Sigma 50 mm f/1.4 Art

The first real review of this lens is out and it looks to be as good as advertised. I've really enjoyed my Canon 50 mm f/1.4. But I really don't use it faster than f/2, so being able to use the Sigma at f/1.4 would be a huge selling point. The size and weight are detractors, but if this lens is truly this good, the size and weight would be worth it. Plus, it takes 77 mm filters, which I already have.

If this review was for a 24 mm lens I'd pre-order in a heartbeat. Considering I just bought the 35 mm Art, I'll have to think if I really need two primes only 15 mm apart. It seems like people tend to to go with either the triumvirates of 24 mm, 50 mm and 135 mm or 35 mm, 85 mm, 135 mm and right now my primes are 14 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm, and 100 mm.

Edit. Just compared and SLRGear has the 50 f/1.4 actually sharper than the 35 f/1.4 at equivalent apertures. BTW, I will probably only keep one of the 35 mm and 50 mm primes I currently have, not both.

Yep, this in on my list to strongly consider.

I am still jumping back and forth on my 24-105. It need to be repaired or replaced. I might end up w/ 2 Sigma (50 and 24-105), 1 Tamron and only 1 Canon (70-200) for the full frame. the 18-35 1.8 has my APC budget worried. Hard to believe.

I bought my first two non-Canon lenses in March. The Rokinon 14 mm UMC and the Sigma 35 Art. Both are good lenses. I am already getting shots I love with the Rokinon. The jury is still out with the Sigma. I need to shoot with it more. But the AF speed is slower than I had expected (somewhere between the 24-105 and the 50 f/1.4) and I've yet to get shots I love with it. But a good test will be next weekend at my niece's 1 yr birthday party.

But, overall, there are starting to be a lot of good options out there.

Regarding the Sigma 50 Art. I'll wait to see the price. I do like the "normal" perspective.

I find I don't use the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 terribly often. It's not a focal length that I gravitate toward. However, I've found it extremely useful for shooting events. The relatively wide angle (on a full-frame body) coupled with the wide aperture makes it ideal for indoor event shooting.

Came in at $949.
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/N...aspx?News=9471

Preorder submitted at 2:15am CDT. ;-)

Great! If it is as good as the slrgear review, it should be a heckuva lens for under $1,000. I've pre-ordered one too. I plan on bringing it in and keeping one of the 35 Art, EF 50 f/1.4 and 50 Art. The other two will be sold/returned.

I plan on keeping the 35mm f/1.4 Art....but I just took some product shots of the EF 50mm f/1.4 to be used in an eBay auction.

35 f/1.4 A, 50 f/1.4 A, and EF 85 f/1.2. That will be a pretty nice collections of primes for your portraits! :D

I don't think I shoot enough low light or shallow DoF to justify a prime at both 35 mm and 50 mm. Of course, I may change my mind one I have both in hand :rolleyes:

BTW...SLRgear/Imaging Resource has now reviewed the 55 f/1.4 Otus. So they now have some side-by-side comparisons. From their review, seems like the 50 A compares very well.

I am toying w/ the idea Sigma, not sure I use 1.4 50mm enough to swing the $900. The few times I might really need the uber sharpness renting sounds like a better solution.

hmmmm I wait until Sean tell us what he finds in real world usage.

Mike

Technically speaking, I don't "need" the wide apertures very often. A couple of notable exceptions include indoor event photography (where the 35mm lens is my go-to choice) and indoor basketball (where, for now, the 50mm f/1.4 fills that need). I almost never use the 50mm f/1.4 at f/1.4, though - it just isn't sharp enough for my taste.

I'm hoping the Sigma 50mm f/1.4's AF is as good as the Canon. If so, I'll definitely be using it for indoor basketball among other things.

Another way I like to use relatively wide apertures is portraiture. Just last night Amanda and I did some shooting on the street that I live on. I used the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L II with a Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo to allow me to achieve a relatively slow flash sync speed while still using a wide f/2.5 aperture.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/...019f52702b.jpg

A hint of fill light on the left side (to illuminate the inside of her hair) would have been optimal. But I was trying to keep the lighting simple with a single monolight diffused by a Mola Demi. Oh well...we got some other decent shots too.

Looks like Bryan's tests are up for the 50A.

:-)

Wow. Now that's a nice lens!

