Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II Lens

As a keen photography enthusiast i have decided to take a plunge and upgrade my old Sony a200 system (that i couldn't get on with) to a canon 7d - the first mistake i have made was buying expensive body and not having the funds to buy a decent lens. I love photographing people so i thouht a prime lens will be the best choice for me (this is a fixed focal lens ) 50mm lens can basically mimic the perspective seen by the human eye . i felt that this will be the best choice .Also prime lens made me more creative , as i hadn't had the opportunity to just zoom in if i wanted to.I had to move around and try viewing subject from different angles.

when the lens arrived i was surprised by the toy feel - its all made of plastic (besides optics) - it felt cheap like it will brake any minute ,there iwasnt any pouch with this lens .just an instruction manual .The lens is very light ( 130g ) and small (2.7" x 1.6"/68.2mm x 41.0mm - WxL ) - it is also a canon smallest lens on the market . before i have decided to review it i thought i will use it for a bit (i have used it for over a year ) .I was a bit doubtful if constant lens change could affect plastic lens mount in any way - but it didn't .On the lens itself there is only one switch AF/MF (Auto focus and manual focus ). Autofocus is driven by a micro motor - that is pretty fast. With a minimum focus distance of 1.5' lens can deliver some good images.

My first test shots look terrible , the lens flare that was on the images looked pretty bad and affected the overall quality . Lens flare is created when forming light enters the lens and subsequently hits the camera's digital sensor. I have decided then to buy lens hood and filter (to reduce glare) and try again. i would strongly recommend buying lens hood (ES-62 ) that includes the Hood adapter that threads onto the lens - the hood then attaches to the adapter by pinching two latches

With everything in place i decided to do a few test shots again on few different light situations and f settings (aperture size are often referred as a f settings .The aperture size determines the depth of field, or zone of sharp focus, that surrounds your subject the smaller the f i.e. f/1.8 - the shallower the depth of field is ). i love the way my images came out - sharp where i wanted them to be , and colours where fantastic .focus worked well on a 4 year old who run around the park like a tornado and because lens is very light i was able to take some decent shots handheld , without the discomfort, or a lense shake.
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The strongest quality of this lens is sharpness - it produces fantastic pictures , i can honestly say that its sharpest at f/2.8 and beyond on f1.8 it performs also good but not as sharp if the camera is hand held .All depends what you want to shoot . i tend to shot people at f/5.6 (but this depends how much of the subject i want to stay sharp) and landscape at f/8 - as i find this my safe zone , and i know images will come out decent.

Autofocus is pretty fast when shooting moving objects ,it focuses quickly witch is handy when shooting kids (that just don't sit still ... ) or fast moving objects .
Lens its very good in limited light conditions ( in the house ) - but only if you shooting on wider aperture (smaller f number) .- most of portraits are shot in low light condition and all of them are shot using this lens

another good factor was the lens size and weight -it is very easy to carry around , despite being plastic it is also very robust ,and it can take some serious banging. Just imagine me trying to strap screaming 4 year old into a booster seat with camera still hanging on my neck - it usually bash straight into car paintwork (that did chip)

I have grown to love this lens in fact this is the lens and i use in 98% of my images as the lens is very portable and light , so its easier to take hand-held shots without minimal camera shake.
most of the new dlsr's on the market come with a standard kit lens either 18-55 or 17-85 . so if you are looking for a nice addition to your camera i can highly recommend buying this lens despite it plastic look , its a very nifty lens with fantastic price tag. , and as i mentioned earlier i would recommend purchasing lens hood and possibly a UV filter .

"please bare in mind that im Polish - and English is not my strongest point but i try my best to give as honest review based on my own experience , and i know my grammar is terrible . "

Most reviewers of this lens will talk about the lack of build quality and plasticky feel overall - and they are to be believed!!

However, don't let this put you off.

Yes this lens has a plastic mount, yes the focus ring is narrow and fiddly and yes, the autofocus motor is an older, noisier, slower type but do I care one bit - NO!!!

This lens an absolute gem. I thoroughly recommend it as a replacement for the 18-55mm kit lens (I bought it for my Canon 400D) and recommend it simply because it's a great lens in it's own right no matter what you already have. It's a nice focal length for portraits.

Where this lens scores highly is its 1.8 f-stop - very fast!!! Images are definitely soft at this setting but acceptable in a pinch. I reckon you'd need to go above A4 prints for it to be noticeable. You always have to remember that you may not have got the shot at all if you didn't have the f1.8 setting so a bit of softness is the trade-off! Noticeable improvement in shrapness is seen at f2.2 and it just gets better from there on in. Stopped down to around f4 - f11 the lens displays stunning levels of clarity and sharpness for the price (by all accounts rivalling L series pro lenses costing much, much more from what others have said- I can't personally verify this but the results I've had are truly excellent.) It also focuses down to 45 cm!

To sum up, this lens punches far above its weight. For £65 you will get a lens that gives you fantastic pictures typical of lenses costing many times the asking price. Go for it!

I bought this lens to go with my Canon EOS 400D kit, along with an expensive image stabilising lens. Although the image stabilising lens is fantastic, this little one is definitely my favourite. It has no zoom, but is a joy to use. The wide aperture available makes it unbelievably good for low light indoor photography (especially compared the compacts that I was used to) and the low depth of field makes great portraits. It really encourages you to be creative and imaginative with your photos. As other reviewers have said it doesn't feel extremely solid, the autofocus is a bit noisy and the manual focus ring is too small, but all of these negatives are far outweighed by the brilliant results you get almost every time. You just have to be absolutely sure where you're focussing!