Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens is amazing the quality shines through its perfect for portraits. And having an f-stop of 1.4 is just so useful if you can afford it it's worth every penny. This lens is perfect for taking portraits a.k.a. photos where your subject is clear but their backgrounds are blurry if you shoot at 1.4 or 1.8 the depth of field looks beautiful. Down below I will describe how new photographers can get the most out of this lens.

The 50mm f/1.4 standard lens is a terrific choice for both casual and professional photographers. The lens is outfitted with two high-refraction lens elements and new Gaussian optics, which combine to eliminate astigmatism and suppress astigmatic difference. As a result, the lens obtains crisp images with little flare even at the maximum aperture. The lens's f/1.4 speed, meanwhile, is perfect for available-light shooting. And as a bonus, this lens is the only lens in the EF system to offer an extra-small Micro Ultra Sonic Motor (USM) while still providing a full-time manual focusing option.

Package deal:

50mm f/1.4 standard lens
58mm 3-piece Filter Kit (includes a UV, CPL, FLD filters )
58mm Hard Lens Hood,
5 pc. Lens Cleaning Kit
Lens Cap Keeper

Lens spec:

Focal length: 50mm
Maximum aperture: f/1.4L
Lens construction: 7 elements in 6 groups
Angle of view: 46 degrees
Focus adjustment: Overall linear extension system with USM
Closest focusing distance: 1.5 feet
Filter size: 58mm
Dimensions: 2.9 inches in diameter and 2 inches long
Weight: 10.2 ounces

If you're new to digital photography or are on a budget check out the 50 mm f/1.8 lens below as it runs for around $100 and is a great place to start for new photographers for those on a budget.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Standard AutoFocus Lens - Gray Market

Maybe you will say why the package deal less expensive than just the lens itself - The lens was the same, but don't expect anything special from the extra goodies. It was a great deal!

This bundle isn't that bad since you get the lens hood and some filters - this whole bundle is basically worth it

Here I'll explain how the f-stop or aperture priority works on digital SLR cameras. Basically the aperture is a circle inside the lens that as you go up in your f-stop from 1.4 to 1.8 to 2.2 to 3.0 and beyond it shrinks the size of this circle in the lens. The shrinking of the circle from a higher f-stop allows less light to pass through to the sensor. The lower the f-stop i.e. 1.4 allows you to shoot at faster shutter speeds in low light situations because the circle in the lens allows more light to pass through because of the lower aperture.

Here's an example say are in a well lit room and you're shooting your child (yes that sounds very weird but it's a funny joke anyway). Generally indoors you need to shoot at 1/60 of a second with most lenses they'll instantly autofocus at their lowest f-stop which would be about 4.0. But with this lens since it can go down to 1.4 on the f-stop you could shoot the same picture at 1/125 shutter speed. Resulting in about the same light but avoiding any motion blur that plagues low light photography. Now needs to be noted that as you drop your f-stop you lose depth of field. I.e. how much of your photo will be in focus and how much will be blurred. It's the effect you see on portraits where the person is in focus but the background is blurry.

Now I know many people will probably shoot holes in the foregoing explanation of f-stop but I'm not a really advanced photographer but I get how shutter speed and aperture priority work with each other. Buying a lens like this can only help somebody understand how both are related and work together.

Here's what I recommend that you do:

Enable manual mode on your camera this mode allows you to set both the aperture for the lens a.k.a. the f-stop and the shutter speed a.k.a. how long the shutter is opened while taking a photograph.
Drop the aperture or f-stop to 1.4 on this lens
Set your shutter speed to 1/60 of a second
take a picture
Look at your photograph notice how much is dark and light about it how sharp it is etc.
Go up to the next shutter speed 1/90th of the second or 1/125 and take another photograph.
now compare both of the photographs you took
to change the shutter speed again going up another step taken other photograph now compare all three photographs

If you continue to do this adjust shutter speed while knowing what your aperture is you're going to notice how shutter speed affects the lighting of your photographs all you need to do then is start changing your aperture and repeat the process of stepping through your shutter speeds eventually you'll understand how the aperture works in correlation with shutter speed. I would recommend starting outdoors on a well lit day because then you will see how you can adjust your aperture and your shutter speeds to really make good photographs.

That's the reason I recommend this lens so highly as it helps you as a beginning photographer to create photographs because the lower f-stop helps you experiment and instantly see your results.

This review by Chuck Bittner - more reviews click image below: