Canon 50mm F1.8 - much better than kit lens?

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ash39

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Just noticed Jessops have an offer on this at the moment - £10 off. You must think I'm a bit of a tightwad to be tempted by that but I've been looking at one for a while and I may as well get one whilst they're cheap. I know they can be had on ebay for about £75 but I'd rather have a brand new boxed one.

Just after a bit of a push really, I know it's a good lens and people rate it but can it really offer much more than the kit lens? I'm not expecting miracles but for family photos and stuff, what difference will I notice?
 
You will notice far sharper photos and the ability to shoot in lower light. It will take some getting used to though, when shooting at wide apertures, your depth of field will be much shallower than you are used to so you will have to be more careful with your focusing.
 
You will get better background blur (bokeh), depth of field, low-light perforrmance and sharper, clearer images. What kind of camera do you have? 50mm on a crop sensor is a bit of an awkward size sometimes. I'm using one on a crop sensor camera and it's not wide enough some of the time so I have to abandon a planned photo and revert back to my normal lens
 
In low light eg indoors it will be a lot better as shooting wide open you will be able to get a much faster shutter speed without cranking the iso right up.

You will also be able to get a nice arty shallow depth of field which is nice for portraits etc - ie face in focus but background blurred out.

I love fast primes personally.
 
I have a 500D so yeah I'm aware the crop will make it tricky to use, luckily have quite a big living room so shouldn't be a big problem.

What does the term 'prime' lens mean? Sorry if that's a noob question!
 
I've been wondering the same thing as to whether or I would notice a difference in image quality. So I'll be following this thread to see what people's thoughts are.

Cheaper than Jessops for this lens would be via the TP forums though! See thread here
 
Prime as in fixed focal length 500mm, 85mm, 200mm etc

Its a great lens, perhaps my favourite.

can be used for everyfin'

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Thanks Stevie, that's a brilliant pic of the dog. What body was that taken with if you don't mind me asking?

Not worried about the cement mixer effect, just won't use it for videos!! Kit lens is pretty good for those anyway.
 
Erm it wipes the floor for quality with the kit lens and many other lenses costing 5x as much.

Obviously the issue is its fixed so I use it as a portrait lens rather than a walkabout one.
 
Here's my first two shots with it attached to a 350D. Both were in lighting conditions that the kit lens would have struggled with:

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You have to be spot on with your focusing! I've focused on the bridge of the librarians glasses and not her pupil. Would have got away with it with other lenses.

The lens feels cheap, and yes is a bit noisy, but I'm well impressed on image quality for the money.
 
I wish I'd bought a 50mm when I first started - brilliant lens to learn with and will always come in handy in the bag when you get more advanced.
 
Love that 2nd shot, what was that shot at out of interest? (i.e F2 etc)
 
Well, it's certainly sharper than the kit lens and overall a better quality product but it can't really be compared TO the kit lens from a wholly practical point of view. Remember it's a prime lens that is, it has no ability to zoom in or out so you are somewhat limited. If you wish to isolate a subject, you would have to get closer to it as opposed to manually zoom in with the lens.

Similarly, if you wanted a wider aspect, you would have to move further back from the scene you are photographing.

Still, it's a kick ass lens. Very subjective if you're going out with just that lens and to be honest, at this stage, everyone should have one because they're so cheap, so good and if you like it so much, there's no reason why you can't upgrade to an F1.4 at a later stage.

They also hold their value well.
 
Im thinking about getting one, mainly for car photoshoots. Looks a great bit of kit for the price
 
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