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Originally Posted by DavidEccleston

Wow. Now that's a nice lens!

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My 50L is crying in a corner. Then again, I got it as upgrade to the LensBaby SoftFocus, so I'm quite happy with it's sharpness, and sometimes it outright surprises me :-)

Wow indeed. You have to give some props to Sigma on their recent offerings. It seems that the "mid level" i.e. $500 to $2,500 pricing points for various lenses are getting darn competitive from an image quality standpoint from 3rd party manufacturers.

This make some sense as the market for the $2,500 and up price point is not the place too many enthusiasts tend peruse all that often.

I simply don't want to get into the the pixel size/lens capability debate.... yet.... but it is coming.

If they had not made the claim that they were going to beat the Zeiss Otus, then they could be doing a lot of bragging right now. However, based on Bryan's charts, it does not beat the Otus for sharpness. It can be argued (and probably will be) that it beats the Otus if you factor it vignetting and price, because it does do better on both those points, but you need to stop down to f/2.8 on the Sigma before it starts getting comparable to the Otus wide open at f/1.4.

Really nice lens, but not quite to the level they claimed it would be.

Pat

(There has to be one in every crowd, aye)

It's true, it doesn't *quite* beat the OTUS. However, considering that you get AF, it's 3k less expensive AND it's significantly better than the rest of the 50mm crowd - I think Sigma has created something to be proud of.

We'll see what Bryan thinks of the AF, though.

Looks like Bryan's review of the 50A is up.

Two quotes jumped out at me:

"What I learned from the many hours (actually extended into days) spent shooting and analyzing thousands of images is that the 50 Art lens' AF cannot be completely counted on. Sometimes, most images are properly focused and when my shots counted, this lens delivered. But sometimes, more images are out of focus than I am comfortable with."

I recently bought the 35A. I am still getting to know the lens, but this is almost exactly what I am seeing. I used it at my niece's 1 yr birthday party along with the 70-200 II. When the shots were in focus, they are sharp and really jump out at you. Maybe a bit of a "gold" color too them, but very nice photos. But the AF missed more often than I am used too, especially compared to the 70-200 II.

I set up a test, actually somewhat similar to Bryan's book with a butterfly. But I had a pattern surface beneath a box and the single point AF set up on the box. I took 10 pictures at f/1.4. You could see the focal plane vary just behind to just in front of the plane of the box. All lenses I've done this with do it a little, my 100-400L does it a lot. But the 35A did it more that usual.

Quick other note, but in bright light, the 35A did better, but in lower light (the purpose of the lens for me) the AF accuracy seems to fall off more than other lenses I own. I am still testing that observation.

But then Bryan says this:

"While I will dock a few points from this lens for occasional AF inconsistency, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens is now the overwhelming favorite in the 50mm field. This lens delivers excellent image quality, has a beautiful design and for what you get, a very attractive price. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens is the easy 50mm choice for those with a moderate budget."

I haven't canceled my preorder, but I am thinking about it. $950 isn't that far away from the 50 L.

This is a departure from the norm for Bryan's lens tests:

"My evaluation lens was a short term loan from Sigma, as they offered the production-grade lens before it was commercially available."

Any time a manufacturer supplies a product to a well-known reviewer, a big unanswered question is whether the provided copy is truly representative of units purchased retail. Clearly, it would be in Sigma's best interest to pre-test a batch of them and pick the best copy they can find for review (in fact, they are supposed to generate measured MTFs for every lens they produce, so they have the data already).


I've always felt that one of the strengths of Bryan's reviews (in addition to their thoroughness and readability) is that he purchases review copies through standard retail channels (B&H may put him near the top of the preorder queue, but that's fine), and therefore avoids the potential confound of bias introduced by testing a 'hand-picked' lens from the manufacturer. I hope Bryan chooses to test one or more copies of the lens purchased retail to see if the results align with the copy provided by Sigma.

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Originally Posted by neuroanatomist

I hope Bryan chooses to test one or more copies of the lens purchased retail to see if the results align with the copy provided by Sigma.

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+1

I think that is the solution. I understand TDP having to get their review up in order to be competitive with other sites. SLRgear had a significant number of hits because they were the first review. But I absolutely agree. I trust Bryan's reviews more than most. I simply think he tries harder. If he is seeing copy variation, he tests multiple copies. The only other group I've seen do this is lensrentals, for obvious reasons. But it would be great to see the review results for the 50A verified with a true production copy.

