Why I buy this one ?
- 50mm standard lens with f/1.8 maximum aperture
- Traditional Gauss-type optical design is extremely sharp
- Focuses as close as 18 inches for extreme close-ups
- Ideal for natural-looking shots; excellent color balance
- Measures 2.7 inches in diameter; 1-year warranty

Adorama Camera offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $82.00 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

OneCall offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $84.95 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

17th Street Photo offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $84.95 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Amazon.com offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $84.99 Usually ships in 24 hours

J&R Music and Computer World offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $84.99 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Kellards offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $84.99 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

The Shutterbug offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $85.00 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

M Z Photo offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $89.95 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Beach Camera offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $89.99 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

ANTOnline offers this stuff with condition New, new for:

Price : $90.97 Usually ships in 1-2 business days

What our customer's say!

"Good but very limited.", This lens takes great pictures, but why spend $85 for such a limited lens. Save your money and buy one that has a 17-55 range.

"Great lens for the money", Instead of buying the Canon XSi as a kit, I purchased the body only and this lens. I had heard great things about it, and I have not been disappointed. Since its a 50mm lens, it doesnt work great in small spaces (since you will tend to be too close to your subject), but I havent found that to be much of an issue at all. This really is a great little lens for the money!

"Best buy for the money", I purchased this lens after seeing photos taken by a friend. I have not been dissappointed with the quality. You can't ask for better for the money.

"Best value for money ratio I've seen in a long time.", I purchased this lens along with my Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens (Black) a month or two ago, having completely outgrown the optics and capabilities of my Canon PowerShot A720IS 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom compact camera.

This lens has allowed me to take close pictures of friends at gatherings and parties (naturally indoors and at night, in dim light) without the use of flash, which I detest. They were talking, joking, laughing and generally doing everything except keeping still, and yet in most situations I was able to freeze the moment. Shooting in burst mode ensures that you'll have many similar facial expressions to choose from, either to flatter or mock your friends. :)

The large aperture of f/1.8 also provides for a very small depth of field: whereas the person's face is in focus, the background is extremely blurry. Most people, when seeing their pics taken with this lens, absolutely love the effect. I love it too.

In short, the value for money of this lens is very high. I recommend it 100%.

"Very good lens for portraits ", I bought the 50mm f/1.8 II Canon lens for shooting portraits with my 40D. I must say that I am very satisfied with it as the luminosity of the pictures is incredible, especially when there is few light available. You can use it inside or outside, even without any flash when it is not too dark. It's a great lens for the price paid!

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Great little lens for the price!", I bought this lens because of the price and because of the overall positive reviews. Sure, the construction is a little cheesy and the AF is pretty noisy, but it's a great little lens for portraits and the like for a beginning photographer on a budget. It's my first prime lens and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's sharp, fast, and very lightweight. It's also great in low-light.

To take sharper pictures, I usually have an aperture of about f/4 to f/8. Subjects tend to have a soft, creamy look if the aperture is wide open, which is good or bad depending on what you are going for and how you focus. I had trouble getting sharp shots because it was wide open, so I went to about f/4 for sharper shots following some advice from folks online. It really depends on what you're going for, however. I'm still playing with it and learning.

Since it's not USM, the AF is very noisy, but it doesn't bother me that much at all.

I definitely recommend this lens. The price is right and the shots it takes are amazing!

"Small, Sharp, Fast, and Light", I use this lens with my Rebel XSi, and it takes fantastic pictures. The first thing I noticed is the tiny size. Even compared to the small kit lens, this thing is minuscule, and I love it.

The aperture of this lens is only 1/2 stop slower than the 50mm 1.4 lens, but is 1/3 of the price. I have a feeling this is due to the plastic nature of the camera, but if you're not a pro using a 1-series camera I doubt you're throwing your gear around or being rough with it. I am not worried about the sturdiness, but if I find out otherwise I will update this review.

On the other hand this lens is over 1 full stop faster than the much more expensive f/2.8 zooms, and over 3 stops faster than the kit lens at 50mm. When you look through the viewfinder you will notice it's much brighter, and that's due to the maximum aperture.

I initially held off on getting this lens due to the crop sensor of the Rebel series. While the focal length is tight (80mm equivalent), especially indoors where the fast aperture is most useful, the quality of the pictures are worth it. Using this indoors forces me to take mostly portraits, but that's fine with me.

I was quite surprised at the quality of this lens. I initially wanted it just to play around with the fast aperture, but the sharpness of the photos it takes is really quite good. And of course playing around with the narrow depth of focus is fun also.

Recommendation:

While I love this lens, I wouldn't say buying it is a no-brainer. The focal length is fairly limiting on a crop body camera, and you may not find much use for it. And if you don't use it it's not a bargain, no matter how cheap it is. A better choice might be the 35mm f/2, which is twice the cost but has been reviewed well. It is close to a normal perspective after taking the crop into account.

If you do like the 50mm focal range though, but don't want to shell out for the 50mm f/1.4, this lens is a great choice. It is small and light, as well as sharp and fast.


"Great for Full Frame", Pros:
Price
Image Quality
Focal length for Full Frame
Compact and light.

Cons:
Vignetting wide open on a full frame.
Terrible bokeh for specular highlights (like small reflections, etc)
Plastic Construction
Noisy Focusing

Who should buy this lens? Anyone with a Canon EOS camera capable of using EF lenses that doesn't already have an equivalent lens. If you want the best bokeh, best image quality especially at the corners on full frame buy the new Sigma 50mm f/1.4.

The reason I give this 5 stars is the balance of all the pros and cons. For $85 US this is an unbeatable lens. Sure, it has a plastic mount, manual requires flipping a switch, and a noisier micro-motor, but the images sure are sharp, the contrast is fine, and the focus is accurate. The lens is compact and light which makes it a perfect travel lens for the 5D.

My only cons is the extreme corners are nearly black on full frame at f/1.8, and if you are stepped down at all, any reflections or small specular highlights are pentagon shaped and rather distracting. It seems to produce these easily too. The plastic construction is cheap, but seems durable enough to me. I haven't had any issue with mine. The focus motor sounds squeaky and unpleasant, even next to other micro motor lenses. Finally, the MF switch is small and hard to flip sometimes.

But everything said, if you want a great value for a low light prime, this is the one. For a general use lens it is better matched to a full frame camera than a crop camera, but it is still a great short telephoto for a crop camera.

"Steal of the century", There is simply no better lens for the money in cameradom. Yes its cheap, no its not the best build quality, but the results just speak for themselves. Great piece of glass, especially for the money. Excellent depth of field, sharp photos, I've gotten more than my fair share of "wows!" from friends and family based on the results with this lens.

Can't say enough good things about it. For somewhere just south of $100 you can't go wrong. Many Canon camera owners should have this lens at the ready in their bag of lens tricks!

"Excellent quality lens!", This was the first lens I purchased for my new Canon EOS 40D, which is a dream, by the way, and this lens just keeps producing amazing photos! While the focal length is somewhat limiting when you don't have room to back up, or maybe you'd prefer a wider lens for landscape photos (making my next purchase the 35mm f/2), this lens more than exceeded my expectations and is an exceptional value! It especially shines during indoors photo shoots, for example, the basketball games where I take photos for my school's yearbook, or during concerts (given you're close eenough to the stage), the maximum aperture of f/1.8 is very helpful at freezing action without cranking up the noise. All in all, this lens was more than worth what I paid for it!