Photo by G. Russell on Flickr

Price

It may seem a little strange to start this review off by talking about price, but the great value of the 50mm f/1.8 II really deserves to be spoken about, as it’s just such an affordable loens to add to your arsenal. For example, it’s only about $150 from Amazon US, or around £100 on Amazon UK.

Photography is an expensive hobby at the best of times, so it’s great to find an excellent lens (which it is, by the way) that doesn’t leave us eating cheese and bread for a month or two…

How Will It Improve My Photos?

This is the biggie – afterall, why would you bother getting a new lens if it’s not going to improve your photography at the end of the day? There are a few reasons why you can benefit from getting the Canon 50mm, and I’ll list them in order of importance (in my opinion, anyway):

1. No Flash Needed

Yep, with this little baby attached to your DSLR, you can put away that little pop-up flash on your camera, because you just won’t be needing it – this lens’ maximum aperture of f/1.8 means that it takes in a whole lot of light at a time, which in turn means that you’ll be able to take sharp shots in lowlight situations with ease.

Don’t believe me? Check out my shot of a friend’s cat, below. It was taken inside at night, with no flash whatsoever:

f/1.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 1600

Check out the sharpness of the cat’s eye!

A shot like this, in such a dark situation, would not have been possible to take without flash with the 18 – 55 kit lens that came with my Canon 500D / T1i – the aperture of that lens just ins’t large enough to allow enough light in. But, with the Canon 50mm f/1.8, I just set it at its maximum aperture, raised the ISO (which is the camera’s sensitivity to light) to 1600, and shot away.

By the way, I did a tutorial on how to take photos in lowlight without using a flash, which you may be interested in too.

2. Shallow Depth Of Field

I love taking shots with a beautifully blurred background; love the way this makes the subject of my photos ‘pop’. And what’s the main way you can achieve such out-of-focus backgrounds? Yep, by using a large aperture again – another reasons why the 50mm’s f/1.8 is just so darn great.

You can see an example of this in the shot below: the nice focus on the eyes, with the background (his body) and foreground (his nose) a lovely blur…

f/1.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 3200

It’s also actually another example of the lowlight performance of the lens, as he is a dark dog, in a very dark room – there’s no way that my kit lens would have been able to take this shot without using flash, but the Canon 50mm had no problems.

Funnily enough, I’ve done a tutorial on how to blur the background in your photos too, which you may find useful.

3. Great Focal Length For Portraits

As most of us are probably using crop-sensor cameras – such as the Canon T2i or T3i – then the 50mm focal length of the lens is very similiar to an 80mm lens of a full-frame camera, and this focal length is just great for portraits. And if that talk of crop-sensors and full-frame doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry, just know that by using the 50mm to take photos of your friends and family, you’re going to get some great results.

The 80mm-equivalent focal length means your subject will look natural, and not distorted – and the wide aperture means you can send the background out of focus with ease.

Check out the portrait of my mum (ah…) below as an example:

f/2.8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 100

I’m pretty sure my mum likes this shot, and she normally hates photos of herself, so the 50m is definitely working well here!

4. It’s Sharp.

Yep, it really is. At f/1.8 it’s good, and at slightly smaller apertures, such as f/2.8, it’s even better. You’ll definitely notice the improvement from your 18 – 55 kit lens.

I’ll include some more shots below – all showing great sharpness:

f/6.3, 1/800 sec, ISO 200

f/2.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 1600

f/2.8, 1/400 sec, ISO 800

f/2.8, 1/3200 sec, ISO 200

Verdict

So, you’re probably thinking I quite like this lens, and you’d be absolutely right! But what of its downsides? Well, you may have heard or read about the build quality of the lens. Yes, it is plasticy, but, you know what? It doesn’t matter. At all. It fits on your camera, and works. Surely that’s all we need it to do? We’re not going to be playing ‘catch’ with it, after all. For amateur/enthusiast photographers, there is just no need to go for a more expensive option just because of the plastic build.

It works, and it works darn well.

A photo I took with this lens was even published in my local newspaper, so, yes, I am quite a fan!

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is available from Amazon US and UK.

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 (photo by pete92009 on Flickr)

As my kit lens already went up to 55mm, the 55 – 250 seemed the perfect counterpart – meaning that with both lenses, I could cover a range of 18  – 250, which is a fantastic range! The Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 is also very good value for such a long telephoto zoom, at around $220 / £150 (you can buy it at Amazon US and UK).

