29.9.2013

I must have watched over 10 YouTube videos on this lens, and read 20+ articles and reviews on websites before getting it.I'm not able to easily just buy lenses, as they cost ££££...The price seamed to good to be true, it's a real bargain, hence why I researched it thoroughly before buying it.My advice get it, it's sharper than most canon lenses, right into the corners. Even the 50mm 1.4 is not as sharp as this lens.UPDATE after a monthOk so first off when you buy this lens, one major thing to be aware of, it's quite commonly sold with an old version of the firmware.If the serial number on the lens is xx0, or xx1 even xx2 then you have the older firmware,e.g if the third digit on the serial number is less than 3 you need to update the firmware from the old 1.10. To the new 1.2.0The reason for this is there is a fault with the lens, where it gets sort of jammed and won't focus if pressure is applied to the front of the lens or the focus ring.This problem is completely resolved in firmware version 1.2.0, if your Lens serial number is xx3, e.g the 3rd digit is a 3 or higher, the lens is a newer version and already has the update.I ordered my lens from amazon in 2013 and was a little surprised it had an older serial number xx2, and needed this firmware update to be done by myself.Ok so to update the firmware, you need a camera with the ability to update "lens" firmware, which only the eos 650D, the 700D and the 5D mark iii can do.I got lucky and a friend has the 700D, I put the firmware file on an SD card (available from canon website) took my lens and SD around to his house and updated my lenses firmware In what took a few seconds At most,I was not able to do this on my older canon 60D, so was lucky he had a more recently released camera.Right now that's out of the way, and please don't let the firmware put you off, you could pop into a camera shop and ask them to do this for you too, sure most palaces would help you use a display. Model of the 5D mark iiii to do it,Otherwise you will have to send it to canon, but that feels a bit like overkill,Sooooo back to the actual lens, it's truly my favourite lens, I hardly use my zooms, my 50mm f1.8 or kit lens.... This little 40mm f2.8 is just so sharp from corner to corner and has such little distortion or chromatic aberration that it quite simply gives me the best photos out of my camera iv ever taken.I love the 40mm it's superb on a crop sensor 60D, it makes the camera so light weight and small, compared to any other lens, that I removed the strap and camera bag, and carry my DSLR in my coat pocket, like its a bridge camera, which means I have my camera with me more often, and thus can take more street photography and pics of the kids.The lens enables you to use your DSLR is a more subtle, small camera way, I feel less self conscious using my camera In busy public places with this lens, and the beauty is it's taking superbly sharp photographs, better than some bigger lenses.So in summary, it's small, it makes your camera (especially a non heavy crop 60D) super handy and portable in your pocket, it takes crazily sharp beautiful photos, and costs less than 99% of the lenses canon make, it should cost more as the build quality and image quality are as good as the more expensive 50mm F1.4, which it actually out performs when both lenses are set to F2.8, it's far sharper!! Than the 50mm especially in the corners where the 50mm goes a bit soft. Yes it's not as great I'm low low light as an F1.8 or F1.4, but it's blumin close, and does create nice broker,So it's really a win win lens, seriously stop reading this, go buy it and love how your camera suddenly becomes a pocket camera, (largish pockets) that's super sharp, and less attention grabbing.

