Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 Di VC USD

Premium Lens at Affordable Price Tamron SP 45mm f/1.8 VC Prime Lens is a "premium" grade lens. It has many positive attributes that makes it premium. It has solid build quality and beautiful design. (Tamron's newer SP lenses have almost ceramic feel and look to them.) Weather sealed, distance window, full time manual focus. (Again features on pro grade lenses.) Excellent image quality that includes sharpness, contrast, and color. (Sharpness alone doesn't make it premium in my opinion. Canon L lenses have contrast and color quality that make the pictures pleasing to look at overall rather than just pixel peeping sharpness.) I also like 45mm range. Slightly wider than typical 50mm, but I like it better and make it slightly more versatile. It also has VC. (image stabilizer built in) I don't know any other 50mm fast prime with image stabilizer. It does come in handy for night photography or in very low light situations. (This kind of makes up for slower(?) Aperture at 1.8 instead of 1.4 or 1.2.) But, it really isn't necessary for most situations in my opinion at 45mm. Talking about aperture, it has max aperture of f/1.8. Is this con or pro? Con for most but let me explain why this can also be pro. 1.8 is fast but pedestrian for 50mm prime. This will be a turn off for many people. It was for me too as this lens costs many time more than Canon's nice 50mm f/1.8 STM lens even at new price. Even Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM is cheaper. On paper, it has only VC which isn't very useful at this range going for it. Still as I mentioned before, this lens has premium quality build and image quality superior to Canon's consumer grade 50mm lenses. Not only that, the bokeh of this lens is very pleasing and smooth which I dare say is more pleasing than Canon's 50mm 1.4 at 1.4 and comparable to other premium lenses like Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art or Canon 1.2. (Yes they do produce shallower depth of field but that is not all there is to quality bokeh) Also, there size and weight advantage. Being 1.8 prime, it is significantly smaller and lighter than 1.4 or 1.2 lenses which makes it more versatile. Also it makes it cheaper too. So you are getting lot for your money rather than less if you compare it to other premium lenses. Fast aperture isn't everything. There is reason why this lens for excellent reviews from most reviewers who actually used the lens. Don't wave it off. I strongly recommend this lens over Canon EF 50mm 1.4 USM if you are considering that lens. So is it perfect? I do have few faults I would like to point out. While autofocus is accurate, there is slight pause before locking when close focusing. No problem locking quickly to further away subjects. Bit annoying. Another is that it is a third party lens which does not take advantage of in camera corrections for jpegs. If you are raw shooter, no difference. Beside, lens is very good even without the correction. Well I am very happy with the lens. Bought two, one for me and one as gift, and both copies were equality good.

Be prepared to leave it on your camera So, initially I had the EF 50 1.8 stm and 40 2.8 stm. Although they were both very close in focal lengths I loved both for what they were capable of. The 50 for portraits and low light because of its large aperture and the 40 for street photography as you get a nice wider field of view. Then I found this gem. Never knew it existed. It’s right in between with a large aperture for low light shooting. And to add to it Image stabilization! The photos render beautifully, bokeh is creamy and beautiful. It’s sharp wide open and weather sealed! You can’t go wrong especially for the price! You won’t be disappointed by this lens. Sure it’s not as fast as Canon’s USM but it’s no slouch either. The AF is quiet and reliable.

Tamron makes some amazing lenses! I've paid a lot more for a lot less. I have a collection of premium lenses that also include Canon L glass, Sigma Art and EX; this Tamron SP is among the very cream of the crop. It's a pretty large lens, which I like in situations where I want to look like a real photographer. I really like the clean finish on the outside of this lens, which is quite a step up from the previous generation. They are also supposedly more weather sealed. I really like low light photography, and the VC (vibration control) coupled with the big aperture means you can keep your ISO lower, and have less noise in your images.