I like your videos Robin. No drama, no clickbait-just the facts.

I did a walk around yesterday with a mft 25mm, pretty much the same thing, and it went really well. I was getting so many good shots that I even did a little "Let's DO THIS" in my head.

Hello from England.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 “What you see is what you get,” is a good motto.👍🏻 And your respect for your subjects is touching.

Photo taken at 8:28 is wonderful. The geometry, colors and all --- you nailed the shot! It is a Cartier Bresson moment, indeed! Yes! -Loren

I absolutely LOVE your feelings about 'pretending you're invisible' being ridiculous. Letting each moment develop in a respectable way is lovely. If it's successfully candid or not, it's fine if it flows comfortable for the subject.

Unless my eyes are playing tricks Robin there seems to be a completely different look to these images with this combo than your usual Olympus images . I think it’s the colours that are noticeably different. Great video as usual

Thank you Robin .

Always love the combination of practical tips, great shots, view of life in Malaysia, and best of all the super positive attitude! As natural and pleasing as 50mm can get!

I love your attitude. Keep taking awesome photos & making great content!

I use a 35mm f1.8 (DX about 52mm) and a 50mm f1.8 (DX 75mm) frequently on my crop sensor Nikons and I like both perspectives.

I still have my Minolta Rokor 50 mm 1.4 smc ! Superb, one of the best lenses I know , and is in pristine, mint conditions, for me it is perfect

Genuine learning points for me here! Thanks Robin.

Hi Robin. Just found your channel. Love it. Learning so much about my OMD M5II. Your in camera settings helps an amateur like me take photos 100% better than I did prior. Appreciate it. Greetings from Australia. Michael.

Robin, your videos are great and your photos are amazing- thank you !

I'm nervous when doing street photography so I went alittle tighter and chose 60mm using the sigma 30mm on mft. I've never got on with wider focal lengths.

Really good points you raise Robin to support the 50mm focal lengths. Very useful video, thank you

This is an excellent video, with some first rate photos, thanks Robin! I started using a 50mm lens when my Dad bought me a Nikkormat FT2 with a Nikkor 50mm f/2 lens in 1975 (!) I used the 50mm exclusively for the first four years or so until I could afford a general purpose zoom. During this time I used the 50mm for portraits, landscape, and general travel photos. I was often advised to get a 35mm lens as well, but when using the zoom I could never really figure out that focal length for the way I envisioned compositions, and found that 28mm made more sense for wide photos of the city centre, such as photogenic Italian piazzas. The lenses people choose just depends on what kind of photos they like to take. Ranking focal lengths in absolute terms is pointless. I prefer simplicity in composition with more occasional wide sweeping photos. Fast forward to today, and I use a Canon 6D with the EF 50mm 1.8 STM and a Canon 28mm f/2.8 for those wide shots. Recently, I purchased a K&F converter to use the old 50mm Nikkor lens my Dad bought me on my 6D using aperture priority with manual focus: very cool, and really nice rendering 🙂

This was a great talk, Robin! I love 50mm myself!

Hello from England.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 “What you see is what you get,” is a good motto.👍🏻

Great video, common sense, etiquette, style all covered.

50mm all the way! Was the first focal length I ever shot and still my favourite. Fine on its own, but usually I'll bring a 28mm so it doesn't get lonely. That combo can cover just about everything. Fuji 33/1.4 and 18/1.4 in my case, along with Rokkor 28/2.5 and 50/1.4 for the old Minolta bodies. Also your enthusiasm is contagious! Was going to go mountain biking, guess the camera is coming with now!

We are in the same boat mate, i too like it, mine is Pentax D FA 50mm f/2.8 Macro, tack sharp and works perfectly both for street and macro on my K1ii

Many thanks for this video! I'm also a Nikon camera guy, and I lost my beloved nifty 50mm 1.8 last year, I replaced it with a 55mm Nikon macro MANUAL Lens, and once I got used to the manual fiocusing, I fell in LOVE with it! But your down to earth tips for the 50mm lens are GREAT! Again, thanks......HG

I liked how you spent much less and got much more. Win, win!

Yep. 50mm for life. Not too far and not too short. Good for environments so long as you stand far away enough and great for portraits as it has minimal distortion. Close second is the 40mm focal length.

The nifty 50 used to be a favorite of mine too but being on a tight budget and wanting the 25mm or a macro lens the 30mm macro won out at that time. I always intended to buy the 25mm later but it's now 3 years later and I've not ended up missing or buying the 25mm focal length.

Totally agree. I use my Nikon ais manual 55 mm macro lens for all my photography,

50mm (or equivalent) for the win! Always my “Go to” lens!

Oh, that's great lens. I have exactly that one (Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8). Very happy with it.

