Review: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

I have owned this lens for only 3 days yet... and this is my second DSLR lens to the Canon 28-105mm USM one.

Regardless, I can already see the difference in image quality when I compare the two. This lens is far better in sharpness and color rendition at an equivalent focal length. It is amazingly sharp around 2.8f.

I wish I had bought this one in the first place... and then I wont have bought the 28-105 one so soon.

To sum up:

Pros:
- A great lens for starters.
- Very sharp around f2.8, sharp even otherwise.
- Very good for low light conditions.
- Light weight, not bulky in size.
- Vibrant colors.

Cons:
- Auto focus isnt very handy.. and struggles sometimes in low light conditions. But thats expected I think.
- Focussing is noisy.. no ultrasonic gizmos in there.
- Manual focus wil need some skills... the grip threads arent very easily grip-pable.

In the end, I would actually cross off all the cons from the list considering the price you pay for it: a sub-100 bucks lens that gives excellent image quality. People who complain about the build quality probably care more about a solid body than about the end result: image quality.. and will be happy to pay 10 times for a lens that isnt as sharp... so let them pay the extra bucks if they can. I speak from personal experience since I paid about 4 times as much for a USM lens and this one still beats the expensive one by a long margin!!

Recommendation: I highly recommend this lens as a starter lens. I would in fact advise you to get this one instead of the crappy kit lenses that no one would buy otherwise.