50mm... the one prime everybody should have.

I'm hardly an authority on photography, and it has only recently been a relatively serious hobby of mine. But I can tell you with certainty that this is one lens every Canon SLR owner should have. Well, unless you can afford an even better 50mm.

Simplicity at it's best
The formula for this is easy. It's obvious this is made of inferior materials. It's extremely light and "plasticky". Even the mount is plastic. It feels cheap, it looks cheap, it sounds cheap.

The beauty is that it is a prime. A prime lens is one that has no zoom capability. It does just one focal length. Because that is the case, it can be optimized for that focal length. And this is by far the cheapest prime you'll find.

These factors combine into an inexpensive package with some amazing optics tucked within. And, while it is cheaply made, this has actually resulted in an extremely light weight lens.

Aperture
In all honesty, I don't find myself using this lens as often as I thought I might. My Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 has excellent optics and the freedom of a zoom. The real advantage I find with the "Nifty Fifty" is the aperture. Still, f/2.8 isn't too shabby. I do occasionally find a use for it though, and it's usually when I've reached the limits of f/2.8.

Large apertures also decrease the Depth of Field (DoF), or decreases the distance from the focal point, front to back, at which items become blurred. At f/1.8, DoF is very "shallow" and you can really work some magic with this, making this another area where I find it useful. This, and the 50mm focal length, also make this a very good, perhaps excellent, portrait lens.

Image Quality
Provided I get the exposure right (that's part of the trick, after all, right?), I've never been disappointed. Virtually all zoom lenses exhibit some type of problem, often wide open, at the widest focal length, etc... As a prime, this is always performing at its... well, prime.

I rarely study my pictures in great detail, but this lens has proven to provide sharp shots with great color and contrast. Never a complaint (that wasn't related to the idiot behind the camera).

Non-USM
Another factor making this inexpensive is that it does not have Canon's Ultra Sonic Motor (USM). That's the case with a great number of consumer lenses. It just means the lens is a possibly slow and a wee-bit noisy. It also does not support Full Time Manual, so you have to switch out of Auto-Focus mode to manually focus. If you use a kit lens, like the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, as your standard lens, you likely won't notice.

I have had at least a couple occasions where I was simply playing around. One was trying to take a shot of our sleeping son, without a flash, and nothing but the night light. I figured it was a long shot, and the result was a series of whirring and whining from the lens as it tried to focus. That's not to surprising, but, likely because of the light plastic build, it does sound like you just pushed its limits and it killed itself. You've seen the end of "War Games", right? No, it's not that bad.

Bottom Line
You won't find optics light this in any other lens for under several hundreds or more, and those closer in range will also be primes. This is an absolute must have for those on a budget, and especially so if you're using a entry level kit lens. Even with my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, which isn't exactly thrifty, I'm happy to have this in my bag. Plus, it is incredibly light weight, so you'll barely know it is there, except when you need it.