13.1.2014

As soon as you take this lens out of its packaging, you can't help but fall in love with it. You shouldn't be fooled by the price either - this product ticks all the right boxes.- It has a metal ring mount, which is crucial for providing longevity to lens itself and in strengthening its connection to the camera. Sadly it's rare to find an 'affordable' lenses without a plastic mount these days, so this aspect of the 40mm is a real luxury.- The plastic housing is better quality than comparable lenses, and also has a matte non-slip finish. In the hand, it feels weighty and resistant to knocks.- The focus ring is easy to access and as smooth as butter.It feels like a part of the lens design rather than an afterthought.When mounted on my 100D, the lens could almost be mistaken for a dust cap! Discreetness has never been a major concern when I'm out with my camera, but this product really does set a standard that is hard to match with other modern lenses. I've inherited a good selection of 35mm camera equipment from the 1970's-80s, and this 40mm is practically the same size as Nikkor 50mm lenses from back in the day, which for me not only creates a little charm, but makes me wonder why the current 50mm 1.8 is more than twice the length of this product.The 'STM' Stepper Motor - designed to quieten focussing - is only beneficial to those who shoot video with their DSLR. To everyone else, the motor sounds (ironically) like the lens in a DVD drive moving back and forth. In practice STM merely softens the motor noise rather than making it inaudible, and I believe is only fully compatible with certain camera bodies.I should also highlight that the 40mm focal length is actually 64mm on a cropped sensor camera body. In terms of composition, this makes things a bit easier for group portrait shots than the 50mm 1.8 (cropped to 80mm), but experimenting in different environments really does make you more aware of what's going to come out best on a large screen. Generally speaking, this lens would probably be the first I would mount for group portraiture, but only because there is little logic in paying almost three times as much for a 'wide angle' lens that would still end up only having a 44mm focal length. That's just a compromise we make with cheaper camera bodies.Then there is the optical quality of this lens. On this basis alone, I dare say it is comparable with Canon's L-Series, it really is that good. Colours favour very natural tones right from f2.8, but this only improves as you get to f5 and above. You lose a stop compared to the 50mm 1.8, but don't forget that the former, while lovely in its own right, is very soft wide open. This isn't the case with the 40mm - it's as sharp as a tack right from 2.8 and still offers decent bokeh. Definition is also better than the price would suggest; head and shoulders above the latest 18-55mm kit lens.This brings me to an important question; what incentive is there to pick a kit lens over this little marvel? As I've found the hard way, zoom offerings bring good flexibility in the way of performance, making you want to avoid certain focal lengths as you know the edges won't be sharp. 64mm may sit on the narrower side of the spectrum, but the optics and portability alone make this a joyful product in the long run, and certainly one that you actually can't wait to use.In short, I only wish that I had bought this lens earlier so that I could have used it for my holidays. If you're new to DSLRs and can't decide between the 50mm 1.8 and this offering, then my only arguments would be that the shorter focal length, better build quality, small housing and (marginally) better optics are surely more important than an extra stop in the aperture rating.

26.6.2012

Please don't take the Amazon star rating too serious - every lens has its pros and cons that I wouldn't want to squeeze into a single one-dimensional figure...A quick note about me: I have been into SLR cameras and lenses for more than 20 years - as a hobby in the beginning and professionally later. Maybe because of my technical background I started testing my own lenses quite a while ago. I have a (no longer so) little test lab of my own where I do 6 different image quality tests (after taking a lens out for a while).Canon's first-ever "pancake" EF lens is a real treat. It's so small that it looks like a 20 mm extension ring rather than a lens and yet it feels solid as a rock and delivers very respectable image quality.It comes with Canon's stepping motor technology (STM) that allows continuous AF during video recording or live-view mode (when used with a hybrid CMOS AF system) and that gives the lens a fast, silent and accurate autofocus performance. The EF 40mm f/2.8 STM is best used for street and travel photography but can also make great portraits or other things. Its maximum aperture of f/2.8 is great but not good enough for available light photography (which requires even lower f-stops i.e. wider apertures) and I would have loved to have an image stabilizer - but of course that would have been very difficult to build into a 2.7" x 0.9" (68 mm x 23 mm) lens.In regard to image quality the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM is really a high-end lens. The difference is most apparent if you compare it to a zoom lens but also amongst prime lenses of similar focal length the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM is a high performer. The resolution is great straight from f/2.8 both in the image center and corners. If you use a fullframe camera the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM is a little sharper and the EF 50mm f/1.8 II is about as sharp as the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM (compared at the same aperture). But if you shoot with an APS-C camera the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM easily outperforms both of those lenses (apparently it can cope better with the usually higher pixel density of APS-C cameras). It is roughly as sharp as the APS-C-only EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM (which is more than 3 times its size).While the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM shows only very little distortion it does express some serious curvature of the focal plane ("field curvature") on a fullframe camera (none on an APS-C cam) but whether that's really visible in an actual image depends a lot on the subject you are shooting and the aperture you are using (the lab tests I am doing are close to the worst case so expect real life results to be better). Color fringes ("chromatic aberrations") in focused parts of the image ("transverse CA") are noticeable and so are the ones that occur in out-of-focus parts of the image ("axial CA"). On the good side, the nicely shaped aperture creates evenly smooth background blur but if you are bothered by corner shadows ("vignetting") be aware that the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM shows quite intense shadows up to about f/5.6 (with fullframe cameras).Overall the image quality is quite astonishing for a lens that's as small as the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM and that comes at such a low price tag. This also means that from now on you can always have a decent f/2.8 prime lens with you that virtually needs no space in your camera bag!Canon set out to create their first pancake EF lens and they did it the right way - combining great features with an incredibly small size at an acceptable price. I am sure many people will love the lens just for its size and the way it feels but even beyond that the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM has a lot to offer.A much more detailed review of this lens together with all test shots, sample images and technical data is available on my website LensTests_com.

