Originally posted by climit The FA 50/1.4 is a bad lens at large apertures, very soft between 1.4-2.4
Very Soft??
You might have a bad copy or your expectations are very different.
Its centrally sharp enough at wide open and certainly good at f2.5.
Practically, when I use a lens at the larger apertures, its for that isolation effect via shallow DOF, I am not looking at sharpness through to the edges nor absolute sharpness, though I do need it to be sharp enough, and in that respect, the FA50/1.4 is certainly good.
Mostly, the modern 50mm are the ones with more even sharpness at large apertures, though the trade-off is size, weight and cost.