Help with new camera with 50mm lens

[gzisis69]

Hello to the team. I am looking to get a new camera to take wth me all the time. I am more the 50mm lens guy so that makes it really difficult to find something really small. I have checked all brands apsc m4/3 and fullframe. The two most interesting combinations i am thinking of are the canon eos rp with the 50mm 1.8 rf and the sony a7c with the 50mm 2.5. Which one would you get and why ? I am not interested to change lenses, i would choose apsc with a 50mm equavalent if the size/weight were considerably less and a viewfinder is a necesity.
thanx for the time
Georgios

 

[Harry the K]

How about a Fujifilm X-E with the 35mm 2.0?

 

[gzisis69]

I had the xe-3 with the cheap 35mm f2 and the unbalance of the lens with the body( the lens was too heavy for the camera so the combo was always leaning forward) and the very slow focus drove me crazy. But that was about 1,5 year ago.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Keep in mind that a 50mm lens is a very different lens on each sensor size. You may have loved 50mm lenses on 35mm cameras, but on a micro 4/3 camera, it has the angle of view of a 100mm. I shot m4/3 and Olympus makes a 45mm f1.8 that is a wonderful portrait lens. On APS-C cameras, the 50 acts like a 75mm.

If you want the 50mm look on a m4/3 camera, you want a 25mm. Olympus's 25mm f1.8 is tiny, light, fast, and SHARP. On APS-C a 35mm lens will be the closest thing to the look of a 50mm lens.

 

[jsrockit]

I had the xe-3 with the cheap 35mm f2 and the unbalance of the lens with the body( the lens was too heavy for the camera so the combo was always leaning forward) and the very slow focus drove me crazy. But that was about 1,5 year ago.

Huh? this did not happen to me at all. I have never had any Fuji body lean forward due to the Fuji 35mm F2. It's 170grams only. The XC version is even lighter...128 grams. And slow focus? I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[gzisis69]

I had the xe-3 for 1,5 month maybe a little more and the focusing was too slow and couldnt figure out why. I gave it to my girlfriend and she also found the same and i had nikon d750 and she has sony a6400. The lens was reall great and of course not heavy but didnt balance to my taste so good as for example on a fuji xt-1 of a friend.

 

[jsrockit]

I had the xe-3 for 1,5 month maybe a little more and the focusing was too slow and couldnt figure out why. I gave it to my girlfriend and she also found the same and i had nikon d750 and she has sony a6400. The lens was reall great and of course not heavy but didnt balance to my taste so good as for example on a fuji xt-1 of a friend.

I apologize. I did not realize you were the OP or I would have answered a little differently because you had already tried it and it wasn't for you. Maybe in comparison to the D750 it is slower. Seems like you are on the right track with your original choices.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I had RP. It is OK camera and really small, but without bad compromise as A7c's bellow sub-fair OVF. It is not made for quick moving objects. It still will handle running dog, but EVF just doesn't render it in RT.

Two another cons of RP:
1. Battery capacity is terrible.
2. I was trying to use turn on/off switch to make battery last longer. It broke in no time. Canon wanted 500 CAD for repair of less than two years old camera. I have sold it next to nothing,

About 50mm on RP. EF-R adapter renders any EF lens to something bulky and ugly. It is also adding weight. I got 50 1.8 RF.

Two cons of Canon 50 1.8 RF:
1. Dirt cheap focus mechanism. It is noisy, slow and extending too much on close distances.
2. AF lock. Known, ignored by Canon bug. If you focus on something close and then trying to focus on far object, AF doesn't work.

I went to check A7c. EVF is as I mentioned is too tiny for such expensive camera. I did not like colors from it, either.

After RP fiasco and A7c EVF colors flow I kissed goodbye EFV FF mirrorless.
Canon doesn't have good 50 mm in RF any way. Including 50L RF, which is huge and not worth of the price.

The best 50 mm lens I ever had on digital was 50L 1.2 EF. Despite its cheap design, this lens is incredible for rendering. Colors. bokeh and if you are not a bozo, it is sharp @f1.2.

Combined with 6D mark II, it is not too large. My first FF was Canon 5D, I could only afford 50 1.8 EF II back then. I took 5D with 50 1.8 with me everywhere, everyday for half a year. It was nothing but pleasure.

