Although relatively inexpensive, I’ve heard good words about Canon’s consumer 50mm prime lens for a long, long time. I’d been meaning to pick up one for myself since I bought my 350D 18 months back, and finally did just that last week on impulse.
The lens I bought is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. Widely known as the cheapest Canon prime lens with the best image quality. I also picked up the optional ES-62 lens hood as a precautionary measure for eliminating reflection and glare while shooting in wide open daylight.
Build Quality
One thing this lens isn’t well known for is a top notch build quality, in fact, this lens really lacks even a medium quality build. It uses a cheap looking plastic EF mount, and feels very flimsy. I wouldn’t want to drop the lens, even on a soft surface. It’s quite apparent the slightest knock will break the lens.
If you’re after something with a better quality build which an be knocked around a little more, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 might be what you’re after ($329 USD).
| This image above was taken with the following settings: f/2.8 | 1/100th | ISO 100|
Image Quality
Abeit the low quality build, the image quality and sharpness for such an inexpensive lens is remarkable.
Low light shooting really is a joy with the lens wide open at f/1.8. The possibilities of different shots using f/1.8 and an ISO of 1600 really open up so many potential frames you couldn’t capture on anything else.
In lower lighting conditions where I still have a little light to play with, I tend not to use the lens wide open, rather opting for slightly higher aperture value of 2.2 for added sharpness – and bumping the ISO speed by one notch to make up for the aperture difference.
I’ve found the lens to be sharpest when opened up past f/2.8, daylight performance at f/2.8 is a little disappointing, with a noticeable lack of sharpness around the focus point. Cranking the aperture up eliminates this, and the lens really starts to shine at f/3.2.
| This image shows the overall image with a 100% crop to show sharpness|
Conclusion
If there is one single lens you should pick up when you purchase your first DSLR, this is the one. Albeit the low quality build, the image quality for such an inexpensive lens is remarkable.
It makes shooting in low light much, much easier. I’ve also found shooting with a prime lens has opened up the bar for my creativity – I’ve started to think about composition so much more which results in better images.
For $80, you really can’t go wrong with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. It really has me thinking about my future lens lineup, and the overall sharpness has me thinking about going with a lens lineup completely comprised with primes.