Sony - FE 50mm F1.8 Standard Lens (SEL50F18F), Black

This is a great starter lens. As a beginner photographer (as I am) this is the perfect lens for me to take portraits with. The background blur and bokeh is really good for such a *cheap* lens. It also does pretty well in low light as seen in the first pic. I use the hood that comes with it almost constantly. I don't really like how the light comes in without it but I think that's just a personal preference.If I had other lenses I would definitely call this an ol' reliable. Even as my camera kit grows and my knowledge continues to expand, I can always see myself coming back to a 50mm 1.8. It just makes sense. An easy, lightweight, affordable lens that has great quality (I'm huge on quality) and blurs out the background to give you that nice crisp portrait effect? Of course, I will buy.Now cons: I will say that the autofocus is a tad bit slow. But, as I'm sure many other reviews have said, you get what you pay for. It's an affordable lens and you're getting pretty great quality. You might have to wait an extra second or two to get that thang focused but honey, once you do? I mean, you see the pics. I don't need to say more. Point is: beware of the shutter speed and the autofocus. If you're not taking your own pictures of yourself (like I am) then manual focus on your subject and you should be fine.Other than that this is a good lens. 10/10 highly recommend. Follow me on the gram for more usage of this lens lol @anaiahlateherr

I have a confession. I am a bonafide pixel peeper. It’s a problem and I know it. Nothing gets me more excited about photography than to snap a picture and immediately review it, zoom it in 100% and see a sharp, clear image.I wouldn’t call it an obsession but the hunt for equipment that can deliver these type of results has cost me a lot of time and money.People always say to spend more $ on the glass and less $ on the body, well I tried that. I recently bought a Sony A6500 and instead of buying several cheap lenses I bought one really good one. The beloved SEL24F18z.Don’t get me wrong, that lens and body combo is really sweet but after trying it out for a few weeks I ended up returning both. The images were nice but zoomed in at 100% they weren’t $2300 nice. So I did some more research and decided to go in the opposite direction. Expensive body, cheap lens.For the same price of the A6500 and the Zeiss 24mm I got an A7rii (Amazon Warehouse used like new) and this “cheap” lens and I’m telling you the difference is night and day.I’ve never seen images this sharp. Every picture I take with this setup looks professional (which I’m definitely not). I was concerned that the high megapixel sensor would show this lens’ weaknesses but quite the contrary.I will say for optimum sharpness to keep it stopped down to at least f2.8. As with most lenses, wide open is pretty soft. Even the Zeiss 24 was soft at 1.8.Quick Tip: Update your camera body AND the lensAs soon as I put this lens on and started using it I noticed some very sporadic focus hunting going on. It wouldn’t lock onto anything at all. The short time I had with the Zeiss 24 kind of got me spoiled with ridiculously fast auto focus. So I knew something was wrong.I plugged the camera into my computer and checked for updates. Both the body and lens were one version behind current. As soon as I updated them it was smooth sailing. Well smooth might be an overstatement.This lens is quirky. In good lightning it works perfectly. A little jerky but locks on. But in low light/low contrast it’s another story. It still hunts and is very hit or miss.For the price and image quality I’m willing to overlook poor low light focusing performance.Bottom Line. If you’re like me and scrounged up your last pennies to get the expensive body and are looking for a budget lens that has image quality over focus performance, this is it.

Everyone needs a Nifty Fifty! Especially those new to photography who are yearning for that creamy beautiful background blur and beautiful soft bokeh. This lens will provide that and more and it's cheap compared to other lenses that are a step up. It's also a camera lens that should be in everyone's camera bag. Looking for your first lens that's not the kit lens? Look no more.Is it Perfect? No, if you really want perfect you're gonna need to spend a lot more money! This lens does have some issues with chromatic aberration but it's easily fixed in Photoshop and in my opinion worth dealing with from time to time to make beautiful pictures on a budget. Before this I was shooting on a bridge camera with a zoom lens. While I do miss the zoom the picture quality is much better now on my new Sony camera with this lens. ( like 1,000 times better. )If you are new to photography and are shopping for a new camera as well here are some factors to think about. Look for a camera with a good sensor size, they capture more light and make better pictures especially where low light is concerned. Full frame cameras will deliver better quality photos. If you do need to get a crop sensor camera this lens will show less of the picture you might see in a full frame camera. You may also consider looking for something with focus peaking as it makes focusing a lot easier as well and will show you color filled areas where your focus is sharpest. If you aren't sure what these terms mean just google it up, it's worth doing so you don't spend money on some camera that the manufacturers site tells you is awesome. Do your research.