Looking for a good Cannon portrait lens

[o.pulido]

I want to get more into portrait photography. Any reccomendations of what type of lens to get for portraits? I own a Canon.

[SusanH1970]

Which Canon do you have? What's your budget? Outdoor portraits? Natural light? Studio?

[o.pulido]

I own a Canon XS. And outdoor and natural light would be the two I'm mostly working on right now. As for a budget, I don't want anything too expensive at the moment (at least not untill I get something better than the XS).

[SusanH1970]

Then I'd definitely recommend the 50mm f/1.8. It's fast, sharp, and not expensive (about $100 USD). I use it for about 90% of my portraits.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by o.pulido

I own a Canon XS. And outdoor and natural light would be the two I'm mostly working on right now. As for a budget, I don't want anything too expensive at the moment (at least not untill I get something better than the XS).

Just a thought, but you may be thinking about this backwards. Spending money on better lenses now may actually make upgrading to a better body more worthwhile when you do. A lens is the other half of your camera. And it will live with you through multiple camera bodies. It will also depreciate much more slowly than a digital camera body will. You can spend $1000 on a lens and use it for decades. You can spend $1000 on a camera body and only use it for three to five years.

If you're on a super-low budget, then the 50/1.8 II is probably your only choice, and it's one that most newbies get by default, since they're still learning whether or not they even like using a portrait prime. It's got better optical performance than the 18-55 kit, and it opens up to f/1.8 for $100. These are all great reasons to get the lens. But the low-low price does come with some usability drawbacks: the lens's case and mount are plastic. The manual focus ring is awkwardly placed and thin. There's no distance scale. It's not USM. And the lens is notorious for autofocus inaccuracy in very low light. And for some, it's too long for use as a "normal" lens on a crop body, as it is on film/full-frame.

If you can stretch up into the $300-$500 territory, there's the 28/1.8 USM, 35/2, 50/1.4 USM, 85/1.8 USM, 100/2 USM, and 135mm f/2.8 soft focus.

[o.pulido]

Thanks to all for the great replies!