Hi, I haven't been around the forums for the last decade and much has changed. I was once heavily into Canon DSLRs, and was pretty darn good with my 5D and some nice lenses. I do much less now, and own a Fuji XT. My familiarity with R mount lenses is minimal.
Ok on to my reason for posting. My 30 year old daughter wants to learn how to use a larger sensor camera (all she knows at present is her iPhone, which I acknowledge is very good for many purposes). I suggested a used R50 with the 18-45 kit lens to start. I want to recommend a better build quality, fast lens (2.8 or faster) for her to try as well. I want to avoid heavy/bulky lenses until she has more experience using the R50. I think she would like learning to use prime lenses so my first thought is the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM. Perhaps on the crop sensor a wider lens would be better? Are there any third party autofocus lenses that she could consider?
I would appreciate any thoughts on lenses, prime or zoom, that are not budget busters for her to gain experience. Also would like to hear what people think of the kit lens.
I'm a bokeh whore and want to introduce her to that world.
If she likes taking pictures of flowers the 35/1.8 allows close focusing (about 7 inches), and on the R50s crop sensor the 35mm would be an approximate 56mm lens for other types of shooting. Even though I have the 100 macro I often use my 35/1.8 in the garden.
The nifty fifty you mention has a good reputation.
RF 100-400 is nice and light. Excellent closeup performance. I like it for casual birding and for walks at Longwood Gardens. It’s relatively cheap and can easily be resold,
If she has access to the 18 - 45 she can make due with that in a lot of cases, but it's going to be a bit limited indoors, especially without a flash. A 50mm is a good general range lens, but indoors it can be a bit limiting because of limited space.
For outdoors I would suggest the 50mm, if indoors is more important than I think the 35mm would be a bit more useful.
As Scott mentioned the 45mm F1.2 is going to be the budget bokeh, but maybe she'll go group F/64 instead
p.1 #10 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
I like Canon full frame, but if you're looking at a crop sensor camera, and you're not doing sports/wildlife photography, I'd look into a manufacturer that takes their APC-C lens lineup seriously, like Fuji. It doesn't make sense to me to put full frame lenses on an APS-C body for general photography.
p.1 #12 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
It can be difficult to get a comprehensive picture of the range of lenses available for the RF mount, and even more so for the APS-c optimized lenses. The major manufacturers I'm aware of are Canon, Sigma, and Tamron, the latter two being fully licensed by Canon and therefore most feature-compatible with the RF mount. There are other manufacturers but I personally don't pay too much attention to them.
For your starter lens, it appears that you are looking really budget...not only the slow kit lens, but used at that. Given you interest in bokeh, I just came across the SIGMA 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary Lens. It covers a little broader focal range but has a big advantage in max aperture. It costs more, but might obviate the need for a second prime lens for bokeh.
You intent for a prime lens is quite ambiguous so I'm going to infer that you are interested in a "normal" lens. What focal length do you use on your XT as a street or normal lens for shallow DOF compositions? I would think you aren't using 40-50mm lenses but rather lenses in the range of 28-35mm. As pointed out above, 35mm is about 56mm FOV equivalent. I personally really liked the EF 28mm f1.8 on my APS-c EOS M5.
I will second the recommendations for the RF 35mm f1.8 (used on my R7, a bulkier camera than the R50). It is a little long [focal length equiv] but that is a matter of taste and photographic goals.
But I also just came across the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN. This one is falls right into the "normal" range.
For myself when I was building an RF-s kit for my R7 last spring, I chose:
-- RF-s 18-150 as my walk around. I liked its predecessor on the M5 , my caveat being that I do very little social situation and people photography so the lens length wasn't an issue.
-- Tamron 11-20 f2.8. I had determined for me, traveling required a minimum 16mm FF equiv in my kit. The R7 has enough resolution to shoot that wide and still retain data and have sufficient room for cropping. That may not be true for a 24MP APS-c sensor, but this use case doesn't seem applicable to your inquiry
-- I also have the RF 16 f2.8 as an early attempt to get better bokeh and a little wider FOV than the 18-150.
p.1 #13 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
jmckayak wrote:
RF 100-400 is nice and light. Excellent closeup performance. I like it for casual birding and for walks at Longwood Gardens. It’s relatively cheap and can easily be resold,
That is a very good lens. The Canon Store had them (refurbished) for $429, but they sold out. They should be back in stock later.
JIm
p.1 #14 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
That Sigma RF 18-50/2.8 looks sweet. I'm not clear on the size, specs listed with curious "Package weight" and "Box dimensions".
Feb 24, 2026 at 04:14 PM
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p.1 #15 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
tom in mpls wrote:
Hi, I haven't been around the forums for the last decade and much has changed. I was once heavily into Canon DSLRs, and was pretty darn good with my 5D and some nice lenses. I do much less now, and own a Fuji XT. My familiarity with R mount lenses is minimal.
Ok on to my reason for posting. My 30 year old daughter wants to learn how to use a larger sensor camera (all she knows at present is her iPhone, which I acknowledge is very good for many purposes). I suggested a used R50 with the 18-45 kit lens to start. I want to recommend a better build quality, fast lens (2.8 or faster) for her to try as well. I want to avoid heavy/bulky lenses until she has more experience using the R50. I think she would like learning to use prime lenses so my first thought is the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM. Perhaps on the crop sensor a wider lens would be better? Are there any third party autofocus lenses that she could consider?
I would appreciate any thoughts on lenses, prime or zoom, that are not budget busters for her to gain experience. Also would like to hear what people think of the kit lens.
I'm a bokeh whore and want to introduce her to that world.
Get the ef rf adapter then you can get 55-250 ( preferably STM, generally) It's not 1.2, but the fl is much longer than most of the 1.2-1.4 lenses so you can get rid of bg pretty good, maybe better, and I've always thought the bokeh is good. Also 85/1.8 100/2
28 rf really tiny, 45mm ff equivalent, 18-50 sigma is supposed to be good very lightweight, see opticallimits test on Fuji, supposedly the same lens
p.1 #16 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
tom in mpls wrote:
That Sigma RF 18-50/2.8 looks sweet. I'm not clear on the size, specs listed with curious "Package weight" and "Box dimensions".
Sigma lists the dimensions as 2.7 in. x 2.9 in. I have this lens and the Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 as well, and those two coupled with an R50 is all I need if I'm not birding. Add in a RF 100-400mm and you've got a lightweight trinity.
p.1 #20 · Advice for a novice learning with an R50
I have the R50 (and R100)
Fact is I’m not overly impressed with the RF consumer lens line up. The R50 is in my view brilliant.
Personally I’d get the adapter EF-RF then pick up used mintish examples of the EF-s STM triplets.. 10-18, 18-55, 55-250. Those three bought used would still probably be cheaper than buying RF-S new.
The EF-s STM are superb in my view. The camera will work seamlessly with all three lenses. With the above triplets you’d have a FF equivalent range of 16mm wide angle through to 400mm telephoto … with full IS and near silent AF focusing.
Also to note is that RF glass will ONLY ever fit canon R bodies. Whereas older EF/EF-s can be adapted to older canon and also non canon brands.
Also the maximum aperture of the older STM is faster than the newer RF consumer zooms.
We are off to Paris next month and I’m seriously considering taking the R50 along with the STM triplets
