Reviews for Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens

f/1.8 - MPN: 2514A002BA

$130.60 - $148.63   Compare Prices
  • 5
  By member: jdepew - Apr 27, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Excellent Bang for the Buck! Prime lenses tend to be sharper by nature than zooms

Weakness: Lack of USM drive. Lightweight - I prefer my equiptment to feel more solid.

Purchased this lens for use on both a Digital Rebel (EOS 300D) and a Rebel 2000 35mm (EOS 300). With the 1.6x multiplication factor on the 300D this lens has a focal length of 80mm rather than 50. But, this is a tremendous prime lens - It's fast f/1.8 allows for fast shutter speeds or low light action. While it tends to be sharper at f/3 and up, you can't purchase many lenses even at f/3 let along f1.8 for $70.
If you bought the kit lens with your EOS body, this is the second lens you should pick up - if you can find it! Third, take a look at a 28-105 or 28-135 to get a little longer range, then work from there. The 50mm will really work with you to focus on the subject not the equipment.

Enjoy!

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  • 5
  By member: gobears - Dec 1, 2003

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Cheapest but best

Weakness: not durable

Great standard lens. It produces very clear images. very light and small. If you don't have large burget, I think it's perfect lens to start.

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  • 4
  By member: TGE - Aug 12, 2006

Best Value Lens

Strengths: Low price, great quality, light weight.

Weakness: Poor background blur, cheap construction, a bit noisy.

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is by far the best value lens available. For a cost of around $75 dollars, you get a lens that is fast and sharp. In fact, this lens is extraordinarily sharp at and beyond f/2.8.

Its weaknesses include a poor foreground-background blur, a cheap construction that includes a plastic lens mount, and a noisy focusing mechanism.

Overall, the quality of pictures that this lens is capable of producing is superb, especially for the price. This lens is so cheap that there is no excuse not to own it. In addition, the risk you take is all of $75 - a rather negligible amount compared to how much other good lenses will cost you.

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  • 5
  By member: digitalrebel - Nov 29, 2003

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: sharp, lightweight and inexpensive

Weakness: none

The Canon 50mm f1.8 lens II autofocus lens is one of the best values around. This inexpensive and lightweight standard lens can be used for available light photography and can capture wonderful candid shots. Although not a zoom but a fixed focal length lens, this issue is more than made up for its sharp images.

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  • 5
  By member: techdog - Sep 30, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Easily affordable cost; sharp photos in low light.

Weakness: occasionally has trouble focusing in very low light, but hasn't been a significant issue

At the recommendation of other users on a popular online digital photography site, I bought this lens to go along with my new Canon 300D Digital Rebel. I am not a professional photographer and this is my first SLR camera, but I was able to achieve some amazing results with the lens. I have taken mostly indoor shots of cats and the lens lets me shoot in low light without having to resort to the flash. It also gives some beautiful pictures with shallow depth of field.

For the price, you can't go wrong!

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  • 4
  By member: kungpaojake - Aug 20, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: cheap, fast

Weakness: cheap (in a construction sense), autofocus kinda noisy

this was my first lens purchase for my canon digital rebel. right now i only have the kit lens and this one and i'm often finding myself using this lens in situations where i don't need zoom or a wide angle. the autofocus is abit iffy...sometimes it takes abit to get a lock...and it's not exactly the quietest thing in the world...but if sound isn't an issue (or if you're like me and don't really like using autofocus anyway) then it's not a problem. as for the cheaper plastic construction, it really is not such a big factor if you are careful enough with your camera. it feels like it's pretty solid...but not to the point where i'd feel comfortable dropping it at any height (not that you would be dropping your lenses i hope)

my only caution is that while this is a normal lens for regular 35mm slr's, be careful since certain digital slr's have a zoom factor (i forget if it's 1.6x or something) so just keep that in mind.

for the price for such a wide aperture, it is pretty much a no brainer if you're just begining to dip into the slr field.

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  • 4
  By member: ppmd - May 31, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Price, light weight, 1.8 f-stop, low cost, good portrait lens, great first lens for the Canon 10D

Weakness: Glass, lack of lens hood, autofocus a bit loud

You really can't complain too much about the lens given the very affordable price. Made about 1000 pictures with it.

