To Buy or Not To Buy?

I read recently that the Canon 50mm 1.8 lens is worth sporting the modest sum of under £100 on. Yes, it's plastic but reports say that the glass is good and that the 'nifty fifty' is a useful addition to the camera bag.

The cost is small but is it just a waste of money that could be put towards a saving fund towards a more expensive piece of glass?

On that subject, I currently have Tamron 18-270 (which has been commented on already here) and Tamron 90mm 2.8 lenses. My interests are mainly flowers and gardens and buildings.

What do people think should be the next lens purchase I should be aiming for?

All opinions gratefully received!

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Permalink Reply by Sean on February 16, 2010 at 3:43pm

I bought it a couple of month ago. I like it. It makes clean images. It doesn't seem as cheap as some people have reported. The bokeh is nice, not great. But it is a fun little lens to have.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Wright on February 17, 2010 at 4:47am

Thanks, Sean. I think I'll go for it.

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Permalink Reply by Gregory Allen Foreman on February 18, 2010 at 10:56am

It is definetely worth the money. I have had my "nifty fifty" for over a year and it is holding up great. Best under $100 bang for the buck!

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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Crimaldi on February 18, 2010 at 1:45pm

It's a wonderful lens! The optical quality is superb, it is easy to walk around with, and it also functions somewhat as a close-focus lens on a digital camera with a 1.6 factor because the effective focal length is 80 mm, but it still focuses down to 1.5 feet. I've been using it for a year and a half with no problems. The only minor downside is that it is a little hard to focus quickly in manual mode because the focus ring is very thin, but it sounds like your subjects (like mine) aren't going anywhere, so really not a big deal.

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Permalink Reply by tony martin on February 18, 2010 at 2:57pm

In terms of next lens, I'm missing hugely my wideangle.

I moved from Canon to Nikon last year and traded in all of Canon lens, including my lovely wideangle = It just gave such stunning images that had a really different feel to anything mid /50mm+

Never used it for flowers so can't comment (maybe a closeup flower with lots of shallow DoF backgound?) but would be great for buildings

Lots of more experienced people than I have commented that primes are typically better quality than jack of all trades zooms, and I've no reason to disagree

Other thing to think about is whether you have the option to rent a lens /try before you buy

Hope you find this useful

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Russell on February 21, 2010 at 8:57pm

I am also looking towards buying a Canon 50mm lense.

But I personally, would prefer the f1.4

Yes, it costs more, but in the long run... it IS better quality, and it will last me years. I don't think I'd want to upgrade to the f1.2 (that one's really worth too much money for what it is).

If I was to buy the f1.8.... 6 months might pass and then I'd be wishing I'd saved that money and put it towards the f1.4.
Glass is quite possibly the most important thing when it comes to photography. And is expensive. So we don't want to be having to upgrade all the time when we "outgrow" a lense.

Thats just my opinion based on my photography style, and where I want to go with photography as a carear.