Canon EF 50mm f1 4 USM Standard and Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Canon EF 50mm f1 4 USM Standard and Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Standard lens featuring superb quality and portability. Two high-refraction lens elements and new Gaussian optics eliminate astigmatism and suppress astigmatic difference. Crisp images with little flare are obtained even at the maximum aperture.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars very happy
I saved money getting from here, and it came pretty quickly. I am taking a photography course, and love this new lens. It is now the only lens I keep on my camera, it is perfect for portrait shots. My kids look amazing and people have been commenting on how good my photos are lately. Their face are so clear and the background can get very blurry and beautiful, it looks like a professional took these shots. I definitely recommend this lens and this website to anyone.

4 Stars A good quality prime lens with just one objection
The EF 50mm f/1.4 USM is a reasonably well-built lens and offers commendable optical quality. The focusing is quick and quiet in spite of the low cost micro-USM motor. The bokeh quality is excellent, and the full-time manual focusing feature becomes very handy when the camera picks the wrong focus target at a shallow depth of field. Many users regard this lens as slightly soft when the aperture is wide open, but for low-light settings, sometimes the only choice is slightly soft or entirely unusable, and being able to stop clear out to 1.4 is then beneficial. The use of a 58mm filter ring ensures access to a wide range of quality filters at reasonable prices.

In most respects the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM is worth the upgrade from the EF 50mm f/1.8 II, which begs the question of why Canon designed the front element to travel outside of the lens barrel during focusing. That sort of cost-saving measure is expected on a $100 basic lens like the EF 50mm f/1.8 II, but not on a higher-end prime costing over $300. Fortunately, the moving front element does not rotate on either of these lenses, so position-sensitive filters such as circular polarizers and partial-gradient ND filters will not be disrupted by focusing operations. However, other popular mid-grade Canon primes have no external movement, including the EF 20mm f/2.8 USM, EF 28mm f/1.8 USM, and EF 85mm f/1.8 USM.

A first-time dSLR user would be better served with the 50mm f/1.8 II, and higher-end buyers would be better served with the 50mm f/1.2L, if for no other reason than to delete the external travel on the lens barrel. For everyone else, the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM is an essential part of any well-rounded camera kit.

5 Stars Great lens, especially for the price
I really enjoy using this lens. It is becoming my new go-to lens for everything except distance shots. Great depth of field thanks to the 8 blade bokeh. Definitely recommend this over its cheaper brother. Works amazing in low light and takes super vibrant picture on 1.4. I cannot comment on the durability because I have not had the lens for long. It seems to be sturdier than my tamron lenses.

4 Stars Good lens, but if on a budget get the 1.8
I recently upgrade from the Canon 50mm 1.8II while it has its obvious upgrade (1.4, USM, better builds etc.) I dont find the pictures that much different besides flare resistance. overall its a good lens and a good value

Like I said if you’re on a budget get the 1.8, or if you have the cash or are planning on keeping this lens for 2-3 years just get the 1.4.

1 Star Skip the headache and the heartache and go for a better lens
I love all my canon gear. I have a 50mm 1.8 and upgraded to this as I have progressed in my photography. Unfortunately, I have had the same sort of trouble the other reviews have stated. At this point I only have had trouble with the focus under f2.2. Every shot lost in two photo shoots and I had not realized until after researching on the internet as to why.

No trouble with the AF failing as of yet, but I’m pretty disgusted that I have to redo two shoots – wasting both my time and the models time. Shame on you Canon!

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Panasonic Lumix DMC FH20 14 1 MP Digital Camera with 8x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2 7 Inch LCD Black

Panasonic Lumix DMC FH20 14 1 MP Digital Camera with 8x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2 7 Inch LCD Black

The 28mm wide-angle lens lets you easily capture large groups of people indoors or expansive architectural structures and scenes with dynamic width and rich perspective, even from short distances.The DMC-FH20 sports a powerful 8x optical zoom lens (35mm camera equivalent: 28-224mm). This gives you highly natural expressions from people and animals that you can’t get close to. And its slim, compact, pocket-sized body can easily go wherever you do for both everyday snapshots and traveling.When you don’t know which mode will give you the best shooting results, or when a sudden photo opportunity pops up and you don’t have time to make any settings, simply choose iA (Intelligent Auto) mode by simply pressing the dedicated button and let the camera do it all for you. You just choose iA mode, aim at your subject, and shoot. 4 detection and correction functions are simultaneously activated to optimize the settings, so you get stunning photos every time.The DMC-FH20 can record motion images in high-definition (1,280 x 720 pixels at 30 fps in motion JPEG format). The pixel mixed readout method enables bright motion-image recording even in low-light settings. The DMC-FH20 can also record full-size motion images in WVGA (848 x 480 pixels at 30 fps) or standard motion images in VGA (640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps) and QVGA (320 x 240 pixels at 30 fps).The energy-saving Venus Engine IV image-processing engine and the efficient, rechargeable lithium-ion battery which has been slimmed down to fit into thinner camera bodies work together to extend the shooting time of the DMC-FH20. This lets users take approx. 300 shots on a single battery charge.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Very nice multi-feature compact, but people images are poor.
Purchased the Panasonic Lumix FH20 for the multiple features and was especially pleased with the ‘IA’ mode, it’s 28-144 mm equivalent 8X zoom, SD, SDHC, SDXC memory, long battery life and this camera’s compact size.

