Product ReviewsCanon EF 50mm f/2.5 EF Lens

Excellent for specific uses

This is a very old lens offering, but I bought it for a specific purpose - to use with my Polaroid slide duplicating gadget. My existing Canon 50mm 1.8 STM lens - for some reason, quit focusing on the slides and I could not resolve the issue. I tried using my 40mm lens with some success, but the images were unnecessarily reduced in size.

I bought this in hopes the Macro capability would solve my problem - and it did.

I also tried it out as a general 50mm walk-around lens on a Canon T7i and Canon RP. It was once good for that, but not so much any more. It takes nice sharp pictures, but the auto-focus is very slow by today's standards and hunts a lot.

I also tried it out as a Macro lens, and here it did much better, much better than the 50mm 1.8 STM. I don't do that much Macro work, but I could see making it my Macro go-to lens, and if you do a lot of Macro work, then this lens would be a good choice and value.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: koji_kkjapan

A decent beginner low-cost macro lens

I think this is a beginning low level macro lens. Focus ring is loose, not sure if that is part of the design or just the one I purchased. I think it was discontinued for a reason. It's not bad but if you are looking for a really good macro lens, don't get this one. This is my first so it will do for now.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: irishfolkpark

Small, lightweight but poor in low-light + has no image stabilizer included

I'm doing tests in different environments to see where I feel the most comfortable using this lens. I use it for some of my photography home-works. Surprisingly, I can focus on objects pretty far (example: 10 meters away). It is nice to see the focal length measures written directly on the zooming tube. It is nice that the lens is small and lightweight.
Though the focus ring feels a little narrow. The magnification scale, the distance scale and the depth-of-field scale are a little confusing (too many numbers in a small area). Plus this lens has no image stabilizer so a tripod is necessary to use it.Read full review...

Excellent True Macro Lens Reveals A Whole New World!

The Canon EF 50mm “Compact Macro” is one of the most important lenses in my bag. I am finding that really close-focus photography is a fantastic way to capture truly interesting images. A whole new world is revealed when you look through this outstanding optical glass.

This is a “mid grade” model that is very affordable. It takes INCREDIBLY SHARP photographs, truly as sharp as a pro lens. It features a useful “distance scale window” with indications for macro ratios. It is well constructed and has the superior stainless steel lens mount. This fantastic lens has proven to be completely reliable.

The “Compact-Macro” features nine elements in a “floating” optical system for improved focusing accuracy, especially at very close distances. The front element extends as you focus, but it does not rotate, so circular polarizers and special effects filters are never a hassle. The front glass is deeply recessed behind the 52mm filter threads, so a hood is not needed, it’s “built-in”.

The Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro Lens has a 1:2 magnification factor. The “half life-size” images are awesome. You can make a coin look like a manhole cover. This is especially true on “small frame” digital SLRs like any of Canon’s Digital Rebels, 20D, 30D or the new 40D cameras. It becomes the equivalent of an 80mm lens on Digitals, which is an extremely useful focal length.

The Canon Compact-Macro is very comfortable to carry around, for hours on end. It “balances” beautifully on semi-pro camera bodies, making it a joy to handle.

I am amazed at how beautifully this model performs for non-macro applications. The six-blade aperture is fast enough for almost any “low-light” situation and the optics are incredibly free of distortions. Best of all, it is really, really sharp, and I mean “L class” sharp! Color and contrast are consistently superb and very pleasing to the eye.

This model employs the AFD “Arc Form Drive” auto focus design. It is not the quickest and not as quiet as a USM lens, but for the price it is excellent. Besides, for close-ups, you will want to use manual focusing anyway. Really tight shots require that you get the exact subject element that you intend to “feature” into crisp focus. The extremely fine focus adjustment gives you the ability to be incredibly precise.

This lens produces absolutely beautiful “bokeh”, thanks to the nice "fast" aperture. Portraits really have that vibrant 3-D quality, with the most pleasant blurred backgrounds that you will ever see from an affordable lens.

As a “walking around” lens, this is as good as any prime in its price range. The macro feature is like icing on the cake! It is faster and sharper than almost any zoom lens. It does a great job of performing many tasks extremely well. It’s a killer portrait lens, a great lens for “street” photography, it’s a fine choice for nature hiking and adventure photos. If it were not a Macro, it would still be worth every single penny, but fortunately, it is a Macro too!

