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Canon EF 50mm f1.8 Mark II

The Canon 50mm f1.8 is one of the cheapest lens in the Canon’s lens line. Besides its low price, it has great value for the price. 50mm is perfect size for portrait photography. Wide aperture (1.8) makes this lens briliant for indoor photography in limited light conditions. Average market price for this lens varies in the range of $85-$90. The reason for such low price can be understood as soon as you hold this lens in your hands.

The biggest downside of the lens is its poor build quality and problematic, noisy autofocus. On a digital slr with a focal length conversion factor (e.g. Canon 400D, 40D,50D,etc.), this lens behaves more like an 85mm and makes a great little portrait lens. Vigneting not seen on the 1.6 crop factor but is seriously seen on the full frame bodies.

User expierience

This was the first lens that I bought after I got fed up with the kit 18-55mm. The difference was huge! As I stopped down to 1.8 I started to take wonderful head-shots using the standard room lights (100Wlamp). The lens has 5 aperture blades. At 1.8, it has wonderful bokeh. For more sharpness, I highly recommend setting aperture @2.0 or higher.

Autofocus could be better and smarter in low light. In cases when the light source is weak, it hunts for the contrasty point to adjust the autofocus. It made me miss several interesting moments. In a very low-light conditions, I switch the autofocus off and adjust the focus manually. The autofocus is very noisy as it is no USM. The AF ring is on the top of the lens but unlike the KIT lens, it is not  rotating.

Technical specifications

Lens is accurate enough to be constantly used on the wide apertures. Of course, edges seem blurry it can be a huge benefit for the portrait photography (face details are blurred giving more glamour impression).

I really enjoy the vigneting on my EOS 30 film camera. It darkens the edjes on the full-frame giving natural artistic look to the photos. If you want to get rid of vignetting, you have to stop down to F3.5. Diaphragm consists from 5 blades – I wish it was more for better rounded bokeh.

Taking into account its low price, small size and light weight, the EF 50mm f1.8 is a lens you should always have in your camera bag. It’s small enough to carry it around with you all the time. From a price/performance viewpoint it has to be one of Canon’s best lens offers.

dpreview.com

So ultimately this is a lens which we’d encourage any Canon DSLR owner currently shooting with ‘kit’ zooms to try. The overall image quality when stopped down a bit is very impressive indeed, and the fast maximum aperture offers creative options which are well worth exploring (while sharpness, particularly in the corners, may not be the best wide open, the point is that you can get to F1.8 at all). It’s a pity about the build quality and harsh bokeh, but ultimately this lens hits a price:performance ratio that’s very difficult to beat.

Conclusion – Pros

• Brilliant image quality when stopped down (F2.0 and higher)
• No lateral chromatic aberration
• Very Very cheap

Conclusion – Cons

• Lowest build quality (plastic mount)
• Harsh and distracting bokeh due to pentagonal aperture
• Vignetting at wide apertures on full frame (which only disappears at F3.5)
• Inconsistent autofocus in low light (Especially while using large apertures)