Okay, this is my second lens test post. Yesterday, I received two lenses in the mail. One was the Canon 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens and the other was the Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. Well, they’re both actually prime lenses, but I like to differentiate.
This lens is a bit different than the 24mm. It’s much more zoomed in. It’s also more susceptible to camera shake. When I was taking these test shots outside just a moment ago, I noticed that I wasn’t getting the sharpness that I was able to get with the wider lens. With that one, the camera shake didn’t seem to matter. With this one, I think I’ll have to use a tripod much more often than not. Again, neither of these lenses have built in image stabilization. I didn’t expect that at only $125 and $129 for the 50mm and the 24mm respectively. By the way, yes, this is the “nifty fifty” that everyone always talks about. This is the most recent iteration with the metal ring as opposed to the plastic one.
Comparing the two lenses, I can already see that I’m not getting as much color with the 50mm. Also, like I said, it’s not as easy to take sharp images either. The 50mm is larger than the 24mm, but I don’t think it weighs any more. And if it does, it’s marginal and not noticeable. When it comes to how close you can bring this lens to your subject, it’s pretty close, but not as close as the 24mm. I think this one is about a foot and that one is about half that.
Let’s get on with the sample shots. Since this has got a huge aperture, I had to test that out.
This is the first photo I took. I don’t like it at all. There’s a strange outline around the flower that’s all the way to the left and the one in the center is far too saturated. I know I could have taken a better photo, but I wanted to show you nonetheless.
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
This shot was a clarity and sharpness test. I think it passed. I held the camera about two feet away from this flower and the details are clearly visible. I cropped the second shot pretty far in so you can see the detail the camera and lens picked up. Not bad, considering there was a light breeze outside and this flower was swaying back and forth. Talk about shallow depth of field.
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
For these next two shots, I wanted to take a look at some different aperture settings. I set the aperture to f/2.8 for the first photo and f/11 for the second. I think I like the second one better. I will tell you that if I was serious out there and if I was using a tripod, I would have locked the ISO down to 100 and let the shutter speed go much slower.
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/180
ISO: 125
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/25
ISO: 800
For these next few shots, I was just messing around. I changed the aperture setting a few times and got lucky that there was no camera shake in any of these. I like each of them. I can definitely see the potential of this lens if I use a tripod in the future. It’s extremely sharp and under the right circumstances, I think it would be a great walk-around lens. I’ll most likely bring both the 50mm and the 24mm with me at all times. And my 18-135mm zoom, of course. It’s just that the zoom lens weighs a ton.
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 125
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 800
Camera: Canon Rebel T7i
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 800
Do you own the Canon 50mm lens? If so, please let me know what you think of it down below. Thanks!
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