Why is the Nifty Fifty so cheap?

It's cheap because R&D has long been recouped and it's inexpensive to make. It's basically free money to Canon.

cdifoto wrote in post #15113985
It's cheap because R&D has long been recouped and it's inexpensive to make. It's basically free money to Canon.

...and add to that the fact the lens is made from .25 cents worth of plastic. They're making a killing selling it for $115.

isn't 50mm supposed to be the easiest lens to make to begin with?

gonzogolf wrote in post #15113823
Drug dealers often give you the first hit of crack for free. Canon does a similar thing with prime lenses.

drumsfield wrote in post #15114004
...and add to that the fact the lens is made from .25 cents worth of plastic. They're making a killing selling it for $115.

Yeah...but it's the ONLY lens I've watched someone drop onto a concrete floor from between chest and waist high...explode like a repair manual parts diagram...get put back together on location...and continue to work like nothing happened.
And I've seen that same lens with the same concrete scuff marks on it...STILL working. AF, metering focus etc.!!! Pictures aren't bad either.
It wasn't me or mine.

Amazing.

-rang

The Dark Knight wrote in post #15113801
Still about $100 new street price.

I believe the next cheapest new prime from Canon is the 35mm f/2 , and that's $200 more.

And obviously the 50mm is a great bang for the buck. Is Canon willing to forego large profits on the 50mm to get people to buy it as a "gateway drug" into more expensive lenses down the line?

Just based on build quality, no serious photographer would look at it twice. It looks and feels like a toy. But it has more than respectable image quality and it does it at f/1.8! That more than makes up fro the cheap body and noisy and slow focusing motor. Its one of the best deals in photography. And no on loses any sleep if it gets lost or breaks.

Ummm...handle one. (Disclaimer...I LOVE the Nifty Fifty)..however...it's made of cheap plastic, it's the ONLY Canon lens to have a plastic mount for cryin' out loud, 5 bladed aperture, crappy AF motor, etc, etc...

BTW, the next cheapest lens isn't the 35 f2, the next cheapest lens is the 40 f2.8 Pancake...at around $200, the Pancake's build is light years ahead of the Nifty. The Nifty feels like a toy. The Pancake feels like a quality piece of equipment in a tiny package. The Pancake is quite possibly one of the sharpest lenses Canon makes...even wide open the thing blows my mind every time I use it...I think it's much more amazing that Canon sells the Pancake for $200 than that it sells the Nifty for $110.

LowriderS10 wrote in post #15114596
Ummm...handle one. (Disclaimer...I LOVE the Nifty Fifty)..however...it's made of cheap plastic, it's the ONLY Canon lens to have a plastic mount for cryin' out loud, 5 bladed aperture, crappy AF motor, etc, etc...

BTW, the next cheapest lens isn't the 35 f2, the next cheapest lens is the 40 f2.8 Pancake...at around $200, the Pancake's build is light years ahead of the Nifty. The Nifty feels like a toy. The Pancake feels like a quality piece of equipment in a tiny package. The Pancake is quite possibly one of the sharpest lenses Canon makes...even wide open the thing blows my mind every time I use it...I think it's much more amazing that Canon sells the Pancake for $200 than that it sells the Nifty for $110.

Oh yea, forgot about the 40mm

LowriderS10 wrote in post #15114596
it's the ONLY Canon lens to have a plastic mount for cryin' out loud

No it's not.
So does the 18-55, and I'm pretty sure there are others as well.....

(Edit) 55-250 is another one.

The Dark Knight wrote in post #15113801
Still about $100 new street price.

I believe the next cheapest new prime from Canon is the 35mm f/2 , and that's $200 more.

And obviously the 50mm is a great bang for the buck. Is Canon willing to forego large profits on the 50mm to get people to buy it as a "gateway drug" into more expensive lenses down the line?

No it's not. I can get a pancake 40mm for $190

And you can use it as an impromptu macro lens!

drumsfield wrote in post #15113972
It is basically a disposable lens. I once dropped on off a desk and it shattered into pieces. Fisher Price could've made a better quality lens.

Drop the 85/1.2 at tell me what happens!

I really chuckle at how many people say the 50 breaks when they drop it. I also take down their names so if I go to buy something later in the "Sell" section I know who to avoid.

If the AF wasn't so flakey on moving things, I'd use mine.

Remember those little spy cameras they sold on the back of comic books? Well, the thrift 50 was the lens that came with them.

The nifty 50 is not that cheap and is a darn fine lens.

unistudent1962 wrote in post #15114634
No it's not.
So does the 18-55, and I'm pretty sure there are others as well.....

(Edit) 55-250 is another one.

Ahhh...forgot about those two...it's been literally years since I've held an 18-55 haha.