Canon EF 50mm f/1.8

[Duane]

I was wondering if anyone cuold tell me what type of situations would you use this lens? Canon EF 50mm

I use my camera mostly to photograph my twin daughters. My current lenses are the EFS 17-85mm & the EFS 18-55mm (kit lens). I also own the EF 75-300mm for sports.

Does anyone think that I'd benifit from owning the EF 50mm?

[dmagick]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone cuold tell me what type of situations would you use this lens? Canon EF 50mm

I use my camera mostly to photograph my twin daughters. My current lenses are the EFS 17-85mm & the EFS 18-55mm (kit lens). I also own the EF 75-300mm for sports.

Does anyone think that I'd benifit from owning the EF 50mm?

The best thing about the 50mm is the bigger aperture's you can use (which gives you less depth of field).

I own the 17-85mm and 18-55mm and 50mm and I use the 50mm to take pics of my daughter the most (80% of the time) because I can use bigger apertures (I usually use 2.5, 2.8 or there abouts). This gives me more blurred background making her pics stand out a lot more and higher shutter speeds too. It is harder to master as you need to get the focus "right" otherwise the photo will be blurry. The 17-85mm is a great general lens but it won't go to the higher apertures I want to use.

My suggestion would be to borrow one from a friend if you can for a weekend and see if you like it. If you can't find anyone, you can find lens rental places and this one won't be very expensive to rent.

[Duane]

Thank you dmagick. Would you say that I'd get the same quality shot (sharpness/detail)from the 50mm as I would from my 17-85mm? Quality is a huge issue for me.

[The_Camera_Poser]

The 50/1.8 and 17-85 are totally different animals. You'll get better quality out of your 50/1.8 at f/2.8, I can tell you that much!

I've seen some pretty awesome pics with the 50.

[baddness]

I have the nifty fifty and I love it. I was having focus issues with it, but it was me and not the lens. Takes good sharp photos in low light situations. I love the lens.

[The_Camera_Poser]

You can always manually focus too- it's easy with a f/1.8 lens.

This was with the nifty.

[Marko]

The best reasons to own a 50 mm 1.8
1) amazing in low light situations because you can open up to 1.8 and likely get the shot
2)bright screen when you look through the lens (again because it's a 1.8 lens and you ALWAYS see the scene though the largest aperture on any prime (fixed focus) lens)
3)Most of these puppies are damn sharp.
4)they are usually very cheap even new (100-200 dollars)
5) They used to give you a similar view as your eyes when using film cameras or full frame digital cameras.
6)they are less imposing than a long zoom and thus are great for street photography
7)because they are relatively short in length you can use slightly slower shutter speeds if you are very steady.
8)they take up very little room in a camera bag.

Hope that helps,
Marko

[benjamindicaprio]

The 50mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4, and 50mm 1.2 are all good lenses. They really kill your background when you need to isolate your subjects for a portrait or something. They also provide very sharp images if that's what you're going for. You can get them for relatively cheap, but make sure it comes with USM - Ultra Sonic Motor...this helps you auto focus more smoothly.

[Ben H]

I just got mine today (great deal from ebay - tip, find someone selling a crap old film camera for thirty quid with one of these lenses - don't pay £60-70 for one s/h...

I've just shot some family shots this evening in dreadful light, and I'm floored, really. Absolutely wonderful. Feels like the autofocus motor is made of Lego, but the light performance is amazing...

Edit: One thing - the bokeh on this is supposed to be hexagonal, as a result of the cheaper construction. I was just looking at the pictures I took - the bokeh is most definitely round. Weird...