Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £63.99Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (5 out of 5)Made my new camera sparkle
I've got a Canon 400D with the standard kit lens. It's OK but I was a little disappointed by the sharpness that it achieved. After quite a bit of reading up I'd heard so much good stuff about this relatively inexpensive lens that I decided to get one.
Most of my pictures are of my kids and many of them are indoors. This lens is great for portraits and because the aperture can be opened to 1.8 it gets enough light that flashless indoor pictures become feasible. The results are great. Nice, natural colours compared to the flash and as others have mentioned, the blurring of the distant background is very pleasing.
Having read that it had an old fashioned and noisy focus motor I was expecting something horrific which would cause people to look around if you were taking a picture in public. In reality it's marginally louder than the USM lenses and a little slower. We're talking 25% in my view. It's perfectly useable. In low light, manual focussing is preferable and is very easy. People also say the plastic housing is fragile. Well, if like me you've got a 400D with kit lens, it's not really any more plastic like than the either of those so don't be put off.
I've only had the lens one day and I've already taken some pictures which I'll treasure. Only downside of the lens is that at 50mm on a 1.6 ratio camera like the 400D it's a telephoto. In other words, you have to step back a bit to get everything in, so not ideal for indoor group shots. A 30mm lens would be better *but* the one I was looking at was three times more expensive and that's what swung it for this one.
(5 out of 5)CAN'T FAULT IT!
I bought this lens for my Canon EOS 400D and has became my favorite in term of depth of field. You can create photo like you see in the magazine.
I am a spoiled user since all my other lenses have got USM (Ultrasonic focus motor) which make them quicker and quieter but at a price.
This lense is maybe noisy and a little bit slower to focus but at a really good price!
You need to work out your composition since there is no zoom, but this is somehow great as it help you to take better photos. You are observing more before taking the shot rather than just using the easy zoom option with other lenses.
It is a must have really.
(4 out of 5)Excellent performer for the price
This little thing weighs almost nothing, compared to all the zooms that I've got. Having f/1.8 at your finger tips will also change the way you photograph if all you're used to is a zoom - depth of field takes on a whole new significance. The lens is great for throwing a cluttered background out of focus when you're taking portraits.
Excellent value for money. Just wish I could afford the 50mm f/1.2 :)
(5 out of 5)Perfect companion for EOS 400
If you are thinking of buying the CANON EOS 400 or 350, I recommend you get the body only option and then buy this lens.
It costs a third of the top of the range 50 mm lenses and produces the almost identical results.
It works very well with low light conditions and produces sharp pictures.
This is a fixed focal length lens ideal for indoor portraits (not for group photography indoors) and landscape photography
The white balance is excellent and It weights 132 grams only
(5 out of 5)Fantastic for the price!!
Most reviewers of this lens will talk about the lack of build quality and plasticky feel overall - and they are to be believed!!
However, don't let this put you off.
Yes this lens has a plastic mount, yes the focus ring is narrow and fiddly and yes, the autofocus motor is an older, noisier, slower type but do I care one bit - NO!!!
This lens an absolute gem. I thoroughly recommend it as a replacement for the 18-55mm kit lens (I bought it for my Canon 400D) and recommend it simply because it's a great lens in it's own right no matter what you already have. It's a nice focal length for portraits.
Where this lens scores highly is its 1.8 f-stop - very fast!!! Images are definitely soft at this setting but acceptable in a pinch. I reckon you'd need to go above A4 prints for it to be noticeable. You always have to remember that you may not have got the shot at all if you didn't have the f1.8 setting so a bit of softness is the trade-off! Noticeable improvement in shrapness is seen at f2.2 and it just gets better from there on in. Stopped down to around f4 - f11 the lens displays stunning levels of clarity and sharpness for the price (by all accounts rivalling L series pro lenses costing much, much more from what others have said- I can't personally verify this but the results I've had are truly excellent.) It also focuses down to 45 cm!
To sum up, this lens punches far above its weight. For £65 you will get a lens that gives you fantastic pictures typical of lenses costing many times the asking price. Go for it!