How Good Is Canon's Mirrorless Nifty Fifty Lens?

Canon's RF 50mm f/1.2L lens is absolutely fantastic, but at $2,299, it is anything but cheap. On the other hand, the RF 50mm f/1.8 costs less than a tenth that of its f/1.2 cousin. Does it offer usable performance despite its budget price? This excellent video review takes a look at the lens and the kind of performance you can expect from it in practice. 

Coming to you from Ted Forbes with The Art of Photography, this excellent video review takes a look at the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens. A nifty fifty is one of the most useful lenses any photographer can have, offering a very neutral focal length suitable for a wide range of applications in tandem with a wide maximum aperture that offers shallow depth of field and low-light capabilities. Canon's RF version brings a couple of upgrades over its EF predecessors, including a precision-molded aspherical element for reduced distortion and increased sharpness, Super Spectra coating for reduced flares and ghosting and increased contrast, configurable Control Ring, STM motor suitable for both photo and video work, and rounded seven-blade diaphragm for smoother bokeh. Check out the video above for Forbes' full thoughts on the lens. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

Log in or register to post comments
4 Comments

When I click on a text article, I expect the information promised by the headline to be in text form. I dont have 12 minutes to watch a video (which also makes unwelcome noise) to glean the same information I could read in about 3 or 4 minutes.

Nice. I thought we would never know if it’s any good or not. 3 “reviews” with the same title is definitely not enough to cover a $200 lens so please keep’em coming!

Screw canon and thier nifty 50. Thankfully my 501.4 ef has been a champ for many years.. otherwise I'd be forced to get an L version for triple the price. They never updated the 50 1.4, a update that would be guaranteed money... After more than 20 years (!). And now they want you to get this or a 2k 50mm..... Hell no

Well if the rumor of Sigma and Tamron releasing RF mount glass holds true, you/we will hopefully have a few sub $1000 50mm’s to choose from. Fingers crossed for Sigma and Tamron.