Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

I really struggled with buying this lens for a long time. How could something this inexpensive be any better than the kit quality lenses I already own. Looking at all the sample images and comments finally pushed me over the edge and I am glad they did.

This little gem has been giving me clearer pictures than I have been able to achieve for the most part since getting my XSi camera early December 2009. I am even able to do some very nice quazi macro work until I get a real macro lens, and the bokeh is really beautiful. Taking portrait shots of people, well I just can't say enough good things about that.

This is going to keep me entertained until I can afford to buy more expensive glass, but hey, I live in California, and work for the state. Can you say 'furlough'?

Go for it!

I have hardly used this lens and abused it in no way. After 2 months it's no good to me because I can't get a sharp picture out of it. The AF is way off. If I manually focus I can come close, but no cigar. All my other lenses are awesome so I know its not the cameras fault.

You get what you pay for and you don't pay much for this lens, however, what you get for the price is surprising. If you can get past the cheap build quality you'll be pleased to find that this lens takes excellent quality photos. Shooting wide open (at f/1.8) gives you a wonderful blurred background and it's easy to achieve your depth of field goals with this little beauty. That said, I do find the auto focus to be a bit temperamental at times and do sometimes miss a shot having to refocus the lens. This wouldn't have been enough to deter me from the purchase though. For just under a hundred bucks it really is worth any little quirks and it lets you try out the feel of a prime lens without having to fork out the nearly five hundred dollars for the 50mm 1.4.

Overall, very pleased and I think this lens is a steal.

For the price of this lens you can't go wrong. Picture quality is great. Its made of plastic but shouldn't but too much of a big deal for most people I'm sure. This is apurchase I won't regret.

I got this lens because it's [...] bucks. I have been pleasantly surprised. It is sharp, fast, and you can do great things with the DOF (depth of field). You need to stop up to F/2.8 - F/8 . . maybe even F/16 to get the best results. Some of my best shots have come with this lens. Everybody should have one unless you can afford the 1.4 which is 4-5X as much and not really worth it IMO. The manual focus is horrible but works fine. The lens feels like a toy, but again, it works fine. In fact, better than fine. It works great. You can also keep it if you upgrade to a full frame some day. Get the damn lens. It rules and it's one of the most inexpensive lenses out there.