Canon EF 50 mm 1.8 STM Lens - Compact and Lightweight Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras, Fast Aperture, Smooth Focusing - Ideal for Portraits and Creative Photography

I'm a "prosumer" photographer, and until now, most of my work has been landscapes. Recently I wanted to branch into portraiture and whilst most of my glass is from Canon's "L" series, there was no way I was going to hand over £1K+ for the L series 50mm prime lens, for an area I'm only dipping my toe into. I was lucky enough to have a kind friend to let me try out his EF 50mm 1.8 MK II (the predecessor to the STM version of this lens) and I was pretty impressed with it, although the build quality of that pervious version leaves a lot to be desired (all plastic including lens mount and the focus drive is clunky, noisy and a bit hit and miss). This new STM version though, is nothing short of superb value for money!! Using the centre-only focus point on my Canon 77D, I was able to capture beautifully sharp images, time and time again. The focus is smooth, quiet and most important accurate and although not quite as rapid as the USM focus mechanism, still more than adequate and impressive for a lens of this budget. The bokeh on this new version is also lovely and circular, thanks to an additional 2 aperture blades compared to the previous version. It does suffer from a little CA and fringing in areas of high contrast (backlit detail near the edges of frame for example) but even my L glass exhibits this and with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 software (or the appropriate lens profile uploaded to the camera), this can be well controlled. I've seen good reviews of the cheaper, Chinese brands that compare with this lens and I'm sure they can produce good results. But for me, I prefer to stick to a brand I know and trust, and generally I've been happy with Canon lenses and did not want to diverge from the brand. I'm glad I didn't as this new version of an already great value lens ticks all the boxes, and for me, solves all the shortcomings of the previous MKII version. With the exception of focus speed, I also think the STM focus drive has almost all of the advantages of the USM mechanism, hence why I didn't consider the more-than-twice-the-price 1.4 50mm USM from Canon, which seems to get mixed reviews. The focus ring on this lens is fully electronic, which means there is absolutely no mechanical connection between the focus ring and the focus drive mechanism. Instead, the ring sends a proportional focus control signal to the camera body, which then in turn proportionally drives the auto focus gear in accordance with the ring movement. This makes the focus ring beautifully smooth, seamless and continuous, and also means it can be complete disabled in the camera software (assuming your body supports turning off manual focus override) which means you cannot bump the focus whilst handling the lens during shooting. If like me, you want a lens to take beautiful portraits with, I can only sing this lens's praises. As the cheapest lens I own, it also now ranks as one of my favourites and it's very easy to forget how inexpensive this lens is, when you see the quality of images it can produce!

This is a very good lens for the price. It's a 50mm prime lens and you should note that on a crop sensor camera this would be around 80mm which basically means the view will be zoomed in. This isn't perfect for in door shots unless you are in a large room but that's just a note to make. The 1.8 F-stop is great for low light situations when compared to the starter lens kit which goes down to 3.5 (i believe) so this means you can shoot in doors or when it gets darker without resorting to a highier ISO shutter adjustments. I shoot video so I need to stick to some rules for my ideal shot when it comes to motion blur etc. The lens has a great focus ring because it's not right on the front like with the starter kit lens, it's set back a little and is a bit larger making it easier to pull focus. You get a nice circular bokeh effect with this lens when doing a depth of field shot. The downside of using this lens specifically when shooting film is the noise. It's not terribly loud but it is noticeable. If you are shooting outside with a lot of ambient noise from the traffic etc it might not be so bad but in doors it's not great. So imagine you are shooting two characters and you want to rack focus between them and the primary sound is the dialogue, well you can be sure you will have to do some ADR to correct that in post so have your actors on standby. Of course for a shot without changing focus it's really nice For still photography it's great I am comparing all these things to the starter lens because I would imagine most people considering to buy this lens would be looking for an upgrade to their starter lens and the variable starter lens can also reach a focal length of 50mm (18-55mm). I guess the noise is the only thing you can complain about and that only really counts if you are filming and you are adjusting the focus through the shot. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good: F/1.8 - Good bokeh and good amount of light let in Bad: Auto focus is loud and crazy and focus in general is a little noisy but manual focus isn't that bad unless you are shooting quiet video Good: Focus ring is a little thicker and it's not right at the front of the lens making it easier to pull focus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I always use manual focus but i tried the auto focus to test it out and it's horrible, it didn't work great and it makes a crazy noise when doing it. It's not a smooth transition, imagine starting a car engine but altering the noise frequencies. If you have a solid 'subject' in the scene like a person the sound from the lens is like a laser printer when using the auto focus. With the manual focus it's a nice smooth transition/sound so it doesn't sound like your camera is a bag of crap. I have really pointed out the noise but that's the only real negative and it's not that bad especially for taking stills, i just wanted to give you some idea of what to expect. The final thing that makes this lens awesome is if you fiddle with the focus ring moving it back and fourth really fast you can make it sound like BB-8 from star wars.

