Which Canon 50mm RF lens is the right one?
Side by side comparison of the Canon 50mm f1.2L RF and 50mm f1.8 RF
Who cares about 50mm?
This focal length has long been my go-to for a more expressive style of portraiture. It’s an ‘in the room’ perspective on a person, offers a nice balance of subject and environment which is perfect for much of the portraiture I do. There’s plenty of zooms that’ll pass through 50mm, but of course the prime lenses have that magical ability to really isolate your subject and blur out backgrounds in a pleasing way. It’s also a perfect travel lens - long enough for people and portraits, wide enough for whole scenes and landscapes. A very useful trait of the 50mm focal length is being close enough to your subject to communicate well with each other, not so close you freak them out, and not so far away you’re yelling your directions.
Buy cheap, buy three times
The first Canon 50 I ever owned was the old 50mm F1.4 EF and it was a cheap entry to the world of shallow depth of field photography. For a while everything I shot was at f1.4, and then I knocked it back to f2 when I realised all my portraits were soft, and further back still to f2.8 to just be on the safe side. The AF failed about once a year for the 3 years I used it, so in the end I bought the 50 1.2L EF for a grand. Even though it went all the way to f1.2, sharpness and resolution were downhill past about f2, so I rarely used those wider apertures - but it was built solid and had it 10 years without a blip.
The small but powerful 50mm 1.8 RF.
Which Canon 50mm RF lens is for you?
I bought the 50mm 1.8 RF (above) to see if it could hold its own jobs, and perhaps be a full time replacement for the old 50L. I’d watched a lot of Youtube Canon 50mm comparison videos while brushing my teeth, some featuring street photographers in available light environments, others doing a laboratory approach with pincushion charts, MTFs and so forth - they never get to the root of what I need to know, which is: how do they feel to work with and who are they actually for? Then there’s that price disparity: £200 versus £2500 for the L, when my old EF cost me a grand? £2500 for a lens that does one thing well?
Jobs with the Canon 50mm F1.8 RF
Canon 50mm f1.8 RF - F2.5
This portrait of Saul here was at f2.5 on the little 50 and it’s very serviceable indeed. It’s amazingly sharp, but a bit too contrasty. The bokeh is nice enough, but not what you’d call gorgeous. When doing a portrait - even a quick one like Saul’s here - technical beauty in a picture is not the whole point, but it’s certainly a big part of it. I enjoyed how little room this lens took up in my bag and how unobtrusive it was. I’m used to more gravity from my working lenses, and I’ve no idea why the weight of my gear should matter, but someone at Canon certainly knows.
Canon 50mm f1.8 RF - F2.2
This portrait of Zoe for a landlord’s magazine is another example from the cheap 50. We had the lights off in the room so I could use my B10s to light whatever I wanted to see, so at the time of taking the picture Zoe was a backlit silhouette. At times the 50 1.8 RF struggled to find focus on her. It manages contrast fairly well, but again, not beautifully. This is a workout for any lens though - a backlit subject under a contrasty key light at f2.2, on a lens that costs £200. Pretty impressive considering.
Here’s where it shines
Canon 50mm f1.8 RF - this time at f1.8
Meanwhile, here’s a capture from a weekend break in Whitby, and it’s where the 50mm f1.8 RF works best. We’re at F1.8, 125th, ISO 4000. It’s tiny, so people don’t notice it so much. It’s cheap, so it’s relatively ok to break it. When outright image quality isn’t the point, and being fast on your feet are what get you the picture, it’s very easy to love this lens. It’ll come on every break with me for years and years.
What is the big, expensive 50 L good for
Canon 50mm RF f1.2 @ f1.8
This shot from a recent job meanwhile was shot on the 50mm F1.2L RF, at f1.8. There’s a lovely vibrancy to it, it’s sharp without the cutting contrast of the smaller 50. The focus isn’t the absolute fastest available but it certainly snaps to promptly enough, and at close to its widest aperture here big 50 balances it all wonderfully.
Canon 50mm F1.2 RF @ f2.2
This studio portrait above of Dr Tang shows the easy contrast and smooth tones you get with this lens. The 50 f1.8 RF while doing a decent job, just isn’t as good at the intangibles: not great shadow and highlight control, not as fast focusing, rougher bokeh, lower overall resolution, and of course the on paper aspect of the narrower maximum aperture.
TL:DR…
As for which lens you need, it’s Jack Daniels vs Highland Park 18 - both would get you drunk, but one tastes great, and one goes to the house party. I won’t be showing a street photography shot from the 50mm f1.2L RF, because it’s too big, too heavy and too expensive - for that there’s the little 50. It’s fast enough, sharp enough, small enough and cheap enough to be just perfect for the street photography. But when on the job capability and maximum IQ are what you need, there’s no better place to go than the 50mm f1.2L RF.