ok what am i doing wrong with this lens???updated since i went out and used it

[jann1033]

canon 50mm f1.8
this was taken with the af on, the af worked, the center red light on the bird's belly. it appeared fairly clean when i went to take it but just is not imo very sharp. it was taken from maybe 10-12 ft away tops( didn't measure it and it's raining now) i don't have this much trouble with my 100mm but i don't know if i am doing something wrong here or what. it just is not sharp.. .any ideas if this is just me.. every review says how great this lens is so what gives. the focus chart test i did seemed okay although more sharp toward the front end.(center red dot on focus here, used tripod, timer, 45 angle, couldn't remember what f stop you were supposed to use so i used 5 since most reviews said anything over 2.8 was sharp..).

original, photo looks fairly sharp

but cropped about 1/3(?), to me this should just be way sharper. maybe i am just expecting to much? does it look like it is focusing right to you? is this normal amount of lack of detail from 50mm. the articles i read said it was one of the sharpest 50mm of all 6 they tested( nikon and canon) and to me it is so-so at best. but maybe i am just used to more zoom? when i zoom in you can't see any detail on the bird, just a blur of feathers...don't remember what i took this one on but i know i took some on f8 and they all looked about the same

i am asking cause i rarely use this lens just cause i am never happy with the photos and if it could be something wrong my warranty is up in a couple months so i want to get it checked if there is but really don't want the hassle if it is just me

 

[Master Mason]

I don't know Jann, it looks ok to me..

 

[allie5]

Hmmm, not sure either (and Im interested as Ive just ordered this lens because of rave reviews).

All I can add is that from what Ive read this lens seems geared to low light or portrait photography and this is where I have heard it give "exceptional" performance. Im not sure that the bird photo is the best "test" for this lens? Have you tried it as a portrait lens? What were the results like?

Your test sheet makes it look like the top of the lens isnt focusing quite right - the small print "this should be in focus" isnt is it? Although the line underneath is pin sharp. Whether that means the lens is faulty or not, Im not sure. Might be worth emailing your test shot to Canon to get an opinion.

 

[deletedpenguin]

How long have you had this lens? Perhaps it's time to have Canon recalibrate it?

 

[mabas9395]

I think that there are three things to remember here.

1) This lens is spoken very highly of mostly for its "bang for the buck" factor. It produces good, useable photos at almost every aperture and lets you shoot much faster than the kit lens (or most any other lens for that matter). If this is a Rebel owner's second lens (was mine), it opens a whole new world of low light and shallow DOF photography. And while the results are not "professional level", you don't have to pay professional prices either. At around $75 you get a lot more than you pay for.

2) It is a widely accepted fact that all dSLR photos are meant to be post processed to some degree, putting control of sharpness, saturation and contrast, etc in the hands of the photographer, not the camera. I think this capture is perfectly useable as is, but a little USM would probably get it to where you want it to be.

3) And probably the most important thing. You, Jann, have become a member of an elite club. You are the proud owner of a Canon "L" lens. With all the beauty and sharpness that comes with that lens, you also have to accept the downside, which is that all other lenses in your bag will be soft by comparison. If you become spoiled by the sharpness of your L, you will face a very expensive future as you upgrade all of your other lenses to L's as well. For example, there is an EF 50mm f/1.2 L on sale for only $1,400 at Adorama. They don't call you guys L-coholics for nothing.

 

[jann1033]

I think that there are three things to remember here.

1) This lens is spoken very highly of mostly for its "bang for the buck" factor. It produces good, useable photos at almost every aperture and lets you shoot much faster than the kit lens (or most any other lens for that matter). If this is a Rebel owner's second lens (was mine), it opens a whole new world of low light and shallow DOF photography. And while the results are not "professional level", you don't have to pay professional prices either. At around $75 you get a lot more than you pay for.

2) It is a widely accepted fact that all dSLR photos are meant to be post processed to some degree, putting control of sharpness, saturation and contrast, etc in the hands of the photographer, not the camera. I think this capture is perfectly useable as is, but a little USM would probably get it to where you want it to be.

