Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsProbably a great lens. My copy wasn't.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2016
--UPDATED REVIEW--
After a good deal of time using the 50mm f/1.4D, I decided that I wanted to pick up a quieter auto-focus lens so I decided to give the 50mm f/1.8G another shot. I'm pleased to say that the experience has been much better this time around.
On my D810 and D850, it's still not wicked sharp wide open, but few lenses are on those camera. Once I stop down to around f/2.8 or so, it actually gets surprisingly sharp for such a cheap lens. I won't get into color rendition because it seems rather pointless given how much the colors get changed anyway during post-processing. Overall, I find the rendition of the lens to be rather clinical, which is to say that it's seems to focus more on accurately recording the scene in sharp detail rather than imparting "character" as some other lenses tend to do. I find this to be a good thing in a 50mm since the focal length itself tends to be one that most photographers would consider to be the "normal" focal length.
Overall, this lens has been a joy to use this second time around which makes me wonder what was going on with that first copy. Maybe it got knocked around during shipping? I don't know. Either way, after experiencing what this lens is capable of offering, I felt compelled to come and update this review because it really is a great lens for the beginner and enthusiast alike that's offered a very reasonable price.
-- OLD REVIEW --
Given all of the positive reviews, I probably just got a bad copy, but the lens was just unacceptably soft for me which I didn't expect since it flies in the face of most of the reviews I've read about this. As far as I could tell, it wasn't a front or back-focusing issue as micro-adjustments didn't seem to help at all and in order to get my copy as sharp as I wanted, I had to stop it down to f5.6, which just completely defeats the purpose.
Ended up returning it and trying out a 50mm 1.4D which I just decided to stick with. I know I could have exchanged it and it probably would have been fine, but the whole experience just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Aside from my particular issues, I can definitely say that the lens itself felt built pretty well for the price. A lot of people like to cry about how they don't make them like they used to—which usually just means that they don't make them out of metal anymore—but plastics have come a long way over the years and definitely have plenty of benefits. Most of the people that make this complaint just miss that hefty feeling, which is more of an argument of personal preference rather than an argument of the objective merits of the materials used. All materials have their pros and cons, but the materials used to construct this lens seemed more than durable enough while having the benefit of being lightweight.
The autofocus responded quickly and crisply without much hunting at all.
All in all, given the low cost of the lens, it's worth at least trying out. You'll probably have better luck than me.