15.6.2015

Over the years I've owned all of Canon's 50mm AF lenses. For the price this one is exceptional value. Build quality is very good, high quality plastics, nice newer lens cap design and good to see a metal lens mount again. It's a big improvement over the all plastic EF 1.8 ii which just felt a bit like a toy lens, though still more than capable of producing stunning results in the right hands. I bought this lens to sit alongside my Canon 50mm 1.2 because both lenses have their own unique strengths. This new 50mm STM is fantastic for times when you want something small, lightweight but still having great image quality. The image quality once stopped down is exceptional - and it's good wide open too.I'll mostly be using this lens for landscapes where I want extremely high resolution at about f/8. The quality of the out of focus areas (bokeh) is good, better than the 50 1.8 ii which often had a pentagon shape to highlights. However doesn't compare to quality of the cream you can achieve with the 50 1.2 in my opinion. Still that lens cost a *lot* more and is rather a specialist portrait lens.Overall this lens comes extremely highly recommended for beginners and seasoned users alike as it gives very affordable access to image quality that far exceeds most standard kit lens. In fact image quality once stopped down is just superb. You can both play with very shallow depth of field for wonderful, highly creative images and also stop down for incredibly high resolution, detailed images.For those interested in the difference between the 50mm 1.2 and 1.8 I've added a very rough and ready comparison showing the bokeh from both lenses at max aperture and at close focus of the 1.2 on a full frame body. As you can see the 1.2 blows out the background much more than the 1.8. This may seem a relatively subtle difference be it can be used to great effect if used carefully. The 1.8 STM certainly provides exceptional performance/value for a fraction of the cost (and weight) of the 1.2. However I certainly have no plans to sell my 1.2 - in my opinion they work well together, each for a different job.Good points:+ Super small lightweight lens+ Good build quality and has a metal mount, big improvement over the 1.8 ii+ STM AF is quiet and fast (but not as quiet as USM) - can't comment on video but very good from what I've read+ Good sharpness wide open at 1.8 and very sharp stopped down to f/5.6 to f/8+ Good close focus ability+ Full time manual focusWeaker points:- No lens hood supplied but considering price point not surprising- Lots of vignetting wide open (a minus for most people, but personally I like this + easily corrected in post)- a bit of fringing at wide apertures, easy to correct in postOther options are:- Canon 50mm 1.4 USM lens. Image quality is about the same stopped down, but it offers better image quality wide open at f/1.4 to f/4.- Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART - not used this lens but gets very good reviews. Great bokeh and very sharp. Price wise possibly competes more with the 50 1.2 and from what I hear it's sharper. This may be what you want, but for me I'd rather have something just slightly softer in portraits for a more flattering look.Overall you can't really go too wrong with this lens, it does it's job and it does it well.

