Canon EF 50mm lens

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The EF 50mm lens is a normal prime lens made by Canon Inc. The lens has an EF mount to work with the EOS line of cameras. When used on a digital EOS body with a crop factor of 1.6x, it provides a field of view equivalent to an 80 mm lens mounted on a film body, making it useful for portraits.

Six EF 50mm lenses have been available. Two of these are L series lenses.

• f/1.0L USM
• f/1.2L USM
• f/1.4 USM
• f/1.8
• f/1.8 II
• f/2.5 Compact Macro

The 50 mm f/1.8 II lens is considered to be excellent value for money as it is Canon's cheapest lens and has excellent optical quality. The discontinued 50 mm f/1.8 lens is similar to the II in optical quality, differing primarily in build (the Mark 1 uses metal, rather than plastic, for its mount, and has a distance scale). The f/2.5 Compact Macro achieves 1:2 magnification; however, an adapter is available to enable it to achieve 1:1 (life size) magnification. The f/1.0L is a specialist low light lens that has been discontinued, while the 50mm f/1.2L, announced in late 2006, replaces it somewhat. The f/1.4 lens is an excellent lens (often shown in Canon's brochures for their professional bodies), although unlike most USM prime lenses, it uses micro USM rather than ring USM. Unlike most micro USM lenses however, the f/1.4 lens still allows full time manual focusing in single-shot AF mode.

[edit] Specifications

Attribute	f/1.0L USM	f/1.2L USM	f/1.4 USM	f/1.8	f/2.5 Compact Macro
Image stabilizer	No
Ultrasonic Motor	Yes			No
L-series	Yes		No
Diffractive Optics	No
Macro	No				Yes (1:2)
Maximum aperture	1.0	1.2	1.4	1.8	2.5
Minimum aperture	16		22		32
Weight	2.2 lb/985 g	1.2 lb/545 g	0.6 lb/290 g	0.3 lb/130 g	0.6 lb/280 g
Maximum diameter	3.6 in/91.5 mm	3.6 in/85.4 mm	2.9 in/73.8 mm	in/ mm	2.7 in/67.6 mm
Length	3.2 in/81.5 mm	2.6 in/65.5 mm	2.0 in/50.5 mm	1.7 in/42.5 mm	2.5 in/63 mm
Filter diameter	72 mm	72 mm	58 mm	52 mm
Horizontal viewing angle	40°
Diagonal viewing angle	46°
Vertical viewing angle	27°
Groups/elements	9/11	6/8	6/7	5/6	8/9
# of diaphragm blades	8			5	6
Closest focusing distance	2 ft/0.6 m	1.5 ft/0.45 m			0.7 ft/0.2 m
Release date	September 1989	August 2006	June 1993	March 1987	December 1987
MSRP $	$4210	$1599	$520	$130
Street Price $	$2500	$1599	$315	$80	$230