Sharpness at 32mm

For this review, the sharpness test is carried out by photographing a real-world subject, rather than a test chart. The Canon EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens was mounted on the Canon EOS M50, which was in-turn mounted on a sturdy tripod. Exposure delay was activated to prevent camera-shake. Any changes in colour or tone you might see across the crops are due to natural light changes during the shooting session.

The full frame at 32mm

At the centre of the image, sharpness is very good at the widest aperture of f/1.4. It is sharper again at f/1.8, becoming ever so slightly sharper again at f/2.0, where it remains roughly the same until around f/4.0. Sharpness drops a touch at f/5.6, a little more at f/8, before dropping to very good at f/11. Sharpness is least impressive in the centre at f/16, but the overall impression of detail when looking at images at normal web or printing sizes is still very good. Moving to the edge of the frame, the sharpest results can be seen between f/5.6 and f/8, being slightly softer at either end of the aperture range. Again, the overall impression is detail good throughout the range.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/1.4
f/1.8
f/2
f/2.8
f/4
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16