SEL50F18 Test
 

I received my Genus Variable ND filter today so I decided to a couple of tests. I bought my 50 mostly as in interview camera and I wanted to see how well the 50mm f1.8 lens would do outdoors and indoors. Unfortunately there is no one else around the office today so I had to use the only human subject available...myself. I'm closer to the camera in the indoor test, so it's not an apples to apples test. Gain is 0db, aperture is f1.8 in both situations. Shutter is 1/30 outdoor and 1/60 indoors. No variable ND indoors. Also I did not do any lighting indoors. I would probably frame somewhere in between for an actual interview. You can see a little moire in the upper frame on my glasses, but l I'm pleased with the look overall. I have an actual indoor interview to shoot next Tuesday and I'll post some video from that.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Lee

Nice pinsharp images indeed!! The SEL50F18 also autofocuses too from the camera am I right??

I think that might be a nice lens for wedding receptions. I would really go for a 35mm F1.4 but they are way too expensive compared to the 50mm.

Look forward to your video results ...What PP are you going to shoot that at ...just the default??

Chris

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Chris:
The SEL50F18 does autofocus with face detection. Takes a few seconds for it to focus. I used PP4.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

looks great, looking forward to seeing some real life interviews if you are able to post that. Thx for sharing.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Here is a Teleprompter read I filmed for the local Community College's Foundation. I used the Sony 50mm f1.8 prime. It's a no-budget project so I had to run camera and prompter. I got behind in the setup and this caused three errors: 1) I neglected to white balance, 2) I didn't fine tune the aperture (underexposed by 1.5 stops or so), and 3) I didn't notice that the speaker had some blemishes on his face that would not have been as noticeable if I backed off a bit.
I fixed the first two with color correction and the last using Patrick Sheffield's Makeup Artist plugin for FCP, Premiere, and AE. This got rid of the blemishes, but softened his face a bit. You'll notice how sharp his tie and lapel pin are. That because the filter only masks his face. I still think it looks quite reasonable and shows how well the 50 can work in this situation. Most of the B-roll was shot with a Z7U and a few with the Panny AG170.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Lee

That looks good but yes you can see where the face has gone soft where you made the corrections..it was either leave the blemish and keep it razor sharp or soften the image... Just for interest do you not use makeup on interviewees ever?? A tiny amount of neutral face powder might have concealed the blemish a bit more. I tend to also come in a bit too tight so I like your camera position but you are probably right and should have backed off just a little.

I'm starting to use focus peaking a lot now as these 50's have a tiny DOF ..I prefer the yellow peak but still not sure whether to keep the level medium or high ...it does however tell you instantly if you might be focussing in front or behind the subject.

My SEL50 arrived yesterday ..I'll give it a whirl at either my Saturday or Sunday wedding

Chris

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Chris:
I do use makeup sometimes. If the budget is big enough I hire a makeup artist. If not I do my best. Unfortunately I didn't notice the blemishes (and there were many) until I got back to my office and looked at the raw footage. That's what comes from being a one-man-band. Usually I run the camera, have a prompter operator, and sometimes a sound engineer. Next time I'll budget more setup time and have someone else operate the prompter.

I have a V1U that has the same colored peaking options. I prefer the red that shows up in bright situations.

As I've noted in other posts, the SEL50 is a terrific value. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Thanks for your feedback.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Lee

I just played around the yard today with my new 50mm lens and I can really see a big use for the shallow DOF during bridal preparation at weddings. Plus of course having a nice fast lens will be great at low light receptions too.

If I can get this sort of shot while the bride is having her makeup done it will add a lot of impact to her video. I did find that I had to switch the focus now and again to manual so my focal point was exactly where I wanted it..the AF tends to focus just behind the object rather in front of it..but I'm still suitably impressed...Don Bloom will love this lens for weddings too!!

Chris

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

With a fast lens like the 50 f1.8 you should never let the camera handle the focus because you can be sure you will get a lot of out of focus footage if the lens is wide open. This lens is actually a good reason to learn start to use the manual focus constantly :)

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Thanks Noa

I found that out very quickly after the first shot indoors so the camera focus switch went to manual...I'm pretty much used to that anyway as my film camera days had nothing called "auto" anyway apart from a built-in light meter!! The old lenses were also neat as the DOF was incribed on the lens too!!

Chris

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Yeah on a lens like this where the only control is a servo focus you don't get any inscriptions on the lens. For Iphone there are several DOF calculators including one for free called Simple DOF. Not as convenient as looking at the lens.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

This lens is on my list to order as soon as I get back. I have "heard" the real sweet spot of this lens is around f/4 to 5.6! If that's the case, the DoF should be enough to cover.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Don

I can definately see the lens being used extensively with the girls getting ready!! At the ceremony as a B-cam not that much as I tend to shoot guest cutaways in twos or threes so I might need more DOF to make sure they are all in focus.

