Canon just announced the launch of the RF version of one of its most popular lenses: the 50mm f/1.8 STM. How does this nifty fifty compare when placed up against an f/1.2 lens that’s more than $2,000 more expensive?

Photographer Irene Rudnyk is famed for her stunning natural light images that frequently use a shallow depth of field, making her well-suited to putting the new nifty fifty through its paces.

The RF 50mm f/1.8 will be available from December for just $199, meaning that like the EF version, it’s an ideal choice for anyone pondering their first prime lens.

By contrast, the impressive RF 50mm f/1.2L USM costs $2,299, so just how much more bokeh do you get when you spend almost 12 times as much and buy yourself that extra full stop of light?

Seasoned professionals might turn their nose up at the news of a new nifty fifty, but I can’t think of a lens more widely owned than the EF 50mm f/1.8 STM (assuming that we count all three iterations). It was the first “proper” lens for probably tens of thousands of photographers around the world, and that’s one of the reasons that I was pleased to see Canon keep the price down, as explained in this article.

Will you buy the f/1.8 instead of the f/1.2? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.