Product Reviews(A Grade) Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Prime Fast Lens

Hallelujah! Such a deal!

Dang, this cheap little thing is sharper than a bunch of fancy pants jobs that cost triple the cost or more. I picked this up used for a can of beans and it's one of the best buys I've ever encountered in the photo world. I'm no expert, that's for sure, and if my photos, right after clamping the thing into the camera, are right on the button, it says a lot. I've got no technique and with this thing I don't need any technique. If you're a beginner, snatch one of these up at a bargain basement price. If you're an experienced shutterbug, you already knew that.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: digitalgadgets16

Main lens is great- other stuff sent didn't fit

The lens and adapter work well with my Canon EOS M50. The filters, wide angle, and telephoto lenses were not the correct size. A ring adapter was sent which was nice. But, I see artifacts and shadowing from the wide angle and the Telephoto lenses.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: 6ave

Extremely good value for the prime lens-curious

I'm an amateur who has been using zoom lenses for my Canon EOS T5i for awhile now, and wanted to try shooting with a prime lens, but new lenses are an expensive proposal... until now! This inexpensive 50mm lens was well worth the money I spent on it just for the experimentation.

What's the attraction? This lens has a minimum F-stop of 1.8 (as opposed to 4.5 on my best zoom lens), which means a better contrast of foreground and background on my images, clean, crisp lines, and beautiful light even at night. I couldn't be happier with the images, I don't miss the zoom as much as I thought I would, and I am excited to look for even better fixed focal lenses.

It does take some time to get used to the focal distance, which means you have to have more room between you and the subject (the standard kit lens for the T5i has a minimum 18mm FD), so not ideal for close quarters shooting, but that's the price you pay.

But why didn't I give this lens five stars? For what it is, it's great, but it is by no means perfect. It's an EF lens and not an EFS lens, so it lacks image stabilization (which is okay in my opinion) making it best used with a good tripod. Not a big deal, but what is a big deal is the servo noise. Maybe it's because this is such a lightweight lens, but the auto-focus is the loudest I've ever heard on a camera. My tip: if you're shooting video, manually focus EVERYTHING or the mic will pick up the lens sound and little else.

My last not-really-a-gripe gripe is that this lens has a 52mm case instead of the "standard" Canon EF 58mm, which means that if you've invested in filters they simply will not work with this lens, and you'll have to buy new ones, which add weight to a camera bag. In fairness, if you move from standard EF-EFS to another manufacturer's lens you will have to contend with this anyway, so it's not a big deal.Read full review...

Canon EF 50mm 1.8 Where have you been all my life?

I have several lenses. Only the wide angle's are prime in my bag. So I never felt the need for a 50 prime.
I shoot a Canon 20d so it's got the lovely cropped sensor, essentially making the focal length longer (you know what I mean).
I've stuck to fast zoom lenses merely for their "all in one" appeal.

Well let me tell you this little cheap'o lens performs wayyyy beyond it's price.

Sure the body is made of plastic, and it almost feels like a toy in your hand. BUT who needs an extra 3 pounds of glass in their bag???

Autofocus is really noisy... But it's the same way on the 18-55 kit lens too.

This lens is great for truly working with depth of field. If you don't understand how DOF can help/hurt your photos, this is a GREAT lens to buy and start learning.

It's also a great little lens lo leave on the camera for casual shooting. Family at the park, trip to the grandparents, etc.

I use it a lot in the studio as well, nice fast lens for beauty shots.
Only drawback there is you've gotta be pretty close to your subject, and some models don't care for the "in your face" approach.

If you don't own it, buy it. You won't be sorry. If you decide it's not for you, put it back for sale on ebay it will sell.Read full review...

BEST VALUE in the Canon EF Line! You should own one...

It's not often that you find a lens that is widely embraced by both beginners and advanced photographers alike. Then, you factor in the fact that this lens is so incredibly inexpensive- and you cannot afford not to own it yourself!

For the beginner, it is a great fixed focal length that provides a mild telephoto on crop sensor cameras- and great available/low light performance, far exceeding most kit lenses.

For the more advanced user, this light lens can be used as a sharp and light travel lens- providing a "normal" field of view on full frame DSLRs. With it's low light capabilities- this lens is excellent for fireworks, indoor photography, and even astral images. Due to it's low cost- it lends itself well to use in those "risky situations" where you might not want to endanger a more expensive lens.

You might think that you are getting a plastic "toy lens" for this price- but the images that are produced by this lens are very sharp, crisp and well worth the price. Autofocus is swift and accurate- however this lens does NOT FEATURE FULL TIME MANUAL, and the manual focusing ring is very small and difficult to use regularly.

Overall, with it's small size, light weight, and affordability- how can you afford to not have this nifty fifty in your bag?Read full review...

The little lens that could, he'll win your heart and you'll keep your money

He's the little lens that could. He's not the fastest-focusing, he's not built like a rock, and there's a couple of little oddities that you may find yourself needing to adjust to. But for about $130 (or less) you really get your money's worth!

First, the good. With such a wide aperture you get more light for indoor shots, and you also get some really great depth of field effects that work nicely outdoors.

Being so small it only has a few elements in it. This lowers the weight and reduces the amount of light you lose.

The picture quality is amazing for the price, I think it's even better than my kit lenses that cost 2 to 3 times more than this. The odd thing is that my other lenses are zoom lenses. I'm no expert, but it seems that zoom lenses are typically less expensive, and can often have better image quality than prime (at certain focal lengths, anyway). So by all logic the image quality SHOULD be noticeably LESS than my other lenses, not more. That is what has really sold me on this lens.

