Photography class passed me by, so I never discovered the utility of a fixed focal length lens. Say what? For the uninitiated, it mostly means that you’ve got no zoom, just fine focus. So, you need to put a bit more effort into framing your shots. I picked up a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II on Friday afternoon, just in time for a weekend blizzard.
The low aperture makes it’s pretty solid for indoor portrait photography without a flash. Canon also makes a 50mm USM lens with f/1.4 but it costs about five times as much.
The lens is the lightest that Canon makes, and the Digital Rebel XT is the lightest camera. Thus I was walking around with the lightest possible dSLR camera and it still felt like a brick. The lightness comes from the plastic construction, it doesn’t feel cheap though. Apparently, the first version came with a metal lens mount, you might be able to find one used. The lens is probably the lightest on the wallet too, weighing in around $100 usd.