 "super sharp lens" | 2009-11-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1EWZ8O45GHNIF |
| For the price, this is a very sharp lens for an amateur photographer. Compared to the kit lens on the canon rebel class cameras, it is much better with less chromatic aberration and less fuzziness. I would recommend this to anyone using a kit lens, or looking for a cheap quality lens. The only optical problem is barrel distortion, but that can be fixed in photoshop if it is noticeable in the picture. |
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| "A great prime lens" | 2009-11-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A15U4WNFMU1VWP |
Love this lens. Great walking lens and often used by professionals for weddings etc.
Pictures are fabulous ,great in low light situations. And, a great price for the value added to the quality of my pictures. |
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 "Good value, until it breaks, then more good value after repairing it" | 2009-11-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2TKR3U8UTNG78 |
I bought this at a shop when I was on vacation in New Orleans. The 18-55 lens that shipped with my XSi could not handle certain shots without a flash. Well, that location was the aquarium. Even with a diffuser, and bouncing the flash I would get a reflection of the flash in some glass. With more sight seeing, I had enough of that. So I tried the 50mm f/1.8 against the kit lens. In the shop the same exposure required 1/8s with the 18-55 (f/5.6 at 55mm) and 1/125s with this lens. I didn't try my 55-250 EFS at an equivalent 80mm, but that would be just over f/4. Better than the 18-55, but nowhere near f/1.8. Additionally, the depth of field on this lens is tiny compared with such a large aperture - great for portraits. I took some great shots at Pat O'brien's in late afternoon in October with no flash.
The next day was not so good. The lens fell out of my bag at the Audubon park, and it broke into 2 pieces. Luckily the optics were intact. The ribbon cable for the electronics however, was severed. I had a paperweight, temporarily. Due to it's poor construction is was just as easy to put back together and rip apart again. I replaced the ribbon cable with 7 separate wires (soldered them on) and viola, a working lens again, sort of. I had to melt a part on the AF drive to get the counter working again as well. Without that the focus just hunts. After a couple attempts, I got it mostly working - sometimes in manual focusing mode it still runs the motor for several seconds. But some issues are to be expected with a quick on-vacation repair ($10 soldering iron from Walmart and some wires from a CAT 5 cable from my brother-in-law).
Had the construction of the body of the lens been of better quality, I probably wouldn't have needed to do any repairing. So as most people say, this is a flimsy lens. But for the price, I cannot complain (you do get what you pay for). Would I rather have the metal f/1.4 model for 4 times the price? You bet. Was it available in any shop when I was there? No. Until it breaks again, I'll keep using it. Then I'm getting the good one. |
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| "Excellent Lens for the money!!" | 2009-11-11 |
| - Reviewed By intellectually_stupid1 |
| Just got this lens today and took several pictures. The autofocus on this lens is really fast and it takes great pictures. The IS works perfectly fine! I will be using this lens more often than the 18-55mm lens kit and the 55-2500mm IS. You have to have this lens. It performs very well (I wonder if I got the 1.4. That must be super fast) and a good bang for the buck! Don't read anymore reviews or research other 50mm lens. If you are on a tight budget but want something that is almost perfect 50mm lens, this is it! |
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| "Sweet low light lens for cheap" | 2009-11-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3NMCAB4KUL6OL |
Bought this lens so I could start taking better pictures in low light and play more with depth of field (and also because it's CHEAP for such having such a low aperture value).
Right now I have the 18-55 IS and 55-250IS kit and this addition was much needed for shooting indoors. Even with the image stabilization and non-moving objects these lens just do not make for very sharp pictures indoors without a tripod. The 50mm on the other hand does!
However, I do a lot of my picture taking outdoors and the real reason I bought this lens was for the fun you can have with depth of field. This lens makes for excellent portraits along with giving the ability for more artistic shots because of it allows for focusing in on a single point while blurring the rest. |
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| "50mm options for Canon" | 2009-11-03 |
| - Reviewed By novaexpressllc |
Once upon a time, an SLR came with a 50(ish) mm "standard" lens with a maximum aperture of somewhere in the f 1.4-2.0 range. Today a 28-70mm (or digital equivalent) zoom is usually kitted with an SLR. This has a maximum aperture generally in the f 4.0-5.6 range. That's something like 1/2 to 1/4 the light gathering ability, and often considerable optical quality, given away in exchange for cheap zooms.
If you're looking at this, then you've probably decided on a 50mm or so prime lens, likely because the kit zoom lens is both slow and not very good quality. Here are the options for Canon:
Canon 50mm f/1.8 (version 2): It's inexpensive, very fast compared to any cheap zoom and exceptionally good for the price. On the down side, it's cheap feeling, noisy in focusing, and difficult to focus manually. You should buy at least this.
Canon 50mm f/1.4: A little bit faster, but that's a less important trait these days with good digital high effective ISOs. More importantly, it's robust, easy to use, with full-time manual focusing (you can just grab the ring even when it's autofocusing), and good image quality
Sigma 50mm f/1.4: More expensive than the Canon lens, but slightly better image quality wide open. It's a tough sell since the quality change isn't huge. But if the extra money and Sigma logo don't bother you, then go for it.
Canon 50mm f/1.2: Big money for that extra light-gathering ability. If you need this for photographing in a club, then you'll buy it. If you don't need it, it's too expensive and heavy to compete with the lenses above.
Another, used, option, the original Canon 50mm f/1.8 EF lens was sturdier and better built, but they're only available used and possibly abused. I own one and am happy with it. I have shot with the Canon f/1.4 as well and that's the lens that I'd buy today. |
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Expedited Available
