Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens Review

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Performance

At maximum aperture sharpness is already very good in the centre of the frame, with the clarity towards the edges of the frame falling just below fairly good levels. Stopping down improves sharpness across the frame, with peak performance being achieved at f/8. Here clarity is excellent across the frame.

MTF

How to read our charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column.

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are reasonably well controlled, remaining well below one pixel width at all aperture settings. This low level of fringing should be difficult to spot, even in harsh crops from the edges of the frame.

CA
 

How to read our charts

Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the edges of the frame is quite strong at maximum aperture, with the corners of the frame being 2.6 stops darker than the centre. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the aperture stopped down to f/5.6 or beyond.

Distortion is quite strong for a 50mm lens with Imatest detecting 1.89% barrel distortion. If straight lines are paramount, then you'll be glad to hear that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make corrections straightforward to apply.

No issues with flare were encountered during testing, with only a slight loss of contrast being noticeable when shooting directly into the light at wide apertures. However, no lens hood is supplied as standard, so if you require one for peace of mind, then an ES-68 hood can set you back up to £20.

Value For Money

Currently, this lens is available for around £120, which seems quite reasonable, especially as Nikon's equivalent 50mm f/1.8 currently costs around £135.

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