Canon 'Nift-Fifty' 1.8

**F8&Bthere** · 11-20-2009, 10:45 PM

To my eye it's not bad, but does seem a bit soft. 1/500 shutter should rule out camera shake, so I'm wondering if you can try some shots in good light with a fast-ish shutter again 1/250 or faster, keeping the aperture in the usual sweet spot of f8 (hopefully light is good enough that you can use Aperture priority, set it to f8 and get that fast shutter without upping the ISO beyond 400- lower the better for this test I would think). And then try some shots autofocused and some shots manually focused. See if there's any difference in sharpness. On a tripod, even better. It could be a focus problem and/or just a rare lemon, is it either exchangeable or under warranty?

**Iguanasan** · 11-20-2009, 10:57 PM

Hey, Crystalb.

Try taking a few shots at ISO 100 in a well lit space @ either 1/60 or faster and f5.6 or f8.0.

For a well lit scene with those settings you may find your new lens produces a much sharper image. Also, check your camera settings:

- Make sure the quality of the images is set to high (L) and fine.
- Check page 78 of your manual and adjust some the picture style.

Hopefully, this will help you find out more.

**crystalb** · 11-20-2009, 10:59 PM

Yes I still have until the middle of next week to exchange it...

**crystalb** · 11-20-2009, 11:03 PM

Thanks guys I will try to take some more tomorrow... My camera is already set at the highest picture quality.

**Mad Aussie** · 11-20-2009, 11:22 PM

The 2nd two seem to have some sharpness about them, albeit a very narrow dof.

What AF points are you using here? For landscape I often use all of them unless these specifically something I want to isolate a little. For portrait or birds etc I use a single point and make sure that's on the eye of my subject when I focus.

I'd try a few more shots with a scene that is full of detail ... like a bookcase of books and set the f-stop to something around f16 to get more dof. If you have a tripod, use that. If not, then use the timer with the camera sitting steady on something.

My settings were 1/60 at f8 for the first shot and 1/60 at f3.2 for the 2nd shot.

**Mad Aussie** · 11-21-2009, 01:22 AM

I'll pull my 50mm out soon and snap a few off as well Crystal ... I won't sharpen them at all and I'll upload them so you can compare.

**Mad Aussie** · 11-21-2009, 01:57 AM

Here we go Crystal ... 4 quick shots I just took with the same 50mm f1.8.

There is no sharpening or any sort done on these of course. I also removed the UV Filter to take it out of the equation, suggest you do also. No flash used either. I chose f8 as it's a good middle of the road setting that produces sharp results on most lenses.

1/50 @ f8

1/800 @ f8

1/500 @ f8

1/50 @ f8

One thing we did think of was the manual focus ring on the 50mm is not very stiff and after some use it can get so it moves by itself as you move the camera, so if you knock it at all after focusing you will adjust the focus. We noticed this at an event shoot we used it for in low light and had to focus and then hold the ring with a finger to stop it self adjusting. It might just be our lens here but I thought I'd mention it.