I broke out my nifty fifty for the first time last weekend for a friend’s wedding. This fantastic bit of plastic is the smallest and lightest lens Canon makes and it is by far the best low price lens I’ve ever seen. The only lenses better than this one are L series lenses and cost about ten times as much. Here is the verdict:
The Good
Price. It is the cheapest lens Canon makes at around $140.
Weight. It’s the lightest lens Canon makes as well.
Sharpness. This lens is so sharp that emo kids will actually bleed if you take pictures of them with it.
Image quality. There’s no noticeable chromatic abberation, very little distortion and vignetting on a full frame.
Aperture. f/1.8 is fast. Really fast. The lens is very sharp wide open as well. Stop it down past f/2.8 and your images will be razor sharp.
Also: Did I mention the price?!
The Bad
Bokeh. The bokeh is pretty awful, but not so awful as to render all your backgrounds terrible. Just steer clear of far away lights at night time.
Autofocus. It’s not that slow, but it is noisy. USM would be nice, but the USM version is a lot more expensive and only ever so slightly better. My recommendation for a 50mm lens would be the 50mm f/1.2 L which costs an arm and a leg but is better than sex, or this one if you can’t afford that one. I also needed to adjust the auto-focus for this lens on my camera back a bit as I found it was focusing just before what I wanted it to. Your mileage may vary.
That’s about it for cons. The reviews I’ve read online can only come up with some pretty bullshit criticisms like ‘poor build quality’ and ‘feels plasticky’. Well, its made of plastic and is the cheapest lens that Canon makes, so as far as I’m concerned they’re not really valid criticisms. It’s solid enough, but don’t expect it to withstand weather like an L series lens. I honestly understand why so many people have told me that everyone with a canon dslr needs to buy this lens. This and the 70-200mm L are the ‘lenses that everyone needs.’
Verdict
This is an amazing lens and proof that the quality of a lens is not necessarily in the price tag. If you don’t have one of these then you should probably go out and buy one. It’s cheap and versatile enough to be in everyone’s camera bag. If you’ve got a camera with a cropped sensor I’d save up for the EF-S 60mm macro as it takes amazing portraits on a cropped sensor and has a macro capability to boot. If you own a full frame get the 50mm f/1.2 L. If you, like most people, can’t afford that the 50mm f/1.8 II is a very close second.
Here are some examples of how incredible this little guy can be:
Three men and a spit
f/5, 1/60 sec, ISO 200
XR6
HDR 3 frames, f/6.3, ISO 100
Makeup
f/6.3, 1/200 sec, ISO-100
Almost Ready
f/3.5, 1/200 sec, ISO-100
