Canon 50mm 1.8 giving bad results.

Hey I'm relatively new to photography and have searched this topic without much luck.

I bought a 50mm 1.8 II after I read they were the ducks nuts but I have been getting some really poor results and I'm not sure if its me or the lens.

I understand at 1.8 the DOF is super narrow so there will of course be alot of the shot out of focus but what is in focus the edges seem to be fuzzy??

I have test shots at different aperture ranging from 1.8 up, all shot using a tripod.


http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_707812b​.JPG 60D 50mm 1.8
http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_707912b​.JPG 60D 50mm 2.0
http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_708012b​.JPG 60D 50mm 2.5
http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_708112b​.JPG 60D 50mm 2.8

These are probably the best shots I can get...I thought the lens would be heaps sharper!

I've never used this lens...heard mixed reviews on it. Some love it because its cheap (and so the price tag blinds them to the faults of the lens - or it doesnt matter as much to them). I've also heard a lot of people say its very soft wide open. I don't want to say its a "you get what you pay for" scenario, because your copy may be softer than others? Id leave that up to other owners of this lens to decide.

Your image at f/2.0 isn't showing up for some reason btw.

I've never seen edges ghost like that, it almost looks like motion blur to me - was there a wind hitting the flowers? At those wide apertures the slightest of movements will disrupt the quality/focus, even if you are on a tripod, the flowers can still move. The pictures seem a tad underexposed - may be why they look a little dull to you

It's really not that great of a lens. It is cheap though.

I have a 50 1.8, I believe its the cheap one called the "thrifty fifty". I hated it until I did a MFA on it and now it is super sharp and I don't hesitate putting it back on my camera.

It looks like you're focused on the petal at about the 9-o'clock position around the center of the flower. even on the f/1.8 shot, that part of the flower is in sharp focus. it also looks like you're working at very close to the MFD, which can provide mixed results, as well as the DOF being extremely shallow at that range.

Are you using Auto Focus points or Center? It doesn't appear to be focusing correctly at all, it will hunt in low light thats for sure.

Here's my suggestion, use the center focus point and retry. Focus on what you want, make sure it locks on focus before hitting the shutter completely. Also what I've found with this lens is that its sharper at 2.8 than wide open. I do feel however it should be sharper than what you are displaying at 1.8.

All the images in my portfolio were taken with the Canon 50mm 1.8

I think something is wrong with that lens, the OOF areas shouldn't be like that.

Christina.DazzleByDesi​gn wrote in post #14473954
Some love it because its cheap (and so the price tag blinds them to the faults of the lens - or it doesnt matter as much to them).

I agree, but conversely I've heard people say the exact opposite. They inherently hate it because it's cheap and don't expect it to perform and the price tag is blinding them from see the quality shots that it is generally capable of.

I had one for a good 9 months and took thousands of shots with it - none with the same characteristics of your pictures you linked. I had it hooked up to my T3i too so even with no Mf it still took very crisp shots once I was past f/4. Even wide open it took very decent shots with albeit some funny-shaped bokeh.

Do you have any friends with the same lens that you could try swapping with for a day? With the low price tag already on the lens, it is hard to convince yourself to send it in for calibrating or repair if there truly is something wrong with it.

Sirrith wrote in post #14474190
I think something is wrong with that lens, the OOF areas shouldn't be like that.

This. I know this lens doesn't have great bokeh, but I've never seen anything like that.

TxRxAlex, did you buy this lens new or used?

I never really used my 50 1.8 much on a crop body but once I'd got a 5D2 I started using it quite a lot. It needed a bit of MA to get it spot on but once it had been done it was very good. I've recently sold the 1.8 and got a 1.4 which has blown me away. The 1.4 is sharp wide open and by the time it gets stopped down a bit it's amazing, far sharper than the 1.8 ever was and no MA needed on the 5D3 I've got now. Considering the 1.4 only cost around 3x as much as the 1.8 it's worth every penny I spent. I've even started using it on my 60D now, even though it's a bit long still, when I need a super sharp picture.

TxRxAlex wrote in post #14473923
Hey I'm relatively new to photography and have searched this topic without much luck.

I bought a 50mm 1.8 II after I read they were the ducks nuts but I have been getting some really poor results and I'm not sure if its me or the lens.

I understand at 1.8 the DOF is super narrow so there will of course be alot of the shot out of focus but what is in focus the edges seem to be fuzzy??

I have test shots at different aperture ranging from 1.8 up, all shot using a tripod.


http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_707812b​.JPG 60D 50mm 1.8
http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_707912b​.JPG 60D 50mm 2.0
http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_708012b​.JPG 60D 50mm 2.5
http://dl.dropbox.com/​u/81133501/IMG_708112b​.JPG 60D 50mm 2.8

These are probably the best shots I can get...I thought the lens would be heaps sharper!

I agree with some of the others, don't know what your focus point, maybe you got some motion blur. try shooting at something else.
Here is the 50mm 1.8 photo archive, take a look, lots of sharp pics with that lens on the 60D !
https://photography-on-the.net …085&highlight=5​0&page=140

Well first off thank you all very much for your help, I'm amazed at how fast you all responded, don't know why I never used forums before!

To answer you questions,

There was no wind it was inside, I used 2 second delay for the shots.
The lens is brand new from Hong Kong via ebay.
I manualy focused using the live view with magnification.

I all ways seem to get the same ghosting coming upwards from the edges and after seeing everybodys photos using there 50 mm 1.8's I'm convinced now that there is seriously something wrong with this lens! But it's not worth organising to send it back.

I might test it one more time, nothing else I can do anyway.

Cheers everyone

TxRxAlex wrote in post #14474402
Well first off thank you all very much for your help, I'm amazed at how fast you all responded, don't know why I never used forums before!

To answer you questions,
The lens is brand new from Hong Kong via ebay.

This is probably you're problem sorry to say. I would personally never buy a lens from ebay with a seller from HK. How much did you pay for it?

Sadly, "grey market" lens is not going to give you reliable results

the flying moose wrote in post #14473983
I have a 50 1.8, I believe its the cheap one called the "thrifty fifty". I hated it until I did a MFA on it and now it is super sharp and I don't hesitate putting it back on my camera.

What is a MFA?

I paid EUR 82.99.