50 mm f/1.2 love/hate

I'm on my second Canon 50mm. Both have required ~-20 MFA on three different 5D bodies. But I like how it worked for this photo, with -19 MFA.

Hmmm, are you sure? Looks to me like you are focused in front of her. Hard to tell exactly but the camera in front of her seems pretty sharp and looking at the flags on the side of the barrel it seems the ones roughly in the same plane as the camera lens are also in focus.

Since you're shooting pointed slightly down, the plane of focus would be tilted back a bit from purely vertical towards her. But I'd be willing to bet she is at the back of your focus plane and maybe slightly out of it.

I've got the same lens and love it, but mine doesn't require any mfa.

FTb wrote in post #18494415
Hmmm, are you sure? Looks to me like you are focused in front of her. Hard to tell exactly but the camera in front of her seems pretty sharp and looking at the flags on the side of the barrel it seems the ones roughly in the same plane as the camera lens are also in focus.

Since you're shooting pointed slightly down, the plane of focus would be tilted back a bit from purely vertical towards her. But I'd be willing to bet she is at the back of your focus plane and maybe slightly out of it.

I've got the same lens and love it, but mine doesn't require any mfa.

I see what you are saying. I took several comparison photos with -19 and 0 MFA and I am going to inspect them.

I will also check to see if I kept my MFA test shots withmy focus rig, and maybe post them here.

Thanks for the feedback!

I've found a couple of things that work for me to adjust mfa. I ALWAYS use a tripod to eliminate camera shake as a variable.

First, I try to find a large flat concrete slab. In my case my back patio works well. Then I point the camera down at roughly a 45 degree angle. Focus on some object like an acorn or leaf or even a coin at a normal shooting distance. Since I take a lot of portraits, this distance will usually be 6 to 12 feet from the camera. After i take a couple of shots I pump up the contrast and sharpness quite a bit. This will give me a very clear line of focus running from the left side of the image to the right which is very easy to see because the small particles of sand and stuff in the concrete come into sharp focus. If mfa is correct it should run right through the object.

After I've done that, I then check far focus by focusing on some object at effective infinity -- possibly a telephone pole or sign a hundred yards or more away from the camera.

Then after those test come back well, I'll just photograph things around the back yard to confirm I'm in the ballpark.

Good luck.


ps, if you shoot tethered, you can see instantly a much larger and more accurate image than on the camera screen, and you can make mfa adjustments quickly.

I gave up with 50L on 5D MKII and MFA. It was spot on with 5Dc.

DPAF works great with 50L and very accurate.

Nice

f/1,2L is difficult to do the focus and recompose.
but nailing it would be buttery....

I had to use focus compensation on my camera bodies. But I never had a problem missing focus with the 50 1.2 in fact it is my go to over the 85mm f1.2 when the subject is likely to move and I want a shallow DoF. I go to the 50 because it focusses faster than the 85.