Made me somehow really happy hearing we prefer the same focal length for street photography :D can't be without my 50

My Fuji 35mm f/2.0 (50mm equivalent) is my sharpest lens. I have been a photographer since 1959 and it is what I started with. If you look closely at photos you took on the sly, often the eyes look right at you. Good video.

A 50mm has always been a go-to lens for me. When MFT cameras came along, I was happy to learn that 50mm was in effect 100mm on those cameras. It brought my subject in closer without a major lens upgrade. One other thing comes to mind.... with a Tessar 2,8 50mm lens built for the Zeiss Icarex line of cameras, you can ad an adapter for an 8x30 monocular (also Zeiss). That setup on a film body is the equivalent of a 400mm lens. So, 800mm on a MFT body. It does not sound like much, but if your camera has some type of IBIS you can take some pretty interesting shots with a setup not too much bigger than your hand. Otherwise, there's always a tripod, which helps for when you use the in body zoom to 2x or 4x. Regards!!

Thank you :)

Hi Robin--OK,,,first off--I confess to being a 35mm (or similar) lens snob when I go out with a 1 camera-1 lens setup. Probably for no better reason than it is what was always done before. In my case it's usually a Panasonic GM-1 or a GX8 body with the Pana-Leica 15mm 1.7 (30mm FF equiv). After watching your video this morning I decided to give a 50mm-ish a try and swapped out for the 25mm 1.4. Normally I don't do people photography on my walks,,it just doesn't work in my area on a Sunday,,, either not many people around or they are engaged family/friends I don't want to intrude. I tried the proximity and distortion aspects like you mentioned in your video on some life-size statues and I have to agree that approaching a stranger with a 30-35mm lens is a bit invasive and the short leg effect on a head and shoulder frame doesn't render a real looking result. Thanks for the tip and I will attempt to push my boundaries a little harder to make some interesting people shots. Always enjoy your posts!!

I love your perspective, but there is such a thing as a candid portrait, lol. I've been using a 55-200mm Nikon zoom lens and getting beautiful shots of people who're clearly in their own world at the moment. If they do eventually notice me, typically I've already gotten the shot by then and am not pointing the camera at them. 🤪🤪 Not traditional I know, but them shots is candid AF.

Perfect video, as usual by Robin. 50mm is the one. For photography purists.

I seldom shoot street portraits, not wanting to bother people (I would hate it if anyone took my picture), so 35mm works best for me. If I did photograph people, I would probably go for an 85mm to increase the distance as much as possible. All that said, I think the 50mm is a great compromise for those who can do that.

I Like somewhere between 28 to 85. Well a 105 can be fun too. 71 y.o. & I've never settled on one. So 50 sounds pretty dar n good.I think Bresson used a 50 so you are in good company.

Thanks Robin. I used the 50mm (25mm 1.8 Oly) for several years (at your recommendation) and loved it, but always felt a tiny bit tight. Now I have the 40mm (20mm 1.4 Oly) and while it is wider, I cannot say it has made me happier, but there is a bit more flexibility for shooting more than one person in indoor setting. I wonder if you would agree - I think the 50mm field of view matches closer what people who wear glasses see (the frame tightens the view). It works for me this way when I take off or put on my reading glasses.

For me, 40mm-50mm is where I'm the most comfortable - preferably with a fast lens (f1.4-1.8) - though f2.8 lenses have served me well too. Btw, that Nikon D600 sure delivers characteristic colors. I have one myself, and the first thing I thought, when I saw this video was, that usually your photos have different colors compared to my own photos, but this time I recognize the colors. I always figured the difference in colors was because of how different natural light is in Kuala Lumpur compared to Denmark, where I live, combined with processing. But, with the D600 that is not the case.

I always wondered what the old 55mm lenses were about.

I like 40 or 50mm because there is less distortion and they are equivalent to the eye so they are what it is called normal lenses. For me is the best option

I admit that 50mm is the best all-around lens, but I go for 42, probably because I rarely do portraits. I won't use 50mm for architecture, as the field of view is too narrow, but like Robin, I appreciate the distortion control of 50mm.

Hello Robin You have spent à lot of energy and many vidéos arguing (with conviction and success) that M43 was to you the best format. I now understand that you jump to full frame : is it because you are no longer satisfied with Olympus or with M43 ? Thanks

Hi Robin, İ was see vintage prime lenses set on local market. For example 28-35-50-135mm focal length f2.8 İ want to learn about what this lengths are special

Hi Robin. thank you for sharing your knowledge with us! I want to add an (old) fullframe camera and 2-3 lenses (for people photographs) to my old om-d e-m5 gear to complete my stuff. I wanna use the fortunes of both systems. What are your thoughts about Nikon d610 vsd750 vs. eos5dmii vs. eos 6d vs Sony a7ii ? All body’s will be attached with 35mmf1.4 50mm1.8 85or105mm f1.8/2.8.

