I think I got mine for about $70 from Amazon. Great lens for the price. Sharpest lens I have despite the price. Just be aware that its build quality isn't the best. But as long as you treat it well, it shouldn't fall apart. Great portrait lens; great bokeh.

It's the sharpest $90 lens out there. Reason enough to buy it. But it's always this price. Thanks for nothing.

I have an older version f1.8 lens that I use for available light situations. Use it instead of an image stabilized lens.

#19, I stand corrected on my misspeak. Instead of zero crop factor, it should have stated, as you mentioned, a crop factor of 1.0x. And that the 50mm focal length lens was normal in relation to 35mm film format, large sensor equivalent, full-frame, as implied...didn't want to sound too techie. Thanks for the catch.

A couple of photography points --
1) The larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field, and thus the harder it is to nail your focus.
2) The reason lots of people get confused with aperture ("Why does f16 mean a smaller aperture than f8?) is that we're lazy when we write it. It's actually a ratio, with the f number as the denominator -- thus, properly it's f/1.8 or f/16 or whatever. And just as 1/16 of a dollar is less than 1/2 of a dollar, f/16 is a smaller aperture area than f/2 or f/1.8 .

Now you know the rest of the story.

oos