Focus advice - 50mm 1.8

Hi,

I've just got the 50mm 1.8, and trying to understand how best to work around its limitations for portraiture. I have a 60D and work mainly under natural light.

I've found the focus @ 1.8 to be a bit hit & miss. I understand this is to be expected in such a cheap lens. Quite often the focus is off. I do not focus & then recompose.

Please see the attached as to what I mean by out of focus (cross type point on eyes). Images were taken within seconds of each other. First image is sharp, lower one is not. These images are 50% crops.

Thanks