Canon 50mm 1.4 lens
mystik610
Posts: 699
Posting this here in case any photog polkies are interested! It's extremely minty. Bought it less than a year ago, and really never used it
Lens Model: 50mm 1.4
Lens Date Code if applicable: n/a
Lens Body Condition: mint
Lens Glass Condition: mint
Sale Includes: 50mm includes lens caps + original box and manuals. .
Price: $300 EACH + shipping (paypal is on me)
Payments Accepted: Cash (if local) or Paypal
Possible Trades: none
Shipping Methods Available (Ships From): US
Shipping Available To: CONUS
Item location: Houston, TX
Best Contact Method: PM
Reason for selling: I've found that I prefer zoom lenses, and these two primes hardly got much use
Photos:
Lens Model: 50mm 1.4
Lens Date Code if applicable: n/a
Lens Body Condition: mint
Lens Glass Condition: mint
Sale Includes: 50mm includes lens caps + original box and manuals. .
Price: $300 EACH + shipping (paypal is on me)
Payments Accepted: Cash (if local) or Paypal
Possible Trades: none
Shipping Methods Available (Ships From): US
Shipping Available To: CONUS
Item location: Houston, TX
Best Contact Method: PM
Reason for selling: I've found that I prefer zoom lenses, and these two primes hardly got much use
Photos:
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Post edited by mystik610 on
Comments
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Which other prime do you have that is for sale??Posting this here in case any photog polkies are interested! It's extremely minty. Bought it less than a year ago, and really never used it
Lens Model: 50mm 1.4
Lens Date Code if applicable: n/a
Lens Body Condition: mint
Lens Glass Condition: mint
Sale Includes: 50mm includes lens caps + original box and manuals. .
Price: $300 EACH + shipping (paypal is on me)
Payments Accepted: Cash (if local) or Paypal
Possible Trades: none
Shipping Methods Available (Ships From): US
Shipping Available To: CONUS
Item location: Houston, TX
Best Contact Method: PM
Reason for selling: I've found that I prefer zoom lenses, and these two primes hardly got much use
Photos: -
Which other prime do you have that is for sale??
I had an 85mm 1.8, but sold it yesterday.My System Showcase!
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What is your experience with f1.4? Is the depth of field too shallow for portraits? I take a lot of pictures of my kids.
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stargazer_97 wrote: »What is your experience with f1.4? Is the depth of field too shallow for portraits? I take a lot of pictures of my kids.
You don't want to take portraits at 1.4 with this lens, that is razor thin DOF. I wouldn't shoot below 2.0 unless in extremely low light otherwise it's just soft and unusable IMO. Above 2.0, this lens is phenomenal. If you're shooting wide open on this lens you'll keep scratching your head wondering why it looks so bad in most cases. I own the 50 1.2 and that's a different story, but I find the 1.4 hits a sweet spot at f4-f8. A wonderful lens for sure. -
audiocr381ve wrote: »You don't want to take portraits at 1.4 with this lens, that is razor thin DOF. I wouldn't shoot below 2.0 unless in extremely low light otherwise it's just soft and unusable IMO. Above 2.0, this lens is phenomenal. If you're shooting wide open on this lens you'll keep scratching your head wondering why it looks so bad in most cases. I own the 50 1.2 and that's a different story, but I find the 1.4 hits a sweet spot at f4-f8. A wonderful lens for sure.
I strongly disagree. You might even say I vehemently disagree.
Portraits can be phenomenal with the 50 1.4. In fact, I'd say it's a portrait lens.
With autofocus as good as it is these days it's not even that hard.
If one doesn't plan on using the lens wide open, save some money and get a 2.0, or a 2.8, etc...
A friend just send me these today, shot wide open with that very lens -
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I strongly disagree. You might even say I vehemently disagree.
Portraits can be phenomenal with the 50 1.4. In fact, I'd say it's a portrait lens.
With autofocus as good as it is these days it's not even that hard.
If one doesn't plan on using the lens wide open, save some money and get a 2.0, or a 2.8, etc...
A friend just send me these today, shot wide open with that very lens -
I never said it was a bad portrait lens. It's an excellent portrait lens. The guy above me asked a specific question about shooting at 1.4. I simply wanted to point out that on this specific lens, shooting wide open doesn't produce the greatest results. I'll slap it on my 5D MK3 tomorrow and show you why you'd get a far better image in almost every situation by shooting at 2.0+, especially portraits. It's still damn shallow and looks better. -
Im going to bow out of this thread bc its your sale. But based on the hundreds of thousands of images I've shot in the last 30 years and the several professionals I know personally who use the lens with great efficacy at 1.4, i think youre underseling the capabilities of this lens. If your not getting razor sharp portraits at 1.4 I'd have the camera sent in for a focus check.“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
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I hardly ever shot at 1.4 on this thing. I shoot on a 5d MKII, and the DOF on a full frame gives a very narrow in focus area, and a soft image.
