50mm 1.8 broke... anything cool I can do with it?

<p>I was switching lenses and I dropped this little guy and it broke right in half and I wondered if anyone had any recommendations for anything fun I can do with the lens. I've had that lens for 5 years and I bought it for $70 so I wasn't even that upset when it happened, more embarrassed that I let a lens slip, but it seems like a waste of good glass. Now I finally have my excuse to buy the 1.4.</p>

<p>It still screws on fine to the body, it's just the front glass that is off so it obviously can't auto-focus.</p>

<p>Reverse macro lens?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/kittyplusfiddy/discuss/72157622237809756/">Link that Wayne Ervine told me about...</a></p>

<p>maybe rig it up as a tele-converter or extension tube?</p>

<p>I have a dim memory of someone here bouncing their plastic fantastic f/1.8 down a stone stair and this happening. My increasing inaccurate memory was that they or someone else in the same boat managed to simply "snap" the two halves together again. It couldn't hurt to try.</p>

<p>As they say, with a 52mm reversing ring you can use it as part of a macro set up, maybe with some interesting optical effects? (search for Canon EOS 52mm reversing ring, surprisingly enough). Cost maybe $10.</p>

<p>As you say, it's a good excuse to get the f/1.4. I have the old FD mount version on FD-mount bodies and it is a very special lens. I don't think you want to drop it either.</p>

<p>Use it for a loupe to look at negatives, slides and contact sheets (what are those things?).</p>

<blockquote>

<p>what are those things?</p>

</blockquote>

<ul>

<li>Negatives are the pictures that are really bad, the ones you reject with a 0 rating in Lightroom, Bridge, Nikon Capture, etc.</li>

<li>Slides are the ones you're not sure of, so you "let them slide" with a 2 or 3 rating, and revisit them later.</li>

<li>Contact sheets are lists of clients.</li>

</ul>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Tough luck, Ella, but in cost terms you certaily chose the right lens to drop.</p>

<p>PhotoZone have just posted a FF review of the Canon 50/1.4, and you can compare it with the 50/1.8, the 50/1.2L, and a number of off-brand standard lenses. The 50/1.4 is far from perfect, but in almost all respects it is better than the 50/1.8, although not by a wide margin. The results offer lttle temptation to buy the 50/1.2. My own experience of the 50/1.4 is that it delivers what you would expect from a 50/1.4 design of that vintage. </p>

<p>You can use it as Loop for Large Format photography or in your darkroom.</p>

<p>You could donate it to Mr. Sailer. Perhaps he could turn it into a cool action shot.</p>

<p>

<p>Joseph W., thanks for writing that. It made my day.</p>

<p>Dan, you're welcome. I try...</p>

<p>Joseph, That was classic! I was about to respond to correct you and then it hit me like a brick!</p>