Canon (BH) might still have new sub version of 5D MK III. Those are the last cameras Canon was able to make to last. 5D IV and R series build quality of most Rs are not in the same league anymore. 50L EF 1.2 is still manufactured, it means, once front will became loose, Canon will repair it.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

As for APS-C substitute, where are two POV.
Some can't see the difference POV, and some with it is obvious difference in favor of FF POV 😀

 

[JohnWolf]

I know you want 50, but I suggest the GR IIIx for its easy carry everywhere quality.

 

[brusby]

The two most interesting combinations i am thinking of are the canon eos rp with the 50mm 1.8 rf and the sony a7c with the 50mm 2.5. Which one would you get and why ?

I have and really like the Canon RP and the little 50mm 1.8 rf. Here are a few photos from my first outing with that lens on the EOS R. All taken wide open at f 1.8.

The R and RP produce photos that look very similar unless you're trying to salvage a bunch of shadow detail, in which case the R would be a better choice.

This was probably the first photo I took with that lens. Cut off her feet cause I was concentrating on just getting exposures in the ballpark and trying to get a feel for the overall composition. Submitted to show the look pretty much straight out of the camera.

_OSR4844 by Brusby, on Flickr

 

[keytarjunkie]

I have the Sony 50/2.5 on a A7 IV. It's a great lens, especially for landscape photography, and has pretty fast and silent autofocus. Many people may find the aperture to be limiting, especially if it's your only lens. If you can do without autofocus, the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 is a pretty great lens and the used prices have plummeted. I sold mine for chips. I personally preferred having the Sony with AF (but enjoy manual focus on other systems...) there's also the Sonnar 55mm f/1.8 (might get a refresh soon) which has an interesting rendering.

I would seriously consider a Fuji XE4 or XT3/4 with the 35mm f/2, especially if I wasn't interested in video so much. I think Fuji is the best option for photographers who are happy with APSC format. Nikon Zfc would also be a contender.

I'd also look at the Ricoh GRIII X with the 40mm equivalent lens. It's so compact and very easy to crop in a little bit. I love the GR series.

Personally I wouldn't consider a M4/3 camera at this point.

 

[raid]

I like using 50mm lenses with FF cameras. There are many choices to pick from. I happen to be using a Hexanon 50mm 2.4 these days with my Leica M10. The M9 has on it a China-made 35mm/2 Summicron-replica (it is called).

 

[JeffS7444]

I got a healthy regard for Canon products, but Sony got a 3+ year head start, and I've felt no particular reason to change. Have not sampled the compact 50 mm, but did briefly try the compact SEL2860 zoom and SEL40F25G and was favorably impressed. In A7R4, battery life with NP-FZ100 is great, and 3rd party support is good.

 

[Rob-F]

Keep in mind that a 50mm lens is a very different lens on each sensor size. You may have loved 50mm lenses on 35mm cameras, but on a micro 4/3 camera, it has the angle of view of a 100mm. I shot m4/3 and Olympus makes a 45mm f1.8 that is a wonderful portrait lens. On APS-C cameras, the 50 acts like a 75mm.

If you want the 50mm look on a m4/3 camera, you want a 25mm. Olympus's 25mm f1.8 is tiny, light, fast, and SHARP. On APS-C a 35mm lens will be the closest thing to the look of a 50mm lens.

The Olympus with 25mm sounds really tempting for the OP's needs. (I always listen to Chris.)

 

[gzisis69]

I want to thank all of you for your precious time anf help. I will explain some more things about my and photography. I practice photography almost 10 years now and i had the luck to try many cameras film and digital. My favorite camera was the pentax mx with a 50mm 1.7. the size was great and i liked to photograph a lot with it but it had two problems:
1. Full manual is ok since i used it for years but it was time consuming and sometimes i missed photos so i decided to try an aperture priority camera
2. Manual focus is not for me since i wear glasses and in most manual focus cameras i cant achieve perfect focus. That doesnt mean the photos are not good but they are very usualy not 100% sharp.