The big up to having a 1.4 aperture is the 'head-room' it gives you....Most large aperture lenses are really soft wide open. Stepping down a stop or two goes a long way in terms of sharpness. This is abundantly true on my 24-70 2.8L and 70-200 2.8L.....hardly ever shoot wide open on these things unless I absolutely have to. (interestingly enough, my 17-40 F4L, and my buddy's 70-200 F4 ISL are tack sharp wide open)
:
On the 50mm 1.4, it means that at 2.8, you've got a razor sharp image. Goes a very long way when you want a shallow depth of field and a sharp in focus area. Too many people neglect the importance of this, IMO, and are so focused on creating 'bokeh', that they unnecessarily forgo the sharpness of the in-focus area.My System Showcase!
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What lens did you use to shoot the picture of the lens? It's a good pic :razz:Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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When will I learn to stop reading these threads?
So much misinformation to correct... so little time.
Quality wide aperture lenses (Canon, Nikkor) are NOT soft wide open. I can't imagine how you come up with ideas like this.
Just because you're not getting sharp images doesn't mean the lenses aren't sharp!
Same with the "head room."
That's pure, unadulterated, top-shelf fiction.“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
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When will I learn to stop reading these threads?
So much misinformation to correct... so little time.
Quality wide aperture lenses (Canon, Nikkor) are NOT soft wide open. I can't imagine how you come up with ideas like this.
Just because you're not getting sharp images doesn't mean the lenses aren't sharp!
Same with the "head room."
That's pure, unadulterated, top-shelf fiction.
Both my 24-70 2.8L and 70-200 2.8L (top of the line canon lenses) lenses are soft(er) wide open. Softness is subjective, and these two lenses best any mid-level lens even wide open, but there is very noticeable loss of sharpness wide-open vs stopped down 2-3 stops. As such, I avoid shooting at 2.8 unless I absolutely have to. These are my to go-to lenses, and I'm speaking from experience, but it's a pretty well known characteristic of these two lenses.
That said, I'm pretty anal about sharpness and nailing DOF, so my eyes probably pick these things out more than others.What lens did you use to shoot the picture of the lens? It's a good pic :razz:
Shot on a Canon 17-40L ( stopped down to 8.0 hah)My System Showcase!
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When will I learn to stop reading these threads?
So much misinformation to correct... so little time.
Quality wide aperture lenses (Canon, Nikkor) are NOT soft wide open. I can't imagine how you come up with ideas like this.
Just because you're not getting sharp images doesn't mean the lenses aren't sharp!
Same with the "head room."
That's pure, unadulterated, top-shelf fiction.
I'm not arguing the technicality, I'm arguing the result of shooting wide open on this particular lens in MY experience and those of the many pro photographers I work with literally every week. Nothing to get your panties in a bunch about. It's not all about sharpness, sharpness is actually overrated. It's about a properly exposed and clean image. All I'm saying is that on THIS LENS, THE CANON 50 1.4 THAT I OWN AS WELL, is that you'll be scratching your head wondering why your stills are not coming out the way you want them to when you're shooting at 1.4.
Sheesh.
To the OP, sorry for dumping on your thread :redface: -
audiocr381ve wrote: »I'm not arguing the technicality, I'm arguing the result of shooting wide open on this particular lens in MY experience and those of the many pro photographers I work with literally every week. Nothing to get your panties in a bunch about. It's not all about sharpness, sharpness is actually overrated. It's about a properly exposed and clean image. All I'm saying is that on THIS LENS, THE CANON 50 1.4 THAT I OWN AS WELL, is that you'll be scratching your head wondering why your stills are coming out the way you want them to if you're shooting at 1.4.
Sheesh.
To the OP, sorry for dumping on your thread :redface:
Particularly when you're consistently missing the depth of field (ie, subject is only partially in focus) by constantly shooting at 1.4. It's a common mistake that a lot of people make with large aperture lenses. The aperture one uses should vary depending on the circumstances of the photo. To shoot wide open for the sake of shooting wide open is folly.