There are lots of reviews of this lens on the ‘net, many going into extraordinarily specific and detailed technical analysis – my review will instead focus (pun intended!) on my ‘real world’ usage of the lens, and will show you some sample photos I’ve taken with the lens. So, without further ado, let’s start, shall we?

My First Day With The Lens

The photo of the robin, below, was taken on the first day I got my 55 – 250:

ISO 500, 1/250 sec, f/5.6

Needless to say, I was impressed with my new lens right away – see the detail of the bird’s feathers, the sharpness of its feet, and the lovely background blur too. Being able to get such a close-up, detailed shot of the robin, without having to be actually standing right next to it (I was a good few metres away when I took this), is fantastic – if I’d got physically nearer, then I would have frightened it away, so my 18 – 55 kit lens would not have been able to take this shot at all.

By shooting ‘racked out’ (which means using the lens at its longest zoom length – in this case 250mm), not only did I manage to capture a detailed close-up, but it also helped to produce that extensively blurred background that looks so good. Using longer focal lengths like this is one way of achieving such a background blur – if you’re interested, you can find out other ways of how to blur the background of your photos in the seperate tutorial I did.

Carry on to part 2: It’s great for wildlife and candid photography —>

All the comparisons are based on the information from Canon, and my own thoughts/analysis on how the camera will thus differ from the 500D (known as the T1i ‘over the pond’) – and, more importantly, what this will mean for our photos and videos.

Resolution

Comparison:

The new 550D (known as the T2i in the US market) sports a class-leading max resolution of 18MP, which is around 20% higher than on the 500D (T1i). That’ll mean photos as large as 5184 x 3456, compared to the 500D’s max of 4752 x 3168.

What will that mean for my photos?

Well, although the increase in Megapixels looks good on paper, and is an obvious selling point, it doesn’t actually mean your photos are going to look that much – if at all – better. In theory it means you will be able to record more detail, and print out larger prints – but you would only need this extra resolution if you were printing larger than A2! If you never print larger than A3 (have you ever printed larger than that?) then you wouldn’t notice a difference.

However, one plus point for the extra resolution is that it means you can crop more of a picture whilst still retaining a lot of quality – handy when you can’t compose the best possible shot at the time, so you can crop and make a great composition at home.

In the real world, though, and if you’re not a professional photographer wanting to produce wall-sized prints, then this extra resolution is definitely not a reason to go for the 550D over the 500D.

‘Real World’ Winner:

It’s a draw, as both cameras offer more than enough megapixels to produce fantastically detailed and large prints, even when cropped.

Video Mode

Comparison:

The new 550D can record Full-HD videos – 1080p at 30 frames a second. The 500D can also record video at the same resolution, but at a lower rate of 20 frames a second. Both cameras also support video recording at lower resolutions. The 550D has an external microphone socket, which is not found on the older model.

See below for a little video showcasing the video modes on the 550D and 500D (with a bit of 7D thrown in too!)

What will that mean for my videos?

If you like taking lots of Full-HD video (and why wouldn’t you, 1080p vids look spectacular) then the higher frame rate of 30fps on the 550D is for you. Action videos on the 500D can look a bit jerky due to its lower frame rate, so this boost to 30 fps is a really welcome feature.

Both cameras have an onboard mono microphone for recording the sound for your movies, but the 550D also has an external microphone slot, enabling the truly serious videographer to plug in a much better mic for stereo sound.

‘Real World’ Winner:

For people getting either camera mainly for still-photo use, and for the occasional video, then the higher frame on the 550D is not an issue. But for those taking lots of video, and especially video of action, then the smoother frame rate is a definite plus of the newer model – the 550D wins here.

LCD Screen

Comparison:

The 550D’s LCD screen is a wider format than the 500D’s (3:2 compared to 4:3), and offers a slightly higher resolution (1,040,000 vs 920,000).

What will that mean for my photos?

As both cameras actually take photos in a 3:2 format, then the matching 3:2 size LCD on the 550D means the whole screen can be used to view your photos (and compose the picture if using LiveView). The 500D’s 4:3 format means that the whole of the screen isn’t used when viewing your taken photos – there will be little black bars either side.

This, combined with the higher resolution, means your photos will be a joy to behold, and have the practical advantage of it being a little easier to check they have pin-sharp focus.

‘Real World’ Winner:

Another draw – the change in format and slight increase in resolution is not a reason to go for the more expensive model. Photos already look fantastic on the 500D’s screen – an everyday user is not going to notice much of a difference at all.

A short video of the 550D

Sensitivity/ISO

Comparison:

Both cameras have an ISO range from 100 – 12800. 6400 and 12800 are available in the ‘expanded’ range on the older model, whereas 6400 is included in the ‘normal’ range on the 550D (only 12800 is in the ‘expanded’ range). The 550D also has adjustable Auto-ISO settings.

