a serious reader
I shoot with compact sensor Canon DSLRs so am writing from that perspective. This is a handy lens to use on a compact sensor camera for portraits and some general photography as well. On a compact sensor this is equivalent to 80 mm so its not a lens to take as the only lens on a vacation with a compact sensor DSLR. I have used it for portraits and gotten very nice results. Note that wide open at f1.8, it is not sharp and is in fact quite soft in focus. It sharpens up by f2.8 and does even better at f4.0. For a lens in this price range it is pretty normal to have it be soft wide open, however I was a bit disappointed, which is why I will give it a 4 stars not 5. If you would like more information on sharpness at different f-stops there are quite technical reviews which are easy to find online. Overall, its pretty nice.