I also shoot the bride a video guestbook with short interviews and congratulations but I'm thinking maybe my camera to subject distance might just be a little to far away to get decent audio from the shotgun on the mic..the clips are quick and easy so I don't want the hassle of rigging a lav for 15 seconds of vision per clip ....I might test the 50mm out of the missus later and see if the audio is still OK if I step back a bit..also some people prefer to do these in groups of three for moral support so I do need to go a bit wider..Hmm I can see maybe a Sigma 19mm F2.8 being a better solution than the stock lens.

Almost time to go an relax so have a safe trip!!

Chris

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Thanks I'll be off line and off the grid in about 10 minutes. See ya when I get back! Count 10 days from tomorrow!

O|O
\--/

(sailing, sailing over the whatever seas!)

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

I have the stocklens and 2 manauel lenses from samyang.

I really miss autofocus for shooting important things. It's so difficult to see on the LCD when I'm in focus or not. Sometimes I think I'm in focus and when I see it on my pc I notice it was a bit out of focus...

The stocklens has autofocus but is too slow in lowlight. This SEL50F18 has a 1.8 fast lens. (and now also available in a black color)
The samyang has a 1.5 lens so in low light the will be about the same I think.

But is this 50mm wide enough to film people in a church?
Is the stocklens not a 63mm lens?

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

The way I usually work is that I have the camera in full manual, but with face detection activated. Then when I need to I hit the 'push focus' to let the camera do the work. With the stock lens that works really well. The 50mm seems considerably slower at both auto focus and face detection though.
I'm curious if any improvement were made to the new black 50mm/1.8 or if it was a purely cosmetical change (want the new black anyway!).
The Sony lenses are almost impossible to use manually, but I like them for the auto focus, optical stabilisation and their light weight.

Tom, the stock lens is a 18mm-200mm lens. But it's f3.5 to f6.3.

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Dmitri,

Thx for the reply. With a manual lens face detection doesn't work (I thought )
black is a pure cosmetical change I think.I read avalable since october 2013 I read somewhere.

I was wrong, the stocklens is 18mm on his widest.(63mm is filderdiameter)

SEL50F18 has autofocus, sharp image (I read alot), lightweight, now in black, optical stabilisation, not to expensive.

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That is correct, face detection only work with Sony e-mount lenses.

I have the old silver version of the 50mm. It's a decent lens. But I wish it was black! ;)

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Tom

I had the 50mm F1.8 and really didn't find it very useful at weddings. You need to be too far away and I also find a prime very limited at weddings as at our weddings you often have space issues. For me a fast zoom works much better. I use a Tamron 17-50 F2.8 or when I need to get even closer, a Tokina 11-16 F2.8 (both are constant aperture)

These are both manual focus lenses but it really is so easy to focus using peaking if you on the run. I tend to set the colour to yellow and the level to medium and I keep it on ALL the time (even with auto focus!) Quite often the camera with the stock lens might be slow to focus or might focus on something other than the subject and peaking will tell you this immediately!!

Also bear in mind that if you can get in close then rather use a wide lens as your DOF increases dramatically! (With the Tokina at 11mm F2.8 .. I can actually just leave the lens preset at say, 2' and it will be sharp as a tack from 12" right up to about 30' or more) This is great for doing quick guest interviews.

I tend to use wider angles a LOT more than tighter angles at weddings anyway so for me primes just don't work.

Chris

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Chris,

I tested peaking but I don't understand what this does? I see yellow lines in the LCD screen. What does that mean? Sometimes I see no yellow lines?

When filming a face there are no yellow lines,

Re: SEL50F18 Test
 

Hi Tom

All focus peaking does is outline the edges of your subject in the colour you have chosen when that part of the subject is actually in focus. Some of the E-Mount lenses are very slow to autofocus (I found the 50mm was slow! ) so peaking will tell you whether the lens has actually found focus or not ...faces don't react well to peaking hard edge objects will work better so you may just get peaking on a lady's earring for instance but not on her face. Hard edge objects are the best that have straight vertical edges (like doors)

Peaking is still very useful for checking you are in focus even if the face itself doesn't peak something near it will always peak so if someone is standing next to a doorframe and the doorframe highlights in yellow then you can be fairly sure the person leaning against the same frame will also be in focus!

As already mentioned, I have mine on all the time and it's quite amazing to see actually how long the stock lens takes to focus in some cases.

Chris