The EF 50mm f/1.0L USM lens was announced by Canon with the introduction of the first two EOS models in 1987, the EOS 650 and the semi-pro EOS 620 AF 35mm SLR cameras but was officially on sale only when the original EOS-1 pro camera was launched in the summer of 1989. Canon does not plan to sell a lot of this lens worldwide nor does it expect it to be a bestseller. The high price for the lens is understandable since not many units were made since 1987. And the number of units sold around the world are small, too. In Malaysia, only four units were sold, and one of them (mine) went missing during an assignment in December 1994, no thanks to an absent-minded photographer friend who left it on the ground while changing lenses and forgot all about it. The lens itself was designed and developed by Canon as a symbolic way to demonstrate the potential of the fully electronic lens-to-camera interface of the EOS System. The larger diameter of the EF lenses as compared to the manual focus FD lenses, made it possible for Canon to realize a maximum aperture of f/1.0 without any loss of image quality, contrast or vignetting (except when it is used with the EOS-1N RS model). In my relatively short period of owning the EF 50mm f/1.0L USM standard lens, from December 1992 until it went missing, I can say it was indeed an excellent lens despite the limitations mentioned in the previous page. Most of the time, it was used for available or low light shooting conditions but was also marvellous for fill-in flash indoor and daytime situations. There was one assignment, of a stage performance, where the only light source was a blue bulb (essential to reflect the show's atmosphere), the exposure was 1/15 sec. at f/1.0 on ISO 1600 film. I was the only photographer able to record the scene on film with the help of the EF 50mm f/1.0L USM lens. These three photos of the Buddha statues and religious carvings from Penang's famous Kek Lok Si Temple were from an earlier visit and different from the batch shot by the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and featured in previous issues of The Art of Photography columns. Row of Buddha statues, 1/250 sec at f/11 A giant statue inside the temple's Pagoda, 1/60 sec. at f/1.0, ISO 50 Close-up of temple carvings, floating elements helped prevent curvature of field   << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 .