A Look At The Canon 50mm F1.8 STM Lens In The Field

Jordan Drake from the Camera Store and photographer Tyler Stalman recently had a look at the new Canon 50mm F1.8 STM and got back with some interesting comments.

The original 50mm (AKA the fantastic plastic) has bee n around for ages and finally Canon has a new version with a new optical formula, a new AF motor and a few design improvements.

So ho is the new lens – well, the build quality is better although it doesn’t seem to be at the same level as the Canon 40mm pancake lens, the AF is quieter (although Stalman didn’t really mentioned how fast it is). As for the image quality – there is an improvement over the older version and it is pretty close to how the 50mm f/1.4 from Canon does at f/1.8, however it is still a long was away from the amazing Sigma 50mm f/1.4 (but for about 1/7 the cost this is to be expected).

Still, it seems that Canon did an O.K. job coming up with a decent replacement for this low budget fast prime and video shooters will definitely appreciate the new STM silent AF motor for the newer Canon bodies which support Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology.

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Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.