Quick Sharpness Comparison

12/25/2019 Quick Sharpness Comparison - Erik Moberg's personal homepage - photography, gadgets, DIY, and more
/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 
 Previous: DSLR vs cell phone camera vs digicam Next: Easy x for Google Nexus 4 sliding off surfaces and mu ed speaker 
QUICK SHARPNESS COMPARISON

Sharpest tool in the shed
September 20th, 2013
I was recently asked by a reader if I could do a comparison between the Canon kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-
5.6 IS II), the Canon 50mm "Plastic Fantastic" (EF 50mm 1:1.8 II) and the Canon 40mm pancake (EF 40mm
f/2.8) with respect of sharpness. I was a bit curious myself, so I went out and took a few shots. I also included
the Tamron 18-270 DI II. Read on for more.
THE CONTESTANTS
From the left: Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II (kit lens), Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II and the
Canon EF 40mm f/2.8. The Tamron and the kit lens are both zoom lenses, while the 40mm and the 50mm are primes.
https://www.erikmoberg.net/article/quick-sharpness-comparison 1/25
FULLY OPEN
/ HOME
The rst shot is with IMAGES
the aperture DOWNLOADS
fully open, ICON MAKER
which means different things for theCONTACT

different lenses - from f/1.8
of the 50mm all the way to f/5 on the kit lens. The focal lengths also differ slightly, from 40mm to 50mm, with
the zoom lenses set to around 42mm.
Whole picture, resized
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5
Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/1.8
Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/2.8
Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/4
Crop, middle
Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/4
Crop, closer to edge
Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/4
A BIT OF CHEATING
As you might have noticed above, the 50mm has a very "interesting" look fully open, so here are a few shots at
f/2.8 aperture.

AT F/5.6
Stopped down to f/5.6, all lenses should be sharper. It also comes closer to comparing apples to apples since
all lenses use theHOME
/ IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT
same aperture. 
Whole picture, resized
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5.6
Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/5.6
Crop, middle
Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/5.6
Crop, closer to edge
Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/5.6
CONCLUSION
To sum it up, the prime lenses here have shown to be noticeable sharper (and also faster) than the zoom
/ HOME
lenses. Which was exactly IMAGES DOWNLOADS
what you might ICON MAKER
have expected. :) Anyway, here are CONTACT
my personal, more speci c
conclusions:
The 40mm is razor sharp. Period.

The 50mm has a very strange glow to it fully open. It almost looks like a Photoshop lter. At f/2.8 the glow is
gone and the lens is really sharp. Strangely, at f/5.6, the lens is less sharp - I would assume it did just not
focus properly in this case.
The Canon kit lens is slow and is also the least sharp of the bunch.
Stopped down to f/5.6, the Tamron is actually reasonably sharp. With it's massive zoom range and optical
image stabilization, it might not be the worst lens after all.
   
42 COMMENTS
 Subscribe to new comments by RSS
 oliveR October 13th, 2013 04:05
Wow. This is quite a comparison. Thanks for sharing, great help to make a good decision.
 Hashim October 18th, 2013 15:12
Thanks a lot for your comparsion Erik.
So as i see it the 50mm will not do good photos on f/1.8 if handheld,

so its better to go for the 40mm pancake.
and i read in your comparsion between the 40mm and 50mm that the 40mm pancake does not have stabilizer,
how important is the stabilizer, for this lens?
Thanks
 Hashim October 18th, 2013 15:20
and one more question,

