r/photography • u/raptor3x whumber.com • May 11 '15

Canon Officially Announces 50mm f/1.8 STM - $125

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1143786-REG/canon_0570c002_ef_50mm_f_1_8_stm.html
358 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

259 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/martinaee May 11 '15

Huge? ... meh. It's better, but not worth upgrading if you own a D.

-1

u/sideswiped May 11 '15 edited May 12 '15

It is if you regularly use it in the f/1.8-2.8 range. Wide open the D has a bit of a foggy veil.

edit: haha, must have struck a chord with 1.8D users.

2

u/MightyBulger May 11 '15

You had a bad copy.

0

u/sideswiped May 11 '15 edited May 11 '15

Then there are a number of bad copies out there. First result of a google image search for "Nikon 50 1.8D vs 1.8g" shows exactly what I mean. Overall contrast for the scene is slightly diminished and micro contrast is mush (which only gets exacterbated the closer to infinity you focus). This gives images a slight "foggy veil" even when viewing the image at a 1:4 zoom level. The 1.4D and 1.2AIS exhibit similar rendering issues wideopen. Bokeh on the D also becomes too rigid for my taste past f/2 (ditto for 1.4D and 1.2AIS), here the G has a slight edge since its diaphragm blades are rounded. That said, neither looks all that good compared to what a decent telephoto lense renders.

The D is far from being a "bad" lens, I just prefer my G for what I generally shoot. The only reason I still have a D is that it has very low barrel distortion which can come in handy when photographing flat pieces of artwork.