Was there ever an EF 50mm F1.8 L?

[andreas_holmstr_m]

Was this lens ever made? Prototypes?

[beauh44]

Hi Andreas, Not according to the online Canon Camera Museum at: http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/f_lens.html The 50mm f/1.0L is now discontinued and the current 50mm f/1.2L is shown but to my knowledge there's never been a 50mm f/1.8L for sale. Prototypes? Who knows? I did look under their "Special Lenses" section and didn't see anything there. Good luck!

[steve_dunn2]

<p>Not in production, anyway. The complete list of Canon EF 50mm lenses from slowest to fastest is 50/2.5 macro, 50/1.8 (discontinued), 50/1.8 II, 50/1.4 USM, 50/1.2L USM, 50/1.0L USM (discontinued).</p>

 

<p>I don't believe there was ever a 50mm f/1.8L lens in the old FD days, either; the only 50mm L lens I can find from back then was a 50/1.2.</p>

 

<p>I don't believe Canon would even make a prototype of a 50mm f/1.8L lens. L primes, apart from the big guns on the telephoto end, exist primarily for speed.</p>

[peter_foiles2]

The current version is the 50 is the 1.8 II. Perhaps you or someone else is mistaking an L instead of an I. The original had a metal mount not the plastic of the current version. Canon's standard for the L designation call for use of a specialty glass or a ground aspheric element, no need for that in a 50/1.8 lens.

[bobatkins]

Never was a 50/1.8L, never will be.

 

The f1.8 is the "cheap" version of all 50mm lenses (1.7, 1.8, 1.9 or 2.0) and so is never made as a premium lens.

 

A 50/1.4L might be made (but isn't right now) and 50/1.2L and 50/1.0L lenses exist.

 

There wasn't even a 50/1.8 I, it was just a 50/1.8, but sometimes people call it the "I" to distinguish it from the 50/1.8 II

[andreas_holmstr_m]

I've just seen one on the net. Fake?

[bongeiste]

Ummm. Given the answers above, what do you think?

[andreas_holmstr_m]

It's on the bay.

[andreas_holmstr_m]

It has a red stripe and an "L" on the front of the lens...

[andreas_holmstr_m]

I'm not a beginner to canon, but images like this:

 

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=007&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=170073290379&rd=1&rd=1

 

 

I've had the 50mm F1.0 L.

[bobatkins]

It's a fake.

 

Not exactly unusual for Ebay. It's full of fakes.

[beauh44]

Maybe I missed it or they took it down or the seller re-labeled it or something... but I couldn't find it as of 4:30 EST on The Bay.

 

I was hoping to send the link to a friend! ;-)

[beauh44]

Ahh, thanks for the link! Yep... Something's rotten in... where-ever.

[andreas_holmstr_m]

But pretty nicely done, right?

[robin_sibson1]

AFAIK, the only prototype EF lens Canon have ever acknowledged publicly was the 400/4L IS. It is not clear whether they actually made any, or whether it was just a concept (presumably based on the standard 17-element Big White Lens layout) and a dummy, but it was used to demonstrate how much smaller and lighter the 400/4DO IS was. See the original announcement of the 400/4DO IS for details. By the time they released it about a year later, the DO had in any case been redesigned. There were plausible leaks to suggest that they were working on a 500/2.8DO IS and possibly a big DO IS zoom, but these have never surfaced. It would be interesting to know of any real evidence, rather than just speculation, about any other EF prototypes that never made it into production.

[mars c]

I own a so called MK1 , the curreent mk2 is far cry from that lens in terms of construction quality.<div></div>

[hakon_soreide]

It's not a fake, per se, but just a regular 50mm f1.8 metal mount version that's been visually modified. Looks cool, though. <p>Of course, the auctioneer doesn't claim it's anything else but the old version of the 50mm f1.8, despite many people reading that into it, as can be seen from the questions he's been asked there.

[andreas_holmstr_m]

Hakon:

 

Yes I know he's not advertising it as an L, I was just cusious if there was one.

 

It loooks rather cool. Is the MK 1 verison of the 1.8 better than the 1.4 USM?

[stephen sullivan]

No, the EF 50mm f/1.4 is better than the EF 50mm f/2.8 (ver. 1)

 

The EF 50mm f/2.8 (ver. 1) hasn't been made since, don't quote me, since 1992(?) - 1993(?)

 

The EF 50mm f/2.8 (ver.2) isn't a bad lens, but someone (who'll rename- nameless) likened it to, "Fisher Price."

 

If you're looking for a 50mm, the EF 50mm f/1.4 is a great lens and the 50mm macro is also another great lens in the Canon Line-up.

[andreas_holmstr_m]

Stephen,

 

Do you mean the 1.8?

[DickArnold]

I have a 50mm 1.8 lens that I paid about 60 dollars for. It is nestled amongst L lenses in my bag. It's focus is noisy but it makes surprisingly good pictures that equate to some of the pictures I take with L lenses. There was never an L. There was no need to make an L. Go to photodo or other raters. I think they liked this lens.

[slichtyler]

The seller of this lens is very honest -- he describes it as a "Canon EF 50mm F1.8 MK I" and

he never calls it an L lens. When someone points out "there has never been a 50mm/1.8 L,

only the 50mm/1.2 L", the seller responds, "not so! there was also the 50mm/1.0 L! read the

description, it'll be clear what I'm selling." Another comment asks, "did you paint this to look

like an L lens?", the seller responds, "nope, that's the way I bought it."

 

It is what it is -- a Canon EF 50mm F1.8 MK I with a red stripe and the letter L.

[thierry nguyen cuu - nomad]

Hum ...

 

Will they ever make a EF mount of the S mount 50mm f0.95 ... and what price could it be? :)

[wuyeah]

Hahaha, very creative......I mighat as well sent all my lens to him and upgrade to "L". LOL

 

Funny that someone so desperatly what to be amount L crowd.

[stephen sullivan]

Opps, my bad. Good catch.

 

Yes, 50mm f/1.8 (Ver. 1) & 50mm f/1.8 (Ver. 2); EF 50mm f/1.4 (only 1 version)