I have the 650D with 18-135 STM lens and the aperture goes to f/3.5,
will i see i different with the 50mm and 40mm when i take picture in indoor low light situation.
Thanks
 Erik October 19th, 2013 00:39
Hi Hashim,
thank you for you comment. The reason why the 50mm is so blurry wide open is not because it's handheld in
this case, but simply because it's not sharp at a fully open aperture (ie. not because of slow shutter speeds).
Regarding imageHOME
/ IMAGES
stabilization, DOWNLOADS
I blogged about ICON MAKER
that quite a while ago. I used the kitCONTACT 
lens at 55mm and shot with
and without IS at different shutter speeds. In conclusion, IS helps quite a bit (but of course, only if the scene is
static). Read here:
http://www.erikmoberg.net/article/canon_image_stabilizer_is_test
For indoor low light shooting, if you stay at 18mm, you will not notice much difference to the 40mm. The 50mm
is quite a bit faster and could suit better, if you can live with (or prefer) that fuzzy look it produces wide open.
Still, it may not be able to freeze action (like kids moving around), so if that's your thing, hold on to that lens and
get an external ash instead.
Happy shooting!
 ChrisC November 29th, 2013 19:41
That was Exactly the comparison I was looking for between the 50 and 40mm prime lens. Thank you!
 ClaesP January 4th, 2014 11:12
Hi Erik!
Thanks for your articles! They are very helpful!
I have a 550 D with a Canon EFS 18-135. I thinking of getting a 40 mm to reduce size and weight. Have you
done any comparision between these two lenses in terms of sharpness?
 Erik January 4th, 2014 12:03
Hi ClaesP,
thank you! :)
I do not own both lenses so I cannot make a comparison myself. However, both lenses have good enough
quality, so maybe just skip the IQ question for now. The 40mm is very compact and much lighter, which is what
you are actually looking for - if you are willing to sacri ce the zoom, of course.
 ClaesP January 4th, 2014 14:25
Hi again!
Have you looked into a comparision of 40mm vs the new 35mm IS?
 Erik January 4th, 2014 22:37
Hi again ClaesP,
I'm afraid I haven't! I read some reviews of the 35mm and while it seems a tad more usable - having IS, larger
aperture, and a visible focal scale - it's also larger, heavier and several times more expensive than the 40 mm.
/
Sharpness should HOME IMAGES
be about the DOWNLOADS
same, possibly with the 35mm ICON MAKER
stopped down some.CONTACT 
 ibler February 10th, 2014 10:39
Great comparison! Thank you!!!
I've been scouring the net for a couple of weeks now trying to get as much information about theses lenses as
possible. Now I'm getting the 40mm thanks to you!
I'm a newbie to photography and my greatest frustration is that I can't capture on camera what I see with my
eyes. Impossible demand? Yes. That's the reason why I'm shopping around for a new lens but something that
does not break my wallet. (I also am aware of the "you get what you pay for" adage so lets not go there. :) )
So now I'm honing my technical skills on the kit lens and composition skills on the 40mm.
Thank you again for this wonderful comparison!
 Erik February 10th, 2014 20:44
Hi ibler,
that sounds great, glad I could help!
 David March 9th, 2014 01:29
Thans for your reviews, very useful.
Could you comment on the landscape shots? The water and sky don't pick up the blues on th 40 like the other
lenses.
 Nathanation March 9th, 2014 10:01
Cheers for this comparison, I'm getting the 40mm for sure now, looks so much sharper in your comparison
shots with a more pleasing amount of contrast!
 Erik March 9th, 2014 19:50
@David: For some reason, seems like the camera underexposed that shot by one stop. That would probably
explain why the shade of the sky is different. I used aperture priority with auto ISO for all shots, so blame the
600D. ;)
@Nathanation: Sounds great, have fund with the lens!
 Anastasia Roupakioti (Absinthia Stacy) May 4th, 2014 17:58
Very interesting comparison!

