The Plastic Fantastic gets a Drastic Upgrade

I have used my 50mm f1.8 mkII since I began photography and I loved the results I got from it. The shallow DOF, large aperture for low light, everything. However, the main things that particularly bothered me was how inaccurate it focused and how cheaply it was built. I lived with it and didn't stop me getting the results I wanted.

Once I seen the STM version come out, I was certainly intrigued. People sang praises of it but I wanted to see for myself, so I bought it.

I was floored by the upgrade in build quality. The plastic is much more robust and more akin to the engineering plastic on my 100mm f2.8L macro lens. It has a metal mount, which is fantastic. 7 curved blade aperture design = I can now finally stop down without horribly shaped bokeh. I feels good in my hand and the improved focusing ring is so much better.

The STM motor is also VERY accurate. My hit rate went from 50-60% to 80-90% with this lens. It's also quiet and faster to AF. My only gripe with it however is that it's manual focus can only be used when holding the shutter button down in AF, or when the camera is metering in MF. You cannot use it outside these as the focusing ring is only triggering the motor, rather than being directly linked to the focusing mechanism. However for the much increased AF accuracy, I can live with that.

Another grip is the filter thread, which is 49mm rather than the previous 52mm. Time to get another adapter ring methinks!

Optically, it seems a little bit better. Not much to write here, but I didn't have issues with the optical quality of my previous 50mm.

I highly recommend this over the previous 50mm. It's sold at a similar price but it's a much better lens overall.

Here's some photos I've taken with it:

f2.8 - no horrible pentagon bokeh!

Wide open it looks similar to the previous 50mm.

I enjoyed your post, both the insight from your experiences AND the pics you shared.   It seems that Canon has several STM lenes that are good value for the money.   

Thanks for sharing this info here,

Mike

I tried using a Cokin A series filter holder with mine and the lens wasn't happy. The focus motor just made lots of noise and couldn't move the weight.

So, I picked up cheap 49mm CPL and ND filters instead.

I do love the lens hood. With it on you don't need to be concerned with leaving the barrel extended.

Steve Balcombe wrote:

shleed wrote:

My only gripe with it however is that it's manual focus can only be used when holding the shutter button down in AF, or when the camera is metering in MF. You cannot use it outside these as the focusing ring is only triggering the motor, rather than being directly linked to the focusing mechanism.

I don't have any STM lenses yet, but I've been thinking about picking up one of these to replace my ageing 50/1.8 MkI. However manual focus in Live View is very important to me, and I can sometimes spend several minutes setting up a subject, adjusting focus multiple times. How does that work in practice? Will I have to half-press the shutter button each time to enable focusing?

It works fine in live view since it's always metering.
Outside live view, you have to make sure it's metering to keep it working, otherwise half tap the shutter button. You only need to hold it if it's on AF in order to do manual override.

trulandphoto wrote:

I tried using a Cokin A series filter holder with mine and the lens wasn't happy. The focus motor just made lots of noise and couldn't move the weight.

So, I picked up cheap 49mm CPL and ND filters instead.

I do love the lens hood. With it on you don't need to be concerned with leaving the barrel extended.

I wouldn't use a massive filter holder for it - I've my 17-40 for that. It works fine with my polariser though, despite all the adapter rings.