Advantages: Lightweight, Compact, Fast f2.8 Aperature throughout the zoom
Disadvantages: Slightly Soft at f2.8, but manageable

...I bought this lens as a replacement for the 18-70mm f3.5-5.6 stock lens that came with my camera, and it was worth every penny. The increase in image quality, sharpness and clarity of pictures has been amazing. No more fringing around the edges of bright distant objects. No barrel distortion at the very edges of the image. No plasticy cheap feel. This lens is brilliant, especially if you don't want to fork out the enormous prices for Vibration reduction or Image Stabilising Lenses. (My camera has this built in anyway so ha!). Having an aperature of f2.8 makes this brilliant for indoor work, as you don't have to use a flash, or push up the iso to noisy values to get sharp clear images. For example, at 50mm, i can shoot at 1/40sec on this lens at f2.8, my old stock lens would have had me shooting at 1/10sec, which in low... Read review

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Advantages: tack sharp, good optical quality, fast focus
Disadvantages: plastic case and mount, not USM

...Often referred to as the standard lens the 50mm was so named as it used to be the lens that came with every SLR camera body. It is sometimes also called standard as it is the lens closest to the human eye and reproduces images similar to the one that we saw when taking a picture (this includes perspective and angles as well as composition). Most cameras now come with a zoom lens as "standard" usually around 28-90mm, and you might think that the 50mm lens is now not required at all. In my opinion this is not the case.... Some basic details: Weight: 130g (lightest Canon lens) Filter: 52mm Length: 41mm Focus: 0.45m (closest focus distance) Three main reasons why you should consider this lens: 1) Optical quality. This lens has very high optical quality. It has fewer elements in the lens and better glass. Your images... Read review

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Advantages: Very Light, Very Cheap, Awesome Image Quality, f/1.8 = Low light performace
Disadvantages: Noisy Focusing, Plastic Construction

...Hello Reader, I hope you're doing well, and I thought I'd get a nice lens review in here, as it's been quite desolate for a while. The lens that will be under the microscope will be the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, which is a budget lens, although it with-holds a very nice surprise. So here goes... Initial Impressions Firstly, a new user to this lens will probably notice the amazingly compact size and weight of this lens, it's amazing really. I'm using it on my Canon 400D, and compared to the Kit lens, this thing is tiny! I'd say that this is a good factor for this lens, it's size and weight really complements the compact body of the 400D, and contrary to many peoples beliefs, the main lens body is surprisingly sturdy, at least at a parallel with the Kit lens. (18-55). There are quite a few reasons I bought this lens: * To learn... Read review

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Advantages: Low light performance, sharpness, colour saturation and contrast
Disadvantages: Plasticy construction and poor feel of manual focus ring

...Overview ------------- The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 sits in between the cheap-o f/1.8 mkII version and the ridiculously expensive f/1.2 L-series version. There was a crazy f/1.0L lens at one time but this seems to have been discontinued (presumably as nobody could afford it). It is a "standard" prime lens but only for full frame DSLRs like the 5D. On a APS-C body it equates to 80mm. I bought it because I wanted a small and inconspicuous lens to use on my 5D and one that would plug a gap in my lens line-up that consists of f/4 L-Series zooms. Namely, a low light, shallow depth of field lens. Construction ------------------- The main things to note about the three variants is that the f/1.8 has a plastic mount and a micro-motor AF. The f/1.4 has a metal mount and a Micro-USM AF motor (quieter than the micro-motor but noisier... Read review

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Advantages: Fantastic zoom range, exceptional image quality
Disadvantages: Heavy to carry, difficult to hand hold at 500mm in low light.

...I recently purchased this Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3 DG EX lens for my minolta. It is fantastic! Lets get the negative things out the way so we can focus on the bountiful positives. 1.) It is heavy. Weighing in at nearly 2Kg this is no lightweight piece of kit, but all that weight is necessary for the size and quality of optics used. If you have a good bag like a lowepro or tamrac, then it's really quite easy to trek around with it all day on your back, or hand carry it using the tripod mount/handle. 2.) Due to the aperature not being fantastic, this isn't the best lens for low light fast action photography. There are long telephoto lenses (up to ~300mm) with a wide f2.8 aperature throughout for low light and high shutter speed, but these neither have the range or flexibility of this lens. They cost a lot more too. Now... Read review

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Advantages: Size,weight, fast max f stop, nikon quality
Disadvantages: non

...I have a 70mm to 300mm Sigma zoom and a 28mm to 80mm sigma zoom and this small standard 50mm lens. The lens costs about £90 new or around the £50 on E Bay. For everyday photography, I don't think it can be beaten. The two main advantages are its size and its maximum aperture of f1.8. For the peeps that don't know anything bout photography....the smaller the no. on the lens, the more light it can let in...hense f1.8 being better for available light photography indoors than the f5.5 on one of my zoom lenses. The small/lightweight standard lense on your camera will drastically reduse the risk of blurred pictures due to 'camera shake' because a zoom lense makes the camera more unstable and magnefies any camera shake..the bigger the zoom the worse it is. This smallness coupled with being able to use the high aperture to let... Read review

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Advantages: Image sharpness, constant f2.8 aperture, cost
Disadvantages: Some distortion at widest setting, motor noise

...BACKGROUND I had been looking to replace the so-so kit lens on my Canon 400d and agonised over the possible options for several weeks. I wanted a lens to broadly replace the kit lens range of 18-55mm - with a good wide angle and some telephoto zoom, but not too much of a range so that optical quality would be compromised. Oh, and not too expensive please! The Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 soon became a front runner from the scraps of user comments I found on the web. Hopefully my review below can fill in the gaps for other potential purchasers. TECHNICAL DETAILS Range 17-50mm (on 400d: 27-80mm) Aperture f2.8 to f32 Physical Length at 17mm - 9cm Physical Length at 50mm - 12cm No USM or Image Stabilisation No macro mode Zoom lock switch prevents barrel movement when stored Filter diameter 67mm Included items - Lens caps and hood... Read review

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