Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras | light, sharp wonderful all around lens

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Canon EF 50mm f1.4...

	Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras Canon Canon average customer review:based on 160 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The CANON EF 50MM f/1.4 USM is a standard lens featuring superb quality and portability. Two high-refraction lens elements and new Gaussian optics eliminate astigmatism and suppress astigmatic difference. Crisp images with little flare are obtained even at the maximum aperture. Max. Diameter & Length - 73.8mm x 50.5mm

Perfect Lens

The lens is a light vacuum, it has a sturdy metal build, more aperture blades, is incredibly fast, very quiet, and smooth. The bokeh is like butter.

I recommend it over the cheaper f1.8 if you are serious about the details in your pictures. Tiny depth of field - with f1.4 I can focus on someones nose and their cheeks are out of focus. Worth every penny.

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light, sharp wonderful all around lens

I first bought the 50 f1.8 lens and it is a pretty decent one but then I tried a friend's 50 1.4 and sold my old one to buy this. It is a huge improvement over the 1.8 in that the AF is quick and accurate. I had problems with the AF on the other lens; it frequently hunted in low light. With the Canon 50 f1.4 you can take great photos in rooms with very little light; I have taken everything from pet photos to portraits of children and outdoor scenes with this wonderful lens. Because it is small, it's easy to have in the camera bag at all times. A real bargain in the Canon line-up. I also own the 3L, 135L, 24-105L, etc and use this one frequently. Buy it.

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The one prime you should have

Why get a prime (fixed-focus) lens? Because they usually beat variable-focus ('zoom') lenses in performance and image quality. And if there is one prime lens you should have, it should be a 50mm one. This is because the image you get is pretty much the same as the eye sees it, making taking pictures very intuitive. The images you can snap with these lenses are just great.

Yet, even with prime lenses there are huge differences even at the same focal length. Canon currently has three different lenses at this length: the f/1.8, f/1.4 (the one I'm reviewing here), and f/1.2L. They have vastly different prices, and the question is if the difference shows. The f1.8 lens is a very affordable (it costs less than a high-end circular pol filter), very good fixed-focus starter lens, and is already very sharp. So, is the f/1.4 at almost quadruple the price worth it?

This rather depends on what you intend to do with it. Generally, image quality of the f/1.4 is better than the f1.8, and the bokeh (background blur) is much, much better (although this seems a trivial point at first, try it at low light, and you'll easily see the difference). For me, however, the most important advantage it has over it's more affordable sibling is the much improved low-light capabilities, and the incredible sharpness this lens exhibits at f/1.6 (and even stunningly at f/1.8 and above). You'll wonder how you ever got by without it. For example, at f/2.8 it really puts to shame my (much more expensive) 17-55 f/2.8 lens (at 50 mm), which is renown for it's image quality.

As a lens, I enjoy its small size and light weight. It feels nice and much sturdier than the f/1.8. I don't know if the f/1.2 is worth the additional price, as I never felt it necessary to try it out -- there just may be a reason why this lens is one of the most favorite for professional photographers (which I am decidedly not - I am still an amateur). The capabilities of this lens lie past my current capabilities, and I happily await the time when I graduate to the L. Until then, this lens hits the sweep spot between starter and professional. There is no better prime lens, and if you have started with primes, make this your next one.

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Celestial Lens

The first time I used this lens was on a wedding shoot. I read some in-the-mouth advice somewhere that said every photographer needs a 50mm prime lens to be happy. So I thought to myself "I'm every photographer!" And plopped down the $300+ for this.

I was beginning to regret the decision until I used this puppy.

Pictures so crisp and clear and beautiful came out of my camera that day. Pictures that need no sharpening, no photoshopping, no curves adjustments or contrast adjustments. Just honest to goodness dead sexy clar pictures.

I was so happy with the pictures that I composed a poem about this lens on the spot! It goes:

Oh I think that I shall never see
a lens so ripe with clarity
Then the 50mm which sits abreast
Upon my camera's lovely chest.

I now don't mind 'walking around' more, or ditching a zoom lens. This lens is Empyrean.

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Fast lens!

Canon's 50mm f1.4 is a great lens for the price. I'd recommend stopping down to about f1.8 or 2.0 to gain sharpness, but that still allows for fast shutter speeds even in low light. It can be a little hard to focus at its widest apertures, but that is to be expected with any lens with such a shallow depth of field. There aren't many surprises with this lens. The simplicity of a prime lens is nice, and I tend to keep this on my camera for much of the photojournalistic work I do.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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