Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens Review

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens

Canon celebrated the 25th year anniversary of the EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens with ... the announcement of its replacement, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens. The 50mm f/1.8 II was an extremely popular lens, primarily because of its introduction-to-prime-wide aperture and good stopped-down image quality at a very low price. Many had long been waiting for a new 50mm lens from Canon and the 50mm STM Lens appeared to be a significant upgrade while retaining essentially the same ultra-small size and weight. That the new lens remained Canon's lowest-priced definitely produced smiles.
The poorly-constructed 50mm f/1.8 II left many opportunities for upgrades and the 50mm f/1.8 STM addressed a substantial number of them. Here is a list of some differences between these lenses:
  • 7 rounded aperture blades vs. 5 non-rounded (no more pentagonal bokeh)
  • Metal lens mount vs. plastic
  • Improved overall build quality (my original 50mm f/1.8 II broke in half for an unknown reason)
  • Super Spectra Coating
  • A much improved manual focus ring
  • STM vs. Micro Motor (smoother and quieter)
  • FTM (Full Time Manual) focusing (as long as shutter release is half-pressed)
  • 13.8" (350mm) MFD (Minimum Focus Distance) vs. 17.7" (450mm)
  • 0.21x MM (Maximum Magnification) vs. 0.15x
  • 49mm vs. 52mm filter size (though not much of an advantage from my perspective)
  • Narrower f/22 aperture available vs. f/16
  • Accepts normal bayonet-mount lens hood vs. threaded adapter

Focal Length / Focal Length Range

Sometimes, it is easy to justify the purchase of a lens for a subset of its attributes (such as price), but when it is time to select the ideal lens for a particular use, the focal length always becomes a very important attribute. The focal length determines the angle of view which determines the distance required for the desired subject framing and the distance from the subject determines the perspective. Fortunately for this lens, the 50mm focal length has a great number of uses.
On a full frame body, a 50mm focal length appears very natural, approximating how we perceive a scene with our own eyes in field of view and perspective terms. In the film days, a 50mm lens was often available in a 35mm SLR kit, indicating both this focal length's popularity and its general purpose usefulness. While not available in manufacturers' kits today, Canon and Nikon both have four 50mm prime lenses in their lineups, showing the continued popularity of this focal length.
Fifty mm lenses are frequently used in fashion, portraiture, weddings, documentary, lifestyle, sports, architecture, landscape and general studio photography applications including product photography. As noted, a number of the good applications for this lens include people as subjects. A 50mm lens used on a full frame body is modestly too wide angle for tightly framed head shot portraits (a too-close perspective is required for my taste at least), but 50mm is a very good choice for less-tightly-framed head and shoulders, partial body and full body portraits.
Mounted on an APS-C/1.6x FOVCF body, a 50mm lens delivers an angle of view equivalent to an 80mm lens on a full frame body. This tighter angle of view is useful for the same purposes just mentioned and tighter-framed portraits retain a better perspective.
The 50mm focal length can work well for panorama images. I was out in the boat giving the 50 STM some real world use when this iron railroad bridge being lit by a setting sun caught my eye. I captured portions of the bridge in many images, but decided to capture a series of images that could be used for a panorama (which also allowed many sub-images to be cropped out later). The current was moving the boat, so I quickly captured the 10 frames used for creating this 95 megapixel image with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III behind the 50 STM:

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