1.4? 1.4???? YOU CAN'T HANDLE 1.4!!!!!

dnme

Well my first ever lens arrived this morning. The Canon 50mm 1.4. Up til now I have been using the 17-85 kit lens.

Mother of god that's one shallow dof at 1.4 close up. Taking a shot of a box at a slight angle is enough to render some of the text in focus and some not. See image below, look at the difference between "ef" and "mm". The shooting angle was no more than 5 degrees. Amazing.

Any tips, advice or stories on using this lens?

Paulw

You could have gone for the 50mm f/1.2 if you wanted.

Yeah, very shallow DOF, but great for low light.

AnimalRights

It took me a long time to learn my shallow primes... 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.8.

If hand held I find that closer the better and do make sure what you are shooting def falls into your AF points, other lens you can sometimes get away with it but I find not these 2 lens.

Also shoot at 1.6 which is a better quality image.

I love my lens.

Fenster

Oh its so big! /swoon

Masada

I never really got the whole nifty fifty buzz. I must do some research and see what all that is about.

edanto

I was just looking at one of them over the weekend. It was £300 in London - what did you pay for it? Buy it online?

Fajitas!

dnme wrote: »

Any tips, advice or stories on using this lens?

Wait until it gets dark (Granted, that's only about four o'clock in the evenings these days), bump up your ISO, and that's when the lens really begins to shine. It's the one lens I always have with me, and 90% of the time, never leaves the camera.

One of my recent favorite shots with it;

dnme

edanto wrote: »

I was just looking at one of them over the weekend. It was £300 in London - what did you pay for it? Buy it online?

Yea I paid £300 from Calumet
http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/

pete4130

I've got the Nikon version and you'll notice that when shooting at 1.4 only the centre of the image will be sharp (and not super sharp either). It's inherent wide lenses with such wide apertures. The further you move from the centre the less sharp it will be when at f/1.4....its just the physics of it. You should also get some nice light falloff/vignetting at 1.4 too. I find my colours get some extra saturation when shooting at 1.4 too.
It too is the one lens I never leave home without.


Taken at about 2am at 3200 ISO or 6400 ISO and 1.4.......

AnCatDubh

Should try it on manual focus - then you'll know the beauty pains of open apertures. Knashing of teeth and banshee like screams come as standard and at no extra cost

Having said that you've got to love them

Masada

How big a difference would you be looking at with the 1.8? Its a lot cheaper than the 1.4 but i suspect way off in terms of quality?

dnme

Fajitas and pete4130

Amazing shots both, you can really see the centre sharpness effect on pete4130's shot.

AnCatDubh, its funny you should mention manual focussing, I have been messing around with just that and getting sharper results than with AF. Is this normal ?

sineadw

Congrats! My favourite lens too

I prefer to MF on this lens if I have the time...

AnCatDubh

dnme wrote: »

Fajitas and pete4130

Amazing shots both, you can really see the centre sharpness effect on pete4130's shot.

AnCatDubh, its funny you should mention manual focussing, I have been messing around with just that and getting sharper results than with AF. Is this normal ?

Well I know a lot of ninjas gig shooters will switch to manual focus - as depending on the body they are using the autofocus may labour when you are getting very low light levels even with the open aperture so there is sense in what you are saying.

magicbastarder

the sigma 30mm 1.4 is also known to be a bit woolly around the edge wide open, but i've heard (if memory serves) that the earlier revisions suffered more than later ones.

pete4130

I have the 1.8 Nikon version too. It sits at home on a drawer or on my Nikon F100 35mm body or on my old D1 body. The Nikon 1.8 50mm is good. It's not built as well as the 1.4 and I know there is a huge price difference and only 2/3 of a stop extra light but it is so worth spending the extra if you can afford it. Those 2/3's of a stop can make a huge difference. The 1.4 just has a certain quality and look to the images.

Regarding the 1.8's build quality. I've had a kid kick a football and hit my 50mm 1.8 before and the barrel popped open on the lens a wee bit exposing circuitry, wires, electronics of the AF system. I sh@t my pants when I saw it. I just "clicked" it back together and it still worked perfect. None of the elements were moved, AF was spot on and it was still super sharp. They are small tough lenses and cheap for what you get too.

I was "stuck" using my 50mm 1.4 for 8 months when my 24-70 2.8 was faulty and needed repair. I learned to work with it and thats why it has become such a gem for me. It's still the first lens I pull out of the bag....if it isn't attached already.

Anouilh

I've had the f1.4 for months and it took this thread to make me look more closely at the shallow DOF.



It seems to add charm...

magicbastarder

i love shooting on 3200 delta with the 1.4 lens, but the obvious problem is that in daylight, you sometimes can't get to the wider apertures because you run ot of shutter speed before you get there...

dnme

.......which brings me round to the whole rough and tumble of Focus.

After getting this lens, some things focus related are starting to occur to me.

1. I am not blown away by AF with this lens. This is dissapointing because after reading through tons of stuff on here and elsewhere, the masses were telling me that going from my kit lens to this would blow me away. Hasn't happened so far. I realise I am a novice so I am wondering if there are opinions / experiences on this?

2. Do you trust your viewfinder when manual focussing?
I find it a bit dark / small / awkward as a tool for trying to get the precision of a perfect focus. Do you use liveview zoomed in when manal focussing or is that for wuss's ? /

3. What about a situation where you need to focus very quickly, also maybe we are in low light. Forget liveview, AF may not be great. Can I trus the viewfinder with MF?

Are these questions valid?

mikeanywhere

You will absolutely love the lens!!