 blaze May 5th, 2014 14:27
no more thinking. I am going to get a 40mm 2.8 STM and sell my 50mm 1.8. I could not really get friends with
the 50mm 1.8.
 Andy August 23rd, 2014 19:54
I've been interested in the 40mm since I started last year. I ended up getting the 50mm as I needed a fast prime
for an event, I do like the 50 but understand the issue with softness at 1.8.
The lowest I ever go is f2.8, I also nd the 50mm is way too tight for me and not compact enough considering
the 50mm is my lightweight travel setup. The noise from the AF motor is pretty silly aswell.
Decided I'm going to sell my 50mm and get the 40mm. Good job I slapped a cheap uv lter on it when I bought
it and have babied it for the few months i've owned it so it's still in mint condition, should get my money back
and invest some more into the 40mm and get what I wanted in the rst place.
Thanks for helping me con rm my decision. :)
 abhishek September 15th, 2014 20:58
Hi erik
I own a canon 1100d with the standard kit lens...I've purchased a 55-250 mm recently....its doing its
wonders....feeling apprehensive about my next lens purchase bwn 40mm/50mm...I'm more into closeup shots,
portraits and landscape..please advice
 Erik September 15th, 2014 21:08
@Andy: Glad to help!
@abhishek: Neither of these are very good landscape or macro lenses, but great for portraits. The 50mm is a
bit cheaper and faster, while the 40mm is more compact, has superior build quality and costs a little more. You
can read more here:
http://www.erikmoberg.net/article/canon-ef-50mm-11-8-ii-vs-canon-ef-40mm-f-2.8-stm-which-to-get
 Amin October 30th, 2014 17:49
Thanks for the very nice article! My pancake is coming soon! Anyway, do you know how's the effect of lens
lter on the 40mm? Should it be covered (hood or lter) or let it be free? What is the best lter which will not
ruined the image quality?
Regards
/
 Erik HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 
October 30th, 2014 22:45
Hi Amin,
Happy you liked it!
I don't use any lters or lens hoods on any of my lenses and I have never had any problems. I feel that lens
hoods mostly add bulk (especially with this small lens it would), and even a high quality lter does degrade the
quality some. The front element of the 40mm is not very exposed anyway so it's not really in need of
protection.
 Amin October 30th, 2014 23:42
That's true. Thanks Erik!
 Vaibhav January 6th, 2015 08:38
Hello Erik,
Truely well done comparison. I am going to go on a cruise around sunset. the photos will be both landscape
and portrait. I expect the lighting to be low for portraits. What would you recommend, 18-55 MM kits lens or the
50mm prime
 satish March 5th, 2015 12:07
HI Erik,
It seems like 40mm pancake lens is much superior than canon 1.8, but would u tell me which one will be better
for low light and concert photography.
Regards
 Erik March 15th, 2015 10:55
Better late reply than never, I guess...
@Vaibhav: I think you should bring both! The 50mm is great for portraits and low-light photography, but with
the kit lens you will be being able to get wide sunset shots as well.
@satish: The 50mm is de nitely faster so it's better on many low-light situations. But 50mm seems a bit short
for concerts, no? You might want to look into a fast tele lens with image stabilizer. The Tamron mentioned in
the post is OK, but probably too slow.
 Uttam March 23rd, 2015 17:49
I have a Canon DSLR 1200D. I intend to buy an inexpensive prime lens. I have been told that Canon 24mm 2.8f
STM works better in such cropped body camera. My prime interest is in street photography and portrait. Please
advise.
/
 Erik HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 
March 23rd, 2015 19:46
Hi Uttam,
The 24 mm is said to be a great lens too - compact, sharp and good build quality. It should also be well suited
as a street photo lens, where the 40 mm might be a bit tight at times (depending on situation and shooting
style). However, the shorter focal length will lead to less background blur, and also distortion - expect large
noses on subject when doing close portraits.
 Uttam March 24th, 2015 07:44
Thanks Erik. Will it be reasonably ok in low lights too. I am still undecided if I should go for 50mm 1.8f or the
24mm 2.8f STM one. Would appreciate your views.
 Erik March 28th, 2015 00:00
Hi Uttam,
tough one! I do nd myself shooting more with the 40mm, also in low light - and I usually nd it fast enough. Of
course, the 50mm is a bit faster, and makes for nice artsy late night street shots. If you are speci cally going
for low-light without ash, then the 50mm might be the better choice.
 ks June 26th, 2015 19:39
Congratulations for doing a nice comparative review. I often wonder why many online journals and forums can't
do such easy-to-understand reviews despite having some of best technical people around and a lot of money
to spend.
I own 50 1.8 and 18-55 lenses. My own take is that 50mm is much sharper at 4.0 than 5.6 so perhaps a
comparative analysis of photos at 4.0 might have brought the sharpness of 50mm ahead of other lenses. This
in any case does not undermine your review and its ndings. Just my two cents.
 Erik June 26th, 2015 19:49
Hi ks,
Glad you liked it, and thanks for the input! I might look into nding the sharpest aperture for the 50mm, it
should make for an interesting article.
 ks June 27th, 2015 16:44
Yes, kindly explore that setting and share your ndings.
If I may suggest, kindly you also add Canon 24mm in your next review. That would be really interesting to a lot
of people as I doubt any one has done a comparative image-by-image review of 4 lenses.
 Erik June 27th, 2015 23:16