On the topic of sharpness, here are some measurements on the loss of resolution on the 1.4 shot wide-open (how much this matters to a person will vary, I suspect):
http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/159-canon-ef-50mm-f14-usm-test-report--review?start=1
and the Canon 24-70 2.8L:
http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/184-canon-ef-24-70mm-f28-usm-l-test-report--review?start=1
and the 70-200 2.8L IS:
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/669-canon70200f28ff?start=1audiocr381ve wrote: »To the OP, sorry for dumping on your thread :redface:
No worries!
Couldn't part with the lens and ended up keeping it anyhow.My System Showcase!
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Particularly when you're consistently missing the depth of field (ie, subject is only partially in focus) by constantly shooting at 1.4. It's a common mistake that a lot of people make with large aperture lenses. The aperture one uses should vary depending on the circumstances of the photo. To shoot wide open for the sake of shooting wide open is folly.
On the topic of sharpness, here are some measurements on the loss of resolution on the 1.4 shot wide-open (how much this matters to a person will vary, I suspect):
http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/159-canon-ef-50mm-f14-usm-test-report--review?start=1
and the Canon 24-70 2.8L:
http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/184-canon-ef-24-70mm-f28-usm-l-test-report--review?start=1
and the 70-200 2.8L IS:
http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/669-canon70200f28ff?start=1
No worries!
Couldn't part with the lens and ended up keeping it anyhow.
Exactly my point. I was answering a very specific question and I quote:What is your experience with f1.4? Is the depth of field too shallow for portraits? I take a lot of pictures of my kids.
My answer was it's an excellent lens for portraits, just don't shoot at 1.4, especially for moving subjects. It doesn't matter how good your auto-focus is, 1.4 is razor thin.
Now for geeks-sake here are some shots I took of my daughter this morning that will illustrate my point. Shot on a Canon 5D MK3 (full-frame). I adjusted exposure on one in Lightroom but that's it. This is just straight out of the camera.
This one was shot at 1/640 shutter at 1.4. The original files were 4x larger.
Note that the only thing in focus is her left eye. This is why I called BS on the images posted by stretch being shot at 1.4. It's not about nailing focus, it's that for portraits 1.4 is too razor thin to get a nice looking image. I think he knows this but wants to keep playing the "i'm right" card.
Now, this one is shot at 1/160 shutter at 2.8. Still, her entire face is not in focus, but it's looking better, sharper, and we're still getting really great bokeh which is why we bought this lens.
Moral of the story is don't shoot at 1.4 for portraits lol. -
You're right.
These portraits at 1.4 really suck.
What could I have been thinking?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/canon_50mm/discuss/72157616999239875/“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
- Isaac Asimov
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bit.ly/stretchonphotojournalism
http://Vimeo.com/channels/stretchphoto -
You're right.
These portraits at 1.4 really suck.
What could I have been thinking?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/canon_50mm/discuss/72157616999239875/
The best ones weren't shot wide open -
You're right.
These portraits at 1.4 really suck.
What could I have been thinking?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/canon_50mm/discuss/72157616999239875/
You'll also notice that most of the shots are taken at apertures SMALLER than 1.4, and that many of ones shot at 1.4 suffer the problems outlined above....
like this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairesunbay/3923222389/
one eye is out of focus. no bueno.
F1.4 in and of itself is not a BAD aperture when it comes to portraits...hell there is no 'bad' aperture. The ideal aperture is the one that suits the situation best.....as in you have enough of the subject area in focus, enough of the background out of focus, and are able to gather enough light. Where that aperture lies depends on a NUMBER of different factors (size of desirable in focus area, available light, focal length, distance between subject and background, sensor size etc etc).
The difficulty with F1.4, however, is that it has an extremely narrow depth of field, which limits how much of the subject you're able to keep in focus. This is particularly true on FF cameras. There are situations where F1.4 works and is even ideal, and anyone can hand pick a cluster of great photos shot at 1.4.....however, shooting ONLY at 1.4, in practice, is problematic.
I actually ran into this very problem when I was asked to photograph my high school reunion a couple of weeks back. It was in a very dimly lit, open lounge, with dark walls (overall a nightmare for bounce flashing). Had to use a very minimalistic set-up, as I didn't want to lug around a bunch of lighting equipment and hate direct flash. The 50MM 1.4 made the shoot possible, as it was my only lens fast enough to catch anything useable in there, but there were A LOT of compromises in terms of DOF that had to be made:
fun fact: the first photo is a shot of me and the wifeMy System Showcase!
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This ^^^
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You'll also notice that most of the shots are taken at apertures SMALLER than 1.4, and that many of ones shot at 1.4 suffer the problems outlined above....
like this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairesunbay/3923222389/
one eye is out of focus. no bueno.
We all like what we like.
