Cheap primes

[fingerz]

What's special about a focal length of 50mm that allows them to be made more cheaply than other primes?

I'm guessing the nifty fifty must be one of the best selling lenses around so why don't Canon/Nikon make similarly cheap prime lenses at other focal lengths? The fifties are both sub-£100 whereas everything else is over that.

[Marcel]

I would have said it's an old supply and demand issue.
The 50mm is your bog standard mass market jobbie that everyone is likely to buy, due to its size and the range it gives. Perfect for portraits etc etc. Common, if you like.

You make more, you save more, so to speak.

Thats purely a guess :)

[fingerz]

Fair point.

But with 1.6x DSLRs becoming more popular you'd think we'd see the prices of 35mm primes starting to drop.

[Steve]

The Canon 50mm has been around for years and years in either the MK1 or MKII guises. It is a fairly simple design and relatively easy for Canon to manufacture. The MKII version has had it materials cost reduced further by using all plastic parts, it’s a small light lens that is not in need of sturdier and more expensive build. Canon has more than made it money on this lens as it must have sold in the hundreds of thousands by now. Material wise it is cheap but the quality it produces is not...those are the main reasons why this lens sells so well and is so cheap.

Other lenses are not as popular and not as easy to make for various reasons…the extra cost to Canon is past on to us the consumers. It's got a lot to do with supply and demand/cost of manufacture as anything else.

The 1.6x crop factor and selling thousands of DSLR's has virtually no relationship to the price of prime lenses.

[fingerz]

The Canon 50mm... is a fairly simple design and relatively easy for Canon to manufacture.

I was wondering what makes it simpler to design and easier to manufacture than, say, a 25mm prime? Or a 35mm prime?

...it’s a small light lens that is not in need of sturdier and more expensive build.

True, but the same can be said of all primes below about 60mm, surely?

Other lenses are... not as easy to make for various reasons.

That's what I'm actually asking. What are the reasons?

The 1.6x crop factor and selling thousands of DSLR's has virtually no relationship to the price of prime lenses.

Cropped sensors have led to an increase in demand for zooms that start in the teens. With traditional SLRs most people's walkabout lens started somewhere between 20mm and 30mm. These days, on DSLRs, it's typically somewhere between 15mm and 20mm. I just wondered why the demand for primes was staying at the same old focal lengths?

[SammyC]

I think its to do with magnification Jamey, a 50mm lens doesn't magnify regardless of crop factor. The crop factor just means that you have a smaller view.