Lenses are funny things. We'll spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars for a lens. Bokeh, the widest possible aperture, reputed clarity of the glass - those things that affect the picture - have to be measured against the impact to our wallets. We'll cough up for AF, IS, even cool stuff like catadioptrics or telephotos so long we look like anteaters carrying them around. Sometimes it gets to the point where we think we *have* to spend a lot of money, lenses are so cool. And yes, I've spent the big money for lenses; I don't like doing it, but sometimes, it seems like to get the features you want, you just have to. This lens taught me something. Maybe you *don't* have to. I'll tell you why. I bought a new camera. An EOS 40D. A great camera for me, does the things I like, and does them well. My first Canon, though, I had no lenses. So I thought long and hard about what lens to get first. I ended up buying a macro lens, about $500 out of pocket by the time it was shipped to me. A great lens, and you bet I got some great macro shots. But it was a *macro* lens, and you know it was only a few days before I was pining to shoot some "regular" images. I looked at all manner of lenses, and the choices were just too much. I ended up unable to decide on anything. So... then I saw this. $73? What the heck, let me get this and I'll have something to play with until I can decide among the many others that were seriously vying for my attention. And THEN... then I received the lens. Now I don't feel what it was that attracted me to the more expensive lenses. That's how good this baby is. It's true, it doesn't have as many blades as a higher end lens and so your background blur - bokeh - is a little bit polygonal instead of nice round blurs; but frankly, I consider that to be nit picking in the extreme. Look at the beautiful samples people have uploaded here, actual results, and you can see that it will do a great job of isolating foreground objects. The bokeh is fine unless you're in some kind of pro competition or you are so finicky about your photos you sit in front of your prints all night, twisting your hands like someone who's had too much coffee. Plus, this thing is really, really sharp. Give it the best chance - lots of light, tripod mount, fast shutter speed - and you'll be rewarded with pixel level detail, or at least as much as the optical low pass filter in your camera lets through to your sensor if you're shooting digital. I was *astonished* at the clarity, the EOS 40D's 10 mp sensor would surely find any glass problems, but... nothing. It makes perfect pictures. The AF works precisely, so that using center point only on my 40D, I was able to resolve exact details on many subjects using nothing but the AF. This is *not* typical behavior for an inexpensive lens. Speed: It's pretty quick, all right, especially if you're willing to sacrifice some depth of field. Canon's got an f/1.2 in the L series for about 20 times the price if this really isn't quick enough. Though I suspect that most of you, like me, look at lenses priced well above $1000 and quickly find other things we want to buy instead. Like a whole new camera! With this lens, you can literally shoot decent space photos on a high-megapixel camera just by setting the lens to wide open aperture, laying your camera on its back, and using a good fast ISO setting. There's a good example of this in the gallery. I tried it for myself, and it worked great (by the way, see if you can find a moment to rate that photo up... it's a terrific example of what the lens can do!) Frankly, that's something only a really fast lens can pull off, at least, in my experience - because if you keep the shutter open too long, you'll have star trails instead of points. Features: It's a basic lens. It just works. Which is just what we want, of course. But that's not to say it doesn't bring some features to the table. It's good from about one and a half feet out to infinity; it's autofocus, but you can't touch the focus ring while it is driving it - it isn't a full time manual focus design. There's a switch for manual / AF mode in the usual place. One thing I appreciated was the red alignment dot being a physical nub instead of just being silk-screened on (or inside!) the lens - I change lenses around often, and I really eyeball those dots a lot to save wear and tear on the camera. You get both the lens covers you need, one for the business end and one for the camera end (for when it isn't mounted on the camera.) It uses 52 mm filters, and the threading is well machined, I had no trouble at all attaching and removing filters. It takes the ES-62 hood, which is not included. The lens system itself is five groups of six elements for f/1.8 - they didn't just throw it together. Now, as to build. Yes, the barrel is plastic. Plastic is not a dirty word, though, really - it can be quite durable, with the right plastic in the right application. The lens feels fine, not "cheap" at all. I mean this in the sense that the lens fits the camera well, and there are no funny noises or other warning signs of less than sufficient design. It *is* plastic, and one thing about that is that the lens is very light weight for what it does, and that makes longer shooting sessions more pleasant. I can tell you that my physically much larger macro lens tires me out in just a few minutes; this lens doesn't do that, it's almost like it weighs nothing - it's only 4.6 ounces, all of it physically close to the camera so it doesn't exert much leverage on your wrists. Here's an issue you can, and should, sink your teeth into: When focusing, the lens physically extends, and that is a difference between a more expensive lens and this one that can really matter. This is because it affects how you can use the lens. It is something you should, no, you *must*, keep in mind when using this lens. I'll explain. Actually, I would speculate that of the people who managed to destroy this lens in short order, I bet at least some of them physically had the business end of the lens resting on something, or were holding onto the focusing ring when the AF system tried to drive the lens to a new physical configuration, and poof - the gear train, or the motor, or both, went nipples north. You just can't do that - not with *any* lens that extends physically. Don't touch, or rest, the focus ring on this lens in AF mode, EVER! If you watch out for that one issue when you use it, just keep the lens free in the air and your fingers off the ring, I bet the lens will last years. Why so confident? Simple: Based on the incredible track record Canon has for its camera and lens product lines, I think we can very safely say that Canon knows precisely what they are doing, generally speaking. They're not fools, I think we can all agree. With that in mind, simply consider that Canon has placed a full one year warranty on the lens. Frankly, I don't believe they would do that if it was truly going to fall apart in a few months when used properly, as some of the less positive reviews here have said. Treat it right, it'll almost certainly treat you right. This is *Canon*, people, not the Wang Chung Junque Manufacturing Co. operating out of a cave somewhere. In the end, even if mine did break, I'd replace it in a heartbeat. It is a truly great lens for the money. Highly recommended. *** I've added an image to the image gallery that is a CLIP of a small portion of an image shot of the night sky. In it, you can clearly see the great nebula in Andromeda. I've identified the individual stars for you, and you can see the entire image by checking my flickr account (fyngyrz). When I saw what I had captured with this modestly priced lens, my jaw nearly hit the floor. Is this lens sharp? Unbelievably so, and here's stone proof of it.