Nifty Fifty

I've had the 450D for around a month now and taken quite a few shots with it. I have found (as I'd previously read in reviews) that photos taken with the standard lens (Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS lens) are not always that sharp. This is not a huge problem as a little post processing generally solves the issue.

I have also been keen to get more in to portrait photography and am always impressed with shots taken with a very shallow depth of field. With that in mind I had already seen a low cost lens with a fairly wide aperture of f/1.8 and after reading some rave reviews and a sale on Amazon I snapped up a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II prime lens.

Yes it has a very plastic feel to it (with plastic mount) and does not seem very strong but a for under £70 I don't think you can go far wrong with this. The fixed focal length does not give you the flexibility of the kit lens so you have to move around a bit to get the composition that you are after but I think the shallow depth of field (see test shot below) and sharpness of images is more than worth a little extra effort. I've barely used the kit lens since getting this nifty fifty!