I borrowed this little 50mm prime lens from John at work. For a little £60 lens, it exceeded my expectations. For the price, image quality is staggering. Any focusing issues I had were user error – I’ve been so used to IS lenses, whose image stabilisation electronics allow you to take pictures with slower than normal shutter speeds, that I was foolishly taking shots with shutter speeds too slow for the EF50.

At f1.8 it’s a really fast lens that lets in a lot of light. It really shines at portraits, even in low lighting. As a walk about lens with smaller apertures and thus more depth of field, it again provides some good pictures. I’ve created a flickr set with some samples. I also used it for a few shots inside the Botanic Gardens, and for this entire West End Festival set.

With such a shallow depth of field, focus is absolutely crucial. In fact, if you can keep your shutter speed high enough, and the depth of field at 2.8 or less, then you can get some terrific portait shots, and it’s here that the EF50 is strongest. I’d almost go so far as to say that the lens is a total one trick, full frontal portrait, pony. But that would be a disservice as it gives good results with smaller apertures too. When funds allow, I’ll definitely buy myself one, it won’t get used all the time, but it will get use – my wife and kids love to strike a pose.

I’ll post some 40D thoughts later, but food for thought, the following shot was taken with my 28-135IS at ISO3200!

This post was updated on 16th June.