New 50 f/1.4, front focusing :(

Well I finally went today to the store and got the 50mm f/1.4 (Canon),
And to my suprise, it has bad front focusing, going to replace it tomorrow.
Damn you Canon for not including MFA! (I own a 60D)













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http://www.flickr.com/photos/danjosephson/

Blame them for bad quality control on the 50mm 1.4!! Mine is spot on on four camera bodies 20D, 40D, 5D, and the new 7D.

Looks like you put your focus points on pretty low contrast areas.
Were you focusing and recomposing?

Both the 1.4 and 1.8 are known to have erratic focus at wide apertures. What you may be seeing is inconsistent focus, as opposed to consistent front focus. Not that one is better than the other, just that the erratic focus issue is known to be pretty common. You could take it back either way, but if you're just experiencing random inconsistent focus, don't be surprised if the next copy isn't any better. In my limited experience the 1.4 was a bit better than the 1.8 in that regard, but still left something to be desired in terms of focus accuracy.

Try taking more shots at various apertures and see what kind of results that produces.

DanubxD said:

Well I finally went today to the store and got the 50mm f/1.4 (Canon),
And to my suprise, it has bad front focusing, going to replace it tomorrow.
Damn you Canon for not including MFA! (I own a 60D)













--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danjosephson/

Click to expand...

HotRod34 said:

Looks like you put your focus points on pretty low contrast areas.
Were you focusing and recomposing?

Click to expand...

No, I focused and shot the pictures without moving the camera at all

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/danjosephson/

Blaming this issue on inconsistent focusing performance is unacceptable, I payed almost 500$ for a lens that can shoot in low light without a flash, NOT a lens that can only be used at apertures of 2-4, if I wanted that, I'd get another lens.

I had a 50mm f/1.8 (I, not II) and the focusing was about 98% spot on, and was seldom a problem.

dwalby said:

Both the 1.4 and 1.8 are known to have erratic focus at wide apertures. What you may be seeing is inconsistent focus, as opposed to consistent front focus. Not that one is better than the other, just that the erratic focus issue is known to be pretty common. You could take it back either way, but if you're just experiencing random inconsistent focus, don't be surprised if the next copy isn't any better. In my limited experience the 1.4 was a bit better than the 1.8 in that regard, but still left something to be desired in terms of focus accuracy.

Try taking more shots at various apertures and see what kind of results that produces.

DanubxD said:

Well I finally went today to the store and got the 50mm f/1.4 (Canon),
And to my suprise, it has bad front focusing, going to replace it tomorrow.
Damn you Canon for not including MFA! (I own a 60D)

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

dwalby said:

dwalby said:

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/danjosephson/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/danjosephson/

I had that lens before. It is for sure has a major focusing problem. I didn't like its performance because I missed 50% of my shots!!

Have you tried centre point focus? They all seem to be outer points with low contrast zones in light that doesn't look that flash. I'm not saying there isn't anything wrong with the lens....just a thought.

I wouldn't give up on the 50 f1.4 if I were you -- it's a decent lens. You might want to try a couple copies at the shop or bring in to canon as done before the days of MFA.

It's likely just front focus and not erratic unless you have a defective lens (and you would clearly see erratic focus in photos). I've seen erratic focus issues with non-canon lenses, but not canon. I have a 50mm f1.4 and it's rock solid in terms of focus consistency (50D / 7D).

One has to be very careful when shooting wide open (assuming close to subject) because even a little bit movement can cause you to shift the focus plane causing noticeible OOF. A tripod helps a lot. It's not as easy as some might think...(comment for those blaming focus issues on erratic focus performance)

Do a web search and you'll find a wealth of information regarding people complaining about inconsistent focus with Canon's 50mm 1.4 and 1.8 lenses. Moreso with the 1.8, but the 1.4 isn't perfect either. And to reply to another post in this thread that suggests people are mistaking narrow DOF for focus issues, I can say in my case that I know the difference, but I can't speak for the dozens of other people I found complaining about the same exact thing.

Maybe the 1.8 mkI was better in this regard, I don't know, or maybe you were lucky and got a good one.

With the 1.4 I sampled I'd usually get at least 1 out of 6 shots that didn't focus right, and like you I found that unacceptable for the price so I didn't keep it. The 1.8 was even worse, but for $99 I wasn't expecting it to be perfect.

I'm not saying that you should keep that copy of the lens, if its not focusing right at all then that's a different story. I'm just warning you that if most of your shots are in focus, but a few are not, that's consistent with what a lot of people are saying about that lens.

DanubxD said:

Blaming this issue on inconsistent focusing performance is unacceptable, I payed almost 500$ for a lens that can shoot in low light without a flash, NOT a lens that can only be used at apertures of 2-4, if I wanted that, I'd get another lens.

I had a 50mm f/1.8 (I, not II) and the focusing was about 98% spot on, and was seldom a problem.

Click to expand...

I went back to the store, explained the problem, also pointed out that it wasn't a sharpness issue, but consistent front focus, they were very happy to help, took the body and lens for calibration, I'll get it back on Monday and post the result, if nothing's changed, I'll definitely return it, manual focus isn't the answer, my eyes just aren't good enough to get it spot on.

Here's a DIY focus calibration that I did just before I went to the store





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http://www.flickr.com/photos/danjosephson/