I've just bought this lens to replace my 50mm f1.8 lens which fell apart after 6 years use. I was attracted by others' reviews and the compact design, fast aperture of 2.8 and the fact it's an EF lens so when I eventually upgrade to a full frame Canon, it will still be useful. I've been using it for best part of a week so far and I'm very pleased with it. It's great in low light, ultra compact and great build quality for the money. I paid £150 with p&p, and it's already come down 20 quid in price, but it's worth the extra 20 quid and more.
The lens has more detail throughout the frame than my old 50mm f1.8 II Canon lens and I am now feel i should have gone straight to this lens in the first place. It gives me 64mm focal length on my 1.6 x cropped sensor of the 60D I use, which to be fair is perfect for group shots and portraits. I'm slightly more in the face of portrait subjects than with the 50mm, but the lens has a much smaller profile being a pancake design, so it hasn't yet seemed to intimidate any of my subjects. The focusing is quick and near silent. I've used the manual focus ring on the lens which is oddly, but cleverly electronic, so there is a fraction of a second delay, but it's still quicker than auto focus (depending on you of course and how quickly your eyes focus on the viewfinder). The build quality is excellent and it has a nice weighty feel in the hand, but feels perfectly balanced on the camera. Shots are sharp throughout the frame at all apertures that i have found, whereas the 50mm 1.8 could soften a little round the edges at f1.8 (but was ok from around f3.2 and above).
I can see me using this lens for most shots now other than wide angle shots. It's not often i use zoom functions on my longer lenses, so this could be my 'walk around lens'. Each to their own i know, but i love it. The 50mm lens was a great lens, but unfortunately, the ease at which it appears to have broken (haven't a clue how it happened, because I didn't drop it or knock it) has put me off buying another. If I ever do go for another 50mm it will probably be the £1200 L series f1.2 when i eventually upgrade to a 5d III.....one day. Right now, that's far too expensive for me to justify as I'm not a pro (not yet anyway ;-)) Right now, this lens fulfils 90% of shooting requirements from a focal length point of view. Clever Canon.
It's made in Malaysia, not Japan, which was my only slight apprehension when buying this lens, but I'm very pleased so far and the build quality is great as i said.
If you don't quite want to stretch to £300ish for the f1.4 50mm and are, like me, now non-confident in the 50mm 1.8 II, this 40mm f2.8 EF is a great, economically in between alternative and i highly recommend it. By the way, I ordered it on a week day in the morning and had it by tea time the next day direct from Amazon.
| Package Dimensions L x W x H | 11.1 x 11 x 10.7 centimetres |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 0.28 Kilograms |
| Product Dimensions L x W x H | 6.9 x 3.9 x 3.9 centimetres |
| Item Weight | 160 Grams |
| Brand | Canon |
| Camera Lens | 50 mm |
| Colour | Black |
| Country of Origin | Malaysia |
| Has image stabilisation | No |
| Included components | Canon EF 50mm 1.8 STM Lens, Lens cap E-49, Lens dust cap E, Instruction Manual, Warranty Card, EAC Leaflet |
| Lens Fixed Focal Length | 50 Angstrom |
| Max Focal Length | 50 Millimetres |
| Min Focal Length | 50 Millimetres |
| Model year | 2015 |
| Plug profile | Canon EF / EF-S |
| Objective Lens Diameter | 10 Millimetres |
| Part number | 0570C005AA |
| Size | 50 mm |
| Lens Design | Prime |
| Maximum Aperture Range | f 1.8 |
| Focus type | AF/MF |
| Style | black |
| Photo Filter Thread Size | 49 Millimetres |
| Guaranteed software updates until | unknown |
