This is Canon's cheapest lens! I owned the 50mm f/1.4, which is quite a nice lens (but often had focus locking problems), but I sold it thinking I didn't deserve to have a $320 lens when I could use a $70 lens just as well. Here are some tests I did on the lens at close and far range.

I used a Canon 1D (Auto White Balance mode) on a tripod with autofocus and 2 second timer delay to prevent shake. The purpose of using the autofocus was to test the consistency of the focusing. Due to errors in focusing consistency, some pictures came out of focus (OOF) and were useless for comparing sharpness.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
f/1.8 "Near"	f/1.8, "Far"
(f/2.0 "Near" -- OOF)	(f/2.0, "Far" -- OOF)
f/2.2 "Near"	f/2.2, "Far"
(f/2.5 "Near" -- OOF)	(f/2.5, "Far" -- OOF)
f/2.8 "Near"	f/2.8, "Far"
(f/3.2 "Near" -- OOF)	(f/3.2, "Far" -- OOF)
f/3.5 "Near"	f/3.5, "Far"
(f/4.0 "Near" -- OOF)	f/4.0, "Far"
f/5.0 "Near"	f/5.0, "Far"
f/6.3 "Near"	f/6.3, "Far"
f/8 "Near"	f/8, "Far"
f/11 "Near"	f/11, "Far"
f/16 "Near"	f/16, "Far"

Notes on Sharpness

Near:
• There is clearly softness at f/1.8, but it is razor sharp at f/2.2 and above!!
• At f/16, the effects of diffraction tend to lower the contrast some (this is not a lens design problem but a physics problem! Can't outsmart physics!).
• Inconsistencies in the autofocus rendered some photos OOF.

Far:
• Somewhere around f/3.2, the sharpness picks up after a slow start at f/1.8.
• Inconsistencies in the autofocus rendered some photos OOF.