Now the bad. These aren't major, but worth mentioning anyways. The build quality is good, but the materials used are cheap. It's a plastic housing, and you can tell.

The focus ring is recessed, so it's not as easy to reach as it could have been with so little effort. When focusing automatically on a subject that's tough to focus on it doesn't stop nicely when it's at its focus limit, it kinda goes "clunk".

Lastly, and maybe this is my inexperience, I wasn't expecting it to have a different diameter for the threads. My other lenses are 58mm, and this one is 52mm, and I just wan't expecting that. So now I need to either re-buy my favorite filters, or find an adapter. Maybe not a negative for you, but definitely something to keep in mind.

Overall this is a good lens. If you don't have a lot of cash and you don't have a fast lens (wide aperture/low f-number) or a prime lens (non-zooming) then definitely get this lens. You won't be blown away (except maybe by the value) but I don't think you'll be disappointed either.Read full review...

Captures awesome images for a thrift price

This lens, though it may be cheap, captures amazing images. I recommend that every amateur photographer give this lens a try. I have done amazing outdoor portraits with this lens, and it's great for putting the background out of focus.

I have read complaints that the cheap construction of this lens has caused it to get snagged on to the camera mount, but this has not happened to me. If you take care when putting your lenses on and taking them off, I don't think you should run into this problem.

The autofocus is slow and does take some time, but for the price of the lens you can't complain. It might also give you an excuse to start practicing with manual focus.

Overall, cheap price and low construction quality, but amazing images and a good starter lens to add to your repertoire.Read full review...

Cheap, sharp, bright, but limited

Canon's 50mm 1.8 is their cheapest prime lens, but inside is some decent glass. This is a great lens for portrature.

I've used the 50/1.8 for years because the simple design of the optics produces great pictures. Images are sharp, distortion-free, and the lens is almost immune to flare. It is in fact one of Canon's sharpest lenses when stopped down past f/2.8.

The only problem with the 50/1.8 is that it is so cheaply built, it lacks even the most basic features. The focusing ring is tiny, and flimsy. It is impossible to manual-focus this lens with any accuracy, it needs to be auto focused.

Another complaint about this lens is that the aperture mechanism has only 5 blades. This results in the out-of-focus areas looking a bit harsher than they would with a better lens (an effect called "bokeh"). This isn't an issue when the lens is stopped down enough to keep everything in focus, but for some styles, it just doesn't have that "expensive lens" look in the blurry areas.

Those limititions should not stop anyone from buying the Canon 50/1.8 because at the price there is nothing like it. If you've only used zoom lenses, try this one out, it will help you be more creative.Read full review...

A must-have for portrait photography with bokeh effect

The main advantage of this lens is its max aperture (F/1.8). Since it hasn't zoom (is a fixed/prime lens) the aperture is much bigger compared to other lenses.
This is useful for:
1) Creating a strong bokeh effect, since its focus its very localised, and this is excellent for doing portrait photos.
2) Low light conditions. At 1.8 you can get 4 times more light than other lenses, so you can shoot 4 times faster.

Typical cons about this lens:
1) Fixed/Prime Lenses: It can't zoom in or out.
2) Doesn't have any Image Stabilizer.
3) At F/4.5 or higher, it behaves exactly like any other lens which may have zoom and may be cheaper than this one.

This lens is a must-have, because it's the cheapest model in the market that has about F/2.5 or less.Read full review...

Best Bang for your Buck lens that Canon offers. Good image quality

I am a photo hobbyist/amateur shooting on the cropped sensor Canon 7D. I got this lens as an ad-on for a good portrait focal length (80mm on x1.6 sensor) and I love it. For the money, everybody should own this lens and learn to shoot with a nifty fifty.
This lens is a little soft wide open at 1.8 but is EXTREMELY sharp when stopped down anywhere between 2.8-8.0.
The bokeh is pleasing with this lens. DOF is super shallow at 1.8 which is great for isolating your subject and completely blurring out the background. I recommend a non-moving subject if shooting at 1.8 as focusing depth is so shallow. Personally, I find the background and bokeh to be the most pleasing around 2.8-3.5.
AF is a bit noisy and slow but is a non-issue unless attempting to shoot a fast moving subject.
This lens does still give you Manual Focus control even when set to AF which is a nice feature for fine tuning adjustments.
The focus ring itself is annoyingly small and placed right on the edge of the lens but, again, a non-issue when considering the image quality and the price of this lens.

Certainly a good buy and is something everybody should have in their lens arsenal.Read full review...

Ultra cheap lens with nice power!

As I was trying to collect a budget set for my photo-adventure, I found some shots made with Canon EF 50mm f/1.7 II lens. At first I thought it must cost a lot, like my dream lens - Canon 85 f/1.2 USM for around $2,000. When I checked the price I was shocked - below $100!

So I got it as soon as possible... and here's my opinion after trying it for some time:

PROS - Very cheap. Very light (it's plastic but it doesn't bother me). Beautiful bokeh. Pretty fast (you can shoot in dark rooms without a flash with higher ISO settings). Very sharp, especially in good light.

CONS - Autofocus loud and sometimes slow (especially in low light). With maximum aperture (f/1.8) and close shots you better switch it to manual - the depth of field is really shallow.

Bottom line - for a budget shooter it's a great lens. You won't make such miracles as with the $2,000 lens so if you have enough money - go for better. Otherwise - there isn't any cheaper choice with such a quality!Read full review...