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There's a great article over at Gary Voth Photography titled The Forgotten Lens which examines the recent rise in popularity of the 50mm prime lens.
'The 50mm lens is called a "normal" or "standard" lens because the way it renders perspective closely matches that of the human eye. Consequently, images made with a 50mm lens have a natural and uncontrived look. This is the lens that likely would have come with your camera had you bought it 10-15 years ago. Before falling to its current level of disfavor, the 50mm lens had a long and distinguished pedigree. For many years the defining documentary instrument of the 20th century was the small format rangefinder camera (Leica, Contax, Nikon, Canon) with 50mm lens. Some of the world's best-known photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ralph Gibson made virtually their entire careers with this combination. With the advent of the "wide angle" Leica M2 and the rise of the SLR camera with its broad range of focal lengths, the 50mm lens began to fall out of favor among professionals users. (I hardly ever used a 50mm lens early in my career.) Today's working pros mostly eschew prime lenses for the high speed f/2.8 "professional" zooms.
However, the 50mm prime lens has a great deal to recommend it., particularly as an alternative to the ubiquitous "consumer" zoom.'
I would echo Gary's recommendations to explore the 50mm prime lens if you have a DSLR.
While the 'convenience factor' might not be the same as if you had a zoom lens attached to your camera most of us have 'zooms' built into our bodies in the form of two legs. I bought a Canon f/1.8 lens for my 20D when I bought the camera and surprised myself by using it as much, if not more, than any of my other lenses. It's the fastest lens that I have in my kit so is incredibly useful for low light situations and I find that it takes beautiful portrait shots.
The other aspect that I love about this lens in addition to it's speed and the quality of the shots it produces is the fact that it's tiny and light. In fact it's so small that on occasion I've carried it with me in a pocket as a second lens.
Of course another factor I loved about the f/1.8 for my Canon is that it's cheap. I love the fact that I picked it up for around $100 (Aussie Dollars). Amazon currently has them for under $73 (USD). It's hard to find a lens much cheaper than that!
Lastly I find that it allows me to get close enough to portrait subjects to help them feel at ease during a session. There is nothing worse than having a camera shoved right in your face and the 50mm allows room to move which puts both subject and photographer at ease.
My only regret is that I didn't save up a little and pick myself up a f/1.4 (it's the next lens I've got my eye on) as the extra speed would be handy. Of course the f/1.4 is quite a bit more expensive with Amazon currently having them for $330.
Article found via DSLR Blog.
Posted by Darren in our Tips category on January 30, 2006