Best 50mm f1.7 f1.8 for my rebel xt (350D)

I would like to purchase a standard 50mm lens, as fast as possible, like f1.7 or 1.8...Something not very expensive but very sharp and something I can use for detail...

I have a carl zeiss planar 50mm f1.7 on my Contax and I love that one a lot for example, I have even heard that its sometimes used as a reference 50mm for testing!..

I want something near that quality...

Any comments higly appreciated..

Best,
emre

Well in the 50mm's, canon has 3 lenses. There's an f1.8, f1.4 and an L-series F1.2. I have the 1.8 version and am pretty pleased by it, although you need to stop down a lot to get it quite sharp.

I would look at the 50mm f1.4.


Is your Contax a 35mm camera? And what camera do you have now?

yes the contax is 35mm film. Thanks for the input by the way. I have been reading some reviews about the ef 1.8 mk2 50mm and apart from the build quality everybody seems to be happy about the quality. I am not expecting an L quality of course, but I am guessing contrast, sharpness (and of course speed) must be way better than a 50mm setting on the kit zoom that comes with a digital!..Do you agree?

Indeed, as it's a prime lens. When stopped down to whatever the kit lens is at 50mm, the prime should always win.

If you have a 'crop camera', any of the XXXD or XXD cameras (eg.350D, 30D) then the 'effective focal length' is 1.6 times the focal length of the lens. This means that when I put my 50mm onto my XT, I have the same angle of view as I would with an 80mm lens on a 35mm camera.

Since you have the 350D, do you want a lens with the same angle of view as your 50mm on the Contax? If you do, then you need to be looking at lenses with the focal length of around 30mm (as 30.1.6 = ~50).


EDIT: Whoops, didn't see '350D' in title. Some stuff removed.

I actually prefer to have a 80mm instead of 50mm with f1.8, my main aim here is to have a fast and sharp lens that can work in low light condition...Being a student of course I need to find something bargain as well of course...As far as I know normal 50mm is the cheapset type of lens, and easiest for the manufacturer to make it very "fast" due to fewer # of optics, so I thought, thats the easiest and cheapest path to a fast, sharp, contrasty lens...

but the question is, which one

the best?

canon only has 1 50mm f/1.8, or 2 - if you consider the mark I and mark II as separate lenses. optically the same, but the mark I is better-built than the mark II. the mark I is discontinued and you can expect to pay a premium over the mark II.

and since on your 350D, it translates to a 80mm f/1.8, then you seem to have found yourself a happy solution!

Why not get a M42 adapter, and use your Zeiss on the canon?

Never used an adapter, any degradation of any kind?

..how about sigma etc? do they make any 50mm for canon? I couldn't find anything on google..

emre2006 wrote in post #3427297
Never used an adapter, any degradation of any kind?

no glass in it, its just a spacer, so no just gotta pick a good quality one. your zeiss glass will be better than most AF 50s.

I just got a Contax lens and picked up a focus-confirm adaptor for £30 - it's great - use your 50!!!

I will definetly give this a try..thanks everyone!

Just use an adapter. You will lose AF and if you have a cropped body, MF might be tough,,, But not impossible.. By the way, if you are using a cropped camera and wanting 50mm equivalent lens, you should probably look at something like Sigma 30m or Canon 35mm lenses...