Auto focus is a bit loud, but fast. Not sharp at f1.8, but good at higher aperature. I am biased because I now own a 16-35mm L USM (> $1,200). You really get what you pay for.

For less than $80, the 50mm lens is very affordable. Should be the first lens you get if you only bought the camera body and want to start experimenting. Great portrait lens for the Canon 10D.

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  • 5
  By member: tcollect2000 - Oct 27, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Inexpensive, actually one of the most inexpensive Canon EF lens. Becomes 80mm/1.8 on 300D, good for portrait. Big aperture. Very Sharp and Very good opotical quality. Lightweight.

Weakness: Nothing much at this price. Difficult and slow focusing in dark.

This is the lens that every Canon EOS camera user should have.
DSLR makes it even sweeter. Considering its price, it is really difficult to justify purchasing 50mm/1.4U. Yes it is not USM, which makes it not suitable for some situation, but for most situation, it is well enough. And its image quality is better than a lot of lenses much more expensive than it.

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  • 4
  By member: kjaskot - Jun 29, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Price!, light weight, good low light lens

Weakness: not found yet

Great lens for the money. I use it with my Digital Rebel (300D) mostly indoor conditions. Nice clear pictures even without flash. I've bought my Digital Rebel as a kit with it's new Canon EF-S 18-55 lens but immediately realized that I need more bright lens. Canon EF 50mm with its f/1.8 is fast enough and gives you really neat pictures.

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  • 5
  By member: deletemail - Aug 4, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: 1. You can not get f1.8 on zoom lens 2. decent optical quality

Weakness: Plastic mount.Flimsy.

I bought this lens for my digital rebel. I regret that I did not buy it earlier. I can make picture I could not before.

Digital rebel has a 1.6X factor so this 50mm lens is equivalent to a 80 mm lens on digital rebel. It is a perfect lens for portrait. The f1.8 aperture can create a very short depth of view and make your subject stand out.

The f1.8 aperture coupled with digital rebel's ability to go up to ISO1600 means you can shoot most indoor pictures without flash.

The optical quality is great. I see very little disortions and the picture is sharp even when the aperture is wide open.

This is a simple lens built very cheaply. The mount is plastic and probably will not survive a fall mounted on a heavy body.

In short, a decent cheap lens.

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  • 5
  By member: qahwah - Jun 11, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Sharp, light, small, inexpensive comparing to other lens with similar quality.

Weakness: Not found yet.

This is a very good lens with low cost (under $80), a must-have for amateurs. It works perfectly fine with my Canon Digital Rebel. Buy one, you won't regret it.

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  • 5
  By member: kevinv033 - Oct 30, 2005

Great glass for CHEAP!!

Strengths: Lightweight. Price. Sharp images. Great bokeh.

Weakness: Build seems very delicate. Adaptor ring spins so don't think of using a polarize filter. A bit noisy.

This is such a great lens for the price!! I bought this at the same time as my 350D and I can tell you I use this more often than the kit lens. The picture quality form this lens is unbeatable for under $100.

All of my images have great color and are extremely sharp. I was amazed. The lens focuses fairly fast. The aperture opening up to f/1.8 is great for low-light indoor shooting—I think I am just regurgitating some of the previous reviews, sorry if I am.

The only thing that takes a few points off is the build quality. It feels extremely delicate. Most of the contruction is a cheap feeling plastic, including the lens mount. You get what you pay for.

This is a great lens for the price. I recommend this lens to anyone who owns a Canon EOS camera. You won't be sorry spending on this lens at all!

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  • 4
  By member: Leviathan_Ultima - Feb 14, 2007

Good for This Cheap Lens

Strengths: super sharp, super fast focus

Weakness: prime lens (Can't zoom), 50mm = 80mm on Rebel XT. No IS, plastic mount

Super sharp lens. I did comparisons on the quality of this lens vs my stock 18-55mm and this lens definitely is a lot better. I notice that my 18-55mm tends to darken the picture and the 50mm is brighter. This might be because of the filter that I was using. I used Hoya for my 50mm vs a cheap china filter for the 18-55mm. Never the lest, the 50mm is a lot sharper than my 18-55mm. I do see blurriness if I shot at slow ~1/30s shutter speed. This is probably because of my shaky hands. But with a tripod, this lens will rock!!! At this cheap price, it's worth spending for an extra lens.

