After three days of reading over 100 posts on this forum:
Canon 50mm f1.4 - first impressions
Canon 50mm f1.4 owners - do you get CA at 1.4?
My new 50mm 1.4 What's all this about then?
I thought I'd try to sum it up with my conclusion on the lens.
All these lenses exhibit CA wide open. It's an inherent trait of all large aperture lenses. However, because owners don't tend to use this lens outdoors and in bright light wide open (it's not meant for that), it often goes unnoticed. It's therefore not that much of an issue.
When people do shoot outdoors the lens is typically stoped down and the CA disappears.
The lens, like all lenses, is softest wide open. However, a significant number of posters seem to have minimised the effect of this by perfecting their focusing technique (which is particularly difficult at such a large aperture, especially for people who are used to slower lenses and those who are new to this lens). That is, it takes getting used to. Other factors may be the camera's focusing ability (the 350D is known to have problems with fast lenses) and user error, for example when focusing then recomposing, or using the wrong focus mode.
Taking this into account I am confident the quality control of this lens is good and I think there is little point in exchanging my lens because of its performance at aperurs below f1.8.
George
