Customer Ratings & Reviews

I love this lens and recommend it for professionals and casual shooters both. I shoot a lot of weddings and this year I decided to use primes over zooms for my wedding work and I haven't looked back. I got this lens at Best Buy in Yonkers, NY and I recommend this Canon 50mm f1.4 over the f/1.8 version. Faster and better bokeh. The 1.4 is also built better than the 1.8 version and is the better alternative if you don't have the Cheddar Chee$e for fork over for the King of Kings 50mm f/1.2L. Some reviews on the internet don't give this f/1.4 great ratings because it is soft at f/1.4 to f/2.0. It certainly can be but I don't find that to be the case in all situations. If I'm shooting a portrait of one person and use fill flash, the results from f1.4 to 1.8 are quite excellent. If there's more than 1 person in the frame you want in focus, you should be stopping down anyway, no question about it. This lens is best used at f/2.2 to f/8 IMO.Be aware that this lens doesn't come with a hood, but third party hoods are available for cheap. I always used a lens hood when shooting professionally or personally.

I love this lens! Its my first lens so I may be biased but where's why I love it. The images are so sharp - even in night time with low light. The focus is easy - auto focus mode on the lens is easy to use with my Canon 90D. The lens feels sturdy in the hand and attaches easily. I also got a UV filter and lens hood (3rd party) to protect it from harsh direct light. The lens plays nice with the camera body's internal auto focus system as well. I can focus with the shutter button as well as by tapping the display screen. If you want a lens to get you that Bokeh effect, this is the one! Plenty of other great resources online about how to maximize use of this lens.

This is the perfect lens for headshots. When you need a blurred background this the lens to get it makes doing a photo shoot so easy.

I bought this lense with low light closer up shots in mind. In addition to great photos in low light without flash, I love having the1.4fs for blur and the distance meters. I now have better control on certain focal points.

I had the "nifty 50" and man what an upgrade! Beautiful bokeh. Fast motor. Great sharpness. Definitely a great lens and it pays for itself quickly.

If you are looking for a perfect indoor lens, this one is for you. It works well everywhere too. Two most common indoor photography challenges are lighting and clutter (stuff you don't want in your pictures). This prime lens solves both problems, It's 1.4L aperture is great to capture stunning photos in minimal lights and prime focus blurs everything but the subject. Its ultrasonic motor is fast, gives amazing results with pet photography.

Great for landscape and low light pix. Great background blurr.

This is my second time buying this lens. Nice bokeh, great for portraits and nature.

I absolutely love this lens. With the low aperture you get that really nice background blur for lovely portrait shots. I highly recommend this as a portrait lens.

This lens is amazing and fell in love with in instantly. Highly recommend it, and it is great for capturing photos with bokeh.

I can't say enough good things about this lens. The price is fairly inexpensive for the quality of the image you receive. The bokeh is amazing. I'm sure there are better portrait lenses on the market for Canon, but you can't beat the quality you get from this lens for a mere +/- $400. The large aperture creates an extremely shallow depth of field and allows for easy handheld night shots. My only complaint with this lens would be the focus itself. With the aperture wide open it can be very difficult to get the focus exactly where you want it.

I have been shooting with this lens for a little over a year now. I love the metal mount, solid construction, and near silent AF. The bokeh, as someone else noted is exceptional. The biggest drawback from the lens is when you are shooting down in the F/1.4-2.8 range. The off-center sharpness drops off dramatically down in the range. If you are unaccustomed to it, you can get overly "creamy" or dream-like pictures that may be unsatisfactory. The upside is, at least you can get a clean shot in low-lighting at 1.4. The lens is razor sharp in the F/5.6-7.8 range, and truly excels in this area. At this aperture, the lens rivals its L series big brother (sort of...). Bottom line: Buy the lens, be considerate of sharpness loss in low aperture settings.

