When I first purchased my Canon dSLR I was in awe of the quality of the photographs I was taking just with the kit lens. I chose the EF-S 18-55mm kit lens as I didn't really see myself needing much zoom, which remained true until recently.

As many of you will know, kit lenses are fine for bright daylight shots and shots with on camera flash or a strobe, this is due to them being fairly 'slow' now when I say this it refers to the lenses aperture NOT the shutter speed.

Just quickly, the aperture of a lens is how much the lens is able to open for a given shot, thus allowing more light to enter. The number around the edge of your lens and advertised with all lenses is known also as the f-stop. This number is the important part, my kit lens 1:3.5-5.6 tells me that, since it's a small telephoto lens at 18mm the lowest the aperture will go is f/3.5 and when zoomed in to 55mm the lowest it can now go is f/5.6.

I also should mention that the lower the aperture number eg. f/1.8 the larger the actual aperture will open allowing more light to enter. On the flip side f/22 is tiny and will not let much light in whatsoever therefore a much longer shutter speed will need to be used and a tripod or the steady arms of an android!

There are two great reasons why fast lenses are the best:

1. Bokeh: Thick, creamy, blurry as hell backgrounds to make your portraits look pro! When I first got my dSLR I was never interested in portrait photography but but those backgrounds are simply beautiful, bringing your subject into the foreground and capturing the moment with no distractions in the distance.
2. Fast lenses can be using in more places without the need for a flash. An aperture of f/1.8 will open the lens enough to take nice shots in the late afternoon and even indoors on an overcast day while capturing the scene in natural lighting.
   

This is Canon's cheapest lens and boy does it feel cheap. For the money, it's worth every cent! If it breaks, simply buy a new one. If you scratch the lens, buy a new one! The Canon 50mm f/1.8 II has been described by some as a disposable lens.

Canon certainly know what they're doing with this little nifty-fifty. The glass is much better quality than my kit lens and although the auto focus is a bit loud and clunky, I guess I should be using manual focus by now anyway. I can't honestly get over how much of a difference it is to go from a lens with f/3.5 down to f/1.8 I have taken a few good shots in low light that my kit lens would never have been able to take.

I take many photographs of textures and this lens really helps, along with a tripod, to get a clean tack sharp image that I can then use in Maya or Photoshop.

The Canon 50mm f/1.8 II is very lightweight and hardly noticeable when holding the camera. Let us not forget that this is a FIXED focal length lens (a prime) so you'll have to use your legs to zoom in and out. The build quality may not be there and the zoom may be slightly too loud but in all honesty for the prices that these lenses are going for you cannot beat it, especially if you are an amateur wanting to expand on your kit lens.

Just a quick heads up, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II is also a cheap way to get into the macro photography scene, I'm planning on writing a few more hubs about this in the future so stay tuned!

Also on some of the lower range dSLR's that are APS-C due to the cropping factor that occurs from having a smaller sensor this 50mm lens is effectively around an 80mm which is about what you'd be looking for in a portrait lens anyway. Just keep this in mind when buying lenses if you plan to upgrade in the future.