Add on zoom to a Eff 50 MM 1:14 Lens

[ryan_trush]

<p>zHi:</p>

<p>I own a Canon Rebel EOS T3 camera with a Eff 50 MM 1:14 Lens. I have the lens with a fast shutter speed for concert photography..</p>

<p>It works out great! It would work better if the lens could zoom in & out...as I always have to be front of 2nd row for great shots. Is there anything recommended to an add to the lens that I can zoom with? If not any recommendations for a lens with fast shutter speed & zoom?</p>

<p>thanks,</p>

<p>Ryan</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>Your 50mm f/1.4 lens serves as a fine, large-aperture, short telephoto on your cropped sensor camera.</p>

<p>If I understand correctly, you may be asking if there is an add-on device that will let you "zoom" with this lens. The answer is no.</p>

<p>There are other inexpensive prime lenses that can give you a bit more reach with a reasonably large aperture. These include the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 lens and the 100mm f/2 lens.</p>

[avinash_balakrishnan]

There are zooms, but can't recommend just one since you haven't mentioned how you want to zoom. First thing is that there is no cheap fast zoom lens. I will say, get a used lens and your fastest (Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 would be short- so ignoring that one) options are the f/2.8 zooms. The cheapest 17-50 f/2.8 Tamron (around 400$ new) will get you wide shots, but you won't be able to get closer than your 50 f/1.8 and also doesn't focus fast as other alternatives. If you want to zoom in and out from your 50mm the old Canon 24-70 f/2.8 or the Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 VC (The VC won't help much for you probably - but is nice to have for the same prize of canon) are great. I don't think you would want the new 2100$ version 2 of the Canon 24-70f/2.8. But if u want more reach, the 70-200f/2.8 L USM is a sharp and fast lens, used it, don't own one. You can get that lens used from 800$ and above from eBay. As I said, sadly, a cheap fast zoom lens doesn't exist for now.

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Ryan, on a more basic level, you may want to read up on exposure (i.e. in the <a href="/learn/basic-photo-tips/aperture-shutterspeed-iso/">learning section on this site</a>, or a book such as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-3rd-Edition-Photographs/dp/0817439390">Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure</a>) to better undersand why your current lens enables you to set such fast shutter speeds; once you understand that, it makes it easier to know what to look for in a lens.<br>

What you are looking for are lenses with a large aperture, as written above and there are no zoom lenses with an aperture as large as the lens you currently have (f/1.4). Especially for lenses longer than 50mm (=more zoomed in), the largest aperture you will find in zoomlenses is f/2.8 - this will give you a shutterspeed 4 times <em>longer</em> than your current lens. Plus they tend to cost a serious lot of money.<br>

But before shopping for anything, I'd really start reading the article in the learning section first, to get better grips with exposure so you better understand your requirements.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<p>The fastest <em>zoom</em> lens currently available with FL longer than 50mm is going to be a f2.8 zoom (of which there are numerous to choose from (Sigma 50-150 & 70-200 & 120-300, Canon 70-200, Tamron 70-200, etc.))</p>

<p>However, as Wouter points out: <em>"this will give you a shutterspeed 4 times longer than your current lens. Plus they tend to cost a serious lot of money."</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

There are better options for this photographic task however. Since you are largely stationary, you do not really<em> need</em> zoom, so much as you <em>need</em> the proper focal length. I would say likely a 85/1.8, a 100/2, or 135/2 would all be likely to give you the speed you need, a much more appropriate focal length, and the most expensive of these is about the same as the cheaper f2.8 zooms. I expect that an 85/1.8 or 100/2 would likely be fine (and both very reasonably priced for their capability), but just remember that at longer FL, you need a faster shutter speed to freeze subject motion. While shutter speed of 1/(effective focal length) (for your 50mm on the crop ~= 1/80 sec) is usually reasonable to get rid of camera shake, it is often not adequate for a moving subject (or one who is doing crazy things on stage). You could expect up to twice the shutter speed or higher(or more specifically, half as long, or shorter ;) ) to be necessary to freeze more rapid subject movement.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>In the new spirit of 'pickiness' that seems to becoming standard for P.net, I'm obliged to point out there there were "zooming" teleconverters (2X to 3X). Moreover, Kilfitt made a special kit for 'zooming' their lenses.</p>