Slight update on the best value dslr lens in production. The metal mount,slight improvements to focus and smoother bokeh (due to the extra aperture blades) make this easily worth the money. Every dslr owner should buy this, it really is fantastic optically (especially from f4 onwards) and provides a glimpse of the kind of optical quality/low light performance that you get from the more expensive primes. I owned the mkii version of this lens and used it on both crop frame (450d) and full frame (5d, 5d mkii) bodies and it lasted more than 6 years before my son dropped it and it fell apart. This STM version seems to be better built (although still made from relatively cheap plastic) and is pretty much the same optically except for the smooth improvement in bokeh. Definitely not worth upgrading if you already own the previous iteration, especially as the STM focus is definitely not silent and is still sluggish. It's also worth noting that the minimum focus distance has also been improved, not that you'd be using this for macro work!! It is a wonderful entry into the world of primes. 50mm is a standard focal length on full frame bodies so a great walk around lens (especially as it's so light). Slightly less versatile on a crop frame camera but excellent for portraits. Great to see Canon doing something right! Despite falling behind in terms of camera tech they're still bringing out fantastic glass at all price ranges!! If you've never owned a prime lens before then order this now and annoy your friends with wide aperture shots of your pets/kids tomorrow!! (I've been doing it for years). You could also snap up one of the older mkii versions cheap as camera retailers clear their stock!!

Good nifty-fifty. Can’t really fault it - best images for the price…

The problem with using terms like "amazing image quality" and "fast focus" is that these will depend somewhat on what comparison you're basing it off. The image quality is amazing, and if you want better image quality you can have it, kind of, but it wont be amazingly different even if you're spending 10/15x the price. The images coming from this relatively cheap lens are some of the nicest I've taken, and it's a big step up from some lenses costing much more. The aperture is f1.8 which is fine for 99.9% of everything, plus or minus 0.1%. Going for 1.2 or 1.4 is probably not worth the quadrupling or decupling (i'm sure that's the word) what you spend for 1 or 2 more notches you probably wont use unless you're a specialized specialist doing very special things occasionally. If you're coming from zoom lenses of f3.5 or f4 then you'll gain a nice chunk of space to play with which opens up a whole range of image types you didn't have as much access to before! There are 7 apeture blades, which is perhaps fewer than some much more pricey lenses, but the bokeh (out of focus highlights) looks nice, and shooting at f1.8 the bokeh is 100% spherical. The autofocus is fast, though like basically every lens on the planet may struggle a bit in low light. It's not noisy but it's louder than other more recent STM motors. It's perhaps not the best lens for using during movie shooting for when you have to use onboard sound recording. Though it does have one strange side benefit of making cats sometimes look at you, which makes for nice portraits. The body is light and sturdy. It's of a nice length so the focus ring is comfortable to use. Though being at the end means that using a lens hood is useful to stop your fingers wandering into the frame. It's small enough to shrink the size of your camera to a rather more manageable size than with the typical lens that comes with a body. Which means that it makes the camera kind of easier to take out with you. The focus motor is the "floating" type and extends and retracts the front, though it doesn't rotate. This means that you can put really heavy stuff on the end, but is fine for filters and typical things. The mounting flange is metal, and the red dot is easy to line up, and erm, there's not much to say about this. One thing that people don't speak much about is how nice a macro lens this makes. Buy a set of macro tubes, such as these Andoer Viltrox DG-G Auto Focus AF TTL Extension Tube Ring 12mm 20mm 36mm Set Metal Mount with Covers for Canon EF EF-S 35mm Lens DSLR Camera and you'll have yourself a nice 1.58x macro lens. Of course this isn't a full on macro lens and your working distance is about 5cm from the end of the barrel, but it's cheap and gets come great results! I think I could go on for about about 90 pages about tiny things so i'll stop there. It's a nice lens, that is very cheap and very useful for everything like day to day photography, portraiture, (macro) and many more. It's probably one of the first lenses i'd recommend any newer camera person getting, because of the extra sharpness.

