Which 50mm Lens is Best for Portraits?

I don’t tend to read a lot of digital photography magazines but recently while sitting in an airport terminal bought myself a copy of the UK Digital Photo Magazine which had a good comparison test of 50mm portrait lenses.

The 50mm focal length is a personal favorite of mine so this was a test that interested me. I love the 50mm range both because on a DSLR with crop factor coming into play it’s the equivalent of a 75-80mm lens (which allows for getting in nice and close to your subject without them feeling like you’re sitting in their lap). Many of them are also really cheap, quite fast and of a high quality (as the test showed).

So which 50mm portrait lens was best according to Digital Photo Magazine? Here’s how they ranked them:

• Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM (pictured)
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
• Olympus 50mm f/2.0 Macro ED
• Pentax 50mm Macro f/2.8
• Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro
• Sony 50mm f/1.4
• Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/1.4 ZF

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