24.1.2016

This is a very good lens for the price.It's a 50mm prime lens and you should note that on a crop sensor camera this would be around 80mm which basically means the view will be zoomed in.This isn't perfect for in door shots unless you are in a large room but that's just a note to make.The 1.8 F-stop is great for low light situations when compared to the starter lens kit which goes down to 3.5 (i believe) so this means you can shoot in doors or when it gets darker without resorting to a highier ISO shutter adjustments.I shoot video so I need to stick to some rules for my ideal shot when it comes to motion blur etc.The lens has a great focus ring because it's not right on the front like with the starter kit lens,it's set back a little and is a bit larger making it easier to pull focus.You get a nice circular bokeh effect with this lens when doing a depth of field shot.The downside of using this lens specifically when shooting film is the noise.It's not terribly loud but it is noticeable.If you are shooting outside with a lot of ambient noise from the traffic etc it might not be so bad but in doors it's not great.So imagine you are shooting two characters and you want to rack focus between them and the primary sound is the dialogue, well you can be sure you will have to do some ADR to correct that in post so have your actors on standby.Of course for a shot without changing focus it's really niceFor still photography it's greatI am comparing all these things to the starter lens because I would imagine most people considering to buy this lens would be looking for an upgrade to their starter lens and the variable starter lens can also reach a focal length of 50mm (18-55mm).I guess the noise is the only thing you can complain about and that only really counts if you are filming and you are adjusting the focus through the shot.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Good: F/1.8 - Good bokeh and good amount of light let inBad: Auto focus is loud and crazy and focus in general is a little noisy but manual focus isn't that bad unless you are shooting quiet videoGood: Focus ring is a little thicker and it's not right at the front of the lens making it easier to pull focus-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I always use manual focus but i tried the auto focus to test it out and it's horrible, it didn't work great and it makes a crazy noise when doing it.It's not a smooth transition, imagine starting a car engine but altering the noise frequencies.If you have a solid 'subject' in the scene like a person the sound from the lens is like a laser printer when using the auto focus.With the manual focus it's a nice smooth transition/sound so it doesn't sound like your camera is a bag of crap.I have really pointed out the noise but that's the only real negative and it's not that bad especially for taking stills, i just wanted to give you some idea of what to expect.The final thing that makes this lens awesome is if you fiddle with the focus ring moving it back and fourth really fast you can make it sound like BB-8 from star wars.

22.3.2017

The problem with using terms like "amazing image quality" and "fast focus" is that these will depend somewhat on what comparison you're basing it off. The image quality is amazing, and if you want better image quality you can have it, kind of, but it wont be amazingly different even if you're spending 10/15x the price. The images coming from this relatively cheap lens are some of the nicest I've taken, and it's a big step up from some lenses costing much more.The aperture is f1.8 which is fine for 99.9% of everything, plus or minus 0.1%. Going for 1.2 or 1.4 is probably not worth the quadrupling or decupling (i'm sure that's the word)what you spend for 1 or 2 more notches you probably wont use unless you're a specialized specialist doing very special things occasionally. If you're coming from zoom lenses of f3.5 or f4 then you'll gain a nice chunk of space to play with which opens up a whole range of image types you didn't have as much access to before! There are 7 apeture blades, which is perhaps fewer than some much more pricey lenses, but the bokeh (out of focus highlights) looks nice, and shooting at f1.8 the bokeh is 100% spherical.The autofocus is fast, though like basically every lens on the planet may struggle a bit in low light. It's not noisy but it's louder than other more recent STM motors. It's perhaps not the best lens for using during movie shooting for when you have to use onboard sound recording. Though it does have one strange side benefit of making cats sometimes look at you, which makes for nice portraits.The body is light and sturdy. It's of a nice length so the focus ring is comfortable to use. Though being at the end means that using a lens hood is useful to stop your fingers wandering into the frame. It's small enough to shrink the size of your camera to a rather more manageable size than with the typical lens that comes with a body. Which means that it makes the camera kind of easier to take out with you. The focus motor is the "floating" type and extends and retracts the front, though it doesn't rotate. This means that you can put really heavy stuff on the end, but is fine for filters and typical things. The mounting flange is metal, and the red dot is easy to line up, and erm, there's not much to say about this.One thing that people don't speak much about is how nice a macro lens this makes. Buy a set of macro tubes, such as these Andoer Viltrox DG-G Auto Focus AF TTL Extension Tube Ring 12mm 20mm 36mm Set Metal Mount with Covers for Canon EF EF-S 35mm Lens DSLR Camera and you'll have yourself a nice 1.58x macro lens. Of course this isn't a full on macro lens and your working distance is about 5cm from the end of the barrel, but it's cheap and gets come great results!I think I could go on for about about 90 pages about tiny things so i'll stop there. It's a nice lens, that is very cheap and very useful for everything like day to day photography, portraiture, (macro) and many more. It's probably one of the first lenses i'd recommend any newer camera person getting, because of the extra sharpness.