Great lens, sharp photos

Optically this lens is great, a marginal improvement on the EF 50mm 1.8 II (Nifty Fifty or Plastic Fantastic), nice bokeh at a budget price. In terms of build quality it's better still; featuring a plastic body with a nicer finish (subjective I suppose) and a metal mount as opposed to the plastic mount of it's predecessor, the sloppy feeling focus of the Nifty Fifty is totally absent. The focusing ring is far better and of more conventional design (see below though) but only works when the camera is powered up. Manual focus override is possible when in AF by half pressing the shutter button and then adjusting focus using the focus ring. For some reason the STM focusing motor isn't as unobtrusive as my other STM lenses (18-135mm and 10-18mm). If using the camera mic for video work [shudder...] then it's likely that the sound will feature in your audio. If the mic is off camera then you shouldn't have any problems. Maybe it's the fact that it makes a noise that give this impression but it does seem a touch slower to focus as well. Even with manual focusing the noise if still there as the motor seems to remain engaged, this doesn't happen at all with my other STM lenses. These noise issues, for me and my use of this lens, results in the loss of one star. The focusing ring is a vast improvement over the wonky hard to reach one on the nifty fifty though it is level, or as close as makes no difference, with the barrel of the lens. This makes using a ring for a follow focus, which is wider than the focus ring, foul the barrel. The solution that I use is to carefully place a rubber band around the focus ring. Our postman uses red rubber bands so, from a distance (if you squint), my new 50mm could be mistaken for an L lens ;-) I'm not convinced that the fly-by-wire STM focusing system works accurately with rack focusing, i.e. returning to the same focus point for a given position on the focus ring. I will do some tests and amend this review in due course. Both with manual focus and Magic Lantern's rack focus function. I have yet to fully decide if this will replace the nifty fifty as there are pros and cons to both. There is a snap-on focus ring for the nifty fifty that will engage with industry standard follow focus gears (search shapeways.com for 'Nifty Fifty'), this in a 3D printed part from the US. I have ordered one of these anyway despite buying the STM 50mm. The eventual looser will probably find it's way into my daughters camera bag. I would love the f1.2, or even f1.4, 50mm but can't justify the expense. Either this or the Nifty Fifty make a great alternative for the budget concious photographer and videographer so long as you can accept or adapt to their foibles.

There is no better lens in any system for this money. Even the new RF version is worse and has more chromatic aberration, does not sharpen up to outstanding levels like this one between F4 and F8. While the RF focuses slightly faster and closer I have actually sold it to use this one instead in my makeshift studio and for general photography. Photo was taken mounted on Canon 40D and R5 mk 1 too, this lens is a match for the high density high megapixel sensor too, especially when stopped down as mentioned above. And a "secret perk"? According to Lens Rentals sample variation testing this lens scored 9 point. The most for any lens out there meaning you are guaranteed to get a good example.

Bu urunu bi kac yerden aldım ve kutularından dolayı iade ettim, ancak bu satıcıdan aldığım urun canonun kendi kutusu ve bandroluyle geliyor. Oldukca iyi bir lens temiz, ve iyi paketlenmis olarak geldi.

