Which lens would you use for portrait work?

I want to some some indoor portrait shots using available natural light.

I have the following lenses at my disposal. Which would you use?

DA16-45 DA 55-300 Kit lens
M50 2.4 M40-80 2.7 A 28 2.4 (i think I've got the f stops right)

Also, I am tempted to buy the DA35mm f2.4 as it looks such a bargain, but would it be a waste considering the focal length is covered by the 16-45.

Finally, any other manual lenses that I could consider for portraits.

Thanks!

What camera are you using?

There have been plenty of threads regarding portrait lenses recently.
Firstly whats your budget? What type of portraits do you want to do (head and shoulders, waist upwards, full length) ?

As you want to do indoor with available light, you will find a fast lens more suitable and will a nice DOF control too.

If it was head and shoulders then a 35mm will be too short in all honesty.
However it is great for waist and upwards and full length.
If you are on a budget, try the 55mm F1.8 - manual only but fast and gives a nice soft effect suitable for portraits.
Also, fast nifty's are always worthy, be it F1.4, F1.7 or even the F2.

If however you have no budget then the 77mm limited

Hope this helps

The 16-45 would be OK at the 45 end but Ideally the 55-300 at whatever focal length you can use, it will depend on how far back you can stand from the model

any of your m lenses should work just fine. I use a 50 1.4 m often....

The 40-80mm is an f2.8-f4, it should be ok though. It does exhibit some barrel distortion but that shouldn't show up too much with a portrait, if anything it may be flattering in rounding angular features.

The 35mm is probably too short but I wouldn't call it a waste. It's usefully faster than the 16-45mm, very sharp, and much smaller and lighter than the zoom. It's a perfect walkabout lens, although I do wish it was closer to 28mm.

I have a K10.
The aim of my question is to ascertain what would be the best lense within the ones I already have.
I want to do head and shoulder shots with a shallow DOF.

I think I am leaning towards the M50 (or possibly the 40-80) but just wondered what others would select.

Spider the 55-300 is an interesting thought but I don't know if it's just me, but I find the background can be a bit noisy with that lens in certain situations. I think the magnification amplifies the noise.

Test out your 50mm wide open. I'd say it's the only lens you have that approaches the shallow dof you want. Look for a faster lens when you can.

I thought the M50 only came in F/1.2 F/1.4 F/1.7 & F/2 variants, is there really a F/2.4?
If so a faster F/1.7 or F/2 should be available for very little (if MF & no Auto aperture) which would be an improvement.

The normal choice for portraits is of course a short telephoto, the slight flattening this gives being generally flattering. With the crop factor a 50mm is reasonably close to this, and the wide aperture helps with blurring out your background, as well as being better suited to low light levels generally seen indoors.

However I've got (distorted) outdoor portraits of my kids that I like at both 10mm & 300mm so in good light there's no harm in trying the other options

LOL, I asked that same question several times and changed my mind several times. Considered manual 50mm f1.4 to DA* 55mm to DA* 50-135 to 70 limited + 100mm WR macro + FA 50mm to Sigma 50-150 to Tamron 28-75. I still have not bought any of them.

Basically, aim for anything that covers 50mm f1.4 to 85mm f2.8. Anything Pentax-made in that range should take good portraits.

The M series 85/2 can be had for around £150 and is an excellent portrait lens. If you're happy to use M42 lenses then the Jupiter-9 (also an 85/2) can be had for around £100 and has a unique look that's also well worth considering.

I don't know what they go for, but the Pentax 85mm 2.2 soft has nice bokeh...
here is a snap I just took to illustrate:

here is a video clip of what the 85 2.2 soft does as video...
link
these are the types of shots that can translate directly to Wedding & portraiture. (eg instead of my cat one might do a close up of the eyes of a bride and a portrait shot of a bride in front of a window, bridal bouquet with grooms name, in staed of a single rose, cake topper instead of xmas ornament...) you guys get the idea.... I just put this together in a couple minutes....

Comes up as Private Don?

The cat shot looks like what an old Aunt of mine used to take with
a Kodak 126 Instamatic

try this link for the video..
link

and as for the photo above..
it is just a snap shot for you guys, but hint: the subject isn't the cat, the subject is the bokeh.....
or rather the cat in the bokeh.... (You did notice there is two images of the cat?)