That's a great idea and I'm quite interested in the 24mm. However, I can only review lenses that I own and I
currently don't have any plans to pick up this lens. If any representative from canon reads this: Please send me
the 24mm for free, I'm sure it will be worthwhile for you. ;)
 Prasun July 6th, 2015 11:58
hello Erik,
your blog is the deciding factor for choosing the 40mm 2.8 stm.
i have a canon 60D with 18-135 IS and sigma 70-300. i do stock photography and was unhappy with the
performance of the 18-135mm. overall it was soft. i shoot everything from macro , landscape . portrait.
the canon 50mm 1.8 seems soft wide open and unusable for stock photography.
i think i will go with the 40mm , hope i made the right choice.
thanks.
 Erik July 6th, 2015 19:18
Hi Prasun,
the 40mm is really quite sharp, I hope you will be happy with it. :)
 Heather November 14th, 2015 05:58
I've been a little confused about which lens to get (I'm upgrading to a canon 700d from a 1000d that I've owned
for about 5yrs, previously only having my 2 kit lenses that came with the 1000d I'm ready to step my
photography up a bit and get a bit more adventurous with shots!). I just also read your other article on the
40mm v 50mm. Thanks for putting everything in an easy to understand language and the side by side photos
which is exactly what I've been searching for for a few days to make up my mind, technical specs don't phase
me I needed to see in photos what the difference was. 40mm lens it is! Thanks again :)
 Ankur December 6th, 2016 18:27
Thank you Erik. Out of so many blogs on net, your explaination is superb. I have been using Canon SX-20 (super
Zoom) with 1:2.8 to 5.7 USM lens. Now I have bought 750d with 18-55 STM lens. I am not very happy with
750d. Reason could be either I need more time to adjust to new gear or the Kit lens is not that great as
compaired to lens in SX-20. I am more in to portrait, closeups and landscape. As per your recomendation,
40mm STM seams to be a good choice. Can you suggest any good Zoom lens which is as sharp as 40 mm but
with a range of 18- 50 and also not expensive than 40 mm STM.
Also I would like to add that I used to click photos at high Zoom (with Canon SX20) without my subject
knowing that I am taking their photo, thus not making them consious and gettting natural shots. So should I
Opt for 55-250 mm IS II? But I want my photos to be sharp as well. Please advice. 55-250 mm IS II or 40 mm
STM.

