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Archive 2013 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

popinvasion
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

2 copies I tried were soft. I am not in love with my 50 1.8. I really just want a sharp wide open 1.4. B&H has $60 off the 50mm 1.4 and I am thinking about giving it another go. Any thoughts?

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:23 AM

Dudewithoutape
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

If your body has microadjust AF (and I believe you do IIRC, you own a 5D3), I'd say go for the Sigma or if you dont need 1.4 then the Canon 50mm macro is excellent.

The Sigma and the Canon 1.4 should be updated soon. Or at least, many speculate. Also, I believe Samyang is coming out with a 1.2 soon if you can handle MF.

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:31 AM

Gochugogi
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

popinvasion wrote:
2 copies I tried were soft. I am not in love with my 50 1.8. I really just want a sharp wide open 1.4. B&H has $60 off the 50mm 1.4 and I am thinking about giving it another go. Any thoughts?

A sharp wide open 50 1.4 USM ain't gonna happen. If you're lucky, it should be really good by F2.0. Mine didn't hit pay dirt until F2.8. My 50 1.2L is the sharpest F1.4 lens I've owned! The EF 50 2.5 CM is the sharpest 50 I've ever owned but, of course, it ain't F1.4.

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:31 AM

popinvasion
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Dudewithoutape wrote:
If your body has microadjust AF (and I believe you do IIRC, you own a 5D3), I'd say go for the Sigma or if you dont need 1.4 then the Canon 50mm macro is excellent.

The Sigma and the Canon 1.4 should be updated soon. Or at least, many speculate. Also, I believe Samyang is coming out with a 1.2 soon if you can handle MF.

I can hang with manual. A 1.2 might be cool. I don't love Sigma lenses I am a bit leery. Maybe if they pull out an art 50 1.4. I do have a 5dmk3 but I am not confident in adjusting the ma, I have had lenses get worse with ma. I need a little more testing and time into the ma.

Edited on Sep 30, 2013 at 12:55 AM · View previous versions

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:41 AM

popinvasion
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Gochugogi wrote:
A sharp wide open 50 1.4 USM ain't gonna happen. If you're lucky, it should be really good by F2.0. Mine didn't hit pay dirt until F2.8. My 50 1.2L is the sharpest F1.4 lens I've owned! The EF 50 2.5 CM is the sharpest 50 I've ever owned but, of course, it ain't F1.4.

That mirrors my experience. But others have reported a sharp 50 1.4.

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:42 AM

Dudewithoutape
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Since you're okay with manual focus it opens up to the wonderful world of Zeiss, Leica, and Contax at the very least. Pentax-A is also known to be quite good.

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:56 AM

popinvasion
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Dudewithoutape wrote:
Since you're okay with manual focus it opens up to the wonderful world of Zeiss, Leica, and Contax at the very least. Pentax-A is also known to be quite good.

I have been looking at a few but honestly I don't love the idea of the cost associated. I would be comfortable with around $700 for a manual 50.

Sep 30, 2013 at 01:05 AM

Dudewithoutape
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

50's that fall in your budget
Contax Zeiss 1.7 ~180
Contax Zeiss 1.4 ~300
Zeiss 1.4 ZE ~525 ZF ~425 ZS ~425
Leica R 2.0 ~475
Pentax-A 1.4 ~150

+ whatever adapter you want to get. I've had great luck with cheap Chinese ones with programmable apertures/FL/microAF(MF?,

). The nicest is Leitax, but they're also the most expensive.

Edited on Sep 30, 2013 at 01:45 AM · View previous versions

Sep 30, 2013 at 01:09 AM

ShaneEngelking
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

While mine may not be tack sharp wide open, it is certainly pretty decent. Certainly good enough for candid portraits. How sharp do you need it to be? I will add that I am pretty sure I got a good copy of the lens.

Sep 30, 2013 at 01:33 AM

ShaneEngelking
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

And if you are ok with manual focus, go with a Pentax Super Takumar m42 mount. That is really reasonable and very sharp, and works on Canon with a $10 adapter.

Sep 30, 2013 at 01:34 AM

shroud72
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Since you have a full frame camera you should be very careful with legacy lenses as they may hit the mirror on full frame when focusing at or near infinity.
You can circumvent this by shooting with Live View or don´t focus near infinity if you are doing casual portraits. I find that using Live View with 3x or 10x magnification the best way to manual focus anyways.

Sep 30, 2013 at 04:02 AM

h00ligan
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

I'm Ono board with the sigma. I tried birth side by suede and the sigma was way better IMO. But, you will likely need to adjust for it. N

Sep 30, 2013 at 05:49 AM

Paul Mo
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

ShaneEngelking wrote:
And if you are ok with manual focus, go with a Pentax Super Takumar m42 mount. That is really reasonable and very sharp, and works on Canon with a $10 adapter.

Or a Nikkor Ai-S 50 f1.2.

Sep 30, 2013 at 07:14 AM

sivrajbm
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

A good Canon 50/1.4 can be had i have one. You will probably have to MA though. I use FoCal and have been very pleased with it...

