Contrast and image sharpness

none

Seems odd- the "weird" reviews of this lens, from a few users who gave it rather bad reviews. First off- any lens is "soft" wide open and there are almost no instances when you would open a lens all the way. This lens- for me, is better than the much talked about 85mm 1.8 and more useful since it's a little wider. I found the 50mm f/1.4 to be very sharp, VERY contrasty, and gives beautiful background blur.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

Canon 85mm f/1.8

Fast, razor sharp, great colors and contrast. Built quality.

Soft at 1,4 and 1,6. No hood included.

I finally decided to buy this lens last week and I did a lot of testing. I use this lens on my Eos 300 D and mounted on this camera it functions as a 80 mm. At 1,4 images are soft indeed, but only when I shoot landscapes and the camera has focused on a distant/infinite point. But on the other hand, in a lot of cases the softness can easily be mistaken for the very shallow DOF at this aperture. I shot some portraits and stills at 1,4 onder (low)available light and they turned out just great. The shallow DOF/softness just creates the right, moody atmosphere. From 2,2 and up images become crisp and sharp and from 5,6 and up this lens out performs my 17-40 L! Because of the 1,6 crop factor of the CMOS sensor, light fall-off and barrel distortion do not excist, even wide open. Only from 1,6 to 2,0 there are some purple fringings. Overall I can say that I'm very happy with my purchase. I'm planning to use this lens mainly for portraits and stills but I'm sure it will serve me well outdoors too when shooting details, or subjects that require a specific DOF.

Customer Service

Not needed yet.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 17-40L f4 Canon 90-300 USM f3,5-5,6

Everything.

None. (I wish they're come out with an L lens.)

My favorite lens for shooting portraits and headshots with my Canon 10D. Simply a killer lens. Sharp. Great color. Light-weight. There's some kvetching about it being soft at 1.4, but seriously folks, if you're having to shoot at 1.4, are you really expecting perfection?

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Canon EF 28mm, 24-70mmL, 28-135mm

Sharp! Fast! Nice size for EOS 3! Easy to handle with cloves on!

Sealing (when used in humid and/or dusty conditions)

This is a very fine lense, just what I expected it to be. I use it for landscapes, mostly stopped down to f/22, and my slides look just great. Sharp, sharp, sharp... It is a superb lense for small bird photography also from a shooting distance 0.5-1 m! Yes indeed, I use it for wildlife photography! Stopped to f/2 it is fast and sharp, with f/1.4 even faster but slightly soft. AF works normally great and fast. If I had to choose just one lense, this would be it. Just one negative thing: once the AF failed to work after a successfull shooting of birds in hard conditions - melting snow on the lense body and camera. After warming and drying it worked well again.

Customer Service

No need.

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EF 28/2.8, EF 100/2.8 macro, EF 300/4 L

Great optics and best choice in 50mm lenses for Canon. Too many advantages over the f1.8 50mm for the price.

Focus ring although it seems no one else has had this issue.

Great optics! Only problem I've had is with focus ring. After about a year, the focus ring starts getting stiff in the close focus range up to about 1.5 meters. I've had two of these lenses that has done this. Doesn't seem to be a problem other have had. Other front focusing lenses I own haven't had this problem so the method of storage isn't an issue. What are the chances of having this happen twice?

Customer Service

No comment.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 50mm 1.8 mkII.

1.4, compact, phantasic optics 2.0 and below. Emergency lens when flash is not possible or aloud. Works nice with the 1D.

USM is a old one - its rather slow and noisy. No good sealing.

This stanard lens is a must. 1.4 apperture means 2 steps more than the 16-35 or the 70-200 lenses. The lens is very sharp 2.0 and below, the color rendition is first class and the contrast is just great. I really wished canon would update this great lens (new AF, sealing, reduced minimum focus distance, IS?)

Customer Service

not needed for this lens

Similar Products Used:

1.4 Nikon MF and AF D. The Canon optic is better - but the AF isn't

-Very Sharp -Has a well built feel to it

-USM motor not as nice as the newer ones

Just to chime in with most others to say this lens can produce VERY sharp pics that make people take notice. My walk-around lens is the Canon 28-135 IS, which produces a lot of "great shot" comments from viewers, but this lens sometimes gets "wows". I have even shot awesome portrait shots of my kids with this lens, but it needs some filter softening when shooting older folks like myself ;-) I agree with others that at 1.4 it is not as sharp, so I typically shoot at 1.8 or above, which still makes it a very fast lens with awesome results. Especially when I shoot at 2.8, 4.0, etc., this lens is tough to beat for sharpness. Sure the 50mm length may not work for all situations, but if you are a casual user looking for some "pop" without dropping a grand for an L, get a prime like this or the 1.8. I considered purchasing the 1.8, but opted for the 1.4 as the build quality and manual focus ring seemed much better. The USM motor is slower and noisier than the one on my 28-135 IS, but works fine for how I shoot.

Sharpness, colour reproduction.

build quality (maybe?). I don't think it really has a weaknesses. If you think you are going to drop it in sand and grit it up, don't take an SLR (unless you are a pro who needs to)!

