Canon EF 50 f1,0L USM samples

Hi,


I had the oportunity to try Canon EF 50 f1,0L USM and I put some sample photos and 100% crops on my website:


50 f1,0L photos here

Dude, that thing is sharper than my 18-55mm by a lot!


John.

Wow, those samples are much sharper than I anticipated considering what I've read about the Canon 50mm f/1. Thanks for sharing them!

sharper being the operative modifier. It is still not a particularly sharp lens wide open, and this is very evident in the images.


First, let's talk about contrast @ f/1. There is a noticeable loss of contrast wide open, even though MTF @ 30lp/mm still looks reasonable in the center. The final set of images showing the same subject at f/1, f/1.4, f/2.8 demonstrate this quite clearly. This is what people refer to as the "dreamy" look.


You can also see this in the shot of the camera boxes, in particular the 100% crop showing the 70-200 box label. The purple fringing of the high-contrast transition shows this problem.


Next, let's talk about coma. There is very obvious comatic aberration evident in the bokeh image with the out of focus light sources. The blur circles are not only showing up tiny pointy features on the edge of the disk, but also, the uniformity of the disk is not quite even--something we can also observe in the DO lenses.


Now for the good news. This lens is in many respects still superior to the 50/1.2L, in my limited judgment of the images I've seen from both. The 50/1.0L has better corrected spherical aberration. It is also sharper when stopped down. I think this lens got a bad reputation from a lot of people shooting it at f/1 and not bothering to shoot it at smaller apertures; also, I think perhaps the real reason why the design was retired was because there might have been quality control issues that were uneconomical for Canon to work out, in part due to lackluster sales. The result is clearly a less ambitious optical design for 50mm, and yet it does not perform impressively better than the lens it replaced.


I would love to try the 50/1.0L at some point. It looks like a gorgeous piece of glass, shortcomings aside.

I agree the lens is sharper then I would have expected. The background is not as "blurred" asI would have expected, maybe its because Im used to my 85 1.2 which with the longer focal length blurs the background more. Nonetheless the lens seems was better then what I imagened it would be after reading reviews on it.


Thanks


Joel

What? Sharp?


It is somewhat sharp, considering it's f1,0... Contrast wide open isn't really great and CA is present. Although the new 50mm f1,2 isn't flawless regarding CAs either. I am a little disappointed by the bokeh I must say. If you know the 85mm f1,2, and had the 50mm f1,2 for a quick test - the difference isn't really big.


I can't comment on picture quality when stopped down tho. From what I've heard (from my local photoshop) , it's supposed to be so-so at best.


I also have the 85mm f1,2 and love it's quality. The 50mm is the same size.


Honestly, I'd much rather get the 50 f1,2 *new* than the 50 f1,0 used for a considerably higher price... The difference in sharpness wide-open is dramatic compared to the 50 f1,2 - and the 50 f1,2 has decent color and contrast wide open. I honestly don't think the difference in speed f1,2 <-> f1,0 is dramatic...


Nice collectible lens though!