Macro photography is where this lens really shines. To get the most out of it, you need to wake up your creative juices and look at things directly through its magical Macro eye. You can capture the most artistic shots that you have ever seen. Just glue your eye to your viewfinder and you will find beautiful things to capture everywhere you look.

If you want to have a lot of fun, get a Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact-Macro and turn yourself loose in a brand new small world!

Copyright © 2006Read full review...

low price macro with compromises

this lens has been around a while and is inexpensive, reasonably well built and very sharp. the drawbacks are noisey focus and no 1:1 without an adapter which is as expensive as the lens itself. for users whose budget is not an issue, the 100mm f2.8 is a better choice or the 60mm f2.8EFS for crop sensor cameras. that said, it does make a great choice for someone getting their first marco lens or needing a macro that doubles as a standard lens.Read full review...

50 mm canon macro lens from asset-resellers

WoW! I'm new to DLSR's and having a "prime" lens in my bag was a great beginning. This 50 mm is fun to work with. As a macro lens...it focuses very fast on small subjects.. (tree frogs, flowers and insects.) I'm also using this lens to use in a light box for miniatures to sell. So FAR, I highly recommend this canon 50mm macro lens. Read full review...

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Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: asset-resellers

Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens

Canon's 50mm compact macro. This is an awesome lens. While not a true macro it does do one heck of a job on close up shots; I shoot a lot of close up photos of plants and insects, and this lens gets it done. It is also excellent for portraiture. It is very inexpensive, and worth every penny of the price. Canon's 60 and 100mm macro lenses will cost nearly 2-3x as much as the 50mm compact macro. While they give you a further working distance this can also be a hinderance when shooting in close quarters, and the 60mm does not work on cameras with full frame sensors. While this lens has a noisy autofocus and is not internal zoom, this does not make it an unenjoyable lens to work with. The build quality is fairly good, and it proves to be a very versatile walk-around lens.Read full review...

Pretty good

I like the lens for macro shooting and I like that, for regular shooting, it has a autofocus mode. Photos turn out lighter than with my kit lens (18-135) and the contrasts are weaker, so it requires some tweaking before and after shooting. There is little to no vignetting, so that's good. Photos look a bit washed and that's ok for some things but not for others.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: gerocy4

Excellent entry-level macro lens

This is an excellent entry-level macro lens. It only does 1:2 (1/2) life size out of the box, but this can be upgraded to 1:1 life size with the Canon Life Size Converter. For my purposes, its an excellent lens. So far, I've taken great pictures of my wife's wedding ring, the handle of a dental tool, etc. I haven't had enough time to get into nature with it yet, but all signs point to satisfying results.

I'd definitely recommend getting a ring light or ring flash for this lens. The depth of field at maximum aperture is approx. 4-5mm, so a great deal of light is needed to take images of any scene deeper than that with f/16 or even higher resulting in better DoF.

With my lens, the AF is noisy and relatively slow. This is not a USM lens, so this is perhaps normal operation. I'm using a dedicated 50mm f/1.8 lens for my normal photos, and this lens only as a macro. As with most macro lenses, the auto focus needs to be turned off and the lens manually focused, so the AF isn't an issue at all. If I hadn't already gotten a dedicated 50mm, this lens would probably be satisfactory in it's stead.Read full review...

CANON EOS EF 50mm f2.5 Macro Lens

In a pure simple term, It is one outstanding lens, to bad Canon stopped making it. It's sharp, compact simply a wonderful addition to anyone using a Canon EOS Slr. Film or Digital, you cannot go wrong.

I like it better than the 100mm f2.8, the only other alternative would be a Macro-Bellows. That will bring you so close, you won't believe your eyes. Your options are limited, you can spend 900 dollars to buy a Novoflex model, or look for something compatible online.

True macro photography is done with a bellows, for everyday the 50mm f2.5 Canon EF Lens cannot be beaten. Stay away from those cheap 30-40 Dollar China models, they don't work, if it looks to good to be true. It most often is, take careRead full review...

The sharpest 50mm lens out there

Razor sharpness and artistic bokeh! Very well built, and has a superb quality optics! The only technical offset is the obsolete AF mechanism, which is very noisy and slow. Almost unusable on shooting live objects. Overall - a high quality lens at a very reasonable price.Read full review...