35mm or 50mm fixed focal length lenses belong in every photo bag. In my opinion, you will benefit immensely from a fixed focal length, especially as a beginner in photography. Both lenses are extremely versatile, with the only difference being the field of view. The 35mm lens has a slightly wider field of view, which can be advantageous for travel photography, street photography, and environmental portraits. However, the 50mm lens is more popular for studio work because it provides a tighter image that some photographers prefer.
You can find out why this is the case and what experiences you can have with 35mm and 50mm prime lenses in this article.
Are fixed focal lengths suitable for beginners?
Definitely yes. I would even argue that a prime lens offers unbelievable added value and learning effects for every beginner in photography. How come?
With the fixed focal length you are automatically forced to deal more with the composition of the picture. You have to use your feet as zoom and deal explicitly with the image design in limited spaces. After all, you only have this one focal length range.
With a zoom à la 24-70mm 2.8 you could casually turn the zoom ring and see what might look good. This is not possible with the fixed focal length. And that's exactly what I consider to be incredibly beneficial for starting a career in photography.
What are the advantages of each focal length?
The 35mm is slightly wider than the 50mm, which has some obvious advantages. It allows you to take pictures that include more elements in your frame or cover a larger field of view. This makes it especially suitable for situations where you want to show a greater context. For example, when taking an environmental portrait or a picture of a busy street scene with many pedestrians and cars – this will allow you to capture more information in the image. That way, both photographer and viewer can understand better what is going on in front of the camera.
Furthermore, the 35mm also excels when making portraits because it enables you to work from a closer distance without having too tight headshots. In my opinion, this makes it more suitable for portraiture.
Lens recommendations for photography beginners
When a photography newbie asks me for an initial lens recommendation, I usually answer with the following:
The ideal entry-level lens is a 50mm fixed focal length on the full frame. As a beginner, however, you tend to use a smaller sensor (mostly an APS-C camera), of course, a 35mm fixed focal length would be the ideal solution, taking the crop factor into account. The reasons for such a fixed focal length are obvious.
1. The lens is extremely conducive to the learning process of image composition.
2. A 50mm fixed focal length on the full format (35mm image sensor) roughly corresponds to the field of view of a person. It is therefore obvious that this is an absolute standard focal length.
3. The lens is bright. This allows you to take photos out of hand for much longer. You can also create creamy bokeh - a dream for every portrait photographer.
4. If you then want to use the lens for creative environmental portraits, this is also possible thanks to its close-range capability.
5. A fixed focal length does not cost as much as a zoom lens and thus provides beginners with the first financial consolidation.
6. A first look at depth of field: The 50mm has an insanely large aperture compared to other lenses on the market. This means that both the foreground and background will be sharp regardless of whether you focus on a person or something else in front of him/her/it. With such good depth of field characteristics, it is easy as a beginner to learn how to create an attractive image design - even if some manual dexterity is still needed because you have to adjust the aperture yourself.
7. If you want to make portraits, the 50mm enables a more intimate distance between photographer and subject. This is because this lens has somewhat less focal length compared to the 85mm lenses that are often used for Portraits.
Conclusion: The perfect entry-level lens!
The 35mm film or full-format equivalent offers an even wider snapshot of reality than the 50mm lens. A higher angle of view makes it possible to use a short depth of field already at large aperture values. This allows beginners to experiment with their portrait photography in terms of image design quite early on - without having to spend too much money initially. After all, these lenses are very cheap compared to professional wide-angle or telephoto zoom lenses.
The 35mm lens with a full-frame image sensor also provides you with more information in the photo. This is because there are no black edges on the upper and lower sides of the picture, which would occur when using a 50mm or 35mm camera equivalent. You can use this advantage for optimal image composition.
In summary: The 35mm lens has one clear advantage over its 50mm counterpart - namely that it is even more suitable for creative portrait photography! However, both lenses have their own strengths and weaknesses, so a beginner should not decide based on what he/she thinks at first. Rather, they should borrow several lenses from friends and start photographing right away ! After all, nothing is lost – if you do not like a lens, you can exchange it for another one.
Why do you need a 35mm prime lens?
If you take photos with an APS-C camera, then the 35mm corresponds to the classic 50mm on the full format anyway. As a result, a 35mm fixed focal length is almost mandatory. But a 35mm fixed focal length on the full-frame also has its charm.
In a way, it has a more exciting look than the 50mm. Quite simply because it is a bit wider than the classic standard focal length.
Due to the fact that you focus a field of view of about 50mm focal length with your eyes, the 35mm automatically looks special.
A 35mm fixed focal length can also be used very universally. It is wide enough to stage landscapes. You can also use it to take photos in the city, as well as portray products and people. Accordingly, I can unreservedly recommend the 35mm in the full format.
Many photographers like to use the 35mm for automotive photography, among other things. Thanks to the close-focus limit of the fixed focal length, the lens is also ideally suited for detailed shots.
In addition, it is also suitable for artistic images thanks to the short depth of field that you can achieve with large aperture values.
What are the strengths and weaknesses?
The 35mm fixed focal length has several advantages, which will be explained now:
The perspective in photos is very unusual , but not disturbing . If you take parallel photos (for example on a city walk), then close objects seem particularly large compared to distant ones. The tiny figure of man seems completely out of proportion against massive skyscrapers or rock cliffs. We see our world much more compressed than real life - due to this unique perspective!
This way, photographers can capture perspectives that are not possible with longer lenses. As mentioned before, the depth of field is especially large with the 35mm. You can achieve a very pleasant bokeh with large aperture values! As soon as you have sufficiently closed the aperture, you get very sharp photos across the whole image field . On high-resolution sensors, this effect is even more pronounced. Especially street photographers who often take snapshots appreciate these properties of their lens.
However, there are also limitations that should not be ignored: The angle of view is naturally much smaller than lenses with longer focal lengths. Not only that, but any distortions are increased comparably when you use short focal lengths (somewhat similar to fisheye lenses).
These include barrel and pincushion distortion , where straight lines bend inwards or outwards respectively. This means that it is especially difficult to take photos in the city using standard focal lengths. The reason for this is that many buildings are already leaning forwards or backwards without anyone even realizing it. As a result, photos turn out unnatural - and sometimes not to be used at all. Right angles just look wrong , because they are not right-angled on your screen!
Of course you can also use image processing software (for example pixel shift) to compensate these distortions afterwards. However, depending on the subject this may no longer be possible - so I recommend considering the limitations of your lens carefully before you invest!
Final thoughts
50mm is the ultimate classic in full format. Namely, because they correspond to the human eye and are extremely versatile and universally applicable. You can use it to photograph cars, take photos of people, document walks and capture the vacation in pictures. You never really go wrong with a 50mm.