Canon R50 Background Blur: Aperture, Distance and Lenses

To blur the background on the Canon EOS R50, open the aperture as wide as your lens allows, zoom in, get close to your subject, and put as much distance as you can between your subject and whatever is behind it. The kit lens tops out at f/4.5-6.3, so the fastest route to stronger blur is a bright prime such as the RF 50mm f/1.8, which acts like an 80mm portrait lens on the R50.

The four controls that decide background blur

The soft, out-of-focus look behind a subject is usually called bokeh. How much of it you get depends on your depth of field. You control depth of field with four things, and on a small camera like the R50 you will usually need to stack several of them together.

Aperture

The aperture is written as an f-number. A lower number, such as f/1.8, means a wider opening and a shallower slice of focus. A higher number, such as f/8, keeps more of the scene sharp. For background blur, set the lowest f-number your lens offers.

Focal length

Longer focal lengths make the background look bigger and softer behind your subject. On a zoom lens, that means zooming toward the long end. With the R50 kit lens, shoot at 45mm rather than 18mm when blur is the goal.

Distance to your subject

The closer you focus, the shallower the depth of field gets. Step in so your subject fills more of the frame. A head-and-shoulders portrait shows far more blur than a full-length shot taken with the same lens and aperture.

Distance from subject to background

This is the free one. Move your subject away from walls, fences and hedges. A person standing a few steps in front of a building gives you a busy background. The same person with open space or distant trees behind them gives you a smooth one, even with a modest lens.

What the R50's APS-C sensor changes

The R50 records 24.2MP stills on an APS-C sensor. Canon's APS-C sensors have a crop factor of 1.6x, rather than the 1.5x crop used by other makers. Digital Camera World describes the effect simply: it makes your lenses look more "zoomed in" than they would on a full-frame camera.

Canon's own figures show this on the kit lens: at 45mm, the RF-S 18-45mm gives a 35mm film equivalent of 72mm. The same idea turns a 50mm lens into an 80mm portrait view on the R50.

In practice, you will stand farther back to frame a portrait than a full-frame shooter would with the same lens. That extra distance works against blur, so on the R50 a bright aperture and a distant background matter even more. If you want the full comparison, the guide to Canon APS-C vs full frame cameras covers it.

Getting the most blur from the RF-S 18-45mm kit lens

The R50 is sold body only, with the RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM, or in a two-lens kit that adds the RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM. If you bought the standard kit, this is the lens you have.

RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM	Canon's figure
Focal length	18-45mm (45mm is a 72mm equivalent)
Maximum aperture	f/4.5-6.3
Length	About 44.3mm
Weight	About 130g
Image stabilization	4.0 stops
Minimum focus distance	0.20m at 18mm
Maximum magnification	0.16x at 45mm

Digital Camera World calls this lens a perfect fit for the R50 and says it is good. It is not built for heavy blur, though, so use every other control you have:

• Zoom all the way to 45mm. That is where the lens gives its narrowest view and its highest magnification.
• Set the lowest f-number the lens allows at 45mm.
• Move in close. The lens reaches 0.16x magnification at 45mm, which suits small subjects like flowers, food and hands.
• Pull your subject well away from the background.
• Pick backgrounds with points of light or soft color, which blur more pleasantly than hard edges.

The kit lens has built-in stabilization, which matters because the R50 has no in-body stabilization.

Lenses that make background blur easy

The R50 uses the Canon RF mount, so it works with both RF and RF-S lenses. RF-S lenses are designed for APS-C bodies and tend to be small and light, while RF lenses are usually larger and heavier. Digital Camera World notes that full-frame RF primes work perfectly on the R50, and that you can keep using them without the APS-C crop if you later move to a full-frame EOS R body. The Digital Picture adds that the RF mount keeps a 54mm inner diameter, which supports ultra-wide apertures.

A prime lens is the usual route to stronger blur, because primes often open far wider than kit zooms.

