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Quote:they didn't learn from what happened to Canon when yongnuo launched their 50mm f1.8, and they were forced to release a 50mm f1.8 STM with an updated aperture.
I can see yongnuo 50mm f1.8 in sony mount coming and as I am seeing things, it would be easy to do a lens that will be even better than this one..
Canon were not forced to do anything by the crap Yongnuo produces, of course the new Canon was in the planning already for a long while. They have been updating the whole range gradually, as you might have seen.
The Yongnuo is quite a bit worse than the old EF 50mm f1.8 II, after all.
Not sure why you think the new STM one consists of a new aperture. It has improved lens elements resulting in sharper images, it has improved more modern coatings, it has a new AF....
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And it has more aperture blades.
The old one had just three. It had a dreadful bokeh.
And as a previous owner of both lenses, I can easily say the yongnuo is better than the old 50mm f1.8.
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06-27-2016, 04:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-27-2016, 07:12 PM by Brightcolours.)
Quote:And it has more aperture blades.
The old one had just three. It had a dreadful bokeh.
And as a previous owner of both lenses, I can easily say the yongnuo is better than the old 50mm f1.8.
The number of aperture blades does not define its bokeh. The bokeh is not the best wide open, sure, and wide open the aperture blades are "out of the picture". And the EF 50mm f1.8 has more than three aperture blades.
I doubt that you had the old 50mm f1.8 (it never came up in the discussion about the yongnuo before.., But if you have owned it anyway, your memory must be failing you on how it performed), and tests and images clearly show the yongnuo to be worse....
Just to kill any further discussion on how supposedly the yongnuo would be better, this is what it actually is like.
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/yon50/yon50_fot01.JPG
Crap bokeh:
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/yon50/yon50_fot07.JPG
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/yon50/yon50_fot14.JPG
"Terrible" comes to mind.
Closed down to f2.2 does not improve matters all that much
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/yon50/yon50_fot13.JPG
And the old Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II?
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/yon50/yon50_fot13.JPG
Nicer bokeh:
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/can50II/can50_fot02.JPG
And way better at f2.2 compared to the Yongnuo crap:
http://pliki.optyczne.pl/can50II/can50_fot13.JPG
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Hello everyone, first post here.
Went out and tried this lens yesterday. Not on my A7 sadly but I used the A7II from the showroom. Here are my thoughts:
-AF motor is not noisy. Yes it has some noise but come on, have you ever used a Canon EF 35/2 or the EF 50/1.8 I?. I found the noise absolutely negligable.
-Focus speed, on the other hand, is downright awful. All my old screw driven Minolta AF lenses are faster. Also, the camera focused AFTER it made the AF confirmation beep, which is quite odd. If you listen to the beep, the lens is slow. If you wait for it to actually focus, it is even slower. I'm willing to pay double for the 55/1.8 just because of the AF behavior.
Something that I've also heard about was the behavior of aperture blades. I tested that too:
-When Setting Effect Preview is ON, the lens is always set to the set aperture. This slows down the AF speed even more if you want to shoot something stopped down. Also, if you want to use the MF or DMF mode, it's pretty hard to nail the focus as the lens is stopped down. Very annoying.
-When Setting Effect Preview is OFF, lens sets the aperture to a random value (Not the shooting aperture). When it's dim, it's wide open. When it's lit well, it's stopped down. When you half press the shutter, however, aperture moves to the shooting aperture after locking the focus. As a result, if you are outside during day, you're composing and focusing through a stopped down lens, only to see the wide open preview after you half press. Pretty silly, if you ask me.
I have found no way to keep the aperture open all the time. I've tested the same procedure with the 55/1.8 and it behaved exactly the same. Camera was a A7II and I believe it had the latest firmware as it was a showroom camera (They don't sell cameras there, they are just for people to try out).
I've been using A-Mount lenses on my A7 until now so all these behaviors are pretty annoying and pointless from my point of view. The trouble is, some of the most used focal lengths on A-Mount are rather weak unless you go big and expensive (24-50-85-135mm). Minolta 24/2.8 is rather acceptable, Sony 50/1.4 is absolutely nothing special and Minolta 135/2.8 is just a regret. Sony 85/2.8 and my Minolta 200/2.8 APO HS G are some of the best lenses ever made by anyone though and they are the main reason I'm in camp Sony.
I'm having very mixed feelings about going native into the FE mount. FE 55/1.8 is a gem, 28/2 is absolutely acceptable (although not my focal length), 16-35/4 is probably the best of its kind all things concerned but that's about it. I don't want to shell out all that money for the Batis and Loxia as I can buy into the Fuji system for half the money and take the exact same photos. Some focal lengths don't even exist yet (135mm, anyone?). This 50/1.8 did nothing to raise my hopes in my future in the FE system.
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I have a nickname for it - "Captain Slow" (hopefully James May doesn't mind) ;-)
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Well, James may be slow but he ain't stupid, unlike the design compromises of this lens 
Ok, I've received my sample of this lens, could be a good copy as I don't see any optical flaws or decentering.
Now, I come with an important update related to performance of the lens. Sony with new firmware for camera and lens (both can be updated, procedure is very simple) significantly improved AF. Motor is a lot faster, hunting is now just very brief. I have recorded a video, with sound, so you can see for yourself minimum to infinity performance AF, several times, and hear the AF noise in very quiet environment.
A7ii firmware 3.10 --> 3.20
FE50 firmware 1.0 --> 2.0
Files and instructions are obtained via Sony official site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3vMlhKdwIg
Comparing to my other Sony lenses, I agree it is still "Captain Slow", but comparing to competition, at least it is somewhere there, if not a bit better.
Price is dropping, on BH it is already <200USD, making it cheaper then Nikkor G, but still more expensive then STM. From my point of view, coupled with IBIS and AF of A7ii this price makes sense.
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I am not sure that Klaus still has the lens. So how can he update the review. Actually I think this is really a bad sign. How can they not testing the lens before release or I really think it's more about communicating the bad results. There developing process looks a little bit like big mess.
Well, this is reality, the product is being improved easily via software updates.
On the other hand, for this price, one basic 50mm 1.8 lens should be completely finished product. In my previous time with Canon and Nikon, firmware updates were not that common, especially not for the lenses. Camera bodies updates were so, so.
Anyway, the review, at least the AF part, is now obsolete. Lens is comparably slower, but very useful for its purpose. AF is very precise and works well in low light conditions.
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I wasn't aware that a review is getting obsolete just because an AF firmware update. So far I thought that 95% of a review was about optics. But then who am I ... 
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