I added pictures to compare.

http://ai.pricegrabber.com/uploaded_images/008000-008999/008208.jpg   http://ai.pricegrabber.com/uploaded_images/008000-008999/008209.jpg  

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  • 4
  By member: robideau - Jun 30, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Price, Size/weight, Canon Glass, Fast Lens

Weakness: None for the price

I bought the lens to go along with my 300D. The fast lens is great for indoor or low light conditions. It is also great as a general purpose lens or even for portraits. Have shot a few hundred images using it and am very pleased. Retailing at under $80, this is a great addition to any Canon lens collection. A solid product and excellent value. Rated as 4 only because auto-focus mechanism isn't Canon's best, as is expected at this price, but works perfectly well. No problems whatsoever.

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  • 4
  By member: prathipc - Jul 26, 2006

Cheap and Good

Strengths: Sharp Images, Cheaper & light weight.

Weakness: Tough to focus.

Good lens and good value for money. Good for Potraits. For nearby objects, Autofocus is not effective. The focus ring is tough to use for manual focus. Takes a while to get used to this lens.

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  • 5
  By member: aaronc - Oct 23, 2003

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Cheap, fast.

Weakness: None.

Great lens and it's cheap. It's sharp and fast. You can shoot in very low light with no flash. Good lens to shoot portraits with.

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  • 5
  By member: kidlove - Dec 3, 2003

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: low price, light weight but f1.8!!

Weakness: none

Standard angle of view helped me to find my favorit is wide or tele. I have very popular standard zoom lens, Tamron 28-75mm, f2.8. Its lowest price is about $320, but the satisfaction of the result is same as the lens of under hundred dollars. However, I'd like to recommend to set its aperture over f3.0 if you like sharpness.

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  • 4
  By member: Kailani - Feb 27, 2006

a must have

Strengths: lightweight, sharp, faster than zooms

Weakness: a little noisy

Bought this lens to use w/ my Digital Rebel XT. I'd been getting some soft images with the kits lens and thought I'd try another lens before blaming the camera & I'm glad I did. This lens takes beautifully sharp pictures, perfect for portraits, and the bokeh is very nice. It's great when you don't want a lot of weight, and takes up very little space in the camera bag.

I won't complain about no USM, or no metal mount - do people really expect that for $70? It's a small amount to spend for really nice results.

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  • 5
  By member: vpcola - Mar 24, 2005

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: price, light weight, razor sharp pictures

Weakness: none so far

This is the best lens I have purchased for my 300D! Nice great prime lens. If you shoot indoors or in low light, this is a great lens for you.

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  • 5
  By member: dorry0 - Jul 11, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Wide aperture, great optics

Weakness: Not the sturdiest, no macro

For the price, this lens is amazing. Every canon owner should own one. Great for portraiture (especially on digital SLR when 50 mm becomes 80 mm!), indoor photography, any other application of its very wide aperture. Focusing is fast and sharp as with the $300 canon lenses. I own two and pretty much use them more than most other lenses.

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  • 1
  By member: jeffreywriter - Aug 10, 2009

BuyDig Sent Dirty Lens

Strengths: Unknown yet, lens is being cleaned under warranty at Canon.

Weakness: Arrived with dust inside lens elements

Bought this lens from BuyDig.Com and it was supposed to be brand new. Arrived with a bright dust spot on one of the interior lens elements. Had to take it to Canon to have it repaired/cleaned under wa

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  • 5
  By member: woogie326 - Jul 19, 2006

Best Bang for the buck!

Strengths: Awesome portrait lens, good bokeh, extremely sharp images, very fast lens.

Weakness: sometimes, it has a fairly hard time focusing. When im trying to do silhouette shots with in the sun, it has a pretty horrible time trying to focus so i usually have to resort to manual focus.

This lens is a definite must have for every photographer. It's a one of my favorite portrait lenses. There is also the f1.4 version, but that's quite a bit more expensive. This, as the title suggests, is the best bang for the buck. I love the bokeh it produces and in my opinion, it's a pretty good focal length on a 1.6x crop (my Canon 30D).

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  • 4
  By member: ncomly - Jun 10, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: clarity, price, weight

Weakness: cheaply built

As many others have commented, this lens is great for the price you pay. Don't expect pro-quality build at this price level though. Canon took at great lens (earlier version) and made it flimsy but fortunately kept the optical quality.

