50mm f/1.4 CA problem

Dear All

What are your thoughts on the level of CA showing up in the attached images?

I've just spoken to Canon who say that this level of CA is normal for the 50mm f/1.4 and could be due to slight misfocus. The lens does have a slight front focus problem and doesn't get tack sharp until f/3.5. However, I wouldn't think a front focus issue will affect these images. Admittedly the test shots were taken hand held but shutter speeds at wide open were high enough to counter camera shake. The last image was taken with a 24-70 at 70mm and f/2.8 for comparison purposes.

IMO I feel the CA is little too extreme, particularly given it's in the centre of the frame. What are your thoughts on this? Do you guys think the CA is acceptable for a 50mm f/1.4?

Cheers

At f/1.4:

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its clearly disturbing at 1.4

Are these 100% crops or full frame resized for web?

If these are 100% crops, mine has more...

My 1.4 has quite a bit of CA too, ACR can deal with it a bit, but otherwise you just have to put up with it.

Sorry forgot to mention - full sized images resized for the web.

It seems strange that Canon HK would consider this level of noise acceptable for this lens. If that's the case then yeah I'll have to be diligent with what/how I shoot and PP the CA out.

Ah, so I wasn't dreaming when I shot the 50 f/1.4 and that happened to me. The funny part: NOBODY mentions it. All rave on and on about how wonderful the 50 is, and nobody mentions it. Well, it is a nice lens for what it can do, but it would be even nicer to have a balanced picture of its capabilities.

Mine's kinda bad too in the right conditions. I don't shoot PropertyOne signs @ f/1.4 regularly though.

no Lens is great wide open or should i say can be improved stopped down and its the same at the smaller apetures f16 etc often go off - i think its just a normal thing we dont have to like it but i think we have to exsept it .
Rob.

Lightstream wrote:
Ah, so I wasn't dreaming when I shot the 50 f/1.4 and that happened to me. The funny part: NOBODY mentions it. All rave on and on about how wonderful the 50 is, and nobody mentions it. Well, it is a nice lens for what it can do, but it would be even nicer to have a balanced picture of its capabilities.

Yeah too true, the CA aspects rarely get a mention . Admitedly though that's a pretty extreme test and like CDI and Gyrob says shooting PropertyOne signs at f/1.4 is way out in left field. Looking at the way the 24-70 handled it wide open though now I see where the dollars go

I must admit it caught me out too, wasn't expecting CA that bad at f1.4, my 17-40 and 70-200 are tack sharp wide open I'd only heard about the stunning results of the 50mm 1.4. I sent my first one back but the 2nd is the same. Soft wide open too. I only go as wide as f2 now. Stopped down a bit it's a cracker of a lens though

When I got mine a couple of months ago and took my first wide open shots of a television remote control, even my uneducated eye was shocked by the extreme CA. My first thought was that I had received my first "bum" lens. Fortunately, there was a thread similar to this one on the forum at the time chronicling this condition. I found that stopping the lens down to 1.8-2.0 helped immensely as did, for some reason, reducing the "harshness" of light from behind my shooting position.

Ah looks like the skeletons are coming out. I'd expect low performance at f/1.4 but hoped the lens would be better than what it is by f/1.8 particularly on the CA side of things. I too have read the consensus that it's not until f/2.2 that the 50mm f1/.4's sharpness really starts to kick in. But I wasn't aware others had low centre of the frame CA performance wide open until now. OOF background CA I can understand but this CA in the in focus centre of the frame is surprising.

Normal for this lens wide open. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

It's about on par with the amount of CA I get. It's dependent on lighting and I usually can eliminate or at least greatly reduce it with ACR. When I was deciding on a 50mm I had read several reviews and all mentioned the CA issue but it's not openly pointed out on forums when people are asking which lens they should get. It's something you get used to.