That said, I think the picture is getting clearer with the "Art" series. Excellent optics, especially sharpness. Not the necessarily the old AF issues that Sigma had, but perhaps AF inconsistency issues. I suspect the level of light may affect the Sigma Art lenses more than it affects Canon lens. I'll try to test that tomorrow morning with the 35A.

Of course, the end result is important, can the "Art" lenses deliver the images you want. This may be why I am sensitive to the AF, but I "missed" several shots due to the AF issue in lower light. I've only tried the 35A in two events, so it deserves more of a chance, but one particular sequence with my niece and sister-in-law could have been great. But the 35A missed AF on consecutive shots. Usually with an EF lens, at least one shot would be sharp.

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Originally Posted by Kayaker72

...but one particular sequence with my niece and sister-in-law could have been great. But the 35A missed AF on consecutive shots. Usually with an EF lens, at least one shot would be sharp.

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That's what would worry me. In a controlled test (the butterfly/book series), where neither camera nor subject were moving, the 50A's AF clearly missed on 4 of the 10 shots shown, which Bryan states are representative of the more extensive series. I have a bit of trouble reconciling a 40% miss rate with 'occasional' AF inconsistency.

Thanks for the great discussion, everyone!

My review copy of the 50 Art was indeed manufacturer-provided (the only way to get one right now) and that of course leaves open the question of cherry picking. I will be very surprised if the copy I evaluated is noticeably better than the retail-purchased copies coming soon. If it is, Sigma's practice of selecting ultra-high performing models for evaluation purposes will quickly be called out. I'll try to get a retail copy of this lens in for testing. That way, we will all know. Sean will also be using this lens in more depth soon. We will advise on any inconsistencies we discover.

As for a 40% miss rate being high, I completely agree. My experience was not always that case. For example, I was probably getting a hit rate in high 80% range shooting runners at the track meet and probably in the mid-90% range during the long portrait session. Results with other subjects were mixed. Sometimes great. Sometimes not.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

I preordered the morning of the release, and all I have received is a notice saying that the 50A is backordered.

Anyone received theirs? Any impressions/photos to share?

From what I am reading and seeing on the web, this is a very nice lens but there are potential issues:

• There are reports of AF issues. Apparently the Sigma Dock is a must as setting a single AFMA value at one distance isn't enough. The dock allows you to set different AFMA values for different distances.
• Of course, AFMA is about accuracy, not precision. There seem to be precision issues, potentially similar to what Bryan noted. I've seen at least two reports where people are having perfect AF for a large number of shots and then, inexplicably, AF misses.
• Color rendition. Seems that certain colors are more saturated and I am wondering if others are less saturated.

Despite the above concerns, this lens seems to be making a very good impression with many and I've seen many impressive images. Of course, depending upon the severity, the above issues may be enough for me to keep my 50 f/1.4.

I received my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens yesterday.

I haven't given it a thorough workout yet, but AF has been impressively accurate thus far. AF is a tad slower than most USM lenses, but not so slow as to impede typical shooting.

I didn't get the chance to test AF at longer focal distances, so I can't confirm/deny any issues there. But I do own the Sigma USB Dock and can correct for AF drift at longer distances.

And as for color - well, I'm color blind. I don't think I can comment how which colors are more saturated than others. :-)

The following was shot at 7:44pm last night. Although it doesn't seem so in the picture, the light was very dim. So dim that I'm sure my previous 5D II body would not have been able to focus at all.

EXIF:
5D Mark III in Av Mode
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art
f/1.4, 1/40 sec, ISO 1600 (yes, I know I'm below the 1/focal length threshold)


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5233/...6c2c3fc3_c.jpg

I post processed the image in Photoshop CC and increased brightness and contrast and added a warming color filter.

I plan on shooting some indoor basketball tonight to see how the lens performs when using AI Servo focusing. This will also give me the opportunity to shoot subjects at greater distances to see if AF stays spot-on.

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Originally Posted by Kayaker72

Of course, depending upon the severity, the above issues may be enough for me to keep my 50 f/1.4.

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....or...the concerns may be much ado about nothing....