This lens is a great investment, especially for beginners. I began my journey with photography using a Canon T3i and the kit lens that came with it. I wasn't satisfied with the low light capabilities of both the lens and the camera itself. With this lens you can stop down to 1.4 which is more than enough for most situations and perfect for portraiture. This is the first full frame lens I've purchased - and love it! *******************************Crop Users***************************** For full frame cameras you will get the field of view as specified, however for a crop sensor camera like the Canon Rebel T3i, the view would be similar to the view of an 85mm on a full frame body (1.7x the focal length). Just something to keep in mind when purchasing this lens - for all the beginners out there. If you want the same field of view on a crop sensor look for a wider lens like a 30mm (30 * 1.7 ≈ 50). Another lens I'd recommend for crop sensor cameras is the Sigma Art 18-35mm f 1.8 lens, which is absolutely phenomenal. ************************************************************************ Anyways, this lens practically lives on my 5D Mark IV and is absolutely versatile for portraits,street photography, architecture, and event photography. I have noticed some chromatic aberration in some backlit scenarios, but overall the sharpness and quality is great! For video, the AF is a bit noisy and gets picked up with the built in microphone, so if you are purchasing this lens for video, just keep this in mind and invest in sound recording equipment (off camera). PROS Build is a little bit of plastic and metal which helps it stay lightweight. Great Focal Length for various categories of photography Great for Low Light! (It's a fast lens - duh!) Bokeh is nice! CONS Photography: Occasional Chromatic Aberration in Backlit Scenarios Videography: AF Motors are a bit noisy

I got this lens for the extra low light for videos and I've got to say that it's actually not that bad. I do have in camera stabilization to make shots more smooth. It's being used on a full frame 6d mk2 . For photos I don't use f1.4, but when I did use it for a glass margarita shot the bokeh was amazing. If you want some serious bokeh for a great price this is the lens. I mostly use this lens for video. If you don't have a stabilizer or built in stabilization you'll need to improvise. The shots in video really do stand out compared to a kit lens. If you're wondering if the 1.4 is worth the price. Trust me it's worth it you won't regret it.

As a long-time user of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens, I was always envious of photographers that owned the f/1.4 version. And then I got one. I would never go so far as to say that this lens is bad in any way... it is, in fact, quite good. But its image quality isn't quite as high as I expected it to be, and it doesn't have anywhere near the bang-for-the-buck of the f/1.8 version. Image quality is only marginally better than the f/1.8, and while it uses a USM motor (not ring-type) to focus, it really doesn't focus that much faster and isn't terribly quiet while doing so. Build quality is better on the f/1.4, but only marginally so. It has a metal instead of plastic mount, but the body of the lens is still plastic. Being able to manually focus at any time is nice, but not something I would consider essential. Having a USM focusing system instead of the micro motor in the f/1.8 does give a feeling of higher quality, if focusing manually is your thing. So I actually have a really hard time recommending this lens to someone who already has nifty fifty. It's only marginally better, yet costs between three and four times as much. Image quality at f/1.4 is a little soft across the entire frame, but it is noticeably worse in the corners. It doesn't really sharpen up fully until f/2.8, but we don't buy this lens to shoot it at f/2.8 -- we buy it so we can shoot in really low light or to get maximum bokeh at f/1.4. If you don't mind some softness, f/1.4 does meet those requirements, but don't expect pictures to be tack sharp when doing so. For photographers looking at lens options, I'd have to recommend getting the 50mm f/1.8, and then the 85mm f/1.8 instead of the 50mm f/1.4. You'd be getting two great lenses for only a little bit more than you'd spend on just this one. The 85mm f/1.8 lens is significantly better than this one in nearly every way, and it is roughly the same price. And 85mm is much better for portrait work (especially on a full-frame body), if that is your intent. If you're looking for a lens for portrait work, just skip right over both 50mm options and go right to something at 85mm or longer. 50mm is a poor choice for portraits. Bottom line, if you're shooting portraits, just get the 85mm instead. For anyone else, unless you need full time manual focus, you've got money to burn, or you're really set on getting the f/1.4 for its slightly better build quality, I'd recommend getting the 50mm f/1.8 instead. It's 90% of what this lens is at roughly a third the price. Then invest what you would have spent on this one into the 85mm f/1.8. But as far as the difference between the f/1.8 lens and this lens, there really isn't that much of a difference. This lens is very good, but so is the f/1.8.

