Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM Review

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fast 1.4 aperture which means excellent low light performance

Cons: Shallow DoF means hard to focus at times. Plastic body

The Bottom Line: 
It is a excellent lens for the price and provides a unique photography experience.

Author's Review
This is probably one of the most popular primes ever sold. It is inexpensive, light and quite a sharp when stepped down a little. This lens is also about a quarter the price of the f/1.2.I have owned a copy of this lens since May of last year and it has opened up a whole new dimension of photography that just wouldn't not have been possible on a standard zoom.
The DoF effect is very very shallow, in fact so shallow that I had trouble at the beginning locking focus on what I wanted. You will be using this lens in Manual focus mode much of the time simply because the AF won't always pick the correct thing to be in focus.
Another benefit is how fast this lens is, I was able to get usable shots at f/1.4 while taking photos during the night safari in Singapore. You are talking about very very low light environments.
Usually it will focus quite fast but there are the occasional issues focusing but it's not very common. Low light focusing is not quite up to speed as this lens is a perfect low light type lens.
Build quality is good but it's still plastic body with a metal mount. However it is not badly put together.

The below link contains some sample images I have taken
http://joelypolly.blogspot.com/search/label/50mm