By Tati Taylor 7 days ago, Cameras & Lenses
Top-rated 50mm lenses for Canon cameras.
From universal to telephoto zoom Canon camera models, the kind of lenses you pair with a camera has a tremendous impact on the quality of your images. Moreover, the lens you’re using with a camera is often even more important than the camera body itself. This is why reading through a multitude of 50 mm lenses for Canon reviews is crucial if your goal is to take mind-blowing, beautiful images.
In this article, you'll find an overview of five 50mm lenses that will help you understand what features each option can offer you. Keep in mind that some of the discussed characteristics can be simplified to make the task of finding the best 50mm lens for Canon as simple as possible.
Mount: EF | Diaphragm blades: 8 | Autofocus: good | Min focus distance: 0.45m | Max magnification: 0.15x| Filter thread: 74mm | Dimensions (WxL): 50 mm | Weight: 0.64 lbs
⊕ High sharpness
⊕ Built-in focus motor
⊕ Quick aperture
⊖ Doesn’t vibration reduction
This is possibly the best 50mm lens for Canon for hobbyists and professional photographers alike. It’s supplied with a pair of high-refraction lens elements and the latest Gaussian optics that are used to get rid of astigmatism and minimize the astigmatic difference. This allows you to enjoy crisp and natural colors with minimal flare even at max aperture.
Being an f/1.4 model, it has the optimal lens speed for low-light shooting. Additionally, this is the only product in the EF system that comes with the tiny Micro Ultra Sonic Motor, which supports full-time manual focusing. Other interesting characteristics of this lens include a minimal focus distance of 1.5ft, 58mm filter size, and a 1-year warranty.
Mount: EF | Diaphragm blades: 7 | Autofocus: good | Min focus distance: 0.35mm | Max magnification: 0.21x| Filter thread: 49| Dimensions (WxL): 50 mm | Weight: 5.60 ounces
⊕ Featherweight
⊕ Quiet, smooth video focusing
⊕ Attractive price
⊖ Subpar focusing speed
This is probably the best option you have if you’re looking for a Canon 50mm macro lens. The large 1.8 aperture is capable of receiving 8-times the light compared to a regular zoom that comes with EOS cameras. This means you get to enjoy higher sharpness, reduced motion blur, and the ability to take photos in dim lighting conditions without flash so that you can convey the atmosphere of a low-light scene. The provided focal length helps you place the subject in the shot from a convenient distance, which is why it’s perfectly suited for portraiture. Additionally, the EF 50mm f/1.8 is a fantastic everyday lens thanks to a similar perspective to our eyes and compact design.
Mount: F | Diaphragm blades: 9 | Autofocus: good | Min focus distance: 0.45m | Max magnification: 0.15× | Filter thread: 77 mm | Dimensions (WxL): 50 mm | Weight: 1.20 lbs
⊕ Great sharpness when stopped down
⊕ Almost non-existent distortion
⊕ Great price
⊖ Poor focusing speed
The Rokinon 50mm f/1.4 is a terrific prime lens that was developed to offer a middle ground option between the brand’s 35mm and 85mm lenses. It boasts an extremely quick f/1.4 max aperture, great low-light performance, quick shutter speeds when capturing dynamic scenes, and shallow depth of field control.
This Canon portrait lens 50mm has a field of view of 46.2o on full-frame sensors, which is the optimal value for everyday use. When used with a cropped sensor camera, the lens has a focal length equivalent to 75mm (30.8o FoV), while an APS-C Canon camera produces an 80mm focal length equivalent (29o field of view) that is ideal for taking portraits.
Mount: F | Diaphragm blades: 9 | Autofocus: good | Min focus distance: 40cm | Max magnification: 0.18x | Filter thread: 77 mm | Dimensions (WxL): 50 mm | Weight: 1.80 lbs
⊕ Impressive sharpness
⊕ Unnoticeable distortion
⊕ Compatible with multiple camera systems
⊖ Lacks optical stabilization
Sigma’s previous 50mm 1.4 DG HSM was reimagined and redeveloped to introduce a new level of quality for the Art line and release possibly the best 50mm lens for Canon. It has a big 1.4 aperture and is suitable for everything from portraiture and wildlife to studio and urban photography.
The lens is powered by a Hyper Sonic Motor that provides silent, seamless, and precise autofocusing, while being combined with Special Low Dispersion glass and super multi-layer coating, which make it a terrific choice for DSLR sensors. 13 components in 8 groups guarantee terrific performance even at the widest apertures, and you can also try yourself in close-up photography thanks to the minimum focus distance of 40 centimeters.
Mount: EF | Diaphragm blades: 8 | Autofocus: good | Min focus distance: 45 cm | Max magnification: 0.15x | Filter thread: 72 mm | Dimensions (WxL): 50 mm | Weight: 1.28 lbs
⊕ Pleasantly sharp
⊕ Built-in focus motor
⊕ Quick aperture
⊖ Would have benefited from vibration reduction
This peerless Canon 50mm fixed lens comes with an ultra-large aperture that allows achieving a narrow depth of field and soft backdrop blur that so many photographers adore. The EF 50 mm f/1.2L is suitable for most photoshoot conditions, as its coating and build were designed to reduce ghosting and flares, which are a typical problem when employing DSLRs.