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  • 4
  By member: mokkwang - Jun 4, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Cheap, Bright

Weakness: Too Light to balance the camera body, Too nannor of namual handle

It is quietly nice lense compare the price. I attached it to my digital rebel (300D) body. Especially in indoor picture, it provides the bright and sharp image. In the bundle lense (EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6), I used it in IS0 800-1600. After attaching F1.8, I could be used at ISO 100-200 without flash. After decreasing the ISO, noise of image decrease a lot. It also provides the manual focus but handle of manual focus is too narrow to adjust. But its autofocus works very well even though lack of USM. Actually I don’t have experience about F1.4 but it need to pay more than 3 times than F1.8. I like it vey much!

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  • 5
  By member: knightvato - Jan 28, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Clear, sharp picture. Lightweight and easy to use.

Weakness: Plastic casing.

This lens is the best affordable standard lens you can buy for the Canon EOS system. The glass is pure and the pictures are very sharp. I owned it for over a year before it was stolen and I love it so much I am buying the exact same lens today.

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  • 5
  By member: xufengl - Jan 9, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Inexpensive, light-weighted, fast, and sharp.

Weakness: Plastic mount.

Provides great value for the very low price, expecially for Cannon Digital Rebel, which gives the lens an equivilant 80mm focal length. Its F1.8 aperture is very useful for indoor, low-light photography, even though the DOF is so short that it is not always easy to get to the right focus(The AF system sometimes gives front focus or back focus). The 80mm focal lenght is just about right for portrait.

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  • 5
  By member: rfbohn - Dec 19, 2003

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: For the money, it provides a very fast, clear lens for work in low lighting.

Weakness: No zoom capability.

Pictures are surprisingly clear under low lighting. A must buy for those needing a low light lens. This is a must for taking portraits. While it doesn't have a zoom, it makes up for it with its sharpness and speed of the lens.

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  • 5
  By member: snagitseven - Dec 3, 2003

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Price! Excellent value; great sharpness; light weight; fast focus; good low light lens

Weakness: build quality (about what you would expect for the price)

This is a great lens for the money - for under $100 you've got to have it in your bag; great for indoor work without flash; exceptionally sharp for the price - even decent wide open; the plastic construction is a bit on the cheesy side but it works fine and probably will last as long as any other lens.

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  • 5
  By member: SpaceGhost79 - Aug 31, 2004

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard & Medium Telephoto...

Strengths: Shape, lightweight, price

Weakness: Build is a little cheap, but for the price I can't complain too much.

I've had this for a day, but it has been great. Read lots of great reviews about it, and for only $70 it's definitely one of the must-haves, especially if you're on a budget like me!

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  • 4
  By member: YESFILMS - Jan 14, 2004

CANON EF 50mm f/1.8 Fixed lens

Strengths: Affordable, light & sharp pictures.

Weakness: If you need to use a step-up ring, focusing becomes a major hassle.

If you're used to using a zoom lens with a...let's say...f/3.5, you'll notice what a great advantage is to be able to go up to f/1.8. However, it's not an "automatic" solution if you're in a very dark place. You better have a flash with you.

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  • 2
  By member: pronuncer - Dec 28, 2006

Good optical, poor mechanical

Strengths: Sharp image if on focus. Good boken wide open.

Weakness: Poor focusing mechanism. Usually off focus when large aperture.

I used this lens to shoot newspaper at 1.2m F1.8. 9 out of 10 times the image was out focus, unreadable characters. Manual focus is hard due to short rotating angle and not damped.

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  • 4
  By anonymous - Jul 28, 2008

Good lens for the price

Strengths: Good image quality, reasonable price

Weakness: none

Works great with my 30D, great inexpensive lens for portraits, set the ISO at 1600 and it gives great results in low light without a flash, for the price it's a great lens.

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  • 3.2
  productwiki.com - Mar 16, 2011

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is a low-cost standard lens for SLR and digital SLR cameras. This is not as fast as the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, and uses a linear extension system for focus adjustment driven by a Micromotor. This means that the autofocus is slower, and additional features are missing which might correct distortion at the edges. This is the lightest EF lens at 4.6 oz (130 g), and the...

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  • 4.0
  testseek.com - Nov 4, 2008

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

Testseek.com has collected 9 expert reviews for Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II and the average expert rating is 81 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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