Why Canon 50mm f1 8? Just why?

The Canon 50mm f1.8 is my first prime lens and I have been using this nifty fifty for about 3 years now. But there’s a reason why most people are still considering after 6 years. And here’s why…

If you decide to purchase one of these, it should come in a package like this. Opening up the box, we are greeted with the usual manual, which you should definitely read, and the lens itself, held up pretty well in the box. Unlike other brands, say the Yongnuo, with will just be in the box with little protection, Canon’s version ensures this lens arrives safely.

For the design, this is a pretty solid look and feel for a lens. It is lightweight at 160g. ND and polarizer filter users should get the 49 diameter in length for this lens. The rare size shows the metal mount, which constitutes most of the weight of the lens.

We are also looking at 7 aperture blades which open up to the widest aperture of f1.8, if you don’t already get it in the name. and closes up to a minimum aperture of f22.

The Stepping motor (STM) delivers a near silent, continuous move Servo AF for movies and smooth AF for stills. And this focal length is perfect if you want an 80mm effective focal length on APS C cameras, 50mm on full frame cameras. A closest focusing distance of 0.35m/1.1ft.

On the sides are the auto and manual focusing slider and the EF mount indicator, shown with the red circle here. If for some reason, you would want to take it apart, you’ll need to remove these 4 screws here.

The lens is quite small and handy, making it super easy to carry along.

For photos, this lens is phenomenal in delivery early exact colours and picture quality in any situation. I have been using the canon 600d/t3i camera for a while now and per with this lens, I have taken about 95% of all the photos on my Instagram account. With a while aperture of f1.8, photos are reasonably sharp at max aperture, yet you do get some few vignettes at the edges of the frame, especially if you’re on a crop sensor camera. Of course, this can be easily corrected in Photoshop, Lightroom or whatever popular photo editing software, you’re using.

And for videos, here’s how it looks at some common apertures. And here’s how the lens sounds when focusing.



It costs anywhere between GHC 650 ($125) to GHc 850 ($170), depending on who you buy it from here, in Ghana. And for the price, it will most likely be the first prime lens for most people.