Nifty Fifty Battle - Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II vs Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM Lenses

 

Canon lovers have long enjoyed the 50mm lens, so much so that they nicknamed it the Nifty Fifty. Over the years Canon has come out with a few variations of it.  We're going to compare two of those, the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II, and the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM.

Both lenses are of course 50mm, have an aperture of 1:1.8, and lack image stabilization, so we're going to focus more on the differences between the two in this blog post.

Lens mount - [Winner] Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM

• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM: Metal
• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II: Plastic
  

Starting with the painfully obvious difference between the two, the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM features a metal lens mount, which means it'll hold up a lot longer when it comes to users that switch lenses on a regular basis.  If you're the type that sticks with just one lens, I wouldn't consider this a deal breaker.

Aperture blades - [Winner] Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM

• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM: 7 blades
  
• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II: 5 blades 

The aperture controls how much light gets through to the camera’s sensor.  You will often see higher blade counts in more expensive lenses because the more blades you have, the nicer looking the bokeh is when blurring out your background.  Fewer blades often results in a harsher, more polygonal bokeh.  So the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM(left) win this one as well with the higher blade count of 7.

Manual Focus

• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM: Via focus motor
  
• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II: Mechanical

This is where things get interesting.  If you're like me, nothing beats the tactile feedback of a mechanical focusing system.  So for some, the use of the ultra quiet focus motor on the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM with electronic control just won't give you the same experience.  During testing I found the electronic focus to be accurate, but the lack of motor noise, or tactile feedback of the mechanical movement takes some getting used to. The Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM also supports full time manual focus, so you can make adjustments after auto-focus completes.  With the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II, one must mechanically disengage the auto-focus motor to switch to manual mode.

Focusing Motor - [Winner] Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM

• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM: Silent focusing motor
  
• Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II: Noisy motor, not great for video

If you plan on using the Nifty Fifty for video recording and also capture sound on or near the camera, the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM is by far the winner here with the silent focusing motor.   If you're looking to save some money and don't intend on having auto-focus running while shooting video, or you'll be capturing audio via a remote mic, the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II is a great alternative.

Overall

Ultimately, both versions are great lenses that will serve you well, but it's clear Canon made some great improvements when they released the Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 STM.