Sep 30, 2013 at 09:09 AM

eosfun
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

The 50/1.4 suffers from some residual abberrations wide open. Especially spherical abberration causes the lens to be a bit more "soft/hazy" wide open than the sharpest lenses. However from 2.2 this lens is already as sharp as it can be. So if you can live with that, use the characteristic for your photographic purposes. I see my 50/1.4 as a hybrid lens that is great wide open for portraits that give a more flattering image to some models who don't want the finest details of wrinkles and spots etc. On the other hand at 2.2 the lens is very sharp and still has small enough DOF and nice bokeh to use it at that speed. If you can't live with that and must have at least 1.4 wide open, the 50/L is your friend. It's plenty sharp from 1.2, but requires a larger investment into your EOSfun

Sep 30, 2013 at 10:36 AM

garyvot
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

eosfun wrote:
The 50/1.4 suffers from some residual abberrations wide open. Especially spherical abberration causes the lens to be a bit more "soft/hazy" wide open than the sharpest lenses. However from 2.2 this lens is already as sharp as it can be. So if you can live with that, use the characteristic for your photographic purposes. I see my 50/1.4 as a hybrid lens that is great wide open for portraits that give a more flattering image to some models who don't want the finest details of wrinkles and spots etc. On the other hand at 2.2 the lens is very sharp...Show more →

This is exactly my experience.

There is no Canon 50mm lens that is "tack sharp" wide open.

For what it's worth, residual spherical aberration is also a characteristic of the 50 1.2L, and that lens has even more longitudinal chromatic aberration that the 50 1.4. (Though it does have better bokeh and micro-constrast than the 50 1.4 to make up for it.)

With that said, I am quite comfortable shooting my 50 1.4 at f/1.6 or f/1.8 for event work; f/1.6 shows improvement from wide open and by 1.8 most of the softening due to spherical aberration is gone or is very minimal. It's a great performer at that aperture for hand-held available light work, and stopped down further it's about as good as I've seen.

I've had the pleasure of shooting with a Leica 50mm f/1.4 M ASPH (latest) and it's really special wide open--it's a cost-no-object design, so it should be. Canon isn't there, but they could certainly equal that performance if they chose to.

Just to be clear, I've owned several copies of the 50 1.4 over the years, and I'm very familiar with softening due to misfocus vs. softening due to lens aberrations. A properly aligned and focused 50 1.4 is actually "sharp" at 1.4, but the cumulative effect of its various aberrations result in softening and reduced contrast at that aperture. Just a result of the tradeoffs inherent in its design.

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:13 PM

retrofocus
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Recommendation: Sigma 50/1.4. Tested a friend's lens copy of this Sigma lens last week, and it was outstanding without any MF adjustment at f/1.4. Beautiful bokeh, fast and accurate focus even on the outer points of my 5D MkII. The focus was better even compared to my 50/1.2 L lens.

Sep 30, 2013 at 12:49 PM

skibum5
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

popinvasion wrote:
2 copies I tried were soft. I am not in love with my 50 1.8. I really just want a sharp wide open 1.4. B&H has $60 off the 50mm 1.4 and I am thinking about giving it another go. Any thoughts?

It will most likely do about the same (unless your issues were due to AF and then it depends upon whether you do MFA, how well you do that, or if your body doesn't have that then how well the new lens matches your body (could potentially be much better). The AF motor isn't very precise in that lens though so it's hard to really get the most consistent results, although 5D3 and 1 series help a bit.

It does about as well as most standard 50mm 1.4 designs at 1.4, some more advanced designs do a bit better at 1.4 (never used it but apparently sigma 50 1.4 is one, although apparently once stopped down a bit it is less sharp).

Sep 30, 2013 at 02:27 PM

skibum5
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

Dudewithoutape wrote:
50's that fall in your budget
Contax Zeiss 1.7 ~180
Contax Zeiss 1.4 ~300
Zeiss 1.4 ZE ~525 ZF ~425 ZS ~425
Leica R 2.0 ~475
Pentax-A 1.4 ~150

+ whatever adapter you want to get. I've had great luck with cheap Chinese ones with programmable apertures/FL/microAF(MF?,

). The nicest is Leitax, but they're also the most expensive.

FWIW I couldn't tell my 50 1.4 from Canon apart from my COntax Zeiss adapted 50mm 1.4. They seemed to perform almost identically optically.

Sep 30, 2013 at 02:28 PM

rabbitmountain
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Should I give the 50mm 1.4 another try?

I've never owned a 50/1.4. But after sitting on a fence for 3 years I pulled the trigger on a 50L. I can only tell you about my own experience and it's that I use this lens far more often than I thought I would. I use it wide open, use it at 2.0, use it at 4. You'll have all the options you talk about here in one lens.

The 50L may not what you bargained for when you started this topic, but it may very well be what you wind up with.

Stay good,
Ralph

Sep 30, 2013 at 05:37 PM

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