LensTip.com

Cons: Autofocus. Build quality. Bokeh, Focus ring is useless.

Pros: Cheap. Sharp when stopped down. Small and lightweight.

Summary: In spite of being cheap, I consider it quite overrated. The new STM version is a better choice for anyone in the long term.

Cons: Tacky build quality, plastic mount, noisy AF, often misses focus, has to be handled carefully as a hard knock would break something or knock elements out of alignment. Everyone raves about the image quality, but it is not that impressive for a prime lens. My 24-70 f/4L IS USM zoom lens outperforms it in every way (except possibly quality of bokeh) at 50mm and f/4

Pros: Sharp, contrasty, good resolution, wide maximum aperture, small, light, takes 52mm filters. Very cheap, especially second-hand. Best "bang for buck" you can get.

Summary: It has its uses. Some examples: you are on a very tight budget; you are going somewhere where your gear might get stolen; you are mountaineering or Orienteering. But a 50mm prime is supposed to be beyond reproach. If you can save up and buy something better then you should. For quality of construction and for the tactile pleasure of using it this is by far the worst lens I have ever handled.

Cons: build quality, noisy AF motor, no usm

Pros: picture quality, f=1.8 forlow light, full format

Summary: very good value for 110€

Cons: Quality is CRAP! More plastic than a toy! AF is noisy. Manual Focus ring is too thin. No internal focusing.

Pros: Sharpness. Bokeh. Price. Weight

Summary: A great portrait lens. One that every beginner would do well with. If you have to own a prime, a 50mm would be the one. The quality is terrible though!!!

Cons: Poor build, poor bokeh, over the top colours, soft up to 2.8.. Very unreliable focus makes it almost unusable!

Pros: Can produce very sharp pics from F4 if you get focus, very cheap to buy and play about with short term

Summary: Bought 1.4usm cos got frustrated with unreliable focus.. 50mm 1.4 usm or 40mm 2.8stm are a better buy long term

Cons: Build quality is really cheap and looks and feels like that. Autofocus is loud. Optical quality not better than a good zoom. Vignetting is quite heavy if shot wide open on full frame.

Pros: Good aperture for a very low price. Compact and light.

Summary: If you need a fast lens and you don't want to pay a lot then this is for sure an economical choice.

Cons: Noisy AF. Manual focus ring difficult to use. Cheap plastic construction. 5 aperture blade diaphragm makes bokeh into pentagons.

Pros: Very good image quality. Quick but noisy AF. Easy to fix when broken.

Summary: If you can deal with the cons of this lens, you will be happy with the image quality.

Cons: Entirely made of plastics. The manual focus gear is impossibe to use. A bit soft wide open. The 5 blades aperture renders highlights as pentagons if stopped down (it may look cool in some situations :D)

Pros: Image quality of this lens is on par with much more complex and expensive lenses. Very light and compact.

Summary: Very good image quality at a bargain price. You just can't skip this.

Cons: Worst in this lens is bokeh, it is simply awful. Not with all backgrounds but it can really spoil your pictures. Of course if you just need a fast prime and don't value artistic aspects very much this could be a lens for you. Manual focus is almost unusable. You have to switch af off and focus ring is a bad joke.

Pros: Good optics at low price.

Summary: I got mine free with the body I bought used and got very soon rid of it. I would spare money for a while and buy 50/1.4

Cons: Built quality...low plastic lens.

Pros: Great and sharp lens , on APS-C is very good for portrait. From f2.8 it is very sharp lens , on f1.8 is soft corners like other prime 50mm lenses... Best sharpnes is from f4 to f8

Summary: Very good lens for value.

Cons: Quite a bad build quality, plastic mount, not a solid lens

Pros: Very nice image quality, very sharp images, good amount of light and a shallow depth of field if needed - and all of it for a low price.

Summary: Very nice lens for both portraits (especially on an APS-C camera) and product photography (when stopped down). I'm very sad they didn't keep the build quality of the late 50mm 1.8 FD lenses, which were optically similar or identical but felt much better.

Cons: build quality is just a bad joke; manual AF is almost unusable; bokeh can be very nervous and ugly; contrast and sharpness wide open is not impressive; AF is loud and inaccurate

Pros: low price; very sharp from f/2.8 on; weights nothing

Summary: Good lens for trying out fast primes, but the build quality and AF-system is so 1980s ... if you can afford it, go directly to the 50 1.4.

Cons: Won't take much abuse, slightly soft wide open (though still usable). Bokeh can be harsh on certain backgrounds. Autofocus is weak in lowlight on my 550D. Manual focus ring is useless.

Pros: Crisp at f/2.2 and very sharp from f/2.8 onward. Absolutely no lateral CA and distortion is minimal. Autofocus is effective on a 5D, or when using an AF assist lamp

Summary: Makes a perfect second lens, especially for someone interested in portraits. It's a perfect social lens, sharp but the small size and full plastic build makes it non-intimidating. Canon's 50mm 1.4 only really has the full time manual focus, better build and better bokeh at more than twice the price. The 50mm f/1.8 is exceptional value.

Cons: Weak, without lens hood, soft construction to f1.8 at edges.

Pros: Sharp from f/2.8, focus fast and quite accurate.

Summary: Good lens for APS-C (equivalent to 85 mm EOS 50D) portrait

Cons: poor manual focus ring causing pinpoint focusing very difficult, loud autofocus, persistant front focusing(very annoying), hi degree of missfocusing in lowlight.

Pros: very good optical quality for this price, upto f1.8, almost no CA,.

Summary: only buy this lens if IQ is your prime importance & you tight on your budget.

Cons: All plastick

Pros: Sharpe, colors, good for night (low light) esepcialy if your camera cant go more than 1600 ISO

Summary: Feels like toy, is light and fast on focus i can say. For the money is fantastic.