This lens offers terrific performance, has weather-resistant properties, and provides terrific resolution and contrast. The lens is pleasantly small, measuring 2” by 2.9”, and is moderately lightweight. Akin to Nikon’s 50mm f/1.4 lens, this product employs 58mm filters and can focus on objects as near as 1.5ft.
| Image | Name | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Our choice |
CHECK PRICE→ | |
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Canon EF 50mm f/1.8
Compact |
CHECK PRICE → | |
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Rokinon 50mm F1.4
High quality |
CHECK PRICE → |
The focal length is a crucial aspect of any lens. This characteristic is described in millimeters and allows you to determine if a particular lens is a wide-angle or telephoto model.
Both types have their fair share of upsides and downsides. A telephoto lens is great for bringing distant subjects closer and is the recommended type for taking portraits since they help maintain the facial proportions, which can be difficult with a wide-angle lens. A telephoto model is also useful for creating a blurry backdrop since it has a smaller depth of field compared to its wide-angle counterpart. As for the downsides, telephoto lenses have less brightness and are more susceptible to unwanted blur if there’s noticeable camera shake. Such models are also typically bigger than wide-angle lenses.
Meanwhile, wide-angle models are a terrific fit for landscape photography, as they allow you to capture more of the scenery in the frame. They offer both terrific brightness and depth of field and are ordinarily smaller and more lightweight compared to telephoto lenses. On the flipside, such optics aren’t well-suited for taking portraits.
Wide-angle lenses create a false impression of what is near and far, and it can cause the illusion of the model having a large nose and sunken eyes. Such lenses also are more prone to distortions, as straight lines start to curve at the edges of the frame.
The middle ground between a wide-angle and a telephoto model is referred to as a normal lens. Such a product attempts to capture the scene in the same way we see it with our eyes (in terms of distance and magnification). If we’re talking about the 135 format, then a normal lens is 50mm. All models that have a lower focal length are wide-angle, while bigger focal lengths are classified as telephoto.
Whenever you purchase a camera that can be paired with various lenses, you’re establishing a connection with the camera’s manufacturer and the lenses that are compatible with it. For instance, Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras employ incompatible lens mounts. There are situations when two or more brands release a compatible mount (Panasonic's and Olympus' Micro Four Thirds, and Panasonic's, Leica's, and Sigma's L-mount being the best examples), but in most cases, you can’t attach a lens to any camera you want. For instance, you can’t connect a Nikon mirrorless lens to a DSLR.
Ordinarily, the max zoom value of interchangeable lenses is 10x, but there’s a noticeable difference in how DSLR, mirrorless, and point-and-shoot models approach this aspect. A camera that can be paired with multiple lenses is typically supplied with a bigger sensor that can produce higher quality photos compared to smaller cameras. .However, a big sensor demands an equally big lens, which is why compact cameras offer insane zoom ranges while bigger models need several lenses to support the same range.
Zoom is frequently mistaken with how close a lens can capture the subject. The zoom value, such as 5x, only describes the range from the broadest to the narrowest view angle of a specific lens. While zoom is a useful characteristic for describing the flexibility of a lens, it doesn’t help understand how much reach you have. For that, you have to look at the focal length.
Due to their nature, point-and-shoot cameras are typically advertised by their zoom value, while DSLRs and mirrorless lenses are marketed based on their focal length. If a lens has a single focal length value, like a 50mm lens for Canon, then it’s a prime model that doesn't have any zoom at all but can provide better sharpness, depth of field, and light transmission.
The focal length is among the first characteristics you have to think about when picking a lens for your Canon camera. This term is used to describe the zoom value of a lens in millimeters. A lens can either have a fixed focal length (such models are called “primes” and can be 14mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, 100mm, 150mm, and so on) or a variable one (for instance, 10-20mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, etc.). Lenses with a focal length of 70-300mm are generally considered the most versatile ones.
In simple words, the lower the focal length, the broader the field of view you’ll see when taking photographs. If you remain in the same place when taking pictures, you’ll enjoy an extremely wide field of view at 10mm, which is narrowed down at 50mm and gets even smaller at 200mm.
Keep in mind that the focal length mentioned in the description of a lens relates to its value on a full-frame sensor. An 18mm lens gives 18mm on a full-frame camera. On a cropped sensor, such a focal length is equivalent to 29mm. If this sounds confusing, refer to a diagram that describes different angles of vision at various focal lengths.
It's generally recommended to have 3 lenses: the ever-useful 50mm, which is the first lens you should buy if you can only afford one spare lens, an ultra-wide-angle lens if you can purchase two, and a handy macro one.
The answer depends on your needs. Since a lens largely determines how your photographs will look like, you should think about the type of images that you want to take. For instance, if you're into portraiture, your priority should be a Canon 50mm prime lens. On the other hand, if you're a fan of landscapes and vast open scenery, then a wide-angle model would be a better fit.
A 35mm model is a lot wider than a 50mm lens while also producing fewer distortions than a 24mm one. This is why it's often considered to be a good middle ground between the two extremes, as it can be used either as a wide-angle or a standard lens.
Even though lenses are interchangeable, meaning a single camera can be paired with various lenses (standard, wide-angle, macro, and so one), they aren't universally compatible with all brands and camera types. Finding the best lens takes more effort than simply picking one you like and pairing it with your camera.
