CANON 50 LENSES

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I have an ElanIIe and some lenses. Now I´m interested in buying a 50mm one. Wich of the canon original options do you recomend, and why?

-- EDUARDO PAZ (epaz@pwd.com.ar), November 22, 2000

Answers

Well there isn't that many choices and they're all good. The 50mm f:1.0 USM is the fastest thing out there for about $2500. It's a good lens from what I've heard but not as sharp as the rest. Still if you need the speed... The 50mm f:1.4 USM is about $350. It's fast, sharp and still pricey for what it is. Both of these have full time manual focusing.

The 50mm f:1.8 is also sharp, nearly as sharp as the f:1.4 but has a slower/noisier focusing motor. It still focuses fast, it's the smallest of the bunch and you can get them for about $80. There are two version of the f:1.8 the early (mark I) model had a distance scale, metal lens mount, better manual focusing ring and a better feel to it, but is optically the same as the mark II. They're harder to find now and command a used price of about $100. I'm one of the few people who prefer the newer version since it's lighter, quieter, I seldom use it anyway and no one complains about it's reliability in spite of its cheap build quality.

The 50mm f:2.5 has three claims to fame; it's very sharp, it focuses real close and it focuses real close. If you need a macro (1:2 ratio without the life size adapter, 1:1 with) and want a 50mm lens to use on few occasions it's a good choice. Focusing is a bit slow as it is with most macro lenses and 50mm is a bit short for a useful macro in my opinion, but if you want both in one lens, it's the option of choice

For my money I'd go with the 50mm f:1.8, but if you are going to use it as your primary lens then the 50mm f:1.4 is probably better.

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), November 23, 2000.


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