3) And probably the most important thing. You, Jann, have become a member of an elite club. You are the proud owner of a Canon "L" lens. With all the beauty and sharpness that comes with that lens, you also have to accept the downside, which is that all other lenses in your bag will be soft by comparison. If you become spoiled by the sharpness of your L, you will face a very expensive future as you upgrade all of your other lenses to L's as well. For example, there is an EF 50mm f/1.2 L on sale for only $1,400 at Adorama. They don't call you guys L-coholics for nothing.

i would totally agree with 3 but i have never really liked this lens and i got it last yr ie before i was "L-ed" ..the first place i used it was at a wedding( ie indoors lowere light) and every shot i took with it was not sharp where i thougth i had focused it ie the guy in front or behind whoever i was taking it of...so i figured, "first prime lens, just not aiming right" so tried again and again, same type of shots and same problem...that's why i chose this setting, i could be sure where i focused at, sure i had enough light etc...i didn't use lower ap. as 1) have heard different reviews on where it is sharpest so didn't want to mess with shallow dof or maybe just lens in general not as sharp... and i couldn't figure out the test results cause if anything i thought it might be backfocusing. i might email the results to canon and see what they say.. i was going to just call them but i thought if i was just aiming it wrong i'd humiliate myself here first

 

[deletedpenguin]

3) And probably the most important thing. You, Jann, have become a member of an elite club. You are the proud owner of a Canon "L" lens. With all the beauty and sharpness that comes with that lens, you also have to accept the downside, which is that all other lenses in your bag will be soft by comparison. If you become spoiled by the sharpness of your L, you will face a very expensive future as you upgrade all of your other lenses to L's as well. For example, there is an EF 50mm f/1.2 L on sale for only $1,400 at Adorama. They don't call you guys L-coholics for nothing.

Hahaha, now that you mention it, I've gone through the same thing.

 

[ktulu]

Maybe it's the body

I have a few pics using my 50mm 1.8 in my gallery from my trip to the Zoo,
http://www.grabowskifamily.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=40

All the pics until Page 3, starting after the horse getting new shoes, are with my 50mm.

 

[jann1033]

i redid the focus chart test cause looking at my tripod i was thinking maybe the angle was more like 55-60 and this time it looks great so shwoo, i'm just .(hmm maybe not such a good thing)

 

[jann1033]

Maybe it's the body

I have a few pics using my 50mm 1.8 in my gallery from my trip to the Zoo,
http://www.grabowskifamily.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=40

All the pics until Page 3, starting after the horse getting new shoes, are with my 50mm.

evidently it's the body holding the camera
nice photos loved the back of the giraffe's head, never realized how huge their ears are. this weekend i want to go test my 28-135 so i might try the 50mm as well just to be sure. and now my 100mm 3rd party is making a loud noise and i had to send that one in what's going on in my camera bag when i'm not looking

 

[DVC Jen]

Wow you sure haven't had much luck with your lenses lately. That has to be so frustrating.

I am not able to get my 50mm to focus nearly as well as I can others. I am pretty sure it is me - and not the lens - but who knows.

When I was doing portraits of my daughters I would always focus on the eyes but the photo never turned out as crisp as I wanted. They also didn't turn out as crisp as they did when I used my sigma 28-70 on nearly the exact same shot.

 

[deletedpenguin]

Just remember that the sharpen tool in photoshop can be your best friend, just don't overuse it. Maybe once or twice.

 

[ktulu]

evidently it's the body holding the camera
nice photos loved the back of the giraffe's head, never realized how huge their ears are. this weekend i want to go test my 28-135 so i might try the 50mm as well just to be sure. and now my 100mm 3rd party is making a loud noise and i had to send that one in what's going on in my camera bag when i'm not looking

DOH, the pics UP TO the guy shoeing the horse are with the 50mm, after that is my 75-300mm.

Long day at work...