What will that mean for my photos?

Both cameras will take great photos in real low light, with little noise (‘grain’) apparent in the images. The fact that ISO 6400 is now in the ‘normal’ range on the 550D should also mean that it has better performance than the same ISO on the older model – so this means you’ll be able to take photos in low-light with quick shutter speeds – vital for taking non-flash indoor photography, for example.

The other selling point, adjustable Auto-ISO, means that you’ll be able to tell the 550D never to go higher than, for example, ISO 800 when shooting in Auto ISO. On the older model, there are times when you could be shooting in Auto ISO and the camera would choose a really too high ISO – say, 3200 – to get what it deems as an acceptable shutter speed. This can result in images that could have been perfectly fine using a lower ISO, and thus have an overall better image quality. Now you can set an ISO threshold so you know the camera will never go to those higher ISOs unless you want it to.

‘Real World’ Winner:

The 550D takes the crown on this one, especially if you’ll be shooting with ISO set to Auto most of the time – the ability to set a max ISO means you’ll never be shocked by an incredibly high ISO again!

Action Photos / High Speed Continuous

Comparison:

The 550D can take more shots in a second – 3.7 compared to the 500D’s 3.4. On the other hand, the newer camera has a smaller image buffer of 34 JPEG/6 RAW, compared to the 500D’s 170 JPEG/ 9 RAW.

What will that mean for my photos?

Both cameras will enable you to take lots of photos really quickly, enabling you to hold the shutter down and take nearly 4 photos a second – perfect for getting that amazing action shot.

Although the 550D has a slightly higher rate, you would be hard pushed to notice any difference between the two models’ performance – the slight increase in 0.3 photos in a second is just not going to make any difference. If we were comparing 3.4 fps to an 8 fps model, which obviously takes more than twice the amount of photos in the same timescale, then that would definitely increase your chances of getting the perfect shot – but the small difference between the 550D and 550D is not worth the upgrade at all.

Likewise, one of the only on-paper ‘cons’ of the newer model, the smaller buffer size (which means the amount of photos the camera can keep in its memory before slowing down operations by having to write to the memory card) is not going to be noticeable – who takes more than 34 continuous photos anyway…?!?

‘Real World’ Winner:

A definite draw – the slight increase in frame rate on the 550D is not going to be noticed in the real world at all, and, likewise, its smaller buffer will go unnoticed too.

An action shot I took with my 500D

Storage / Memory Cards

Comparison:

Both cameras accept SD and SDHC memory cards. The 550D can also use the new SDXC format.

What will that mean for my photos and videos?

It means you’ll be able to take lots of photos before your memory card filling up, especially if you’re using an 8GB card or higher. For people who want to take a truly mammoth amount of photos and videos (I’m talking to you, Mr Spielberg wannabe!) then the new 550D supports SDXC cards, which can go up to a massive 2 TB – that’s 2000GB of storage!

In the real world, though, this is not an advantage at all – for instance, I use a 16GB SDHC card on my 500D, and can take days and days worth of photos and videos, on the highest quality settings, and still never come close to filling it – I can’t see why anyone would ever want more than 16GB on a card. I’d actually say it’s more dangerous to rely on one huge memory card anyway – if I was going travelling for a month, for instance, I would take a few 16 GB cards, and if one of those cards ‘failed’ then at least I’d have my other 2 to shoot with. If I’d just taken 1 200GB SDXC card, and that ‘failed’ on me, then I wouldn’t have anything else to shoot with, and thus no more ‘memories’ of my trip…

‘Real World’ Winner:

Another draw – the extra storage offered on the new SDXC cards, that only the newer camera accepts, is not needed at all.

Conclusion

In short, both of these are fantastic cameras, that will enable you to take professional quality photos and video.

If price is of absolutely no concern to you, or you want the camera as much for video as you do for photos, then I would definitely go for the newer 550D – the 1080p frame rate of 30fps compared to the 500D’s 20fps, and external mic support, makes the 550D a truly great video tool.

On the other hand, if you’re on a smaller budget, or just won’t be using the video mode all that much (and, hey, the older 500D still has 1080p video!) then I would definitely go for the 500D, as the 550D will not take noticeably better photos at all.

You can buy both cameras at Amazon:

If you’re in the UK you can get the new 550D via this link, and the older 500D here.

If you’re US based, the new 550D (known as the T2i) can be ordered here, and the older 500D (known as the T1i) here.

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