Shoot Into The Sun Without Flare!

Author's Rating:

Pros: excellent image quality,anti-flare capability,versatile and cheap

Cons: inferior build quality

The Bottom Line: 
If you are looking for a high-performance lens at low cost,buy the lens.

Author's Review
I'm quite particular about the image quality of the photographs I'm taking.I always use a lens hood and a tripod or monopod.If the image quality degraded,it lacks the sparkle which is inherent in all high-quality sharp images.I've used a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II on my Canon EOS 100 for 5 years.Of course,the build quality of the lens is not so good .But it does not affect the excellent results it gives.

It always produces images of the highest quality.The images are sharp and have a lot of details.Even subtle differences in color and lighting are discernible.Enlargements up to 10"X12" or even larger are still very sharp.This is largely due to its simpler construction of 6 elements in 5 groups.More elements and groups will slightly degrade the image as more problems of light transmissions occur.A zoom lens is always more complicated.For example,a Canon 70-210mm lens has 11 elements in 8 groups which may pose a problem to light transmission.Technology has improved the construction of zoom lens over the years but doubt still lingers on whether it has achieved quality on par with fixed focal length prime lens.As such,fixed focal length lens still has a slight advantage over the zoom lens.

The lens has a depth of field scale on its barrel.It gives an estimate of the range of sharpness in front of and behind the subject.This facility greatly helps the photographers in composition.A sharp subject against a blurred background renders the image sharper.This is the convenience provided by the lens.

The lens has a 1.5 feet focussing distance.In practice,it means that if you focus less than 1.5 feet,the subject would not be in focus.This is quite a comfortable distance to work with especially in non-specialized photography such as taking photos of kids or a vase of flowers.

For landscape photography,it can capture a view of 46 degrees diagonally just like the human eyes.It may not be able to capture a stunning ,breathtaking view but the results are reasonably good considering the angle of view .

One of its strongest points is its anti-flare capability.Flares are blurred images in a photograph which may degrade the quality of the photo.Shooting into the sun induces flares .But if the optical quality of the lens is good and a lens hood is used,the chances of flares are minimized.Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is a lens that insulated against flares by its multi-coated surface.This is a very useful feature.

Despite its slightly inferior build quality,it is capable of producing excellent image quality at f4,f5.6,f8 and f11.Its f1.8 is useful for low-light photography.Its multi-coated surface has competently combat flare and ghost images.It is a high performance lens which costs only $85.It is a big bargain.