is the 50mm lens so popular?

1. Versatility

The 50mm lens is an excellent addition to your kit because of its versatility. It is fully capable of capturing detailed shots, ambient portraits, landscapes, street photography, travel, and more. If necessary, you can use this focal length to build the entire portfolio. Using a prime lens forces you to be creative and move with your subject to achieve the best composition. As the field of view is most similar to the human eye, a 50mm lens is generally considered the “normal” focal length. To romanticize the idea further, you can imagine that there is some innate connection between this focal length and our way because of how humans feel about the images it produces.

2. Closest to natural eyes

The 50mm lens is the closest the 35mm sensor lens has to the human eye. Now, this is not to say that the 50mm lens has a field of view similar to the human eye, because it doesn’t. Instead, it captures what’s inside a frame at a spatial scale very similar to the human eye.

3. Cost

Due to their simple construction compared to larger prime and zoom lenses, 50mm lenses are relatively inexpensive and can be used within most photographers’ budgets, especially if you want to purchase used. A $500 50mm prime lens can match the brand new 24-70 F2.8 zoom lens in almost every way for a quarter of the price.

The 50mm lens is the cheapest lens you can find for your kit. Even more important than most 35mm lenses, means you can easily add one of these to your kit cheaply and still get a lot of use out of it.

4. Good for street photography

The 50mm lens is perfect for street photography. Its focal length lets you get closer to the subject and fill the frame for a more intimate image.

But it also gives you the flexibility to step back from the scene and capture the broader context of the environment, which is often essential for street photography.

For this reason, the 50mm lens is also one of the best to pack when traveling, and its compact size means it won’t take up too much space in your bag.

5. Great depth of field

The 50mm lens is fast. Another area where this speed sets this lens apart is its ability to capture bokeh or the blurring of out-of-focus areas of the composition. While you can take images with other prime and zoom lenses, 50mm has a certain look and feel in terms of depth of field.

6. Motion photography

Many 50mm lenses have fast apertures of F /1.8 or lower. Shooting at a lower aperture (wider aperture) means you can get a faster shutter speed. This means that the nice 50mm is ideal for shooting fast-moving subjects. This means that the aperture of a 50mm lens can capture a lot of light before closing and capturing the image. You can use your model more to create motion photography, tell meaningful stories or be a powerful attention grabber.

Speed photography can also be used for church services or other ceremonies such as weddings and festivals, where we have to capture fast movements to capture momentum. This also helps if you want to become a citizen journalist, as the image will focus on supporting your story.

7. It can be used in low light

In addition to depth of field, the speed of the lens also gives the 50 an advantage when shooting in low-light conditions. 50mm is one of the best lenses to use in low-light conditions, as most options come out of the box with a maximum aperture of at least 1.8. Speeds are typically between 1.8 and 1.4, and 50mm allows a lot of light to enter, which in turn allows you to capture excellent images in very low lighting conditions.