Review on Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Fixed Lens - Discontinued by Manufacturer by Bambang (bambang sup ᠌

Name: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Fixed Lens - Discontinued by Manufacturer
Item: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Fixed Lens - Discontinued by Manufacturer
Rating: 5

September 20, 2022

A high-quality product, the price corresponds to the quality.

The lens receives a rating of 5 for the combination of very good optical properties and a very affordable price. I recommend it for everyone who is just starting to shoot with a DSLR and wants to try what his camera is capable of, to get an ultra-accessible and quite effective portrait lens for a crop or a standard lens for a full frame.
Relative to the Canon 50 / 1.4, it is much weaker in design and autofocus performance. Regarding the Canon 40 / 2.8, it differs in a slightly weaker design, but on the crop it is a completely full-fledged porter (and 40 is an incomprehensible narrowish standard one). On a full frame, 40mm is closer to the human perception of perspective for my taste, but 50 allows you to play with bokeh, it is much softer.

Pros

1. A very affordable optical quality autofocus lens. Easy to take for a beginner mirrorer to try. 2. Optically - a very good typical fifty-kopeck 50mm f/1.8. It doesn’t soft on the open, the matrix allows, but excellent micro-contrast is achieved somewhere with f / 2.5. It doesn't vignette on crop, on full frame it vignettes noticeably up to about f/2.5 - f/2.8, then it's almost invisible. Maximum sharpness is achieved at f/5.6 - f/8.0. Easily resolves the most multi-megapixel matrices of both cropped and full-frame cameras. The bokeh is quite tangible, noticeable, rather soft - without hard highlights, but nothing more. However, it is quite pleasant to use it in portrait photography. The color reproduction is quite decent, quite neutral, the colors are good, not faded. CA (chromatic aberration) is practically not observed. In terms of optical characteristics, it surpasses almost all zooms set at 50 mm focal length, and does not lag behind very expensive L (actually 24-70 / 2.8, the rest at this focal length are even darker). 3. Lightweight, compact.

Cons

1. When compared in terms of optical characteristics, it is inferior to Canon EF 50 mm f/1.4 USM - fifty dollars 50/1.4 is already starting to have good micro-contrast from f/2.0 - f/2.2. The bokeh of any 50 / 1.4 is usually softer, smoother, more beautiful. In general, optically 50 / 1.8 at the same apertures is the same in sharpness as 50 / 1.4, but inferior to it in bokeh pattern. Here, the bokeh sometimes twists, sometimes slightly ripples, and a bright border is often visible near the light spots in the bokeh from light sources outside the depth of field. The difference in optics is not very big, but it is noticeable. 2. Weak, rather flimsy design, plastic mount. Not the most reliable machine. 3. Noisy autofocus. Plus, he's not fast. The step of the micromotor is rough and often the lens does not focus very accurately at distances of ~ 3-6 meters. There is no way to manually focus when autofocus is on. The focus ring even rotates when autofocus is working. 4. A five-blade aperture 50/1.8 at f/2.8 - f/5.6 can easily make noticeable pentagons-"nuts" from point light sources in bokeh.