What prime lens for taking portraits of my child with a Canon APS-C DSLR?

Question

I purchased a Canon T4i with a 18-135mm STM lens. I'm interested in getting a prime lens to take portrait photos of my child. My budget is up to $500.

Answer 1

With an APS-C camera like your T4i, 50mm is a good focal length for a portrait lens. This gives you several decent options:

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II for only around $115. This is a cheap, plastic-body lens, but it benefits from the ease of making lenses in this focal length, and years of history. This is actually my top recommendation, as it leaves you room to buy a flash as well, and that will probably make the most difference.
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 for around $340. This has a better AF system and, of course, a slightly faster aperture.
• Sigma 50mm f/1.4 for around $450. More money, but a brand new premium design. I haven't actually used this one but it's getting good comments.

There's a nice review of the 50mm f/1.4 at DPreview, which touches on all three of these lenses.

The Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM is another interesting option. It's also cheap at $150, and optimized for video. The wider focal length makes it more useful as a general-purpose lens and it's still a decent portrait range. If you're looking for a choice with a lot of versatility for things other than portraits, this would be a good one.

You may also consider the Canon 85mm f/1.8 EF USM, at about $420. This is still in a decent portrait range; a little tighter, obviously. While it's not quite like its $2000 f/1.2 big brother, this is a classic and highly-regarded lens.

But, as I hinted above, getting a new prime lens isn't necessarily the first thing to do. You could just keep your existing lens, which covers the portrait range nicely, and add a Speedlite 320EX ($225) or Speedlite 580EX II ($490). This won't necessarily get you the fashionable thin depth of field look you might get from a faster prime, but will let you take more control over the light in your portraits. I'm not really one to discourage buying primes, though, so the 50mm f/1.8 plus Speedlite 320EX makes a very attractive in-budget combo recommendation.

Answer 2

I also recommend the Canon 50mm F1.8II. I picked up this lens over the holidays for my Canon T4i body and absolutely love it. Great low light performance & very sharp at 2.8 for a budget lens.

Answer 3

You want the 40mm F2.8 STM, its only $150. Its not as fast in aperture as the 50mm F1.8, but its noticeably shorter (wider angle) which you need to shoot indoors on a crop sensor. Its a brand new design, so it has much better image quality than you would expect for its price.

Answer 4

I would say the Canon EF 50 mm 1.4. The price is quite a bit more than the 1.8 version, but you get 2x the amount of light in. This is key in low light indoor situations as well as fidgety little kids.

Answer 5

The 50mm f/1.8 almost everyone else recommends is a nice portrait lens but I wouldn't recommend it for kids pictures.

1. 50mm on a crop sensor is a little tight indoors, it's great for a head-shot but very uncomfortable for full-length and group photos (that is, kid doing something cute and kid doing something cute with friends)

2. The auto-focus on this lens is painfully slow

I prefer something around 30mm, Sigma has a 30 f/1.4 that I heard is nice (but never used myself), Canon has 28mm and 35mm lenses (some of them outside your budget) and there's the 40mm f/2.8 STM that is tiny, got great reviews and is almost as cheap as the 50 1.8

For me, when I photograph my children, I almost always use my kit lens at 30-35mm and the 50mm f/1.8 stays in the bag.