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Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM - APS-C Review / Retest |
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Lens Reviews -
Canon EOS (APS-C)
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Page 1 of 2
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2010
Introduction
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM was introduced back in June 1993. Price-wise it sits in-between the extremely
expensive EF 50mm f/1.2 USM L and the "cheap" EF 50mm f/1.8 II. There have
been calls in forums out there that the lens is outdated by now (e.g. due to the non-circular aperture)
but so far Canon had different priorities. We tested the lens a couple of years ago on an 8mp APS-C DSLR but
the mega-pixel race has obviously continued so it's time to have a look again. Canon APS-C DSLRs have a sensor
crop factor of 1.6x so the field-of-view is equivalent to 80mm on full format cameras here. In terms of
depth-of-field you "loose" about one f-stop so all-in-all it behaves more like a typical portrait
lens in the APS-C scope.
The overall build quality is very decent with a metal mount and an outer barrel made of good quality plastics.
Manual focusing feels quite smooth albeit not damped. The broad, rubberized control ring is certainly a plus
compared to the tiny focus ring on the EF 50mm f/1.8 II. The inner lens tube extends slightly (~1cm max) when
focusing towards closer distances.
The lens is a little unusual in the global Canon lens context - it features a micro-USM AF drive
including full-time manual (FTM) override in AF mode. This is a quite
unique combination because FTM is usually available on Canon's ring-type USM drives only.
The AF operation is fast and silent but slightly inferior compared to e.g. the 85mm f/1.8 USM.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. focal length | 80 mm (full format equivalent) |
| Equiv. aperture | f/2.2 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 7 elements in 6 groups |
| Number of aperture blades | 8 |
| min. focus distance | 0.45 m (max. magnification ratio ~1:6,6) |
| Dimensions | 74 x 41 mm |
| Weight | 290 g |
| Filter size | 58 mm (non-rotating) |
| Hood | optional, barrel-shaped |
| Other features | - |
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