Sony E 50mm F1.8 OSS review: specs and price

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A metal mount is generally superior to a plastic mount as it is more durable.

A prime lens has a fixed focal length. In general, these are sharper, with a wider aperture.

It comes with a lens hood so that you don’t have to buy it separately. These are used to block strong light sources, such as the sun, from the lens to prevent glare and lens flare.

A shorter minimum focal length allows you to get more of the scene in the photo, and offers a wider angle of view than longer focal lengths.

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The front element doesn’t rotate. This is important if you use filters, as some such as polarising or gradient filters have to be orientated a certain way.

Optical image stabilization uses gyroscopic sensors to detect the vibrations of the camera. The lens adjusts the optical path accordingly, ensuring that any type of motion blur is corrected before the sensor captures the image.

At the shorter end of the lens you get the widest angle of view. This allows you to fit more of the scene into the photograph (based on APS-C format).

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At the longest end of the lens you get the narrowest angle of view. This allows you to fit a small portion of the scene into the photograph, such as when you are zooming in on a subject (based on APS-C format).

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A true macro lens has a magnification of 1:1. This means that the image produced is a life-size representation of the subject being photographed.

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The zoom range is the ratio between the longest and shortest focal lengths. A higher zoom range means that the lens is more versatile.

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With a wider aperture the sensor can capture more light, helping to avoid blur by enabling a faster shutter speed. It also provides a shallow depth of field, allowing you to blur the background to focus attention on the subject.

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With a wider aperture the sensor can capture more light, helping to avoid blur by enabling a faster shutter speed. It also provides a shallow depth of field, allowing you to blur the background to focus attention on the subject.

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A smaller aperture reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor. This is important in bright conditions where a wider aperture could result in your image being overexposed. Another advantage is that with a smaller aperture you get a greater depth of field, and can keep all of the image in focus.

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A smaller aperture reduces the amount of light reaching the sensor. This is important in bright conditions where a wider aperture could result in your image being overexposed. Another advantage is that with a smaller aperture you get a greater depth of field, and can keep all of the image in focus.

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The aperture controls how much light gets through to the camera’s sensor. More blades is often an indicator of a better quality lens. It also allows you to achieve much nicer looking bokeh when blurring out your background, whereas a lens with less blades will often produce harsher, more polygonal bokeh.

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Similar to the number of aperture blades, rounded blades affect the way the light gets through to the sensor. Rounded blades, often only found on more expensive lenses, improve the appearance of the out-of-focus areas. This allows you to attain better, softer looking bokeh in your photos.

Lenses with a built-in focus motor can autofocus even if the camera does not have its own focus motor.

Many lenses allow you to focus to infinity. This is essential when you wish to take photos including far off objects, such as when shooting landscapes, in order to make sure everything is sharp and in focus.

This is the closest distance that the lens can focus. A shorter minimum focus distance allows you to get closer to your subject, and is particularly important when doing macro photography.

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