|
The Canon 50mm
f1.4 USM Lens! |
When I travel abroad, I invariable take my
Canon 5D MK I DSLR camera and my Canon 24-105L Lens.
 As a backup, I always
take along the Canon 50mm f1.4 USM Lens and pop it in a corner of my
shoulder bag.
The 50mm f1.4 is probably one of the cheapest Canon lenses available and
it was my very first purchase. For the life of me, I don't know why I
have taken it for granted and why I don't use it more?
The lens is a pleasure to use on my Canon 5D and most suitable for 'low light' shots
at aperture f1.4 wide open and especially for night shots, even when the combo is hand held.
The lens hood can be reverse fitted and the lens is lightweight and compact in
the bag.
All the reviews that I have
read, state that the Canon 50mm lens is soft at f1.4 and sharp
thereafter but I have no
complaints regarding it's performance at f1.4 wide open.
When fitted to my Canon 5D the combo is relatively light and I can carry
it around in one hand without any problems. When I use the strap and
leave it hanging around my neck, there is no neck or shoulder pain.
These
three shots were all taken 'hand held' with the aperture wide open at f1.4
with the Canon 5D DSLR.
The 1st one is a ISO:1600 example and the remaining two are ISO:800.
This 'sunset and boats' image was taken at aperture f5.6 with the
shutter speed raised to 1/800sec to 'freeze' the boat movements on the
water.
 I love the colours from this lens with the 'full frame' Canon 5D MK I
DSLR camera and all the images in this article were shot as 'RAW' files
and post processed in Adobe Lightroom.
Very little post processing was
applied, no noise reduction and only slight tweaks to saturation,
contrast and brightness.
There is a serious bonus to using this lens on a Canon 5D MK I DSLR and
that is, there is usually very little to 'post process' when converting
'RAW' files to tiff and jpeg formats.
The Canon 50mm f1.4 USM Lens specifications are -
-
7 Elements in 6 Groups
-
8 Blades
-
Fast f/1.4 aperture
-
Standard 46° angle of
view
-
USM focus motor with
full-time manual focus override
-
45cm closest focusing
distance
-
Aspherical lens element
-
58mm filter size
-
Weight 290g
If you have enjoyed this article - please donate to my
Charity of Choice -
The Sick Kids
Richard Lawrence
Scotland
United Kingdom
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