[Klaus]

... has a poor bokeh ...

[Brightcolours]

... looking at many reviews, this lens does not have such bad bokeh ... many 50mm lenses have comparable bokeh than this RF 50mm f1.8 ... especially lenses that have similar optics, like the Sony FE 50mm f1.8 ... it seems that close up bokeh is better than when focussing a bit further away ... but of course there are 50/55mm lenses that do have better background bokeh ...
https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/canon_rf_50mm_f1_8_stm_review/sample_images
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/canon-rf-50mm-f18-stm-review#section-canon-rf-50mm-f-1-8-stm-sample-images
https://www.cameralabs.com/canon-rf-50mm-f1-8-stm-review/2/
https://petapixel.com/2020/11/11/photographer-reviews-the-rf-50mm-f-1-8-stm-on-the-canon-eos-rp/

[Klaus]

Looking further ... I think this sample is a dud ...

Focus was on the upper left "D"

[olandese volante]

I gather that the RF 50/1.8 is optically quite similar to the EF version, which doesn't have stellar bokeh but I've seen much worse.

So is it worse than the EF ?

Edit: wow, that looks weird...

[Klaus]

I think this lens is heavily decentered.

I also struggled to activate the AF mode on the R5. Initially, the camera offered MF only.

[davidmanze]

A very difficult image to look at ........ a mixture of soupy blur and with nisen OOF chequered scale ...... quite disturbing !!!!!!

....... the chequered bokeh behind the focus plane is outright horrible ........ possibly the worst I've seen ........ in front it's fine .....

...... quite a slip up .....


.......... and even though the lens is out of kilter ..... I don't see the bokeh resolving itself even with a good example ....

[Brightcolours]

A very difficult image to look at ........ a mixture of soupy blur and with nisen OOF chequered scale ...... quite disturbing !!!!!!

....... the chequered bokeh behind the focus plane is outright horrible ........  possible the worst I've seen ........ in front it's fine .....

...... quite a slip up .....

   
.......... and even though the lens is out of kilter ..... I don't see the bokeh resolving itself even with a good example ....

................... reviews (see the links I posted above) with sample images show that (closer up) bokeh is not that bleak, actually .........

[davidmanze]

A very difficult image to look at ........ a mixture of soupy blur and with nisen OOF chequered scale ...... quite disturbing !!!!!!

....... the chequered bokeh behind the focus plane is outright horrible ........  possible the worst I've seen ........ in front it's fine .....

...... quite a slip up .....

   
.......... and even though the lens is out of kilter ..... I don't see the bokeh resolving itself even with a good example ....

................... reviews (see the links I posted above) with sample images show that (closer up) bokeh is not that bleak, actually .........

  
I thought that recent lenses had got the nervous bokeh scenario the right way round ...... as in nervous in front of the POF and smooth behind where it matters........ (if it had to have nervousness somewhere) .... that was a common issue with older lenses ...... I was thinking we had mainly seen the last of it ...... evidently not ......

   ......... it looks bleak to me !! ........

[Brightcolours]

No, not foreground bokeh. Background bokeh with closer up focussing.

See the images?

[davidmanze]

No, not foreground bokeh. Background bokeh with closer up focussing.

See the images?

I wrote:
 I thought that recent lenses had got the nervous bokeh scenario the right way round ...... as in nervous in front of the POF and smooth behind where it matters ........

  your statement confuses me !

   I looked at some of the images and they looked Okish ...... there's one with two bunches of hanging red fruit like grapes ..... the rear OOF bunch doesn't very smooth (nisen) ...... a question of transition distances ?

 In reality it's an inexpensive sharp lens so you can't expect the world !!