I already had the Canon nifty fifty (50mm f/1.8) prime lens and it still works great. But the build quality leaves a lot to be desired and i wanted this better quality Canon 50mm f/1.4. Besides being a faster aperture (should be a tad better in low light) the build quality is much better and it has good IQ. I debated on getting the "Newer" 50mm f/1.8 STM upgrade. My thoughts were that...that upgrade may be a better buy since the price is the same as the old one. But looking at all the comparisons in specs, this lens (on paper) should have better IQ and build, and it seems to. I like the auto focus, quiet and fast. The bokeh and sharpness is great for a mid level lens. Not the build quality and IQ of the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L, but it's about a 5th the price, and much easier to use for a non Pro. One of the reasons I wanted this upgrade is the metal lens mount it has. My nifty fifty has no metal mount, all cheap plastic. I've read reviews where it may stick to your camera and be hard to get off. The nifty fifty has decent IQ but I didn't think it would hold up over time, or heavy use. But I will keep it as a backup since it so compact and doesn't take up much room.. If one is buying a 50mm prime lens for the 1st time and are looking for a good low cost lens, I'd recommend the "New" Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM upgrade. If one wants a better quality 50mm prime lens with better IQ, and willing to pay a little more, I highly recommend this Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime lens.

This lens is a great example of the 50mm prime lens. It takes gorgeous portraits with the classic sharpness to the subject, but gentle to rather stark shift to soft and fuzzy backgrounds we love based on how you set it. The focus is crisp and fast, while being near silent for those times you want to play with hd video (most are loud enough to be perceptible in the captured audio). At the end of the day it is pricey, but worth every penny of the step up from the basic kit lens because of speed and quality. I really don't want to take it off my camera.

Picked up this 50mm f1.4 to go along with my 85mm f1.8 and Sony 28mm f2 for my Sony A7ii. Use this lens with the MC-11 adapter. At f1.4, the bokeh is wild, sometimes even too much for portraits, depth of field is so shallow. That being said, the quality is great and pics come out great. Autofocus isn’t the best however I use the adapater which can have issues. I bet it has no issues on a canon body. Versatile and great all-round lens.

I've had nothing but fun with this 50mm f/1.4. I had the f/1.8 and there is a big enough difference to justify upgrading. I mainly use mine to to capture the night sky. The photos are crisper and it picks up more stars with less noise. Night landscape photos are awesome as well, pulling in great detail in the edges of the subject. It captures better bokeh than the f/1.8 too, with 7 elements 6 groups rather than 6 elements 5 groups for the f/1.8. At a glance you may not see the difference. But if you're like me you'll see it. I scrutinize my photos to no end. the f/1.8 is an awesome lens in it's own right, and is around $200.00 cheaper that the f/1.4. (I bought this on sale @ $299) If money is your biggest concern then buy the f/1.8. I'm not a pro photographer but the f/1.4 fits comfortable between the f/1.8 and f/1.2 in every way.

I love the 50mm prime. It gives an incredibly soft background and really accentuates your subject. The question is, why would you spend an extra $300 to get the f/1.4 rather than sticking with the f/1.8? The reason is quality. I had a problem with my f/1.8 where it became stuck to my DSLR body. I did some research on the internet, and it seems to be a common problem. The only way to get it off is to break it; the problem is, you can also risk damaging the body as well. Luckily for me I was able to dismantle the lens without any damage to the body, but I knew I wouldn't be getting the f/1.8 again. The issue seems to be the plastic ring in the inside of the lens, you can read more here: http://www.theroastedroot.net/removing-a-stuck-canon-50mm-f1-8-camera-lens/ Save yourself the trouble, get the f/1.4 instead. Plus, you can get even more light with the 1.4 and the quality of the pictures is even better. Win-win.