| Year | 1979 |
| Lens Groups | 4 |
| Lens Element | 6 |
| Aperature Blades | 5 |
| Minimum Aperture | f/22 |
| Closest Focusing | 0.6 m |
| Max. Magnifcation | 1:10 (0.1x) |
| Filter Size | 52 mm |
| Diameter x Length | 63 x 35 mm |
| Weight | 170 gr (0.37 lb) |
| Hood | BS-52 |
I took this lens for about 30 euro for my Panasonic MFT G6. In my case it becomes a 100mm f1.8 about to and I must say that the quality is excellent. The only use for video but it really is a fantastic lens. With SpeedBooster is like having a 72mm f1.2 to about !!!!
Thousands of these were made so you can get one for almost nothing.
Very light due to use of plastic in construction of the lens.
Good buy if you are on a very tight budget.
Needs a filter to improve contrast and color.
Plastic look, but solidly build this lens offers quite a bit for its price. It may be a bit soft when used wide open, and you may get a bit of flares, but it produces sharp and contrasty results.
Just because it has plastic parts it does not mean that it lacks quality.
This was the kit lens for the AE-1 Program. Originally it came with a 52mm rubber hood, but also has a bayonet mount for other lens hoods. It is a great lens to hone your skills. Unfortunately, I started to notice its flairs as I improved my skills.
As a prime, this lens is one you will use a f/1.8 often. Unfortunately, the corners of the frame are extremely soft on f/1.8 to f/3.5, even if you focus on a subject in the corner area. Even if the corners are in the same DOF, they will be soft. Separating the back/fore-ground exasperates the problem. This is its weakest flaw. This lens is also not ideal for sun bursts or flare, as it has 5 blade aperture, and the berst at f/16 - f/22 soften due to diffraction more so then Canon's midrange prime lenses like 28mm or the Macro 50mm.
To its benefit, there it little chromatic aberration, and the focusing from 0.6m to infinity is very short and fast. Its 52mm filter is small enough to fit filters and the small size and weight allow an easy lens to bring around. This is little distortion, lens then 1% off axis of lines.
I've got about a dozen normal lenses, and none of them is bad, but this is near the bottom in IQ. This is definitely not one of those slower normals that outperform the faster ones. I'd rank it slightly worse than the Minolta Rokkor 50mm f/1.7, although the two lenses have similar IQ issues. This might be slightly sharper at the edges, but it's got more glow. Build isn't bad, but it is quite plastic in feel.
That said, this is a surprisingly pleasant lens to use on a Sony NEX-5. Not sure why it feels better than other FDn lenses on it, but it does.... Perhaps it is because it has the field of view of a 75mm, f/1.8 DOF, and is tiny and light compared to my other normals? Anyway, it sits well on NEX.
As others have noted, this lens really performs well. It is capable of razor sharp images, and it has no "bad habits", as many cheap lenses are known to have. It is far lighter than the old style metal bodied lenses of the same specification due to it's plastic construction, and that is certainly a plus.
Despite the bad rap that many plastic lenses earn, this little gem has a reputation for being consistently good from one example to the other, and it has held up very well over the decades since it was produced. Even the plastic and stamped steel hybrid lens mount holds up with heavy use, as the lens is so stubby and light, that it never sees real stress unless you beat someone with it, or drop your camera on it's face.
Add to that the fact that it is dirt cheap, and it's a good buy. I still have one for use with my FD mount cameras, and I even use it once in a while. The only argument I'll make against this lens is the same argument I make against any f/1.8 FD prime today.... It isn't an f/1.4 lens.
That little numerical difference represents a world of functional difference in daily use. You can buy a fine FD f/1.4 prime for a fraction of it's new price (which is to say they are also cheap), and for a little more weight, and a little larger size, you get a lens that will at least equal the performance of the f/1.8 version in all respects, and then up the ante a good deal by virtue of being able to do some additional things that are just out of the reach of the very fine FDn f/1.8 lens.
So yes, I absolutely love this little lens, and back in the day when I bought mine, it's price advantage over even a used old style FD f/1.4 lens made it my only budget choice, but that is not the case today. It is still the cheapest of the pair (almost free), but used f/1.4 lenses have dropped so far in price (thank you EOS mount), that they have become irresistibly affordable. If you already own an f/1.8 lens, keep it. It won't dry up and blow away. If you are in the market for a 50 mm FD lens, skip this one, and go directly to an f/1.4 version.
You will end up with one of these lenses for free someday as an attached bonus on another Canon FD mount body that catches your eye, so don't spend money on it now. Just add to the $20 or so this lens would cost you today, and when you get about $50 in the pot, you can find an f/1.4 lens that still looks pretty, and has clean optics.
There would be no shame in having this as an only lens. I used this lens for 90% of the photographs in my first public exhibition in Prague in the early '90's and got lots of nice feedback on the quality and sharpness of the images. People forget that it is better to know one lens very very well: to learn by taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures with it how to get the best out of it by the right aperture choice in a given situation and even by the right distance from subject as well. This is such a very inexpensive lens (especially when bought with a camera as a set) and one of such relatively high quality that if it were possible to score the practical value of using just one lens as an only lens against say a collection of better lenses whose individual characteristics are less known by their owner simply by virtue of their number in his kit bag, the present lens would be of higher value to the photographer than the rest. Of course the same could be said of any given lens - so why mention it? Simply because this is the cheapest most readily available lens for the Canon FD mount and is of a sufficiently high quality to make truly world-class images. It compares, for instance, extremely favourably with the one individual 50mm lens that Henri Cartier-Bresson used throughout his whole career. Of course he had the sense to shoot practically every single image at f/8 - the lens's best aperture.
My first ever 50 mm lens and actually my first lens ever. The only reason I sold this was because I don't need it any more what with the 50/1.4 in my bag.