This is a very sharp lens. I'll say it again - this is a very sharp lens. Colour reproduction also very good. Can't provide anything more technical than that - I just go on my photos. If you want photos that pop out at you, even under dull lighting, this is the lens for you. I would say if you are serious about having an EOS system, this is a 'must have'. Forget zooms for now (unless you are a pro or very experienced), learn how to use your eyes (and legs) with a 50mm lens. Don't buy this if you want light, portable equipment. It is a bit on the heavy side, (but nowhere near some of the zooms around). USM a little bit noisier than usual. Also, the focus ring may get grit trapped under it. This may be a problem across all the Canon lenses - they have to go for light weight focusing rigs as the motor is built into the lenses. Having said this, I don't think this will be a problem - after all, I bought the lens!

Similar Products Used:

pentax 50mm 1.7

all time manual focus and USM motor convincingly good performance when stopped down to at least f4 very effective shade good flare suppression

weaknesses only if not stopped down: very soft no sharp spot even in the image center strong vignetting

Many people claim that this is the best non-L lens. Here my personal view: 1. Wide open, the 50/1.4 is quite soft and there is no "sweet spot" in the image (e.g. a central region of acceptable sharpness/contrast which may be usable for portraits etc.). Moreover, strong vignetting further reduces the contrast and resolution of this lens towards the corners. This behaviour makes the f1.4 an almost unusable aperture. At f1.8 or f2.0 the FD 50/1.8 attached to my old A1 outperformed the EF 50/1.4 set to the same apertures. Although not dramatic, the difference was clearly visible in parallel shots on Velvia material. 2. When stopped down to f2.8 and f4.0, this glass slowly lives up to its real qualities. Sharpness increases very remarkably and the heavy vignetting is almost gone at f4.0. The contrast is OK but not extraordinary (such as in the Zeiss Planar 45/2.0) 3. Only at f5.6 and f8.0 this lens is an exceptional performer: no light falloff towards the corners, wonderful sharpness and good contrast are evident. Still the old FD 50/1.8 is almost on par with the current 50/1.4. 4. The built quality is ok but not comparable to L lenses or even the Leica manual lenses. I like the silent and "all-time manual" focus of the 50/1.4. One should also mention that this lens shown no ghost images even at over-contrasted night shots. Also the flare suppression is very good. Even strong light sources that are located only slightly apart from the image area hardly affect the image.

Customer Service

not needed so far

Similar Products Used:

FD 50/1.8 EF 28-80/2.8-4.0 L USM EF 85/1.8 Contax/Zeiss Planar T* 45/2.0 Leica Summicron R 50/2.0 (E55)

image quality. build quality. 1.4 aperture.

extending front element. just seems like internal focusing is better. with nothing moving on the outside there is less chance of damage from impact i would think. i try to keep the lens hood on to protect it. of course that cost 25 bucks!

i own the 28-135 with the image stabilizer and it is great most of the time. But before i bought that my main lens was a canon 50 1.8. I was able to get many great shots without ever needing zoom. the 1.8 version of this lens gives great optical results but the build quality is absolutely worthless. mine lasted less than a year. then it fell apart while focusing. i had been wanting another 50mm prime, but i thought that $300 for this lens was too much. then i saw one sitting in the glass casing at my local camera shop listed as "used" and selling for 219! i had to have it. well, now that i have seen the result i am wondering if i will ever be 100% satisfied with a consumer grade zoom again. sharp. sharp. freekin' sharp. even at 1.4 i can get a good shot. of course i can't always get in close on a human face unless i want unflinchingly natural perspective. but a 50mm is just about perfect for shots of people AND their environment. sometimes something a little wider is nice but often a good photograph requires that perfect balance of subject and surroundings. this is the right focal length. baby and child portraits are great with this focal length for me. i should know. i have 15 month old twins. i shot a roll of kodachrome 64 to see how good my cameras exposure meter is and also to see my beautiful babies on that classic k64. wow. one shot of my son (one twin is a boy, the other a girl) was so amazing that the guy at my local mini lab said he thought it was "the perfect photograph." of course i was just a little proud, but i really have to give this lens some of the credit. the wide aperture allowed me to handhold the shot in heavy shade at 1/125th! this is with the camera's meter set at 80! the shadow gradation, sharpness, contrast and (probably least important) bokeh are just too good. if you are thinking about a 50 1.8 to save money just remember that 1.4 is even better. also the 50 1.8 i had was much softer at 1.8 than this lens is at the same aperture. finally, the focusing motor of the cheap version of the 50 is NOISY. so trust me spend more and get more. one final comment i would like to add: equipment is worthless if you don't learn how to use it. i got excellent shots with the 50 1.8 because i practised my technique. i am only pushing this lens because it feels built-to-last and offers greater flexibility. i bet i can get lots of good shots with a crappy disposable for 4X6 prints to show non-photographer friends and family. in fact i have done just that on occasion

Customer Service

canon fixed my 28-135 in one week! it got "bent". i don't want to talk about it.

Similar Products Used:

canon 50 1.8 II canon 28-135 IS canon 100-300 ef (not the "L" push-pull one)