Numerous positive attributes of this Panasonic FH20 have been presented by other reviewers.

Unfortunately all our attempts at capturing people images were uniformly disappointing. We considered buying the Panasonic SZ1, SZ3, SZ5, SZ6 and even the SZ7. These cameras have similar and even better features than the FH20, and the latter all have Leica Lens, and all these cameras are rated highly. When our FH20′s people pics were transferred to a 19″ screen, the colors were so poor in facial features as to be unacceptable. All the people pics looked cyanotic and it was impossible to post process the images to improve the bluish lips and sickly appearance that the Panasonic electronics suffered on all the people images we captured. This was true regardless of the lighting when these numerous images were acquired. To minimize subjectivity, I strongly suggest visiting [...] and evaluating images on ‘Comparometer’. Compare the mannequin color with a known, good image, or simply transfer your people images to your own computer and assess faces, lips, eyes etc. Returned our FH20 today after two weeks of taking pictures.

Would still really like a compact point and shoot with all the great features of the before listed Panasonic Lumix cameras but desire the pics of people to look healthy and show correct contrast, saturation and hues. I was unable to fix any of our deficient ‘people’ images with “Photoshop Elements”. We currently own a 2006 Canon A630 and a 2008 Canon SX10is and we’d purchase a Canon SX200is or a SX210is, for better people pics. Want a compact that has similar features as the listed “Lumix”, but the listed Canons SX’s are pricier and also have their own flaws.

My background includes years of experience with SLR film cameras as well as digital image acquisition and subsequent post processing. Still looking to buy a digital with features most similar to the Panasonic Lumix ZS5, but want and demand better people images. Thought this ‘FYI’ might be of benefit to those want an all around compact digital camera that also capture good people face pics. Do research and hunt the good camera.

5 Stars what a great camera!
this is an exceptional camera. it takes beautiful pictures and videos and is crazy easy to use. the only thing i would strongly suggest is to purchase the camera ANYPLACE ELSE THAN AMAZON.COM! there customer service sucks as well as there shipping

5 Stars Lumix
This is a great camera. I went to a couple of independent product websites to see what the best point and shoot cameras were and this camera kept coming up as recommended, I see why. It is easy to use and takes super pictures and video. The sound on the video is amazing. Pictures very sharp. The only problem I had was the 14 mega pixil, takes up so much space that you have to minimize the photos before emailing them to someone or else they are too big to send. Great size ans weight, works well in an urban landscape.

5 Stars Fantastic Point and Shoot Camera
As soon as I got this camera I went outside and took the most beautiful pictures of my garden! It is very simple to use, the features are almost totally fool proof, (And I’d know, I tested them well!) and the quality is great. One note, the file size that the pictures download to on the computer, at least for me were HUGE. They took a long time to download, and you can’t email or attach them to anything really unless you can find a way to reduce the size. I’m still working on it myself. Other than that it’s great. It’s sleek, attractive, easy to carry for smaller hands, and just a really good buy for a beginner.

2 Stars Not That Good in Low Light
I know that point and shoot cameras are not supposed to be that good in low light, and I read reviews stating that this camera was good in low light, so I bought it. Perhaps my expectations are too high, but I believe I should be able to take a picture of someone from 6 feet away, indoors, with the lights on, and with flash on, and not have a picture that looks grainy. The graininess is evenly distributed and it resembles a matte photo print. This has the effect of taking away edge details and making the picture look flat. It is unacceptable to me and I almost prefer to use my older 5MP camera which doesn’t seem to have this problem so much. The same problem occurred to a slightly lesser extent when I took pictures outside on a semi-cloudy day. HD Video has the same graininess in the same light conditions. I suspect this problem is caused either by a less than adequate lens or the jpeg compression. By the way, you cannot select what quality picture you want. The camera uses who knows what compression level and saves everything as jpeg. You can only select from different picture sizes.

Another shortcoming of this camera is the build quality. The battery door is made of a flimsy plastic that can easily break if you are not careful while it is open. I also don’t like the shape of the edges of the camera. They are rounded in such a way that the camera feels like it will slip out of my hands.

The only plus side I found with this camera was the relative speed of the shoot cycle. I think it is something like 1 or 1.5 seconds between pictures, and it feels peppy. Not sure about the claims of a fast shutter. I was using the “intelligent” auto setting and there were times when the picture had some blur around my subject who was moving around slowly.

For what it’s worth, I was also testing the Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 and it had performed better in the same low light conditions. There was still some graininess, but it was much more palatable to me. Main drawback of the Olympus is the long cycle time.

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