Great shot Sean :)

It will be interesting to hear your thoughts.

I used the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM for two separate shoots yesterday. One was a senior portrait session and the other a basketball game. I thought the Sigma lens performed very well in the statis portraiture shots, even under challenging AF conditions (I was using the Singh Ray Vari-N-Duo set to a heavy variable ND setting).

It missed AF on some shots, but several of those may be attributed to focus and recomposition when using a wide f/1.6 aperture. This ended up being my favorite from that session:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7337/...336a666b_c.jpg

The Singh Ray filter adds its own warmth to the image. I could have reduced it in post (which I did slightly), but I ended up liking its impact on the skin tones more so than not and certainly appreciated the filter's polarizing effect.

Note that I cleaned up a great deal of the subject's acne in post which reduced the sharpness of what was achieved in the originally captured image.

As far as its performance as the basketball game, I'm afraid I wasn't able to draw a firm conclusion as to its AF performance. It nailed a lot of the closer shots, but it missed many that were further away. After changing my AF setting in the AF preferences from Case 1 to Case 4 I got better results. That said, I don't know if it's because I was locking onto my subjects for a longer period of time prior to actually snapping the first frame in a burst or if the chosen Case was doing a better job.

You can find an example of one of my favorites from the game here. Please note that it was processed with a Topaz Clarity filter that gave it a somewhat HDR look. I was also shooting at ISO 3200 and the processing caused it to look worse from an ISO standpoint (highlighting detail contrast). Overall, I liked the effect (and so did the subject).

Put in the order about week ago for the 50 1.4 Art and the new 16-35 L f4.

Well let you know on both.

Might change out the t3i 17-55 for the 70d and Sigma 18-35 1.8.

Major relapse of G.A.S.

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Originally Posted by Busted Knuckles

Put in the order about week ago for the 50 1.4 Art and the new 16-35 L f4.

Well let you know on both.

Might change out the t3i 17-55 for the 70d and Sigma 18-35 1.8.

Major relapse of G.A.S.

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Ha! Usually G.A.S. hits me during the later stages of winter. Much more of a seasonal malady, but maybe that is up north. That said, my case does seem to have lingered; my 50A arrives Tuesday. I ordered two about 3 hrs apart the day they were announced in early April. I am getting one and the other is still on order. For a $950 lens, both the AF and IQ will have to impress me to keep it. If I keep it, I'll likely have to sell my 35A and 50 f/1.4.

Still thoroughly enjoying the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art:

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2925/...f290ffd8_c.jpg
Amanda at Dogwood Park by budrowilson, on Flickr

So I received my 50A last Tuesday and have been playing with it since. I haven't truly tested it as I've been too busy, but in general...a great lens. In good light the AF is hitting consistently and in low light the AF is as good as any other lens. Whereas I thought the AF on the 35A was a bit slow and noticed misses. Not so far with the 50A. The AF has been fast and accurate.

A few pics (both unaltered except for size reduction):

50A on 5DIII at 1/160 (moving cat), f/1.4, ISO 10,000 (testing the side AF points)

Attachment 2209

50A on 5DIII, 1/1,250, f/1.6, ISO 100

Attachment 2210

Here is a near 100% crop of the image above.

Attachment 2211

Anyway, just wanted to report back. I will continue to shoot with it to get used to the 50A, but so far, excellent.

Placed an order, must be in the 2nd batch. Looks pretty darn cool

It arrived last night. Quick check on the focusing and +6 seemed to solve the front focus issue just fine. Looking forward to working this weekend. And lastly...

WOW what a beast.

Congrats Mike....

Somehow I haven't noticed the weight when using it ;)

Just grabbed one from Amazon Warehouse for $873. If it checks out ok, I'll be a happy camper. If not, back it goes. I already have the dock that I bought with the 120-300, so adjusting it should be a snap. Now the waiting begins.

Picked up my lens today. Despite Amazon's description of the original packaging being damaged, I couldn't tell it from new. The only indication that this was not a brand new lens was the Amazon Warehouse sticker that sealed the box closed. The box, contents, and lens all appear as new. Sharp as a tack, too. Tomorrow I'll put it through some paces and see if I need to use the dock to adjust anything.

I think you'll like it. It really is a fantastic lens. Not cheap, but priced well for its performance.