2 years ago i told myself i would try a nikon f3 hp since i always liked the looks of the camera but also loved the idea of better focusing. The combination f3+ 50 1.8 pancake was a great thing but the camera lens weights 1.2kg so i take the set rarely outside to play. The focusing was a lot better with almost 80% acuracy but still most photos werent sharp focused.

After that i decided to give a try to af cameras but in digital so i bought the nikon d750 with 50mm 1.8g. Great camera that can handle everything that comes to her but the size screams proffessional/paparazzi and realy so much weight is not for me to carry all the time with me. The autofocus was perfect and the photo quality also. Its the camera that id use in a studio or a day where i go out to photography but knowing i wont stay long outside. I once was in amsterdam for 5 days and didnt take the camera with me cause of the size.

Afterwards i tried the ricoh gr d iv and the fuji xe-3 35f2 at the same time. The ricoh is a great camera that i took a lot with me but 28mm is too wide for me and also i started wondering why didnt they make it a little bigger and stuff a viewfinder in it. The xe-3 was the worst camera for me since the balance with the lens was not right and the autofocus so slow that i missed 70% of moving or active fotos. I dont know if fuji did better on the next camera generations but in comparison with the old d750 it was really slow hunted a lot etc.

Im without a camera for 1 month now and am thinking of all possibilities.
I know that i want small autofocus and idealy 50mm.
The weight i accept to carry often is not more than 700gr at the very most. I checked all the cameras you suggested and read a lot about them too.
The ricoh gr iiix is a great size and weight and the only downside i see is that it lacks a viewfinder. The olympus omd 3 iv with 25 1.8 weights 520gr and looks not bad. At the almost same size and weight is the nikon zfc with the ~40mm equavalent at 600gr. I prefer 50mm but i also prefer apsc instead of m4/3. The new fuji xe-4 with the 35 f2 is also 560gr and here i get almost what i would call a good compromise but the autofocus scares me a lot and i dont think i could try it out with the lens so easy. Also the 35 1.8 fuji is for me one of the best lenses in rendering but the size and focus is really worse than the 35 2. The xt-4 makes the combination weight 780gr and thats not what i want to carry all the time so i leave it out. On the fullframe side now the sony a74 with the 50 2.5 weights 830gr so its out( i know 830gr is not so much in comparison with 700 but then i would keep the nikon d750 that makes all other except size weight perfekt). The a7c looked good but if the wiewfinder is not good then its of course out. The canon rp with 50mm seemed good with an acceptable size and a weight of 640gr with full frame but i read here bad things about the focusing. I didnt check autofocus film so much but it is really difficult to find something small with af and 50mm there. In digital the candidates are ricoh gr iiix, fuji xe-4 35 f2, canon rp 50 1.8, olympus omd 3 iv 25 1.8. Has anyone experience with a fuji xe-4 and 35f2 ? Is the viewfinder and focus any better as the xe-3 ? How do the apsc compare with the m4/3 since the size is almost identical. Does it make sense to get an m4/3 ?

 

[jsrockit]

I have the X-E4 and 35mm F2 and I use single point AF. It is fast enough for street photography and I cannot imagine how it would not be considered fast enough these days. That said, I also found the X-E3 fast enough. Is the X-E4 faster? Sure, but I am not sure if it is in a way that is enough for you. What autofocus mode were you using in the X-E3 and can you describe in which way it was slow? It just is not my experience with that camera. What I can say about m43 is that you will get your fast AF if you go that route.

 

[gzisis69]

I was using mostly single point focus too and i couldnt find out why but very often it strugled to focus. Maybe it was just my bad luck or me coming from a very good autofocus( nikon f750) that almost never missed. By the way do you use any finger support on the xe-4 ? I had a great one for the xe-3 that made holding-photographing a lot better.

 

[jsrockit]

Yes, I do use the Fuji brand support. It helped a lot and that is coming from someone does not like grips in general.

 

[JeffS7444]

How do the apsc compare with the m4/3 since the size is almost identical. Does it make sense to get an m4/3 ?

APS-C and M43 are both perfectly capable formats, and the real question is whether you like the features and handling of the camera bodies, and can get the lens that you want. Sometimes it feels like camera companies offer just two grades of lenses: Compact, lightweight, consumer-grade ones, and large, heavy, flagship-quality ones. Small, premium-quality optics are not so common!