Canon 50/1.4 at 1.4 - the joke's on me

I picked up a used Canon 50/1.4 from a POTN member (thanks, Jim) a few weeks ago.

My usual non-scientific testing for a week or so - take some shots, try out different aperture settings, indoor and outdoor, better and not-so-good light. Everything conforming to my expectations/prejudice​s - seems fairly soft at 1.4 up to 2.8 or so (but less improvement in the narrower end of that range than I was expecting).

Then I happened to be in the back yard, with moving kids and dog as test subjects, so I changed to Tv set at 1/1000s, using AI Servo. It's early evening, so every shot is at 1.4 or 1.6. Bam! Keeper rate goes way up, sharpness more than acceptable, lovely contrast, nice bokeh. It's like I changed lenses.

Hmmm . . . methinks there is more than a little camera movement (shake and/or shifting the razor thin focal plane away from the subject) at play than any deficiency in lens sharpness. More testing required to confirm, I suppose, but it wouldn't be the first time that user error has been the cause of my mediocre results . . .

Using moving kids as test subjects...?

Yep. Real world testing

I do a lot of shooting indoors with the 50 f1.4 on my 6D to take pictures of my son. I really enjoy shooting at f1.4 but I too had the same issue with softness. I always shot in AV which the camera set my shutter at 1/60 or 1/80. It was simply too slow for a lens with no IS. I shoot at 1/250 @ f1.4 in manual and get very sharp results. I have a lot of soft pictures due to user error.

Well...things that make for a sharp image...
1) high shutter speed
2) good lighting

Seems you had both of those with the kids in the yard.

Looks like you have a great lens. Throw those test pics out and enjoy.

SnowXRacer wrote in post #16535527
I do a lot of shooting indoors with the 50 f1.4 on my 6D to take pictures of my son. I really enjoy shooting at f1.4 but I too had the same issue with softness. I always shot in AV which the camera set my shutter at 1/60 or 1/80. It was simply too slow for a lens with no IS. I shoot at 1/250 @ f1.4 in manual and get very sharp results. I have a lot of soft pictures due to user error.

Good to hear, as that's my plan. I may try Av as well, but set the minimum shutter speed a lot higher than I would ordinarily. I think I've been spoiled by IS.

Ive been involved in many threads regarding this exact lens and its "softness" at the wider apertures like 1.4-2.8. A lot of us had trouble with getting sharp images and landing focus and we all pretty much came to the same conclusion like AbPho said:

Higher shutter speeds like 1/200 and quicker
Plenty of light (indoors my images go soft and the lens has hard time focusing)

Since then I have been shooting at 1/250 at 2.0 (and 1.4 occasionally) with higher ISO if indoors and have realized this lens is wonderful and it just takes a little bit of understanding the settings to make it work...just like any lens!

thedcmule2 wrote in post #16535551
Ive been involved in many threads regarding this exact lens and its "softness" at the wider apertures like 1.4-2.8. A lot of us had trouble with getting sharp images and landing focus and we all pretty much came to the same conclusion like AbPho said:

Higher shutter speeds like 1/200 and quicker
Plenty of light (indoors my images go soft and the lens has hard time focusing)

Since then I have been shooting at 1/250 at 2.0 (and 1.4 occasionally) with higher ISO if indoors and have realized this lens is wonderful and it just takes a little bit of understanding the settings to make it work...just like any lens!

I thought I'd read a lot of threads about the 50/1.4 (and all the other 50mm options), but I don't recall reading one with that advice in it. Good advice, and better late than never!

Yeah and of course its just a guideline but staying around those numbers (when shooting people mind you, which is what I focus on) always work for me now to get the eyes in focus. Youre pretty much saying in your first post you came to the same conclusion so its always good to see this confirmed. It is truly one of my most cherished lenses, for the price I absolutely love using it

It's just the AIServo... If the DOF is razor thin, most people blow it in OneShot.

I Use BBF and AIServo for everything, never had a problem... Even with the much maligned nifty!

dodgyexposure wrote in post #16535537
Good to hear, as that's my plan. I may try Av as well, but set the minimum shutter speed a lot higher than I would ordinarily. I think I've been spoiled by IS.

IS definitely kills it for other lenses. I try to stick with 1/2FL for crisp images. For faster activities, minimum shutter set to 250..... and it I need faster, TV or manual mode.

Mine is sharp at F1.4, but I would rather use it at F1.6 or even better, at F1.8. At F1.4. In photos of adults, one can get sharp results for the eye that is focused on,, but the tip of the nose is blurry. I get nicer results, from my perspective, at F1.6. Of course, depth of field is even more shallow on full frame, which is an advantage, or disadvantage, depending on your wants.
In many circumstances onvolving children, I would rather use TV and set the shutter speed as high as is practical, while keeping track of the aperture. You can always set the exposure in manual or compensate.

first thought without reading anything other than the first post:

were your back yard shots further from the subject? Moving kids often require that, and if so, you have more depth of field than your closer shots. More DOF, more margin of error, sharper shots.

might also want to do a focus test.

MakisM1 wrote in post #16535639
It's just the AIServo... If the DOF is razor thin, most people blow it in OneShot.

I Use BBF and AIServo for everything, never had a problem... Even with the much maligned nifty!

Definitely a contributing factor. My default is to use one shot, mainly because my experience has been that it is more reliable for static subjects than AI Servo.

I have a bit more experience now than when I made that call, so it might be time to try BBF/AI Servo as my default, and only switch to one shot for some shots (such as studio).

hes gone wrote in post #16536601
=he's gone;16536601]first thought without reading anything other than the first post:

were your back yard shots further from the subject? Moving kids often require that, and if so, you have more depth of field than your closer shots. More DOF, more margin of error, sharper shots.

might also want to do a focus test.

Good point to keep in mind. Distance was a little further than some other shots, but I had taken a number of shots at differing distances.