Canon EF 50mm f 1 8 II Camera Lens

This is the lightest EF lens of all at a mere 4.6 oz. (130g). Compact and high-performance, standard lens. Its Gaussian optics provide sharp delineation from near to far focusing distances. The color balance is excellent for a standard lens.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Excellent price/quality lens
Very good picture quality relative to similar-price zoom lens. Of course, lower f-number further improves quality, but considerably increases cost

2 Stars Consider buying the 1.4 instead!
I was totally stoked to get the Canon 50mm EF II f1.8 and read the reviews about how cool it was, how the pictures were awesome, and how if you are careful the plastic casing wouldn’t be an issue. Boy was I wrong. Let me start by telling you that I ADORE the photos I have with this lens. Completely love them, but the problem is I bought the lens in August and it has been broken more than it works. After one months the near focus didn’t work. I could only shoot at infinity with it. I sent it back to Canon and it took two months to get it back! It worked fine again, but I noticed it’s very loud when shooting AI SERVO (which I did on a dance concert photo shoot where I had 4,000 shots with it). It also made grinding noises. I shot with it for about another month and while away on holiday I went to take a shot and the focus didn’t work again. I flipped to manual to get my shot before finding a table where I could examine the lens closer, but the focus ring would NOT turn. I took what amounted to a terribly blurry shot and went to a table. I took off the lens and tried to turn the ring again. This time, the front glass of the 1.4 fell of right in my hand! My lens is now in two pieces, and I am ready to call Canon to demand a replacement not a repair. I will then sell the replacement and use the money towards a 50mm f1.4!

4 Stars Buy it!
This lens really ‘opened up’ the camera capabilties for me!

I am a beginner. I got my Canon 450D as a first SLR with the 18-55 kit lens. My first additional lens was a zoom-tele lens (Canon 75-300) so I can get bigger range, mainly for wildlife when spending time with the family outdoors.

the 2nd additional lens was this one. I bought it because the price was attractive and I thought that it would help taking pictures indoors with relatively low light (“natural”).

The lens did that, and much more! It’s a great lens for taking pictures in low light. With the appertura at ‘max’ you can user 1/50 shutter where with the kit lens you would use 1/15. around 3 times faster which of course create much better photos. Note however that with 1.8F you can’t really focus on many objects in the same frame so it’s limited to portraits and ‘single object’ photos but for family photos that’s good enough.

The other great thing you can do with this lens is take photos of flowers close up – which i really love. It’s not a true macro lens however: the min. focus distances is .45m which is not that close and with a 50mm focal length it means that you can’t really get too close to your object or get a really high magnification. I would assume a 60mm or even a 90/100 with macro abilities would be much better here but they cost around 4x more than this one. Still, with the 1.8f the flower ‘close ups’ are much better! the lens is sharp, the focus is great and the results have definitely improved!

another nice use is portraits. They got improved as well comparing to the lens kit.

I didn’t notice any problems with focusing comparing to the other lenses I have. It may not be the quickest one but it certainly performs very well in most conditions including low light. The only time I noticed an issue is when you get close to your object and starting to push that 54cm min. focus distance.

the AF noise is really not an issue – I don’t see why people see this as a problem in other reviews I’ve seen.

It’s true that a better build quality would have been nice. The lens looks a bit cheap and it would be nice if it at least would have created a better impression of robustness. It looks like it can crack open if it ever falls down to the floor – which I haven’t tested and not going to… However, I don’t see this as an issue. It’s still not much different than the lens kit which means that it’s built OK. it’s also very light and small, you really feel like you carry a compact camera.

Bottom line is – i hardly ever use any other lens anymore… this one is great for most indoor photos and family photos and for portraits and flower shots. It practically replaced the lens kit. The 1.8F really opens up camera capabilities I wasn’t exposed to using the kit lens with its 5.6F value (at the same focal length).

3 Stars The Learner’s Lens
-Plastic

-Super sharp after f4.0, attempt f1.8 at YOUR OWN RISK

-Small/stubby

-Too long on crop body (unfortunately 99.999% of people who bought this lens probably don’t own full frame body)

-Cheap

-Fun to play for a short time

-Not that expensive even after you’re bored with its initial awesomeness

4 Stars Not ugly and a great bargain
I don’t understand why one reviewer called this ugly. My lens has a smooth black matte finish and the plastic casing has a sturdy feel. It’s lightweight so my hands don’t tire quickly when taking lots of pictures with my Canon 30D. The sharpness of my pictures is much more than I expected for such an inexpensive lens. It’s not good for close-up work and I had to play with all the settings to see which would yield the best photos. Overall, it’s a great bargain for hobbyists and amateurs.

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