Canon 50mm 1.8?

[xiggy]

Hey guys im pretty sure on buying a canon 50mm 1.8 for my next gift to myself simply because of how fast it can be!

i was wondering what people who owned this lens thought of it? and if you could send me a link of some pictures you have taken with it? thanks

[JohnG]

Great lens. For <$80 every canon owner should have one. As long as you stay within it's limits (i.e. doesn't have USM, only 50mm) it's fantastic.

Some of my shots with it:

[k1par]

I would not be without it. I use it a lot of indoor sports and general shots.

[nymphetamine]

@john

the dog is beautiful..i love dogs

[Beejygirl]

I bought the MK1 version on fleabay and am really impressed with it. Coming from a complete newbie who just had the kit lens and a cheap zoom I couldn't be happier with the sharpness of the lens.

Though, of course, when you're playing with f1.8 you've got to be dead careful where your focus is because sometimes pictures can look not-sharp when it's just that you've focused on the wrong bit.

Sorry if I haven't explained it well, but I'm not exactly up on all the techie lingo!

[peripatetic]

Well I agree that everyone should have a 50mm prime.

Canon have 3 options:

1. 50mm f1.8

+ Cheap
+ Optically pretty good at f2 and slower. (Certainly sharp enough!)

- Build quality. (Hated it so much.)
- AF motor slow and noisy.
- Don't like the bokeh very much. Can get nasty artifacts sometimes.

2. 50mm f1.4

+ Pretty cheap
+ Optically v good at f2 and slower.
+ f1.4 usable if you need it, gets you the shot.

- f1.4 not terribly sharp, max out the ISO first.
- Build quality - better than f1.8, but still not great.
- AF better than the f1.8 but still not up to the standard of the better Canon lenses.

3. 50mm f1.2 L

+ Beautifully built.
+ Heavy, sits with lovely balance on a 5D/40D.
+ AF very fast and quiet.
+ Pretty sharp at all apertures, though from f4 the others are as good or better.
+ L colour and contrast. A big advance on the f1.4 IMO. "Draws" beautifully.
+ Very good at f1.2.
+ Very nice bokeh for a 50mm, better than the others.
+ Manual focus very good with the EE-S focus screen on the 5D. Viewfinder becomes amazingly bright and clear.
+ Very thin DOF, great for separation of subject from background.

- Very thin DOF, very easy to get the focus slightly wrong and spoil the shot.
- Much heavier, too heavy for an XTi??
- No floating rear element, means you can get focus shift with changing aperture. Therefore there is quite a learning curve and it may not suit your needs depending on your shooting style. Very much optimised for wide open shooting at all distances, and stopped down at distances greater than 10ft. Caution needed if shooting stopped down at <10ft. Extremely dubious for any macro work for this reason.
- Expensive.

If I had to choose just one lens for my 5D it would be the 50L. If I had to choose one lens on a budget it would be the 50 f1.4.

On a crop camera? Never found the focal length useful myself. I would consider the 28mm f1.8 instead.

Sample from 50mm f1.8 (20D):

Notice the bokeh - not so good IMO. Also visible in John's 3rd image, but OK sometimes. Seems to affect straight lines predominantly, and diagonals worst.




Sample from 50mm f1.4: (5D - great bokeh, relatively low contrast, works well with B&W images.)




Sample from 50mm f1.2:

Great for taking images in the total dark!




Bokeh and colour great - this image desaturated in PP, but very punchy - great contrast.

[Michi]

I also have the original 50mm 1.8 EF lens. It's a good lens no doubt, but to be honest, I don't use it much - actually ever. I think for the crop cameras I would rather have a 35mm lens than a 50mm as a "normal" zoom. The 50mm is a little too much tele for astandard lens for me.

I recently compared the Canon kit lens to the IS kit lens, and out of curiosity I just quickly went into the backyard and did a few comparison shots between the 50mm 1.8 compared to the 18-55 IS Kit lens at 55mm. At 1.8, the 50mm is not as good as the kit lens at 55mm wide open which is 5.6, but with both at 5.6, the 50mm lens isnoticablybetter especially in the corners.

[dr_spock]

The 50mm f1.8 with a Rebel XT or XTi makes a very light weight combo to carry around.

[Cyberf828]

I had it I just sold it, great lens for the money. I just bought the 85mm F1.8.

[xiggy]

k1par wrote:

I would not be without it. I use it a lot of indoor sports and general shots.

yes i was wondering how good this would be for shooting say highschool basketball?

and yes it looks great im definately getting it