Se hai appena acquistato una reflex Canon o se scatti da tempo ma hai usato solo l'obiettivo del kit (il classico 18-55mm), questo 50mm f/1.8 STM cambierà il tuo modo di vedere la fotografia. È probabilmente l'obiettivo con il miglior rapporto qualità-prezzo dell'intero catalogo Canon. Perché acquistarlo: Nitidezza sorprendente: Già a f/1.8 i risultati sono buoni, ma chiudendo leggermente il diaframma (verso f/2.8 o f/4) la nitidezza diventa tagliente, superando di gran lunga molti zoom costosi. Effetto Bokeh (Sfondo sfocato): Grazie all'apertura f/1.8, permette di isolare il soggetto con uno sfondo piacevolmente sfocato. È l'obiettivo perfetto per i ritratti. Motore STM: Rispetto alla vecchia versione (il "plastic canyon"), questo modello ha il motore passo-passo (STM), che rende la messa a fuoco molto più fluida e silenziosa, un grande vantaggio se si girano video. Compattezza: È minuscolo e leggerissimo. Rende la fotocamera molto meno ingombrante e meno "aggressiva" durante la street photography o gli eventi in famiglia. Costruzione migliorata: Finalmente l'innesto è in metallo, molto più resistente rispetto alla versione precedente in plastica. Considerazioni da fare: Lunghezza focale fissa: Non c'è lo zoom. Per inquadrare dovrai muoverti fisicamente tu (il che è un ottimo esercizio per imparare a comporre l'immagine). Mancanza di stabilizzazione: Non è stabilizzato (IS), ma data l'ampia apertura del diaframma, riuscirai comunque a scattare con poca luce senza troppi problemi. Verdetto finale: È l'obiettivo che ti fa innamorare della fotografia. Che tu sia un principiante che vuole imparare a gestire la profondità di campo o un esperto che cerca una lente leggera da tenere sempre in borsa, il 50mm STM è una garanzia.

L'objectif est magnifique vraiment les photo on cet effet cinéma je valide 100%

Prima lens voor portretfotografie! Zeer content mee.

A brilliant lens for anyone looking to up their photography game! Every photo you take with this lens between an aperture range of 1.8 to 3.2 will have the nice depth of field which makes the subject pop in any image. I had to do photography for my cousin's engagement and all I had in my arsenal were a Canon SL2/200D (crop sensor), 18-55mm Kit lens (28-80mm in crop sensor) and a 75-300mm telephoto lens (120-480mm in crop sensor). I knew very well that these lens and camera combination were not the best for a event photography. (trust me! I've tried! The results were not so great) and I was sceptical about renting lenses as I could not be as light headed as I usually am with my own lenses. So, I ordered the 50mm f/1.8 lens on 26th April, 2019 and got it on 27th April, a day before the engagement ceremony (Kudos to Amazon delivery). I tested the lens a day before the engagement and on the day of the engagement, 90% of the photoshoot was done with the 50mm prime lens with 18-55mm lens used only for wide angle group shots. The absence of image stabilisation is not an issue as the lens is light in weight. So, yes, the nifty fifty is a one size fits all kind of lens. However, my camera had a crop sensor (1.5~1.6X), which means the 50mm was actually giving me the field of view of an 80mm focal length. This meant that I had to physically move around a bit to get the framing right. If you have a full frame camera, 50mm would have the field of view of a 50mm. This field of view difference had me over thinking about whether to buy the 24mm f/2.8 (38mm in crop sensor) or the 50mm f/1.8. I finally pulled the plug on the 24mm, bought 50mm because of the 1.8 aperture and decided to compromise on the field of view. Also, the 50mm STM had 7 aperture blades which meant the bokeh would be nearly rounded. In the end, the pictures came out great and had that 'Professional Photographer Click' look to it, everyone loved it. This made the investment totally worth it. The only drawback with this lens would be the auto focus. While it is silent because of the STM motor, it is not the fastest. I did the entire day's photoshoot with Manual focus and the results were really good. So, I would suggest that you use this lens with manual focus only. So, in conclusion, if you are person who wants a relatively inexpensive lens with nice bokeh and depth of field, this lens is just hard to beat. (I will not be sharing photos from the engagement to protect the privacy of the people involved. But, I will share some unedited sample photos to give you an idea about the quality you get from the 50mm prime lens.)