Finding a good cheap 50mm lens for Canon DSLR cameras has been the quest of many a photographer. Read on because you might be very amazed.

A 50mm lens is practically a requirement for every single lens reflex camera owner. This premise still is the belief of many photographers who have been around the photo industry for a long time. The development of zoom lenses has made the "50mm rule" a relic. Many photographers who are new to the business or hobby are not aware of the premise at all.

However, when you consider the quality of images that are produced with prime lenses verses zoom lenses, the prime lenses win almost every time.

Going out on a limb, I contend that every photographer should have a 50mm Canon lens in his or her bag. The reason is that Canon developed the engineering to a point of perfection.

It's a logical conclusion when you really think about it. Changes in focal length that happen during the "zoom process" necessitate much more complex technology to deal with unwanted effects like barrel distortion or vignetting. Simply upgrading a piece of lens glass with a better one is easy (if there is a new development in that area), there is no need for completely re-engineering the whole lens process.

Right now there are actually three(3) models of the 50mm Canon lens (well, 4 if you take into consideration the 50mm Canon macro).

• 50mm f/1.2 L - expensive but fantastic (it's an L lens)

• 50mm f/1.4 - medium price and fantastic

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II - very affordable (cheap even) but produces excellent image quality

It's a simple list, and they look pretty much the same. The aperture and the quality of construction are where the differences come in to play. The first two on the list are more solidly built and have more lens glass than the third one. However, when you view the images from each lens, you will not find much difference at all. To a "normal" viewer there will be very little noticable difference in the photos from these lenses (that is someone who is not trained to look for imperfect pixels).

In order to make a 50mm Canon lens available to virtually every Canon DSLR owner, they have taken the finest lens technology for the inner workings and added a less expensive exterior to create the 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens.

Aside from producing really good images, this cheap 50mm lens for Canon cameras has another really distinct advantage for photographers who are just entering the digital SLR market with cameras such as the Rebel or the newest mid-range 60D model. Since those types of cameras have a "crop sensor", the image is more like one shot with an 80mm lens (this is 1.6 x 50mm), which makes this lens perfect for portraits and other mid-range focal length requirements.

Here is the plain truth. If you purchase any zoom lens in the $100 price range, you will definitely be getting a consumer grade product with less than stellar image quality. Wouldn't you rather spend the same $100 on a cheap 50mm lens and get really excellent image quality?

Yes, the build quality of the lens is a bit "toyish" in feel, but the output is nothing less than great.

If you take care of this little lens, you will have fantastic photos for a long time.