Merlin, “the fifty” is by far the best lens you’ll ever have. It’s the every single photographer will take if he had to choose only one lens. It’s also the best lens to start learning true photography. I suggest you see the work by Cartier-Bresson, which he mostly used a 50 for his photos. photo.net has very good tutorials also. Willy.

I have a 50 prime too. It’s a 25 year old no auto focus, no CPU lens, but I love it for the speed and life it gives photos.

That lens is really nice, I have used it with great results, but it is considered normal only with a full-frame sensor or a 36mm film camera. With the usual digital cameras (I see that you used a Rebel XT) it works as a slight tele, for the XT a lens with a focus length of ca. 28mm would be provide the normal effect. But otherwise it is a great lens.

Spookily, I just got the Canon 50mm f/1.8 Mk II (yeah, my budget is smaller!). It’s such a great thing to use these kinds of lenses. I first got into SLR photography with a Pentax 50mm f/2. That was all I had for a long time. I think what really makes 50mm, whether for SLR or DSLR, is that you get the best range of apertures, from the wide open great for low light and that professional look in portraits throwing the background right out of focus, to way stopped down with good depth of focus. As you go up or down the focal lengths you begin to lose the versatility, and zooms never cut it with the aperture (unless you have serious money).

I love my Canon 50mm f/1.8 too. I have the 28mm f/1.8 USM too, which works well on my cropped Rebel XT (but isn’t as cheap). Glad to see there’s a bit of interest in the primes - the best shots I’ve taken have mostly been taken with one or other of those. I wrote a hymn of praise to the nifty fifty here.

Forgotten lens? I’d bet you’ll find a 50mm (usually f/1.8) in most dSLR users’ bags.

Let me add to the chorus of kudos for the Canon 50mm 1.4. It is a great lens, and I get magnificent results with it. When I recommend that people buy the Canon Rebel, I always tell them it should be their next purchase after the battery pack and a spare battery. (Followed by the Speedlight 580x, which is a great external flash.)

I believe it’s called a “normal” or “standard” lens because that’s what every SLR came with per default for the last 50 years. They’re also the ones that are laying around a dime-a-dozen in used camera stores. Sadly, that’s the only ones you can find with a Konica mount; the really nifty ones were always for those Pentax fanboys.

Yes, as others have said, on a small frame dslr (xt, 40d, etc, etc) a 50mm lens is not a normal lens. It’s more like a normal telephoto.

The 50mm 1.4 is a pretty good lens. Sometimes it needs to be re-calibrated, mine did.

the 35mm f2 is a slightly longer than normal lens but it’s a pretty good and very cheap lens. It’s old school and not so perfect as the 50mm 1.4 but it’s fun.

Just remember, folks, the 50mm equivalent for DSLRs is a 35mm lens.

A 50mm lens on a DSLR is the equivalent of an 85mm lens. If you want the “normal” lens look and own a DSLR, go for the 35mm.

That’s all in the article, too, but it’s an important point. Unfortunately, the 35mm lenses are more expensive than the more common 50mm f/1.8.