 Erik December 6th, 2016 20:06
Hi Ankur,
happy you like my blog!
For the price of the 40mm, your choice of lenses is very limited. And especially if you are looking for a tack-
sharp zoom lens! That said, the Tamron 17-50mm zoom lens is similar to the kit lens, but offers better optical
quality and a faster f/2.8 aperture. It costs twice as much as the 40mm though.
The Canon 55-250 (or maybe the 70-300) could be a good choice since you get a lot of bang for the buck, but it
will still not provide the optical quality you are looking for.
Try getting used to the kit lens rst to try to gure out what you need. It's actually not such a bad lens at all. Or,
just get the 40mm now and get used to a different kind of shooting - you will need to get closer, but sometimes
getting up close and personal with your subjects can make for more interesting shots.
Hi Erik,
Another question. There are two versions of 40 mm STM lens. One is aspherical lens (model no. 6310B005,
132 gms, 2012) and there is another Normal lens (model no. CNN_40mm F/2.8_CanonDSLR, 249 gms). I have
mentioned weight to clarify that they are different with different price. Which one is better and what is the
difference?
 Erik December 14th, 2016 19:59
Hi Ankur,
I was not aware that canon had another 40mm lens out. This post is about the lighter one. Do you have a link?
Hi Erik,
I saw this on amazon.in when i searched for EF 40 mm. I have posted a query on amazon also as the
discription given for heaver one does not seems correct.
LEAVE A COMMENT
Name
Web site (optional)
Comment
Post comment
 Subscribe to new comments by RSS
 Previous: DSLR vs cell phone camera vs digicam Next: Easy x for Google Nexus 4 sliding off surfaces and mu ed speaker 
ABOUT ME RECENT COMMENTS

Erik, Nov 29th, 2019
Good luck, Algernon!

Algernon, Nov 29th, 2019
I'm going to drill 2 different diameter "snow man"
holes to hang it wi...
Erik, Oct 03rd, 2019
Hi Alex, it seems that nding these parts is getting

harder. The lin...
Alex, Oct 03rd, 2019
Dear pros, I have turned internet with legs up to nd

the cogs onlin...
Tuan, Sep 21st, 2019
Hi Erik, I have 1 character with 7 spriteRenders for

Head, hand, weapo...
As a programmer with just enough time on my

hands, I occasionally blog about my hobbies -
mostly photography and various gadgets. MOST COMMENTED ARTICLES
Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II vs Canon EF 40mm f/2.8
STM: Which to get?
Installing Android 2.3 Gingerbread on SonyEricsson
SHARE Xperia X10 Mini Pro
    ASK 731SP 3G Smartpad Review
Quick Sharpness Comparison
Unity3D: Replace Sprite Programmatically in
FOLLOW Animation
 RSS
 Twitter
TEN TINY LEVELS
My 100% free game for Android - fast-paced

/ HOME
FLICKR UPLOADS IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER
platform arcade action CONTACT
for one or two players! 
Check out the microsite or download using the
badge below.
No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they're pretty, even if they
aren't.
-- Marilyn Monroe
Erik Moberg 2019

Quick Sharpness Comparison - Erik Moberg's Personal Homepage - Photography, Gadgets, DIY, and More PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Quick Sharpness Comparison - Erik Moberg's Personal Homepage - Photography, Gadgets, DIY, and More PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

12/25/2019 Quick Sharpness Comparison - Erik Moberg's personal homepage - photography, gadgets, DIY, and more

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Whole picture, resized

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/1.8

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/2.8

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/4

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/1.8

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/2.8

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/4

Crop, closer to edge

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/1.8

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/2.8

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/4

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/2.8

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/2.8

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/2.8

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5.6

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/5.6

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/5.6

Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/5.6

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/5.6

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/5.6

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5.6

Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/5.6

Crop, closer to edge

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II @f/5.6

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 @f/5.6

/ HOME IMAGES DOWNLOADS ICON MAKER CONTACT 

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II @f/5.6

Tamron 18-270 3.5-6.3 DI II VC @f/5.6

The 40mm is razor sharp. Period.

 oliveR October 13th, 2013 04:05

 Hashim October 18th, 2013 15:12

Thanks a lot for your comparsion Erik.

So as i see it the 50mm will not do good photos on f/1.8 if handheld,

 Hashim October 18th, 2013 15:20

and one more question,

 Erik October 19th, 2013 00:39

 ChrisC November 29th, 2013 19:41

 ClaesP January 4th, 2014 11:12

Thanks for your articles! They are very helpful!

 Erik January 4th, 2014 12:03

 ClaesP January 4th, 2014 14:25

 Erik January 4th, 2014 22:37

 ibler February 10th, 2014 10:39

Great comparison! Thank you!!!

Thank you again for this wonderful comparison!

 Erik February 10th, 2014 20:44