I could tell you, unequivocally, how the "out of focus eye" shot would compare with the "cocktail party" pictures above, in my class and, I daresay, among my peers. But I won't, as I've not been asked. I will say that trying to shoot groups of people at 1.4 is a mistake.
As for the shots of your little girl, I like the narrow DOF better because the distracting background elements, especially the bright white pillow growing out of her chin (remember that the eye always first goes to the brightest area of the image), are less distracting because they are farther out of focus.
I'll again try to bow out by saying that at 1.4, the 50 is a phenomenal portrait lens in the hands of someone who knows how to use it as such.
And I'm not trying to offend you. I just call 'em like I see 'em.“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
- Isaac Asimov
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We all like what we like.
I could tell you, unequivocally, how the "out of focus eye" shot would compare with the "cocktail party" pictures above, in my class and, I daresay, among my peers. But I won't, as I've not been asked. I will say that trying to shoot groups of people at 1.4 is a mistake.
As for the shots of your little girl, I like the narrow DOF better because the distracting background elements, especially the bright white pillow growing out of her chin (remember that the eye always first goes to the brightest area of the image), are less distracting because they are farther out of focus.
I'll again try to bow out by saying that at 1.4, the 50 is a phenomenal portrait lens in the hands of someone who knows how to use it as such.
And I'm not trying to offend you. I just call 'em like I see 'em.
No one is saying that the 50mm 1.4 is a bad portrait lens. It's a fantastic portrait lens (though I prefer the 85mm 1.8 and 70-200 2.8). I like the 50mm 1.4 so much that I ended up not selling it.
But saying that 1.4 is universally a 'good' portrait aperture is folly. Part of using the 50mm 1.4 well, is knowing how and when to vary the apertures. (as demonstrated in the link you posted earlier, where most people are stepping down the apertures on the 50mm 1.4). The ability to use the 1.4 aperture, when appropriate or needed, is the big plus of the 50mm 1.4, but it does not mean that 1.4 is always the best aperture to use. That's the flaw in your argument.
I agree that group shots are terrible at 1.4, as its impossible to keep everyone in focus. They're bad pics, and that was the point of me posting them. It was a matter of compromise as I had very little available light. (Plus this wasn't anything I was trying to shoot creatively.)
The same can be said of a lot of close-ups and head and shoulder portraits as well, as I've seen many, many portraits shot on large aperture lenses, where key areas of the subject were out of focus because the DOF was too narrow. Too many people are hopped up on indiscriminately shooting with the aperture wide open for the sake of doing so, and its backwards mentality.My System Showcase!
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We all like what we like.
I could tell you, unequivocally, how the "out of focus eye" shot would compare with the "cocktail party" pictures above, in my class and, I daresay, among my peers. But I won't, as I've not been asked. I will say that trying to shoot groups of people at 1.4 is a mistake.
As for the shots of your little girl, I like the narrow DOF better because the distracting background elements, especially the bright white pillow growing out of her chin (remember that the eye always first goes to the brightest area of the image), are less distracting because they are farther out of focus.
I'll again try to bow out by saying that at 1.4, the 50 is a phenomenal portrait lens in the hands of someone who knows how to use it as such.
And I'm not trying to offend you. I just call 'em like I see 'em.
Those weren't shots I was going to add to my portfolio, come on. Like I deliberatively made our living room messy and decided not to wipe of yesterdays breaking from her mouth. We all have room for growth, but to say the first shot of mine is better makes me think you're newer to this than I thought. -
We all like what we like.
I could tell you, unequivocally, how the "out of focus eye" shot would compare with the "cocktail party" pictures above, in my class and, I daresay, among my peers. But I won't, as I've not been asked. I will say that trying to shoot groups of people at 1.4 is a mistake.
As for the shots of your little girl, I like the narrow DOF better because the distracting background elements, especially the bright white pillow growing out of her chin (remember that the eye always first goes to the brightest area of the image), are less distracting because they are farther out of focus.
I'll again try to bow out by saying that at 1.4, the 50 is a phenomenal portrait lens in the hands of someone who knows how to use it as such.
And I'm not trying to offend you. I just call 'em like I see 'em.
Thanks for having the patience to repeat the same thing three times. I don't think he wants to see our point of view (no pun). -
audiocr381ve wrote: »Thanks for having the patience to repeat the same thing three times. I don't think he wants to see our point of view (no pun).
because he has a rather narrowly focused point of view :razz: (pun very much intended)My System Showcase!
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because he has a rather narrowly focused point of view :razz: (pun very much intended)
:cheesygrin: -
Is someone really gonna buy his lens. Well mystik610 PM me. I am interested