The reaction 58Ni---~96Ru has been investigated with 3' spectroscopic methods and pulsed-beam techniques. A level scheme of the magic nucleus 152yb has been established. The half-life of the isomeric 10 + state was found to be 39_+ 5 Its. The result is discussed in the frame-work of the seniority scheme. Theory and experiment show excellent agreement for the half-lives of the 10 + states in the N=82 isotones ~48Dy, 15~ and 152yb. A level scheme of 151Tm, consisting of ten excited states, has been established, fi-decay schemes of x52yb (3.2_+0.3s), 152Tm (m) (8.0+_1.0s) and 15XTm (3.8 _+ 0.8 s) have been derived. The log ft value of the fi transition 152yb (0 +) ~ ~ 52Tm (1 +) has been determined to be about 3.4. It was found that the ft values of the favoured fi transitions 0 + 41 + in the fl decays of ~4SDy, 15~ and 152yb are almost inversely proportional to the numbers of protons out of the h 11/2 subshell.