CanonEF 50 mm 1.8 STM Lens - Compact and Lightweight Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras, Fast Aperture, Smooth Focusing - Ideal for Portraits and Creative Photography

I've just bought this lens to replace my 50mm f1.8 lens which fell apart after 6 years use. I was attracted by others' reviews and the compact design, fast aperture of 2.8 and the fact it's an EF lens so when I eventually upgrade to a full frame Canon, it will still be useful. I've been using it for best part of a week so far and I'm very pleased with it. It's great in low light, ultra compact and great build quality for the money. I paid £150 with p&p, and it's already come down 20 quid in price, but it's worth the extra 20 quid and more.The lens has more detail throughout the frame than my old 50mm f1.8 II Canon lens and I am now feel i should have gone straight to this lens in the first place. It gives me 64mm focal length on my 1.6 x cropped sensor of the 60D I use, which to be fair is perfect for group shots and portraits. I'm slightly more in the face of portrait subjects than with the 50mm, but the lens has a much smaller profile being a pancake design, so it hasn't yet seemed to intimidate any of my subjects. The focusing is quick and near silent. I've used the manual focus ring on the lens which is oddly, but cleverly electronic, so there is a fraction of a second delay, but it's still quicker than auto focus (depending on you of course and how quickly your eyes focus on the viewfinder). The build quality is excellent and it has a nice weighty feel in the hand, but feels perfectly balanced on the camera. Shots are sharp throughout the frame at all apertures that i have found, whereas the 50mm 1.8 could soften a little round the edges at f1.8 (but was ok from around f3.2 and above).I can see me using this lens for most shots now other than wide angle shots. It's not often i use zoom functions on my longer lenses, so this could be my 'walk around lens'. Each to their own i know, but i love it. The 50mm lens was a great lens, but unfortunately, the ease at which it appears to have broken (haven't a clue how it happened, because I didn't drop it or knock it) has put me off buying another. If I ever do go for another 50mm it will probably be the £1200 L series f1.2 when i eventually upgrade to a 5d III.....one day. Right now, that's far too expensive for me to justify as I'm not a pro (not yet anyway ;-)) Right now, this lens fulfils 90% of shooting requirements from a focal length point of view. Clever Canon.It's made in Malaysia, not Japan, which was my only slight apprehension when buying this lens, but I'm very pleased so far and the build quality is great as i said.If you don't quite want to stretch to £300ish for the f1.4 50mm and are, like me, now non-confident in the 50mm 1.8 II, this 40mm f2.8 EF is a great, economically in between alternative and i highly recommend it. By the way, I ordered it on a week day in the morning and had it by tea time the next day direct from Amazon.

I must have watched over 10 YouTube videos on this lens, and read 20+ articles and reviews on websites before getting it.I'm not able to easily just buy lenses, as they cost ££££...The price seamed to good to be true, it's a real bargain, hence why I researched it thoroughly before buying it.My advice get it, it's sharper than most canon lenses, right into the corners. Even the 50mm 1.4 is not as sharp as this lens.UPDATE after a monthOk so first off when you buy this lens, one major thing to be aware of, it's quite commonly sold with an old version of the firmware.If the serial number on the lens is xx0, or xx1 even xx2 then you have the older firmware, e.g if the third digit on the serial number is less than 3 you need to update the firmware from the old 1.10. To the new 1.2.0The reason for this is there is a fault with the lens, where it gets sort of jammed and won't focus if pressure is applied to the front of the lens or the focus ring.This problem is completely resolved in firmware version 1.2.0, if your Lens serial number is xx3, e.g the 3rd digit is a 3 or higher, the lens is a newer version and already has the update.I ordered my lens from amazon in 2013 and was a little surprised it had an older serial number xx2, and needed this firmware update to be done by myself.Ok so to update the firmware, you need a camera with the ability to update "lens" firmware, which only the eos 650D, the 700D and the 5D mark iii can do.I got lucky and a friend has the 700D, I put the firmware file on an SD card (available from canon website) took my lens and SD around to his house and updated my lenses firmware In what took a few seconds At most,I was not able to do this on my older canon 60D, so was lucky he had a more recently released camera.Right now that's out of the way, and please don't let the firmware put you off, you could pop into a camera shop and ask them to do this for you too, sure most palaces would help you use a display. Model of the 5D mark iiii to do it,Otherwise you will have to send it to canon, but that feels a bit like overkill,Sooooo back to the actual lens, it's truly my favourite lens, I hardly use my zooms, my 50mm f1.8 or kit lens.... This little 40mm f2.8 is just so sharp from corner to corner and has such little distortion or chromatic aberration that it quite simply gives me the best photos out of my camera iv ever taken.I love the 40mm it's superb on a crop sensor 60D, it makes the camera so light weight and small, compared to any other lens, that I removed the strap and camera bag, and carry my DSLR in my coat pocket, like its a bridge camera, which means I have my camera with me more often, and thus can take more street photography and pics of the kids.The lens enables you to use your DSLR is a more subtle, small camera way, I feel less self conscious using my camera In busy public places with this lens, and the beauty is it's taking superbly sharp photographs, better than some bigger lenses.So in summary, it's small, it makes your camera (especially a non heavy crop 60D) super handy and portable in your pocket, it takes crazily sharp beautiful photos, and costs less than 99% of the lenses canon make, it should cost more as the build quality and image quality are as good as the more expensive 50mm F1.4, which it actually out performs when both lenses are set to F2.8, it's far sharper!! Than the 50mm especially in the corners where the 50mm goes a bit soft. Yes it's not as great I'm low low light as an F1.8 or F1.4, but it's blumin close, and does create nice broker,So it's really a win win lens, seriously stop reading this, go buy it and love how your camera suddenly becomes a pocket camera, (largish pockets) that's super sharp, and less attention grabbing.