Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM review

Previously owned the 50mm 1.8 lens, This product is an excellent upgrade from that lens. It is worth the extra $250 from the 1.8. You get 2/3 stops more light (altho i barely use the lens at 1.4), the image quality and sharpness is outstanding at f/4. Its also a great walk around lens because of its form factor. Its construction is really high quality coming from the 1.8 version. Also recently used this lens to make a music video, the video quality was crystal clear. The focus ring was perfect for focusing during video. Only disadvantage is that it doent come with lens hood, but i recommend buying one on Amazon, you can find one for less than $10. Overall I recommend buying this lens only if you are a serious photographer, otherwise the 50mm 1.8 will do just fine.

I bought this lens used and in non working condition (no automatic focus) for almost nothing about 6 years ago. After a few months I decided to repair it. It is still working great and one of the few f/1.4 lens that can be purchased at a very reasonable price. It does tend to hunt in very low light.

I bought this lens a couple of weeks ago, and have only taken approx. 500 pictures with it, so my review is a first blush review. Having said that, I have already exceeded my best previous efforts with this lens when it comes to photographing people. I took a batch of photos at a backyard gathering around twilight that I didn't know that I could take. I dropped the flash comp. down -1.5 and set the lens at f/3.2. I was stunned. Bye-bye 18-55 kit lens. My only regret is the focal length. Since my Canon is a APS-c 3/4 sensor, the actual focal length is 80mm. I'll get the 30mm or 35mm next time!

I am a cinematographer and needed a very low light lens for my T2i, and man did this guy do the trick, and much much more, great lens for low light video shooting, if you are in need this will be your friend indeed!

There are a number of reviewers who complain about focus issues with this lens. In my enthusiasm to get what many have said is a great lens, i omitted to read the bad reviews. It turns out to have been a mistake. Most of the complaints are about the focus failing after a few months. Others are about the lenses failure to focus properly at all, both in autofocus and manual focus. That's the problem with the lens that I received. On receiving the lens, at first it hunted before settling on the focus, but that soon disappeared. After taking a number of pictures and finding that none of the photographs were really sharp, it was evident to conduct a test eliminating all other possibilities. After setting up the camera on a sturdy tripod, using a 7D, and taking a series of photographs of static objects, using a remote trigger the proof was clear - there is a problem with the lens. On my return to the US this lens is going back to Canon. Now it is a matter of habit to look at the 1 star ranked comments. It seems that recently Canon's lenses are getting more than their share. It also appears that they are too quick to blame the consumer. Perhaps they can take a leaf from Olympus's book. It seems that when a company gets into financial difficulties their attitude towards customers improves. One hopes that does not become necessary for Canon.