Guest Author: Calin Charles
Was the 24mm a good lens for Copenhagen?
I recently made a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. It is a city that’s been at the very top of my travel bucket list for quite a few years now and as a photographer, I wanted to document my visit in the best possible way. My wife decided to our 24-70mm f/2.8 lens to use on her Sony A7IV, which left me with a tough decision:
What lens should I bring to use on my Sony A7V while exploring Copenhagen?
I had a few different options; I’ve been using the underrated Sony 85mm f/1.8 for quite a few years now and love what I can capture with it. Unfortunately because of how tight I have to shoot with that lens, I felt it was out of the discussion. I also have a Sony 50mm f/2.5 G lens that I love using on my video projects, but I wanted a bit more headroom in terms of aperture and again, it was a bit tighter of a focal length than I wanted to be able to capture the architecture and broader context of the city.
This left me with either my Sony 200-600mm G lens and my favourite prime of all time, the Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM (thankfully, this felt like a pretty obvious choice).
What I love about the 24mm f/1.4 GM is that it really allows you to capture the context of a scene. It’s great for environmental portraits, works brilliantly for architecture, and is wide enough to capture what you need without being so wide that it starts to distort your image. The low aperture ability of f/1.4 is also perfect if you’re capturing an area in low lighting such as an indoor setting or at night. Finally, with it being a GM lens, you know that it has excellent quality glass. These are a few of the ways I love to use my 24mm GM and Sony A7V:
- Shoot low to the ground. I’ll often shoot right at ground level; this allows for me to capture a lot of detail in the foreground while allowing for an expansive sky.
- In architectural settings, standing in the middle of a road and having that wide angle can allow you to capture really great leading lines & symmetry, allowing you to place your subject in the middle of a scene.
- Street photography; even though you may lack the ability to get up and close to your subject, having that extra wideness allows for you to really capture the context of the world around them. I love snapping shots of passing cyclists, or couples sitting together amongst interesting surroundings. I think that context you’re able to capture really lends itself so strongly to an interesting photograph. While a lens like an 85mm will really isolate a subject from their surroundings, the 24mm does the opposite.
- I’ll often use the 33mp sensor on the Sony A7V to crop in using Super35/APS-C mode to transform the 24mm into a 36mm lens. Or if that’s not quite enough, I’ll use those extra megapixels in the sensor to crop the photo in my editing software.
What are your thoughts on the 24mm focal length?
All these images were shot using the Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM on my Sony A7V.
Featured in this blog:
Sony a7 V Body
Sony FE 24mm f1.4 G Master
