Dang, I need to use this lens more. I bought it for basketball and volleyball, for which it is terrific, but I haven't been shooting those much lately. Need to bang out some headshots with it...
Lovely pics, rhorta and breitling65 -- more reason to consider a purchase seriously. Thanks for the opinions, everyone. Yes, I realise I need to try the lens for myself. Was hoping to see some of the trouble that people have often described in words here and elsewhere, but, as the wag says above, clearly this thread has been a failure at eliciting those. Oh well.
Beautiful children well photographed.
The duck shot is humorous and it succeeds such as it is.
All that goes to show that some focus imprecision here and there doesn't get in the way of good and spirited photography.
There are many, many other choices at 50mm. But I don't shoot 50mm much, so I don't really need AF. As other have pointed out, you will miss many shots at 1.2 with any lens. So the point of bad shots doesn't mean much. As you can see, it has a great look like all the expensive Canon lenses.
A focus shift can be easily fixed with a good usm response curve re-mapped by the factory. Other AF (F/B) bugs is mostly caused by the CHEAPO AF firmware. I don't trust non-1series AF on any f2.0 or faster lenses that's shorter than 60 FL. Lesser 1 series bodies does give you inconsistence shots if widely fast lens was used with busy/hi-constrast background. So, identify the right AF issue before blamed-it-on your lens.
Sorry about the tone back there, you made a valid request.
Besides focus shift and in my case (back) focus problems I don't think it is a bad lens. Sure it is a little weak at f/1.2 when shooting close up, but that can add to the look.
LoCA can be very noticeable at wide apertures.
Close up it also tends to suffer from halation.
The bokeh can be a little "smeared" in the corners, in a way I don't like. This mostly happens with a busy background. So in this it is not really that much better than the f/1.4 from Canon.
I generally try to avoid those situations.
Overal I like what the lens can produce (I'm a hobbyist) or else I wouldn't have cared so much.
mttran wrote:
A focus shift can be easily fixed with a good usm response curve re-mapped by the factory. Other AF (F/B) bugs is mostly caused by the CHEAPO AF firmware. I don't trust non-1series AF on any f2.0 or faster lenses that's shorter than 60 FL. Lesser 1 series bodies does give you inconsistence shots if widely fast lens was used with busy/hi-constrast background. So, identify the right AF issue before blamed-it-on your lens.
I apologize to the OP for hijacking his thread, won't happen again. However as a last twitch I just have to add that it was my old 5D that initially proved to be the most reliant camera (75% in focus) and it was the 1D3 that made me go for a second servicing. Looking back I wish I hadn't brought it in for the second time, but I couldn't get a reliable MA solution for the 1D3 and that pushed me over the edge (as I like 50mm on 1.3x crop).
Right now apart from the huge difference in MA correction I see no big difference in results based on AF use. Granted not highly dynamic, but even off center AI Servo on the 5D2 gives a (surprisingly) good keeper rate.
Mine is a personal experience and I am not a highly skilled professional.
The 50/1.2L is a constantly debated lens. IMHO, it is excellent and works great for me. Easily one of my most used and favorite lenses on FF. That being said there are those who really dislike this lens. That's fine, this is true about any lens Canon makes. The 50L just happens to be one of the more highly debated lenses and I'm sure it's had some issues. Just try it out for yourself. If you like it, great! If not, oh well. There are lot's of 50mm choices out there. To be clear, the focus issue is not inaccuracy, it's focus shift. Which, for me, is not terrible and only really occurs at certain f-stops and close distances. But, it's consistent. If you find yourself in the known trouble range use MF and DOF preview. I'll take this over the inaccurate and inconsistant focusing of the sigmalux any day. Not to mention the 50L is fast-ish, quiet, and weather sealed.
rhorta wrote: mttran wroteA focus shift can be easily fixed with a good usm response curve re-mapped by the factory. Other AF (F/B) bugs is mostly caused by the CHEAPO AF firmware. I don't trust non-1series AF on any f2.0 or faster lenses that's shorter than 60 FL. Lesser 1 series bodies does give you inconsistence shots if widely fast lens was used with busy/hi-constrast background. So, identify the right AF issue before blamed-it-on your lens.
