For my 30th birthday, my wife let me buy any lens(es) up to $300 (10x my age :-) ) I love my 50mm f/1.4, but sometimes found it a little long, so I knew the 35mm f/2.0 would fit in nicely. And boy am I a happy camper! The lens is sharp, has great contrast and rendering, and focuses nice and close.

Had it for a couple of weeks before I was able to give it a full workout on my favorite subject.


Shot RAW (ISO400, 1/800s, f/3.2), processed with ACR 4.01, auto levels in PSE 5.0 and "Resized for Web" (which unfortunately yanks the EXIF)

I have a lot more similar shots, some even wide open, that just make me smile! Sure, it's not the Limited 31mm, but I like it!

Regarding prime usage, I found that if I had my Tamron 28-75mm on, and I wanted to fill the frame with my dog, I would just zoom in to 60-75mm, but the prime forced me to get in nice and close, which made for an interesting perspective. And it's light weight too!
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[Eaglerapids]

Congrats egordan99. Nice lens and dog!
Happy Birthday:-).

[betsypdx]

Happy Belated Birthday. Looks like a great gift.

[and]

congrats, I think the FA 35 is a great choice! and Im sure you will get many more lovely shots from it. I use mine all the time even when its not the most practical and I have to move around to get the shot, like you said here. Its just so good that you feel that if you use a zoom instead you will loose out on quality.

I think this is the one prime everyone should have, not the FA50. And the answer is simple: its a near 50 on dSLR whereas the 50 is a not-that-usefull 75.

[barbosas]

Congrats..

I also bought a FA35 from a member here in the forum, and i absolutely love it!

my F50 f1.7 is standing around in the corner

[egordon99]

Thanks for looking at the photos everyone! It will be interesting to see how much use my 50mm f/1.4 gets now. (It's not standing in the corner yet!)

[hamidlmt]

Nice sample from the 35! And, happy birthday! I hear what you're saying about the 50... once I get the 31 (a very similar focal length), I've rarely used the 50. Every time I take it out, I quickly go back. Enjoy your new lens!!

[carpents]

Hey, happy birthday Evan!

Now you have another prime that I want to try out some. What are the odds of that?!?