Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens

by Geoff 07 Oct 0 Comments

Canon 50mm 1.4 USM Lens

The standard 50mm f/1.4 lens has long been regarded as the normal SLR lens.

This standard lens features excellent quality and portability. Two high refraction lens elements and new Gaussian optics eliminate astigmatism and suppress astigmatic differences. Crisp images with little flare can be readily obtained even at the maximum aperture of f/1.4.

These 50mm lenses are so small and excellent both in size and cost and give a great portable camera system.

There are three prime standard focal length lenses from Canon as follows:

EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens – A cheap standard lens for use in low light.
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens - An excellent low light standard lens.
EF 50mm f/1.2L USM Lens – The ultimate standard focal length low light lens.

For any photographer who is seeking a standard lens this one is extremely popular. With its low aperture of f/1.4 it is so suitable for low light photography. This lens combined with one of the modern digital SLR cameras from Canon will form an extremely compact and light package.

This lens will be extremely sharp especially when it is stopped down a little, but it is very good also at f/1.4.

For many photographer this lens combined with a wide angle prime and a telephoto prime will give the basis of a very convenient outfit for all photographic applications.

You may ask, why go for primes instead of a small zoom lesns:

Primes are generally more compact.
Primes will give a lighter travelling outfit.
Primes will be much better in low light applications.
Zoom lenses are generally a compromise in the design at some focal lengths, whereas primes are designed for a particular focal length.
The short fall for many people is that the primes may not be as convenient when shooting fast action compared to zoom lenses.
Some photographers do not like changing lenses often particularly in a dirty or dusty environment.
Personally I do favour primes as I generally aim for the highest image quality possible.

After a photographic trip, when I review my images I often come to the conclusion that my images from my primes are my best quality images and I think this is the case because of their capability of using lower apertures and being able to use selective focus more creatively.

The choice is yours.

There are many examples of images captured with this lens on the Flickr site.

Specification