Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

ISO 100   18mm   f/8.0   0.5sec - Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II - Canon 30D

The "Nifty Fifty" is what some people call it. It's a 50mm lens with a wide aperture of 1.8 made by Canon. This lens is one of the most lightweight and compact lenses in Canon's arsenal, and is a favourite for many amateur photographers.

Note that the nickname has "Nifty" in it. This lens costs about $120 CDN, which compared to other lenses, is amazingly cheap. I'll be honest, you don't get what you pay for; you get more. This lens is fixed at 50mm, which is the preferred focal length by many photographers. Also, many people use this lens as a portrait lens or a everyday lens. Although I don't prefer this as a portrait lens (I have a 70-200 for this), I do believe that the focal length is great for them. As for the use as a everyday lens, I think it is perfect. It's very lightweight and compact so it's really convenient to carry around. Additionally, the lens is fairly sharp for the price. The level of sharpness this lens delivers is, in my opinion, on a totally different level than the kit lens.

Although this lens is a 50mm, it is actually a 80mm on most cameras because most cameras are "crop cameras" (I'll also touch up on this topic in upcoming posts). The focal length on lenses are based on full frame cameras, so unless you camera is a full frame camera, you multiply it by usually 1.6, or some other close number like 1.5.

So from all the pros that I've talked about, you might be wondering "How can a lens that costs $120 be so flawless?". The truth is, it has many flaws. This lens feels like a plastic Tonka truck that a child plays with. It feels as if you dropped this lens, the glass would shatter into a million pieces. The autofocus on this lens can be slow and the thread doesn't even allow a hood. Also, at F1.8, the lens is substantially softer. You would have to reduce the size of the aperture by two or three stops for the lens to reach it's full potential.

From all this, what I have to say is that this lens is awesome. Not just awesome but awesome. It's cheap, sharp, compact, therefore, in my opinion, it's definitely worth the grab.


*Side Note - Forster talked about this in a older post, about two posts down. You might want to check out that post, as it also talks about the 50mm.