Canon Announces the New EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens; Following in Yongnuo’s Footsteps?
May 11, 2015
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Five days ago we shared the leaked specs of the upcoming version of Canon’s nifty fifty, stating that it will be announced shortly.
The official press release has just been sent and the specs match those that were published.
The two previously unknown factors, price and number of aperture blades, have been revealed as well and you’ll be happy to know that Canon followed in Yongnuo’s footsteps.
Any concerns that the price of the lens might be increased are now gone as the lens will cost $125 – the same as the EF 50mm f/1.8 II it replaces.
The even better news it that the 5 diaphragm blades have been replaced with 7 rounded blades, which is great news due to the noticeably nicer bokeh you can expect the lens to produce.
This move puts Canon in line with Yongnuo’s 50mm f/1.8, and it erases one of the two main advantages of what some regard a knockoff lens. The other advantage, however, is the price ($69) and Canon remains almost twice as expensive as the alternative.
Lastly, the new design comes with a new filter thread size – 49mm, instead of 52mm.
The rest of the specs are as follow:
- Lens design: 6 elements in 5 groups
- Full-Frame lens
- Stepping motor (STM)
- AF with full-time manual focus
- Total length: 39.3mm
- Weight: 159g
According to Canon the lens should be available by the end of May, but Amazon (pre-order) and B&H (pre-order) expect to start shipping it already on May 21st.
Liron Samuels
Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel. When he isn’t waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses. You can see more of his work on his website or follow him on Facebook.
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5 responses to “Canon Announces the New EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens; Following in Yongnuo’s Footsteps?”
I see the best part of this is hopefully with the STM motor some of the buzzing will go away. I still have the original metal mount f/1.8 and love the little bumblebee
metal bayonet – that’s a nice upgrade
Cool buy an “upgraded” version of an already good lens for $25 more, AND I’ll have to buy my filters all over again for a 49mm mount too… oh yay.
Get a set of step-up and step-down rings. They’re pretty damn cheap. I paid around £8-£9 for mine last year.
And I’d buy this for the metal bayonet alone, since my previous nifty fifty met its tragic end last year.
If you’re happy with what you have, don’t buy it.
The STM motor is good news. And the metal bayonet. My 50mm with the plastic bayonet got broken last year, so I’ll snap this up as soon as I’ve got the spare cash!