God, I have tried so hard to make a 50mm more of my daily use lens. I guess my brain prefers more of the environment around what I like to photograph. But I do love a 50mm for product photography.

I mostly shoot with wider lenses than 50. Today I have been shooting street with a 20mm lens on an Olympus E-M10 MkII, which is a full frame 40mm equivalent. I prefer 35 to 40mm equivalent field of view, and even 28mm rather than 50mm. The Olympus cameras give the option of a 2X digital teleconverter if I want more and my Leica Q2 28mm has a button which cuts the field of view to 35 or 50mm jpeg in an instant while retaining the full sensor 28mm in raw. I often crop in camera in this way and if not there’s a good chance that I might crop some images in post.

that 50/1.8D is a steal. It's amazing for the price it is.

I like this angle of view so much, that I bought the oly 25/1.2. Right now, a 17/1.8 is on its way to me, I wonder how it will work for me - especially since I'm definitely a telephoto type of person.

24, 28, 35, 40, 50.... All great really. Also, not ever seeing any comments on using a 180mm prime for street photography. That can be really great... also one of my favorites as it's almost like a spy glass. Has anyone here used a 180mm 2.8 prime for street?

Seriously - you need to start a series dedicated to photography techniques, postprocessing workflows etc. Gear is secondary, and the hype trains are getting ridiculous. We need some quality gear-agnostic photography content from a good photographer - like you :)

About your white wall test: doesn't an SLR switch to contrast-based autofocus automatically when using the rear LCD instead of the optical finder? The "pumping" you see suggests that my thought could be correct - so it's slower but much more accurate than phase-based AF I think... Good video, thanks for that, and I agree with what other people commented here: direct and to the point, no click bait, wonderful. I also like your blog a lot, would like to comment more often, but I don't like to log into Google that often (like for comments here on YT as well). Oh, and about focal lengths: on our Olympus cameras, we have the 17mm/1.8, the Panny 20mm/1.7, and also the PanaLeica 25mm/1.4. Of these three I'd prefer the 20mm - but that one is on my wife's camera most of the time ;) Terimah kasih Robin :)

My wife seems to think that longer is better "shakes head"

Is this equivalent to 25mm lens on M43..? Or i should get 50mm for my MFT camera rather 25mm?

40mm is my preferable focal length,especially because most 40mm equivalent lenses are pancake sized.

What would be your favorite lens on mft? 25mm but which on do you prefer?

With a 28-75 f2.8 and 50 f1.8 and 85 f1.8 normally I must be cured of GAS... I hope! :-)

I have access to my brother in law's D600. It is still one of the best FF DSLR ever made. I do also still shoot with my film SLR and did so for many many years, although getting /good/ development these days is a problem, I may well have to get a home B&W Patterson kit. So I am well used to the framing. I find the perspective and foreshortening off a FF 50mm is not that of a 25mm on mft even though it is the same angle of view (the crop equivalent). To say the human eye is complicated is an understatement, however the field of view, perspective and foreshortening seems to have the most appeal to us from a lens of about 43mm focal length, on any format i.e. a 50 on mft will have the same look as a 50 on FF but with a smaller field of view.

What do you think of 85 mm?

Nikon ambassador incoming? :D

Very interesting! I was curious that all your shots were F1.8-5.6. I understood that choice for street portraits, but even your buildings and full shots. Why is that?

I am a True 50 mm Shooter. In my opinion, there lies some truth in using that Lens.

I’ve used 34mm and 50mm. I sorta like both but I really think maybe the OM 20mm f1.4 pro might give me the best of both worlds! 85-90mm is definitely my favorite professional portrait focal length though

I'd love to do a walkaround street shooting with you. Plus, you remind me of the times when I traveled to Malaysia, back in 2011, one of the best trips of my life. By the way, why are you wearing your T-shirts so tight? XD Cheers man!

To make it clear: 50 mm on full frame equals 75 mm on APS-C and 100 mm on MFT. With a full frame camera you would choose a 75 mm lens?

It's great if your focus is on people only. If you want to include any surroundings a 28/35mm is the better focal length.

Heyyyy Robin switched to NOlympus 🤣 jk bro, keep up the awesome job ❤

50mm is okay sometimes but 35mm suits my style better. YMMV.

I hate 50mm for street. I run out of space to back up

lose the hair man

I wish I had the freedom to photograph like you do. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to do free street photography here (because of stupid laws here...). Sometimes you wish you were in another country.