EF 50 f/1.4 USM

[Cartman2000]

Oh, an exciting week ahead for you. Guess you have time to think about getting the 1.2 instead.

No thanks man. It's a horrible lens for a crop body from my experience. Just not sharp even at f2. Maybe it was a bad copy, but it works fine when mounted on a FF body.

 

[surrephoto]

No thanks man. It's a horrible lens for a crop body from my experience. Just not sharp even at f2. Maybe it was a bad copy, but it works fine when mounted on a FF body.

It's all about the unreliable auto-focus, lens test have shown that the resolving power of the lens is no worse than the 50 1.4. Apparently when i use it in low light with my ST-E2, it focuses very, very much more accurately than in contrasty sun-lit conditions.

 

[auden09]

lets pray for a 50 f/1.2L II soon. haha! if i go FF this is one lens i die die must have.

 

[lioneldude]

woah, even after calibration it front focused so much?? maybe this is a one-in-many shots incident? did u try again and see how? maybe the 2nd time wld be ok...

I shot an outdoor shoot at 12noon yesterday (200 shots), with 18-55, 50 f/1.4 and 70-200 f/2.8 IS.

50 f/1.4 i found 47 shots all out of focus/wrongly focused areas which lead me to conclude it was front focus. Number of useful shots for 50 f/1.4 was about 10...

Typical settings for my 50 f/1.4 were around f/1.8~f/4, shutter speeds faster than 1/400 sec, ISO 100.

 

[auden09]

ok the lens got problem.....

 

[eosandy]

My 50 had a back-focus issue until the USM died. Replaced by CSC and the lens was recalibrated as normal. Now it performs as I would expect a good lens to perform.

 

[crazysurfer]

Surprisingly this lens is out of stock at a lot of places. I'll be getting mine next week.

Lol, :what: :think: maybe the Mark 2 is coming so they stop production already!? :bigeyes::bsmilie:

 

[auden09]

i doubt so. they have other primes to settle first...

 

[Keiichi]

My 50 had a back-focus issue until the USM died. Replaced by CSC and the lens was recalibrated as normal. Now it performs as I would expect a good lens to perform.

Ur dog is so cute...

 

[auden09]

primes are gorgeous aren't they? this 50mm lens got me hooked to primes at f/2 and faster. zzz...moolah flying away.

 

[lioneldude]

Haha if mild handshake at f/2, shutter 1/500sec 50mm prime will it affect the "sharpness"?

 

[bEnd1ck]

Haha if mild handshake at f/2, shutter 1/500sec 50mm prime will it affect the "sharpness"?

I guess it depends on how far is the subject, and the handshake is left-right, or front back. hehe.

 

[lioneldude]

I guess it depends on how far is the subject, and the handshake is left-right, or front back. hehe.

Around full body (5m) to halfbody shot (3m) in portrait orientation.

I do noe that at 0.45m~0.6m 50mm lens handshake affects the photos even at high shutter speed.

 

[niftybracket]

i think being a 1993 model is a good thing. it should be stable

http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_50_1p4_c16/ states based on the 1971 fd 50mm1.4

 

[Cartman2000]

Just got this lens today from Cathay. Last piece according to the salesman so if you want one you'll have to go to Orient Photo or Harvey Norman. Paid $567, and it was surprisingly good even though it was the last set. Tack sharp wide open. Satisfied with this lens and probably won't buy a "better" 50mm until I move to FF

 

[auden09]

Just got this lens today from Cathay. Last piece according to the salesman so if you want one you'll have to go to Orient Photo or Harvey Norman. Paid $567, and it was surprisingly good even though it was the last set. Tack sharp wide open. Satisfied with this lens and probably won't buy a "better" 50mm until I move to FF

:thumbsup::thumbsup:
nice! actually, i even intend to use this lens when i go FF =) it's really a great value lens. i'm wondering is it sharp at wide open because we're on the crop? =/

 

[vlg134]

I just got my 50 f/1.4 on thursday. Lots of dust spots inside but the canon rep told me not to worry as dust spots will not show up on the image as they are micron size.

Did an extensive test yesterday night. Concluded that my lens at:

Min Focus Distance 0.45m ~ 0.6m
Backfocus till stopped down to f/4~5.6

0.6m ~ 0.8m
Backfocus till stopped down to f/2.8~4

> 1m
Slight backfocus till stopped down to f/2.

Just went to a shop to try 2 copies. Could not focus at all within 0.5m. But more than that it is ok. Tried with f 1.4 till all the way up.

Is it user-problem? Did I miss anything? I did not have this problem with the 500D and the 50mm 1.8 at all.

 

[lioneldude]

Just went to a shop to try 2 copies. Could not focus at all within 0.5m. But more than that it is ok. Tried with f 1.4 till all the way up.

Is it user-problem? Did I miss anything? I did not have this problem with the 500D and the 50mm 1.8 at all.

I found out the cause of my problems. It was the off center AF points had wrong information and hence threw the focus plane off alot of times.

Since the off center AF points are line type sensors, they are less sensitive. When you get the focus confirmation beep, it only means that the AF system thinks that it is in focus, but the off-center AF points have a larger error bar compared to the center cross sensor. Esp lens with aspherical elements/curvature may result in more error for off center points. Thankful for the Canon rep to sit down and look thru my pictures and find the root cause of the problem.

After the problem was fixed, off center AF points are accurate to f/2.8; when stopped wider, its adviced to work around the problem. Off-center AF at f/2.0 was 50-50 at times, while at f/1.4 it was not so good. They recommended to try using center point AF and AF-lock/recompose for f/2.0.

 

[vlg134]

I found out the cause of my problems. It was the off center AF points had wrong information and hence threw the focus plane off alot of times.

Since the off center AF points are line type sensors, they are less sensitive. When you get the focus confirmation beep, it only means that the AF system thinks that it is in focus, but the off-center AF points have a larger error bar compared to the center cross sensor. Esp lens with aspherical elements/curvature may result in more error for off center points. Thankful for the Canon rep to sit down and look thru my pictures and find the root cause of the problem.

After the problem was fixed, off center AF points are accurate to f/2.8; when stopped wider, its adviced to work around the problem. Off-center AF at f/2.0 was 50-50 at times, while at f/1.4 it was not so good. They recommended to try using center point AF and AF-lock/recompose for f/2.0.

so we should change to zone AF (center) or point AF (center) instead? humm...

I did not have the chance to try with 50mm f/1.8 and the 85mm because the sales guy did not want to entertain me anymore. they did not even help me try to verify what happened.

 

[lioneldude]

so we should change to zone AF (center) or point AF (center) instead? humm...

I did not have the chance to try with 50mm f/1.8 and the 85mm because the sales guy did not want to entertain me anymore. they did not even help me try to verify what happened.

Well testing use the center point. Focus far and focus near. Esp for 50 f/1.4 use a test subject, e.g. as the sales man to be your portrait subject.