Here are a couple of examples using the lens where I was specifically looking for the DOF. Don't have portraits on the machine I am currently using but will add some more later




EDIT: before the masses start shouting terrorist etc, it is a paintball marker!!

DaireQuinlan

dnme wrote: »

2. Do you trust your viewfinder when manual focussing?
I find it a bit dark / small / awkward as a tool for trying to get the precision of a perfect focus. Do you use liveview zoomed in when manal focussing or is that for wuss's ? /

3. What about a situation where you need to focus very quickly, also maybe we are in low light. Forget liveview, AF may not be great. Can I trus the viewfinder with MF?

I guess there are techniques you can use for manually focusing a f/1.4 lens using the type of viewfinders you normally find in DSLRs, but I think you'll probably get more misses than hits. Those viewfinders tend to be quite small and dim. But the biggest problem is that they'll most likely not actually really show any difference.

Most screens on modern cameras are optimized for slow zooms. Chances are you'll notice very little difference along a whole range of focus. I manually focus a 1.4 lens on a split screen on a full size 35mm viewfinder, and even that is difficult if you have a moving subject. Even the smallest inaccuracy at close range means the shot is gone.

One thing you can do is focus -past- the focal point, then back again through the point, then settle quickly back to the middle which will hopefully be the right spot.

Anouilh

I'm not sure that for 400 euro one should expect to get blown away...

This lens is a great leap forward, but it's good to keep in mind that it is only as good as the person using it. I need to become more conscious of technique to get the best results.

It is an excellent choice for our gloomy climate.

kumate_champ07

Masada wrote: »

I never really got the whole nifty fifty buzz. I must do some research and see what all that is about.

the nifty fifty is the f1.8 version
the 50mm f1.4 is better but needs a modern update imo

pete4130

Another portrait. Low light, high ISO, wide aperture and still a fast enough shutter speed.
ISO 3200,
f/1.4,
EV-2/3
Shutter 1/125th

Fajitas!

dnme wrote: »

1. I am not blown away by AF with this lens. This is dissapointing because after reading through tons of stuff on here and elsewhere, the masses were telling me that going from my kit lens to this would blow me away. Hasn't happened so far. I realise I am a novice so I am wondering if there are opinions / experiences on this?

2. Do you trust your viewfinder when manual focussing?
I find it a bit dark / small / awkward as a tool for trying to get the precision of a perfect focus. Do you use liveview zoomed in when manal focussing or is that for wuss's ? /

3. What about a situation where you need to focus very quickly, also maybe we are in low light. Forget liveview, AF may not be great. Can I trus the viewfinder with MF?

Are these questions valid?

Of course they're valid

1. How are you focusing? What settings are on your camera - And what focusing zone are you using? Generally, your best bet is to use the centre focusing point to focus, lock it, and recompose. Tbh, I wouldn't rate the AF on the lens as amazing, but definitely better than the other lenses around. It's quite good at getting a lock in the dark too, but only if you're using the center focusing point.

2. Liveview has its uses, but I wouldn't use it for MF - Your best bet is to concentrate on both the 'boxes' in your viewfinder and your own eye, the boxes should flash red when you are in focus. Getting there is up to your own eye.

3. In a scenario like that, you're going to have to learn to AF off of areas of contrast - Find a highlight against the rest of the darkness and use that to focus on, the lens should be able to lock onto it quite fast.

Solarina

Ive been buzzing with the 50 1.8 for the last year, I love it so much, and at like 50euro off ebay too!

Course I almost cried when I heard& saw the difference of the 1.4 . Not going to afford it any time soon, but eagerly awaiting it!

The best use Ive found for the 1.8/any fstop below 4ish is at parties, like a few have said - the shots you grab without a flash late at night are just so fecking atmospheric! I looove it, even when youre rolling around incoherent to the world, intoxicated to hell - you can get some really mad, interesting shots!

Also, you know, for the sober moments



but now I want the 1.4

NakedDex

Masada wrote: »

I never really got the whole nifty fifty buzz. I must do some research and see what all that is about.

I'll give you a loan of mine so you can catch the prime buzz. I owe you one for that LR300 repair anyway.

dnme

Fajitas! wrote: »

Of course they're valid

1. How are you focusing? What settings are on your camera - And what focusing zone are you using? Generally, your best bet is to use the centre focusing point to focus, lock it, and recompose. Tbh, I wouldn't rate the AF on the lens as amazing, but definitely better than the other lenses around. It's quite good at getting a lock in the dark too, but only if you're using the center focusing point.

2. Liveview has its uses, but I wouldn't use it for MF - Your best bet is to concentrate on both the 'boxes' in your viewfinder and your own eye, the boxes should flash red when you are in focus. Getting there is up to your own eye.

3. In a scenario like that, you're going to have to learn to AF off of areas of contrast - Find a highlight against the rest of the darkness and use that to focus on, the lens should be able to lock onto it quite fast.

Many thanks Fajitas
some great tips here, especially the single focus point and looking for areas of contrast to focus off of.

The reason I raised these question at all was because earlier I tried AF, MF and then MF using zoomed in liveview. I found that the zoomed in liveview gave me super sharp results (I think) compared to the others. So I am now questioning the whle thing. Is this AF all its cracked up to be? Viewfinders suck (Im getting old). I will take on board what you say tho.

Kintarō Hattori

Ah it's such a great lens. Loads of fun to be had from it. Like Fajitas it stays on my camera about 90% of the time.




http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamandagnieszka/4044339601/in/set-72157622542678723/

pete4130

I'll ditto the point made about uing the centre focus point. in low light anythng else just won't lock on.

swingking

I absolutely love my 50mm f1.4 lens