I'm not happy with the 50mm f/1.4's image quality, specifically
1. It's not that sharp. E.g. on 21mp sensors @ f/2, it isn't as sharp as the 35mm f/2 IS USM. At f/2.8 it isn't as sharp as the 40mm f/2.8.
I have to agree with this, too. I'm considering dumping mine without a lens to replace it, and also considering renting the Sigma Art alternative (all my lenses are Canon). This lens is the biggest weakness in my landscape tools. An EF 50mm f/1.4 with the same optical formula isn't likely to do it for me, even with improved optical coatings. The current lens is unacceptable in the mid-frame until f/2.8, and then it is just okay. Why bother making an f/1.4 lens that isn't solid at wide apertures? Sure, the viewfinder is bright, but a bright viewfinder does not an image make.
What Canon gets right, I think, with this patent is the apodization filter as a value-added feature. It gives me a reason to potentially select this over a similar lens with no special features. Not exciting (since a filter is a reasonable alternative), but fresh. It would encourage me to take a close look because I like photoimpressionism.
Canon may be redesigning this lens more to eliminate popular lenses which still are manufactured manually rather than on their new automated lines. Laudable for the stockholders sake, if true, but perhaps missing an opportunity.
I'd chuck the old (double-Gauss?) design and build a modern lens to incorporate this. Leave the 50mm f/1.4 around as a budget choice, build an L version along the lines of the 35mm f/1.4 II as the step-up option. Or even better, make a big splash with a new design for the 50mm f/1.2L with apodization. Cripes, the length of the lens described is larger than the f/1.2 anyway.
My advice to Canon would be to make a fifty that is a "wow" lens, damn the size and cost, and offer something besides autofocus that the Zeiss Otus 55mm lacks, whether that is apodization or something else. Canon has the capability of turning out a great lens in the $1500-2200 range, I believe. JUST DO IT.
Scott
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