Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8804 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Canon
• Dimensions: .2 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Fixed focal length lenses generally offer a wider maximum aperture than zoom lenses. From ultra-wide angle lenses ideal for indoor shooting to long telephoto lenses extensively used for wildlife, sports and news photography Canon has the fixed focal length lens to suit you.

This is the lightest EF lens of all at a mere 4.6 oz. (130g). Compact and high-performance, standard lens. Its Gaussian optics provide sharp delineation from near to far focusing distances. The color balance is excellent for a standard lens.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

a must have
This lens is definitly a must have.
It's a good opportunity to try out a fixed focal lens.
I've got a sigma 24-70 f2.8 but tend to use this lens more and more. First it gives a very good picture quality with very good rendition of the color. No distortion is visible.
This lens is also very light and make the camera far more easy to take everywhere. Finally,it's cheap ! You will be less scared to bring it in any conditions.
The best thing about a fixed lens, is teh new vision it gives you on photo. I was a big fan(like everybody I guess) of the zoom. But with this lens you have to frame by yourself by moving to the subject and being in the good position. It definitly improved my photos.
It's also very good if you add extension rings for macro shots.
I really recommend this lens to anybody wanting to improve the way they take photos.

Great first lens or complement to the kit lens
I bought this lens after reading positive reviews of it here and elsewhere and seeing sample shots. I'd just acquired a Canon EOS 400D with the 18-55mm EF-S kit lens, which is by no means a bad lens but I wanted something a bit sharper, with a wider range of depth-of-field, and to try working with a fixed-length lens.

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens did not disappoint. Optically, it's a little marvel: the images are clear and sharp, colour and contrast representation is excellent, and if there's any chromatic aberration with this lens, I certainly haven't noticed it. It's not a USM lens, so to manual focus you need to push the gear-switch on the side of the barrel. The manual focusing ring is right on business end and although ridged, tends to be a bit fiddly. However, wide-open, the depth-of-field is so shallow one really needs the autofocus, which is not silent but is as quick as it need be. In fact, I'm glad it's non-USM since this would only bump up the price; similarly with the construction, yes, it's made out of plastic but unless you're a routine and systematic lens abuser, how tough does it have to be?

All in all, given its optical quality, this little lens is fantastic value for money and a good buy for anyone who's just moved into the world of digital SLR.

A good alternative to the kit lens? No.
IF you're in the market for a Canon EOS SLR, you might be tempted to do what I did and get this lens instead of the 'kit' zoom lens.
I'm not saying you shouldn't, but there are some points to consider.
On a camera like the EOS 400D, this lens effectively becomes an 80mm lens. So without a tripod, you really need shutter speeds upwards of 1/100 to avoid camera shake.
Well that's fine, you think, because at f1.8 you can surely get the shutter speed up. Indeed you can, but the depth of field becomes razor thin. Not only that, but focus becomes very important. Slightly out and you've lost it, so you really can't afford to focus-lock and recompose at f1.8.
And... at f1.8, sharpness is only so so.
Still, this is a very cheap lens. And in the right conditions, it gives great results. It's very sharp indeed if you stop down even to f2.8 and seems to me to remain so through to f11 at least.
You might want to get this lens for great blurred backgrounds, and it does pretty well with this, for sure. The only snag is that any highlights (discs of coloured out of focus light, are a funny shape because of the diaphragm. At least they're smooth and flat.
The lens focuses as close as 45cm so photos of flowers are a posibility.
One thing I don't like is the MF/AF switch on the lens, which is too stiff. And the tiny focus ring right at the front of the lens is a bit hard to find and use.
But the lens is small, very light, very cheap, great for portraits and (like any lens) capable of very sharp results - in the right conditions.