Deanna Roy

Six-Time USA Today Bestselling Author

Oct 3, 2006

New lens!

Deanna / Writing /

My new lens for my Canon came in today. I got a very fast f1.8 standard 50mm because I wanted to play with low light work as well as narrow depth of field. My usual lens, the typical portrait workhorse–a 28-135mm zoom–is a little slow, with a max of f3.5 zoomed out and 5.6 zoomed in. While this is not a bad choice for family portraits as 1.8 risks not getting everyone in focus, I would like to be able to go to conferences and concerts and not use flash.

I checked out the depth of field outdoors in ideal light and was astonished how little is in focus. Elizabeth’s closest eye is tack sharp, her further eye slightly off focus, and her shoulder is already quite fuzzy. Wow! But I loved how totally blurred the grass is behind her.

Indoors, in low light with window blinds slightly opened, I had no problem getting a fix on the exposure. The image was a little softer than I’d like, which was one of the reasons I got this lens, hoping to get additional sharpness since the camera wouldn’t be reaching quite so hard for a decent exposure.

But mainly I love how my camera weighs now–so light! I forget how much the zoom lens adds to it. I’ll just have to get used to framing the shot as is–I can’t get a tighter shot with a twist of the lens anymore.

Ah, the joy of new toys. My Zilker shoots start this weekend! I still have room in my schedule for more families!

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