Canon Lens EF 50mm 1:1.8

[bikefreak]

I have this lens on loan from my mom until I decide on another to purchase. What would be the ideal use for this lens. I will be using it on a 20D. SLR's are all new to me, so any help would be great.

Thanks in advance,

DW

[tim]

It's a good general purpose lens. It doesn't work very well for close up shots because the focus motor's kinda inaccurate, and close up depth of field is quite small. It's good in low light or when you want a narrow DOF (ie blurring out the background).

Because of the inaccurate focus motor, even after calibration, I sold mine and bought a 50mm F1.4 USM, which works much better.

[Belmondo]

With the 1.6X crop factor of the 20D, the 50mm lens will give you an effective focal length of 80mm. That's just slightly telephoto, but should still be a good all-around use. It will be good for portraits and landscapes where you don't need a wide field of view. It's probably the best all-around single focal length for the widest range of applications.

[Bill Ng]

Portrait lens .. without a doubt. F/1.8 allows for good use indoor or near a window and for awesomely shallow DOF effects. Focuses very quickly, has a close minimum focusing distance, and has good contrast.

Watch out for the shallow depth of field. At a foot or so from your subject and at f/1.8, your DOF is about half an inch, so any "sway" in your stance or from your subject between you focusing the shot and actually taking it will result in really soft photos.

Love my chifty (CHeap fIFTY).
http://www.pbase.com/bill_in_brooklyn/portraits
http://www.pbase.com/bill_in_brooklyn/katkatlauren

Bill in Brooklyn

[bikefreak]

Thanks for the replies from all of you, the answers were exactly what I was looking for.

DW

[willg]

i have had pretty accurate focus with mine, but i havent used it it low light that much..its pretty soft at 1.8 but for $60 if you aren't going with the 1.4 its worth it to have

[griff2]

I was going to give up on this lens, thinking it didn't have the colour rendition of my L's. However, I sneaked this lens, together with my 300D into a big music gig here in the uk (the combination looks like a big point and shoot - from a distance;) ) and was blown away at the colour rendition I got, particularly the stage lighting.

That said, as Bill Ng stated, I'd be very careful with your composition at the larger apertures: used close-up, ~1m (3 feet) and wide open, the lens has a depth of field of around 2 cm (~1 inch), so if the auto focus picks the wrong target, you'll end up with soft images.