Recently, Randi and I went back down to Morgantown for a visit, and as is quickly becoming a tradition, I packed up the Crumpler and lugged my 40D and several lenses down to document the festivities.
Despite my recent heavy use of zooms in Maine, Hawaii, and for the motorcycle races at Mid-Ohio, my first true love was a prime - A Canon 50mm f1.8 II to be exact. Unfortunately I sold it along with my XTi to my good friend Bob, who is now putting it to excellent use. To replace it I bought a 50mm f1.4, which is a slightly faster, better built, but overall similar lens.
My initial impressions of the 1.4 were a little disappointing, and even after having Canon service fix the autofocus issues I was having, I often left it in my bag in favor of a more versitle zoom (in most cases my truly excellent 28-135).
But then, you can never really replace a fast prime with a zoom lens. Sure, some of the versitilty is lost, but the increase in sheer light consumption, low weight, and forcefull push to find the creative vantage point for a shot really add something to the experience. The fact that both composition and focusing technique really need to be perfect has a certain appeal to me as well.
Here are a few shots taken while down in Mo-town with the 50mm. They certainly can't be mistaken for anything else in my bag.
My love
Peppers for Dinner - I love the extremely shallow depth of field in this one.
One of the cats - again, the depth of field from a really fast lens just can't be had any other way
