Jim,
yeah, I like it too. Very sharp and lovely bokeh. I need to use it for some indoor dog shooting but for portraits, it's lovely.

That's another one I like to take out and shoot for an assignment just like the one you did. But I'd like to focus (literally) on people and pets. I'll try it once my girl drops her puppies this week. In fact, maybe I'll use it to take some very early puppy shots.

Jim

James,
I intended to post some pics of the 50 with both tubes and TC but got tied up with the puppies. Sorry about that.

Here's a shot with just the 50 at minimum focusing distance.



Next, here's a shot with the 50 plus a 12 mm tube.



And, finally, the 50 plus 12 mm tube and 1.4 Canon Telextender. Keep in mind that the telextender can't be mounted directly to the lens so it goes after the tube.



This combination won't take the place of a dedicated macro lens but it works just fine. You need to be aware that you lose at least a stop of light with each addition of either a tube or a TC. That's important if you're shooting manually with strobe as I was here.

While I like what I can get with this combo -- and with the 85 as well -- I'm still considering getting either the 100/f2.8 macro or the 60/f2.8 macro. Having a lens that works as a "normal" lens and still will focus down to 1:1 is really nice. More convenient than changing lenses, tubes and TCs. It's more a matter of convenience than image quality in my opinion.

Anyway, here are the shots using the 50. I did the same with the 85 with similar results and a bit more magnification.

Enjoy,

Jim

Jim,

I know this is not exactly in the spirit of using this lens for its intended purpose, but I have found my 50mm to be
great for medium to long distance panos. It is amazing how much detail I can get when you combine multiple images with
this super sharp lens. The 50mm focal length can be
somewhat limiting in some pano situations, but when it isn't, the panos are great. There is far less distortion of
the pano panels and the stitching is usually flawless. Here is one I took of the San Diego skyline. You can't really
appreciate it from this low res web version, but the detail in the buildings in the original is impressive.

Geo

Geo,
wow, very cool. How many images did you stitch together for that image? Even at web-resolution, the detail is incredible.

Jim