New 50mm Canon Prime Lens

Published on October 12, 2006 in Photos. 2 Comments

I just bought myself a new lens (which I can’t afford) – a Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM. It’s beautiful, such good low-light performance, fast focus, and beautiful bokeh. Here’s a picture of Gizmo the lurcher taken with it.

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Gizmo Originally uploaded by Dan Sumption.
  • http://niina.amniisia.com Niina

    Niice. I’ve been meaning to get a low aperture lens until my camera did it’s breaking thing and now I have to contemplate a new camera (leaning to the 400d with a view to getting a 30d if I ever get enthused enough to make some money off my pictures). But I daresay I’ll get a lens at the same time because a lot of people doing gig photography recommend things like the Canon 50mm f/1.8 which seems to be about a quarter of the recommended retail price of the one you’ve picked up.. Hmm.. 1.8 vs 1.4.. Hmmm!

  • http://www.sumption.org Dan Sumption

    Yes, I’ve heard very good things about the 1.8. I tried both of them in the shop (and yes, I bought it in a shop, completely on impulse, very very bad thing to do – I daren’t even look on EBay to see how much I could have saved myself). The 1.8 is *very* plasticky, and doesn’t have focusing distances marked on it, but is still nice optically. But the 1.4 just had a nicer feel to it, and my experiments photographing darkened corners of the shop (under the shelves, in between lots of black camera bags) seemed to yield much better low-light results and focusing with the 1.4. Plus I’m a gear-head. At the moment I’m experiencing the warm glow of cognitive dissonance.

    Good luck with the new camera (I’m sure you know which I’d choose :) – Mr Gearhead)