lightweight and sharp

poor contrast wide open, plastic feel, poor auto focus, unreliable

Ive owned this lens for 2-3 years and while its been good for low light with a Canon 5dMk 2, its build quality and reliability has not been good. Problems with focus jamming and rough manual focus was intolarable. I regretted not paying a bit more and buying a Sigma 50mm F1.4. Ive given this piece junk away now and bought a Sigma 50mm F1.4 which is excellent.

Customer Service

none at all the lens worked OK for a year and jammed on a wedding shoot,

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 50mm F1.4
Nikon 50mm F 1.8

Size, weight, speed, build is solid.

Dof is very shallow and often makes it hard to get the shot just right.

Thought I'd love this one a lot more than I do. When you are use to the
wider perspective of a 17-40 or 28mm, 50mm is a short tele on a crop
sensor camera.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28 2.8,17-40,70-200

light-weighted, consolidate and comfortable structure

Relatively less delicate AF

The perspective of canon ef 50mm (46 degree) on crop body(450D) is equal to 80mm (30 degree) on full frame (5D). So the angle looke like a bit narrower than expected. IT's sort of a little wider for portraits and a little narrower for scenary.
But the accuracy of focusing plus compact size with solid build is fully worth the reasonable price.
I prefer this lens to standard zoom lenses like efs 17-85mm I've owned as a kit lens.

Customer Service

Not noteworthy

Similar Products Used:

None

Sharp photography and the f1.4 maximum aperture gets you out of hairy situations with low light where flash is not allowed (such as museums).

Decent Weight
Small and unobtrusive
Great build quality - you can really feel the elements. Compare this the 50mm f1.8 (which is actually a great lens). This feels solid rather than plasticky.
Quietly focuses

AF can hunt in low light

Good street photography lens and decent indoors. Definitely my lens of choice for most shots still.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

EF 24-70 f2.8 USM
EF 70-200 f2.8 IS USM
Sigma 20mm

* Sharp
* Lightweight
* Fast AF
* Great bokeh
* Silent AF (USM)

* Expensive (Compare to Nikon/Minolta)
* Banding issue on my EOS 30D on continous shoot mode (and I heard to EOS 5D as well)

One of the must have standard lens for Canon SLR user. Usable on low light shooting

Customer Service

none

Similar Products Used:

EF 85 mm f/1.2L
T/SE 90 mm f/2.8
EF 135 mm f/2L
Summicron 50 mm f/2