50 1.4 seems tempermental, lens or body?

I picked up a 50 1.4 at an authorized Canon dealer a couple months ago. I tried it in the store because the 85 1.8 i purchased from the turned out to be a lemon. To a few shots around the store wide open and all seemed well. I purchased the lens as an upgrade to my nifty fifty.

After a couple shoots I'm noticing it appears to be missing focus. Many shots below f4 are not even usable for an 8 x 10 print. Then once in a while, a shot at f1.4 will rival my 85 1.8.. I have the 85 1.8 and have zero issues with it, and everything I've read leads me to believe the 50 1.4 is close in sharpness. However, on missed shots nothing appears to be in focus, its very close, but just not quite there. It happens frequently, but not consistently. I typically shoot on one shot focus mode, with a focus point selected.

What is the best way to trouble shoot this? I'm currently away from my computer so I have no samples to post.

My major concern is, the first 85 1.8 I purchased from the same store behaved exactly the same way. Am I just lucky to get 2 duds from same store?!

Buchinger wrote in post #13462938
I picked up a 50 1.4 at an authorized Canon dealer a couple months ago. I tried it in the store because the 85 1.8 i purchased from the turned out to be a lemon. To a few shots around the store wide open and all seemed well. I purchased the lens as an upgrade to my nifty fifty.

After a couple shoots I'm noticing it appears to be missing focus. Many shots below f4 are not even usable for an 8 x 10 print. Then once in a while, a shot at f1.4 will rival my 85 1.8.. I have the 85 1.8 and have zero issues with it, and everything I've read leads me to believe the 50 1.4 is close in sharpness. However, on missed shots nothing appears to be in focus, its very close, but just not quite there. It happens frequently, but not consistently. I typically shoot on one shot focus mode, with a focus point selected.

What is the best way to trouble shoot this? I'm currently away from my computer so I have no samples to post.

My major concern is, the first 85 1.8 I purchased from the same store behaved exactly the same way. Am I just lucky to get 2 duds from same store?!

i've used more than half a dozen copies over the years on various bodies, many on the same body and IMO:

Canon AF can be a little dodgy with fast glass, rebel and xxD more than 5 series more than 1 series, so I think some is on the bodies.

But the 50mm 1.4 man the lens also seems to be a mess, a very imprecise, terrible, breakage prone AF design. It's the only ever clutched micro USM AF ever made by any company and there may be a reason .

SOme copies hit f/1.4 focus maybe 15% of the time and even the best was maybe 80% of the time. Most hit about 40-50%.

The 85 1.8 has much better AF, BUT thta one is notorious for having calibration that often doesn't match a typical camera so if you try it on a cam without MFA it has a better chance than many to be off.

Wtf? You post this right after I purchase a 50mm 1.4 for the first time. Should I return it?

While I respect WombatHorror's experience, I must say that my experience does not match his. I've owned 2 copies of the 50mm f/1.4 and they have been as reliable, AF-wise, as any other fast Canon lens I've owned.

OP, what body are we talking about?

thedcmule2 wrote in post #13463245
Wtf? You post this right after I purchase a 50mm 1.4 for the first time. Should I return it?

Overreact much?

Im scared man, I love how the photos look but I'm a newbie and I dont want this expensive (to me anyway) lens to break or worse...not be able to focus!

Mine hits focus at f1.4 satisfactorily almost every time. But when it doesn't I know right off the bat and reshoot. It has it's problems in low light but when I bring that sucker outside during the day I'll get some REALLY nice shots!

I just shot this early this morning with my 40D and 50mm f1.4.

DCMule,

It's ok. Just don't toss the lens around and all will be fine.

I had picked one up a few months back, and I really can't say anything bad about it. I never had a problem, and plus for the price you can't go wrong. It's ok at 1.4 and amazing at 1.8 and up.

Using it on a 60d...

Buchinger wrote in post #13462938
Am I just lucky to get 2 duds from same store?!

Often times multiple bad lenses turn out to be user error. Have you ruled that out?

thedcmule2 wrote in post #13463395
Im scared man, I love how the photos look but I'm a newbie and I dont want this expensive (to me anyway) lens to break or worse...not be able to focus!

I have a copy and love it. The OP may have a bad copy, or he may not know how to use his camera to the best of its ability - and given the fact that he's apparently having this issue with multiple lenses, I would venture to say it just might be an issue with the photographer. Without seeing examples and knowing the settings he used, it's hard to say why his photos are "unusable" for certain. Yes, at larger apertures it does become more likely that you'll miss focus if you aren't careful. It might also be not holding the camera steady enough, or letting the camera choose the AF point, or moving too much when he recomposes, or the subject moving (even slight movements at say 2.0 can move a subject out of focus), or using too slow a shutter speed, or...

tkbslc wrote in post #13464741
Often times multiple bad lenses turn out to be user error. Have you ruled that out?

Yes, exchanged the 85 1.8, not a single problem with the new copy. It nails focus regardless of f-stop or distance to subject.

My experience with the 50/1.4 over a little more than a year was that in good light the AF performance was adequate, but not great. In low light it is not good. The lens gives up and 'hunts' (racks from MFD to infinity and back) in light levels where my 24-105 or 70-200 are still locking on. And when not hunting, the lens misses quite a bit if the conditions are not great.

The only reason I own the 50L is the crappy AF performance of the 50/1.4 in low light. The 50L is not really much sharper (and not sharper from f/2.8 and up) and the bokeh improvement is infrequently of importance. Nope, to me the one great reason for the 50L is ring-USM.

tkbslc wrote in post #13464741
Often times multiple bad lenses turn out to be user error. Have you ruled that out?

And it happens even more often with cheap, fast, primes. Often they are the first fast prime the user has experience with, and expect them to be magical wide open. I speak with experience from seeing it a 1000 times on forums, and because I was the same way when I first got my 50mm 1.4.

Shooting at 1.4 is much more challenging than f4/5.6, not only is it harder for the camera to focus on the same point that you are envisioning, and slight swaying forward and backward affects your depth of field margin and may detrimentally affect your picture. When I got mine I was disappointed in it because I would continually get oof shots wide open. I thought it might be the lens, but after much practice and realizing when I needed to stop down a bit, my keepers went up.

Granted, the 50mm 1.4 and the 1.8 (I have owned both) are slower to focus than my L glass, and they hunt a little more in low light, but I found them to be pretty accurate. Again, with razer thin depth of field it is harder for the camera to be sure that it focused on the exact point you were envisioning in the viewfinder. Liveview + a tripod rocks for this.