1.7.2018

I'm a "prosumer" photographer, and until now, most of my work has been landscapes. Recently I wanted to branch into portraiture and whilst most of my glass is from Canon's "L" series, there was no way I was going to hand over £1K+ for the L series 50mm prime lens, for an area I'm only dipping my toe into.I was lucky enough to have a kind friend to let me try out his EF 50mm 1.8 MK II (the predecessor to the STM version of this lens) and I was pretty impressed with it, although the build quality of that pervious version leaves a lot to be desired (all plastic including lens mount and the focus drive is clunky, noisy and a bit hit and miss).This new STM version though, is nothing short of superb value for money!!Using the centre-only focus point on my Canon 77D, I was able to capture beautifully sharp images, time and time again. The focus is smooth, quiet and most important accurate and although not quite as rapid as the USM focus mechanism, still more than adequate and impressive for a lens of this budget. The bokeh on this new version is also lovely and circular, thanks to an additional 2 aperture blades compared to the previous version.It does suffer from a little CA and fringing in areas of high contrast (backlit detail near the edges of frame for example) but even my L glass exhibits this and with Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 software (or the appropriate lens profile uploaded to the camera), this can be well controlled.I've seen good reviews of the cheaper, Chinese brands that compare with this lens and I'm sure they can produce good results. But for me, I prefer to stick to a brand I know and trust, and generally I've been happy with Canon lenses and did not want to diverge from the brand. I'm glad I didn't as this new version of an already great value lens ticks all the boxes, and for me, solves all the shortcomings of the previous MKII version.With the exception of focus speed, I also think the STM focus drive has almost all of the advantages of the USM mechanism, hence why I didn't consider the more-than-twice-the-price 1.4 50mm USM from Canon, which seems to get mixed reviews.The focus ring on this lens is fully electronic, which means there is absolutely no mechanical connection between the focus ring and the focus drive mechanism. Instead, the ring sends a proportional focus control signal to the camera body, which then in turn proportionally drives the auto focus gear in accordance with the ring movement. This makes the focus ring beautifully smooth, seamless and continuous, and also means it can be complete disabled in the camera software (assuming your body supports turning off manual focus override) which means you cannot bump the focus whilst handling the lens during shooting.If like me, you want a lens to take beautiful portraits with, I can only sing this lens's praises. As the cheapest lens I own, it also now ranks as one of my favourites and it's very easy to forget how inexpensive this lens is, when you see the quality of images it can produce!

1.11.2014

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.

2.9.2015

Optically this lens is great, a marginal improvement on the EF 50mm 1.8 II (Nifty Fifty or Plastic Fantastic), nice bokeh at a budget price. In terms of build quality it's better still; featuring a plastic body with a nicer finish (subjective I suppose) and a metal mount as opposed to the plastic mount of it's predecessor, the sloppy feeling focus of the Nifty Fifty is totally absent. The focusing ring is far better and of more conventional design (see below though) but only works when the camera is powered up. Manual focus override is possible when in AF by half pressing the shutter button and then adjusting focus using the focus ring.For some reason the STM focusing motor isn't as unobtrusive as my other STM lenses (18-135mm and 10-18mm).

