Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II review - Autofocus

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II

21 January 2015

Arkadiusz Olech

10. Autofocus

If you are looking for other weak points of the cheap Canon you hit the jackpot in this category as its autofocus is undoubtedly a liability. The lack of any USM motor is keenly felt. First of all the autofocus is loud – during the focusing you can hear high-pitched buzz all the time. Still you have to grant it: the focus is set quite fast.

Unfortunately it also misses frequently. In the case of the old Canon 20D in 26 percent of cases of ISO chart photos, with the focus being set for distinct, black-and-white edges, the choice of the focal point was so wrong that resolution measurements provided values over 20% worse than the best possible ones. On the new body of the 5D MkIII the situation was better but not especially good: the number of misses reached 15%. The lack of repeatability, visible in the movements of the ring, really stuck out. One frame after another, the autofocus could change its position even though nothing else changed – the camera with the lens attached were all the time in the same distance from the chart and the point of focus.

In the photo below you also see clearly that the lens joined with the 50D had a tendency to set the focus right before the photographed object. However in the case of the 5D MkIII the problem got marginalized.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -