Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 Lens

F

Finster

Well-known member
This lens arrived in the mail yesterday from B&H. I've been surprised by how rough the manual focus feels. The manual focus on my 24-70mm f/2.8L is silky smooth. Same with my 200mm f/2.8L.

Is silky smooth focus only available on the "L" series lenses? Can anyone else attest to the roughness of the 50mm f/1.4? Or did I get a lemon?
 
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is what a guy on B&H's LiveChat just told me: "Its been my experience with lenses in general that when you first purchase the lens, the manual focus can be a bit rough, and through use will smooth out."

Hmmmm.
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Well mine was smooth from day one..guess you should take his word otherwise return and get another one.
 
Yeah, perhaps I'm jumping the gun. I've got 14 days left to return it, so I'll hang onto it for a few more days.
 
Finster,

To confirm, I just bought one as well and the focus is rougher than I thought it would be. Keep us posted if you return yours and what the store says.
 
Aha!

People are now talking about the real issues with stills lenses

I think people need to buy stuff over the counter

S
 
I think the main issue is with autofocus lenses used manually, since they weren't really designed for manual focus. The L series are more aimed at people who will focus manually, hence will have a better feel. Mind you the focus travel for either will be distessingly short, as they are both designed to put low strain on tehe autofocus motor.
Mind you, I was shocked when I changed from a Canon Pellix with a 50 1.4 FL lens which was butter-smooth to a Canon EF with 50 1.8, which felt, and still feels, rough by comparison (After 30+ years). The answer may be to buy true manual lenses from top marques, eg Zeiss (Contax) and Leitz (Leica)
I recently bought (From FFordes) a 21 f/4 Leitz Super Angulon, and not only is the focus like butter, but the scale runs something like 330 degrees.
Dave
 
Do you actually need f/1.4 with the 5DII's low light ability, and the shallow DoF of the FF sensor?
Optically the 1.4 will be a "better" lens than the 1.8, and from the posts I remember on the AP forums, mechanically too. I do know the 1.8 has questionable robustness, and no, repeat no focus scale at all.
I still think you would be better off with a true manual lens from a "foreign" marque, used with a suitable adapter, eg the leica 50 f/2 works with the 5DII, and is of excellent quality, both optically and mechanically.
Dave
 
I thought I remember seeing some footage on Vimeo or YT where someone compared 5DM2 footage with Canon lenses verses non-Canon lenses? And I thought the footage actually looked quite a bit different. The colors, mainly.

So, I've been hesitant to go shoot with my Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L, and then slap on a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AIS. You know what I mean?
 
I raised a similar question on the AP forums when I was asking about Leica Glass, and the consensus was that German Glass tends to be cooler and more neutral than Japanese. So mixing Canon and Nikon or Zeiss and Leica will be better than Canon and (Say) Zeiss.
 
daveswan said:
I raised a similar question on the AP forums when I was asking about Leica Glass, and the consensus was that German Glass tends to be cooler and more neutral than Japanese. So mixing Canon and Nikon or Zeiss and Leica will be better than Canon and (Say) Zeiss.
Click to expand...

Very interestng.

I just tested my Canon & Nikon glass. I don't see any difference.
 
The 1.8 is great lens for $80 and the fact that it has a plastic body but the 1.4 is well worth the extra money, for stills anyway. In my experience the 1.4 is sharper but not by much, the build is close to L with the exception of the focus ring(at least on my copy), focuses much much faster and it's heavier.

The 1.8 might be a good option for video. I sold mine with my 20D so I can't compare the 2 for video but I remember the focus ring being much smoother and now that I am thinking about ..it's weight would be perfect for putting the MII on a Merlin.
 
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