Cons: indecent build quality, inaccurate autofocus, image quality at f/1.8, unusable manual focus ring

Pros: Excellent image quality from f/2.8.Lightweight.

Summary: Good if you have a low budget, otherwise save your money for a better prime

Cons: Trop plastique à mon gout (too plastic) AF lent et bruyant (AF slow and noisy)

Pros: Très léger (very light) Petit (Small) Images superbes (Beautifull pictures)

Summary: Un super 50mm, une super image, léger, il peut s'emporter partout, et pour les portraits, c'est impeccable ! A good 50mm, good picture, light, you can take it anywhere, and for the faces picture, it's perfect !

Cons: slow focus

Pros: light weight, low cost, good optics

Summary: It is funny that many people expect lens to withstand falling to concrete ground. Which other lens you want to drop? Anyway, I found that it is extremely convenient to use it on T2i. I can put it in my coat pocket without carrying a bag. I just wish to have another one good value lens at 24 or 35mm

Cons: Plasticky build, noisy slow and imprecise autofocus, awful manual focus ring, a bit unsharp at the widest aperture.

Pros: Extremely cheap, extremely small and lightweight, very wide aperture, very sharp from f/2.8 on, very versatile focal lenght, cheap filter size.

Summary: A piece of equipment you can't miss! For a ridiculous price you get a 50mm lens which already at f/2.8 gives you very sharp pictures. At f/1.8 the sharpness is not amazing, but still acceptable. It's so small and lightweight you can easily carry it around in your pocket. A perfect travel lens to be paired with a multipurpose zoom for low-light situations. Focal lenght, although fixed, is a very useful and versatile one. Build is very cheap, but in my opinion it feels better than the typical 18-55 kit lenses. Pay attention to the focus, sometimes it engages the wrong target, especially when you use valutative exposure meter.

Cons: Toy plastics and construction. Noisy and imprecise AF. Unusable manual focus ring.

Pros: Better IQ than 50 1.4! Amazing at this price.

Summary: Best 50mm for little money. Unfortunatly, the build quality is a joke.

Cons: plastic

Pros: everything else

Summary: excellent chooice for amateurs!

Cons: Lousy auto focus. Flares.

Pros: Very sharp - produces great pictures, especially stepped down 2-3 stops. Very light. Low price.

Summary: It's my low light lens - almost never used with daylight, when it has flare issues. A wonderful lens for low light work. When possible, recommend to stop down to 2.2 or further - get's sharper. Beautiful shallow depth of field. On the other hand, if you need large depth of field - this one is not for you. 50 mm on 1.6 crop sensor gives 80 mm - perfect portrait lens. However, I seldom use auto focus - loud slow and lousy, mostly use manual focus.

Cons: Build Quality - its all plastic! Focussing Ring is annoying, especially for video work.

Pros: Price - a bargain ANYWHERE Optical Quality - this is easily the best optical quality you will get for $100 - most other lenses of similar quality cost around $400-500! F-stop - again, amazing for the price you pay, creates great background blur which is brilliant for video work or portrait photography.

Summary: While I own the 18-55mm kit lens, which is a lot more practical (especially the 18mm wide side) I never use it, because it just looks rubbish compared to this lens. Low light video is also dazzling on the 550D, with the bokeh just looking brilliant. While you can buy better 50mm primes, they would set you back at least 4 to 5 times more. A great lens for a great price :D

Cons: - Poor Autofocus precision - Plastic casing

Pros: - Cheap price - satisfactory resolution and bokeh

Summary: For $85, it's amazing lens

Cons: Build quality... Manual focus is difficult..

Pros: Price, Sharpness, 1.8!, awesome low light capability, blurry bg. ok bokeh...

Summary: A must buy! A great portrait lens... Recommend 200%!

Cons: Plastic mount, manual focus hard with tiny ring

Pros: A gem of a lens in nearly all respects: great for low light wide-open, sharp, distortion free, decnt bokeh, light and perfect for portraits on 1:6 DSLRs.

Summary: Fabulous bargain, not worth the extra money for the 1.4

Cons: Completely made of plastic; significant frontfocus on my sample (3-4 cm); AF pulsing; very thin fous ring (hard to use even with small fingers)

Pros: Very nice in lowlight (1.8); sharp if focussed manually; small & light

Summary: Good value, fun to use, but who wants to use this focal length more often should consider other lens

Cons: build quality is not the best .. + AF strikes sometimes ..

Pros: f1.8 - great sharpness (in combination with a EOS 450D great for portraits)

Summary: Amazing lens for the price of ~ 100€. Even if the build qualitiy is a bit too cheap for me I would buy it again and again , because if you are an amateur you can not afford at an L lens ;)

Cons: - The build quality is notorious. It cost my copy of this lens its life (and by that point it accumulated LOTS of dust beneath the front element, despite sporadic use). - 5 aperture blades produce "USSR quality mark" bokeh at wide apertures. - MF ring very poor, just a little better than that of a 18-55 kit zoom.

Pros: - Sharp when stopped down a bit. - Decent even wide open (on an APS-C body mind you). - Very compact and lightweight.

Summary: My lens was killed when it fell out of a backpack just 0.5 m above ground - a fall that both Tokina 12-24 and Sigma 15-30 have survived and continued to provide sharp pictures. But in the (exact) year that I had it, it helped me in low light situations a lot, or whenever I felt like bridging the focal length gap between my 17-35 and 70-200 lenses. It's the first choice for any Canon shooter on budget.

Cons: Build quality - plastic all around, except for lens of course. Narrow and not at all precise manual focusing ring.

Pros: Optical quality is superb. For lens that cost $100 you can't really ask for more.

Summary: Very good lens for it's price, just don't expect it to survive a fall on concrete from height over 1 inch ;)