Photographer Tony Northrup decided to do a head to head test of the latest competitor to Canon’s nifty 50 lens: the 50mm f1.8. He does some interesting tests, but in some ways, they seem flawed.

Tony compares the autofocus, and clearly states that the Canon optic nails focus while the Yongnuo didn’t quite do it all the way. However, this is common knowledge for almost every third party lens. I’ve tested Sigma, Tamron and Tokina glass all on Canon DSLRs and everything needs micro-adjustment because of the way that autofocus algorithms work and the lenses that your camera has become used to. In fact, Micro-adjustment isn’t hard to do. Sometimes, even Canon glass needs it–and the company has a patent to automatically do it.

To begin with, most folks using studio strobe also most likely use the higher end 50mm lenses.

There are other comparisons too like with vignetting and aberrations–both of which Tony truthfully states are easily fixed in Adobe Lightroom. Bokeh is compared and you see not much of a difference though there are Tony’s explanations of how the lenses will affect your images in real life use.

If you’re a beginner, springing for a 50mm f1.8 is a really nice option, but we overall recommend that you instead go straight to the f1.4 options which will last you much longer in your photography career. I still own the older 50mm f1.4 from Sigma and though I barely use it. It’s there for when I need it and when I do, it gets the job done,

Tony’s video comparing the Canon 50mm f1.8 vs the Yongnuo 50mm f1.8 is after the jump.