I apologize to the OP for hijacking his thread, won't happen again. However as a last twitch I just have to add that it was my old 5D that initially proved to be the most reliant camera (75% in focus) and it was the 1D3 that made me go for a second servicing. Looking back I wish I hadn't brought it in for the second time, but I couldn't get a reliable MA solution for the 1D3 and that pushed me over the edge (as I like 50mm on 1.3x crop).
Right now apart from the huge difference in MA correction I see no big difference in results based on AF use. Granted not highly dynamic, but even off center AI Servo on the 5D2 gives a (surprisingly) good keeper rate.
Mine is a personal experience and I am not a highly skilled professional.
Hi Ruy, my post was not refering yours at all. It was my experience with couple 5D in the past. My 5D2 is much better now but still not a bullet proof as shown below. It takes me awhile to figure it out. Well - these are not the 50L sample but you know what i mean...strange canon AF behavior when seeing high contrast in the back ground. I saw this F/W bug almost on any canon bodies i have had/tried but 1ds2.
Glassbottle wrote: mttran wrotehttp://www.flickriver.com/groups/20778516@N00/pool/interesting/Thanks, that's one helluva good series of advertisements for the 50L.
The frustration with this lens is it came AFTER the 85L, and with a comparable price tag. It was reasonable to expect this lens to utterly rock in the way its bigger brother does, yet it didn’t. I've seen good shots taken with it, sure, but a not-so-sharp, shifty-by-design f1.2 was hardly an exciting prospect for Canon to produce in recent times. Heck, the 50/1.4 ain't that much different and at least I know where that will focus.
I held off getting 50L mk1 (ie the 1.0 version), thinking this lens would kill it. Turns out the 50/1.0 just keeps getting more attractive and more expensive. If you're happy with it then great, but I really hope to see a mkII version some time soon.
Lord Fluff wrote:
The frustration with this lens is it came AFTER the 85L, and with a comparable price tag. It was reasonable to expect this lens to utterly rock in the way its bigger brother does, yet it didn’t. I've seen good shots taken with it, sure, but a not-so-sharp, shifty-by-design f1.2 was hardly an exciting prospect for Canon to produce in recent times. Heck, the 50/1.4 ain't that much different and at least I know where that will focus.
I held off getting 50L mk1 (ie the 1.0 version), thinking this lens would kill it. Turns out the 50/1.0 just keeps getting more attractive and more expensive. If you're happy with it then great, but I really hope to see a mkII version some time soon....Show more →
The 50/1.0L is a mythological creature. It's something that practically no one has ever used, yet everyone seems to think it's amazing. Truth is, the current 50/1.2L is better in almost every way (including optical quality in most situations). Additionally, copy variation was a *serious* problem with the 50/1.0L. The current lens, much less so. About the only drawback to the current lens is it's lack of a floating element. The drawbacks of this have been discussed ad naseum.
deepbluejh wrote:
The 50/1.0L is a mythological creature. It's something that practically no one has ever used, yet everyone seems to think it's amazing. Truth is, the current 50/1.2L is better in almost every way (including optical quality in most situations). Additionally, copy variation was a *serious* problem with the 50/1.0L.
In addition, everyone seems to feel qualified to utter verdicts on the 50 f/1.0 performance.
Breitling65 wrote: rhorta wroteBased on *my* experience I wouldn't readily recommend this lens to anyone,Why don't you provide "your bad" samples than?
What, another 50L thread? Now there's a surprise...
anybody who has been around this forum over the last 2 years knows it's a controversial lens so i won't go there this time.
As far as asking someone to provide "bad" samples, that's just not fair. I have this wonderful little button on my keyboard that says "Delete".
My 50L is gone and I couldn't provide ANY samples if my life depended on it, and many others probably can't either. Why keep rubbish?
Ok ok, let's not get crazy here. Maybe I'm lucky or something but, I own both the 50/1.0L and 50/1.2L, they are both outstanding. My only complaint about the 50/1.0 is the slow focus and size, which is basically the same as the 85L. It's a lens I will never sell!