 

[boBQuincy]

From your test chart image it appears the lens is focusing slightly in front of the target. Try it at f/1.8 to minimize the depth of field, and then at f/8 and see if it still does the same thing.

The photo of the bird is more difficult, within the focus area there are so many planes that the lens could pick to focus on that it is hard to tell just which one it might choose. Afaik it might go for the closest subject in the focus area but it also might go for the subject with the most contrast.

The 50 f/1.8 is a very sharp lens, even at the low cost. It gets a bad name from all the plastic used in the construction but even then the build quality is not bad, there's just the impression that plastic is bad. Are there any Canon users nearby that you could swap lenses with for a comparison test?

 

[jann1033]

From your test chart image it appears the lens is focusing slightly in front of the target. Try it at f/1.8 to minimize the depth of field, and then at f/8 and see if it still does the same thing.

The photo of the bird is more difficult, within the focus area there are so many planes that the lens could pick to focus on that it is hard to tell just which one it might choose. Afaik it might go for the closest subject in the focus area but it also might go for the subject with the most contrast.

The 50 f/1.8 is a very sharp lens, even at the low cost. It gets a bad name from all the plastic used in the construction but even then the build quality is not bad, there's just the impression that plastic is bad. Are there any Canon users nearby that you could swap lenses with for a comparison test?

ktulu...i kind of wondered what kind of zoo you were at where the animal were so close but........

a ?... if i have the focus on only one point and have that point squarely on the bird's belly is that where it actually focuses or is it just in that general vicinity? i did try it at f1.8 ( found another focus test) and that seemed to be sharp and where it should focus (and i adjusted the angle a tiny bit as i thought it might not be 45 degrees....)I'll do another at f8...as does my repaired (fingers crossed) 28-135.. i'm going to take them out and play around this weekend and hopefully over come the faulty nut that's holding the camera. i could maybe go into dodd or someplace and "try out " one of their's and see if it's the same or not.

 

[photo_chick]

Personally I have found in general auto focus seems to have trouble with feathers, fur, and things with a lot of texture to them. I found this with both my Rebel G and my Rebel XT. But then again, maybe it was just me!

 

[jann1033]

Personally I have found in general auto focus seems to have trouble with feathers, fur, and things with a lot of texture to them. I found this with both my Rebel G and my Rebel XT. But then again, maybe it was just me!

that is what i think is weird about this lens my cheapie 100mm focuses fine,even on feathers etc right where i think it is focusing, i might tweak with manual but just to sharpen it up some..but this one hasn't even been in the ball park...?? i'll just have to see what happens with it when i experiment. maybe due to the larger aperture i haven't been taking the dof in account...haven't really used it much to remember if i ever thought of that but that might make sense cause if i didn't use the dof button, i might not realize it till after the shot.

 

[boBQuincy]

a ?... if i have the focus on only one point and have that point squarely on the bird's belly is that where it actually focuses or is it just in that general vicinity? i did try it at f1.8 ( found another focus test) and that seemed to be sharp and where it should focus (and i adjusted the angle a tiny bit as i thought it might not be 45 degrees....)I'll do another at f8...as does my repaired (fingers crossed) 28-135.. i'm going to take them out and play around this weekend and hopefully over come the faulty nut that's holding the camera. i could maybe go into dodd or someplace and "try out " one of their's and see if it's the same or not.

The actual focus area is quite a bit larger than the little box on the screen (maybe 3x larger), and anything inside the focus area is fair game. You can test this by focusing on a piece of black tape on a white surface, the camera will focus on the tape even when it is well outside the marked focus area.
The camera uses the widest aperture for focusing so if the image is sharp at f/1.8 it should be as sharp for smaller apertures (until diffraction kicks in around f/11).
It will be really nice when the 1DmkIII focusing adjustment for individual lenses trickles down to cameras we can actually afford!

 

[jann1033]

well i have no idea what i was doing wrong but it seems my 50mm is fine now or i should say what ever i did i'm not doing

 

[ktulu]

Jann,

You're not partaking of any sort of, um, adult beverages, while viewing photos are you

Glad it's working okay!