50mm lens tips?

I've put the 50mm 1.8 lens on my wishlist for Christmas to my parents and they've been looking at it a lot, and talking about Christmas shopping etc (all I can hear is mumbling from downstairs, lol). Anyways, What kind of setting do I need to put my camera on once I get the lens? Anyone else have this lens and any tips for that? Right now I have a 18-55 lens but I heard that a 50mm lens is a good fixed lens to start out with, so I'm going with that. Thanks..

A 50 mm lens on an APS-C body like yours is mostly useful for portrait (80 mm equivalent).
The settings are not dependant on the lens you use, but on what you shoot and where.
The biggest change between your zoom and this prime is the large aperture. It will allow you to shoot in low light without having to resort to a flash, and it gives you more control over depth of field.

Av mode would be a good place to start. Practice playing with the shallow depth of field and let the camera worry about the shutter speed.

Even a f/1.8 lens can struggle indoors - it's darker than you think! Try AV mode and set your aperture to around f/2.2, ISO to 800 and see what sort of shutter speed you're getting. If it's 1/80 or faster then you're good to go.

Settings will vary according to your environment but as others have suggested, try AV mode to start with that way you can try a variety of different apertures easily. Once you see the difference you'll start to understand what effect you are trying to achieve and will know what aperture to use.

thanks!

When I bought my 50D I got it with the 50mm. It was my only lens for the first year. Loved it. Still do Yes some subjects will be tight. But I found that being constrained to that focal length opened up my creativity, made me look at scenes differently. I guess "constrained" isn't the best choice of words. Anyway I have a 7D now and still use the 50 quite a bit. It's great for clubs and parties; low light and compact.