Lens	Maximum aperture	View on the R50	Notes from the evidence
RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM	f/4.5-6.3	Up to 72mm equivalent	Standard kit lens
RF 50mm f/1.8 STM	f/1.8	80mm effective	Cheap 'nifty fifty', great portrait lens for the R50
RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM	f/2 (from the name)	Longer than the 50mm	Used for an R50 portrait in The Digital Picture's review
RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM	f/3.5-6.3	Up to 240mm equivalent	Superzoom, performs very well for its type
RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM	f/5-7.1	Telephoto	Offered in the two-lens kit

The RF 50mm f/1.8: the easy first step

Digital Camera World describes a cheap 'nifty fifty' as a popular first buy, and says that on the R50 its 80mm effective focal length plus the f/1.8 aperture make it a great portrait lens. That outlet published R50 samples shot with the RF 50mm f/1.8 at f/1.8. Its R50 V review also includes samples from the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM at f/1.8, f/4 and f/8, which give you a useful look at how the background changes as you stop down.

For portraits, this is the lens to buy first if blur is your main goal. Start at f/1.8, then try f/2.8 if you need a little more of the face in focus.

Longer and stabilized primes

The Digital Picture's R50 review includes a portrait taken with the RF 85mm F2 Macro IS STM Lens, with the reviewer noting the aperture ended up at f/2.8 rather than the intended f/2. Digital Camera World also points out that a prime with built-in stabilization is useful on the R50 because the camera lacks IBIS.

Small primes for carrying around

Digital Camera World highlights a compact 28mm pancake RF prime that gives an effective 45mm angle of view on the R50, making it a general-purpose standard lens. James Artaius of Digital Camera World describes the R50 with a couple of f/1.8 primes as a featherweight package with a heavyweight punch. A wide prime will blur less than the 50mm at the same aperture, so get closer to your subject to compensate.

Zooms

The RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM reaches a 240mm equivalent. That long end can soften a background when your subject is close and the background is far away, even though the aperture is modest. The Digital Picture names the RF 15-35mm F2.8 L IS USM, RF 24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM and RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM as professional-grade step-up zooms with wide apertures, but notes none is compact like the R50.

Settings for shallow depth of field on the R50

Pick a mode where you set the aperture

Use a shooting mode that lets you choose the aperture yourself, such as M. Set the lowest f-number, keep ISO low, and let the shutter speed handle exposure. The guide to the best Canon camera settings for beginners covers the basics of exposure modes.

Watch your shutter speed in bright light

A wide aperture lets in a lot of light. The R50's electronic first curtain shutter runs from 30 sec to 1/4000 sec, and the electronic shutter reaches 1/8000 sec. The Digital Picture notes that older entry-level Canon bodies were limited to 1/4000 sec, which restricted ultra-wide apertures in bright light, and calls 1/8000 a great feature at this price. As an example, Digital Camera World's daylight sample from the R50 V and RF 50mm f/1.8 STM at f/1.8 used 1/3200 sec at ISO 100.

If your photos come out too bright at f/1.8 outdoors, switch to the electronic shutter so you can reach 1/8000 sec. Keep in mind PetaPixel's note that electronic first curtain is the option that still works with flash and helps with flicker from some lights.

Let the autofocus find the eye

Shallow depth of field leaves little room for focus errors. PetaPixel calls the R50's autofocus surprisingly excellent and says it inherited subject recognition from the EOS R6 Mark II, though it is not as strong at it as the R8 or R6 Mark II. In its review, Fstoppers says the autofocus works like a charm. Turn on subject detection for people or animals, and check focus on the eye before you move on.

Background blur in video

The R50 records 4K 30p oversampled from 6K. The same four controls apply to video. The catch is stabilization: PetaPixel writes that without an image-stabilized lens, the R50 is practically useless for handheld video in the field because it lacks in-body stabilization. A bright prime without IS can still work on a tripod.

The Canon EOS R50 V is built on the R50 as Canon's first interchangeable lens vlogging camera. Digital Camera World describes it as a "baby Cinema EOS" with log modes and Look Files. It launched at $649.99 body only, or $849.99 with the RF-S 14-30mm f/4-6.4 IS STM PZ.

Which R50 setup to choose for blur

If you already have the kit, add the RF 50mm f/1.8 before anything else. It is the cheapest way to change what your portraits look like.

If you are buying fresh and know you want blurry backgrounds, consider the body only and pair it with one or two bright primes. Digital Camera World's James Artaius sees this kind of combination as a featherweight package.

If you want one lens for everything and can accept less blur, the kit lens is a sound start, and Digital Camera World considers it literally made for the camera. For a broader look at where the camera fits, read Canon EOS R50: Best Beginner Camera in the Canon RF System?. If you are weighing a full-frame body for more blur, the guide on getting a blurry background on the Canon R6 Mark II shows the same techniques on a larger sensor.