<p>Were they worth the trouble? Rarely, at best, although I admit I have never tried the Kilfitt unit.</p><div></div>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>JDM fails to mention that the Kilfitt lens ad is from 1965. Only 50 years ago.</p>

<p><Chas></p>

[William Michael]

<p><strong>If you do not need a zoom to 50mm</strong>, and a fast APERTURE is critical, then the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM is worthy of consideration. F/1.8 provides you one and one third stops faster than the F/2.8 zooms, but obviously you will not the Focal Length compass.</p>

<p>Addendum -<br>

Opps - sorry, I didn't notice that this lens was already mentioned. </p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Ryan, there may be a disconnect here with the vocabulary you're using. I think you might be asking whether there is an add-on accessory lens (that screws to the front of your 50/1.4) to give you more reach (greater focal length, as though you had a 135mm lens on your camera, for instance). I've seen some newbies incorrectly refer to telephoto capabilities as "zoom," when the term "zoom" actually means variable focal length (like a 17-40mm lens, rather than a 400mm lens). So if I understand your question correctly, here is how I'd answer:</p>

<p>There may be a screw-on telephoto attachment doodad you can adapt to your 50mm lens, but these sorts of attachments yield image quality ranging from poor to unspeakably horrible. I wouldn't recommend using one. A better option would be a teleconverter, which you would attach between your camera and lens. Kenko has some teleconverters that are reasonably decent. If you added a 2x teleconverter, you'd effectively have a 100mm f/5.6 lens with slightly degraded image quality.</p>

<p>If you want more reach in dim light, you may want to consider a prime (meaning fixed focal length) telephoto lens, such as G. Dan suggested, which is a better solution than a teleconverter. You can buy even longer telephotos, but you need to understand that lenses that are both very "long" (like a 600 mm lens) and very "fast" (like an f/4 lens) can be extraordinarily expensive (like $13,000 for a Canon 600mm f/4 L lens). There seems to be a point of diminishing return maybe around 300mm and f/4 or f/5.6'ish.</p>

<p>I also don't want this to come across the wrong way, but I think it would also be extremely useful to read some of the basic photography articles on Photonet and elsewhere on the web, to familiarize yourself with these terms and concepts and to get a better grasp of how to move forward. </p>

[JDMvW]

<blockquote>

<p>JDM fails to mention that the Kilfitt lens ad is from 1965. Only 50 years ago.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Actually, JDM used the past tense in the discussion, and the date of the ad is quite clear at the bottom of it.</p>

<p>And anyway, with eBay, nothing is ever "not on sale". </p>

<p>As if more proof were needed of the pickiness of which I spoke.</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<blockquote>

<p>As if more proof were needed of the pickiness of which I spoke</p>

</blockquote>

<p>LOL!</p>

<p>Since the OP seems a little naive, I didn't want him to think that thing was a current product or readily available. No disrespect intended.</p>

<p><Chas><br />the pedant</p>

[William Michael]

<blockquote>

<p>Kenko has some teleconverters that are reasonably decent. If you added a 2x teleconverter, <strong><em>you'd effectively have a 100mm f/5.6 lens</em></strong> with slightly degraded image quality.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I think there’s a calculation error in your very practical suggestion, Sarah.<br /> Using a x2 Kenko tele-converter an EF50mm F/1.4 should give the equivalent of a 100mm <strong><em>F/2.8</em></strong>: which would be a relatively fast aperture to use.</p>

<p>I’d suggest the need to check the compatibility of Kenko extenders with the shorter Focal Length Canon lenses – I have in the back of my mind the memory of some vague and not big issue with using the Kenko x1.4 extender with the EF 85F/1.8, but that issue is only when the lens is wide open, at F/1.8</p>

<p>WW</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Whoa! Did I say that?! Thanks, William! :-)</p>

[William Michael]

<p>No problem, 'Team work'.</p>

[w_t1]

<p>"Spirit of pickiness" +1</p>

[matthijs]

Zooming teleconverters.

 

Now I've seem it all...