The Canon EF 50mm f1.4 can trace its roots back to the classic Canon FD equivalent which first came out in 1971. Costing nearly $300 more than the Canon FD, many mirrorless filmmakers may be asking if this lens is worth the extra dough.
Pros
- Pleasing bokeh which throws even nearby objects out of focus in the background
Cons
- More expensive than most vintage nifty fifty primes (about $330)
- Exterior build is made from plastic feeling much cheaper than most vintage lenses
- The focus ring is not smooth and does not have hard stops which makes focus pulling extremely difficult
- Requires an adapter with an electronic aperture connection, which means all aperture settings must be adjusted in camera
- Not as sharp wide open at F1.4
Summary
The extra money you’d be spending is reserved for the autofocus feature which is best for photography, not video. It would be easier to forgive the price if this lens performed much better at wider apertures. Its susceptibility to soft focus doesn’t make this lens much better than the 50mm FD predecessor which has far better character and costs around $35.