15.7.2015

This is definitely the best cheap 50mm for Canon now, it is quite sharp at 1.8, and has nice bokeh too, if compared to the older version. I'd consider this over aged Canon 50mm 1.4 too, mainly because of price- it is not sharp at 1.4 so you have to stop it down anyway, while this one is usable at 1.8 and then they are even in terms of available light.Bokeh- it's alright, not a big bokeh master, but technicallly, this has rounded aperture blades which promises much better bokeh balls in some conditions, you won't notice big difference your garden on in normal shooting conditions.STM- this is a nice touch from Canon, I like the STM lenses because they are quiet and fast, also compact.

30.6.2013

I bought this to pair with a 7D as a lightweight walk around lens. I wanted a camera package that was relatively portable and compact that I could sling into whatever bag I was taking out with me at any given time. My 7D and 17-55 2.8 were not cutting it in this regard.I have been draw to the mirrorless cameras as a solution, but I had not been sufficiently impressed with the handling of them in my limited camera store trials. Given the prices and performance compromises of these units I decided instead that for £150 I would have a ago with the 40mm 2.8 to see if I could benefit.Let me say this upfront, I am not trying to insinuate that a shorty forty mounted to a 7D is comparable in portability to a mirrorless system - it's not.

8.4.2013

I have to say, I really love this lens.I wasn't looking to buy a new lens but wanted to make my 5D more portable and thought this would do the job (combined with a hand-grip to replace my neck strap) - I haven't been disappointed. Regardless of its performance, the small size makes my 5D MKII much, much more portable. I'm already finding that I'm taking it along with me where I'd normally either seriously think twice or just leave it at home (which means I'm taking more shots, which can only improve my overall photography).The lens itself is a decent performer and fantastic for the price. It's light but doesn't feel cheap and doesn't have the "child's toy" feeling like the Canon 50mm f2.8 II does.

21.11.2012

Good Canon lenses normally cost an arm and leg but they do have few lower cost gems - of which this is one.It's fair to say it's not exactly a looker; the front element is small and for such a small lens it has a lot of black plastic around the place. Did I say it's small? It's really small! Once you take the rear cap and screw it into the camera nearly half of the lens disappears. Low cost, small, light - so far so good.So what about the optical quality? I'm pleased to say it's excellent too, even across the sensor on my full-frame 5D3. While f2.8 isn't that fast it does produce really sharp results wide-open; at f2.8 I would say it's sharper than my 50mm f1.4. (at f2.8).

28.7.2015

I tested this lens for a few days having used the previous (plastic fantastic) version it was always a decent little lens, but the cheap feel to the body and harsher rendering (just 5 blades on that older model) were weaker areas.Now Canon have updated the lens to in many ways, the build is improved (still plastic on the body but it feels far nicer in the hand) plastic mount has been replaced with a metal one and the AF motor upgraded to an STM one. There are even more changes min focus is better at 0.35m (about 1:4:7) and there are now 7 curved blades) Filter size is 49mm quite a common size so no problems finding stepping rings/filters to fit thisThe STM motor is fairly quiet,

13.9.2012

Having come back to SLRs after an almost decade-long hiatus, I was looking for a good, not-too-expensive prime lens to use on my new Canon (I had used a film Minolta SLR in the 80s and 90s, so can't use any of those lenses with AF). I narrowed it down to the 35 f/2, the 50mm f/1.4 or the 85mm f/1.8 (the 'L' versions of these three lenses, whilst producing beautiful results, are way outside my budget). Although each of these three lenses are faster than the 40mm 2.8, the 40mm 'pancake' is so sharp wide open that it's actually usable wide open (with minimum vignetting and barrel distortion on an APS-C). The colours and contrast are fantastic, especially stopped down a little.It's not an 'L'

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM - Reviews

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