Best Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Cameras Review

As always, I read the reviews and talk to people who know about the items in question. Overall, this lens was pretty much equally praised and denounced. I took all opinions into consideration and went ahead with my purchase.

One thing that I do love about my lens, is that it is fantastic in low-light situations. Most people who are new to photography, will no quite grasp the aspect that, sure, a large lens will give you more ability to shoot in darker surroundings, but they fail to comprehend that in doing so, the aperture must be quickened (opened up). What this in essence does is create a razor sharp depth of field. The lens at f1.4 will focus on ONE eye, but leave the other blurry and most complaints are usually stemming from this. When doing portraiture you want to use an aperture no less than f2.0 (personally I like f2.2), this provides a perfect DoF to blur the background and keep eyes, nose and forehead in focus.

I adore the super quick focus from the HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), but what I do notice, is the body or housing tends to rattle a bit. Still, it's not overly bad, I can take it out and about and more so the ambient noise will drown out the slight rattling.

Images I captured with this lens are very crisp, as I expect from Sigma and its other line known as Quantaray. Sigma IS more pricey, however, when compared to Canon, but if you can find them, I recommend the Quantaray lenses which are about half the cost. Either lenses brand give me fantastic results, proving that Sigma/Quanataray is worthy to get.

This lens came with a petal-lens-hood and fits my Canon 30D beautifully. No binding or connecting anomalies were noticed, all functions work flawlessly.

The finish is also nice and aesthetically pleasing and protecting the lens is a case which also comes in the package. The case even has a belt-loop for those wanting to carry the lens as a backup or spare. Mind you, I won't be using it, as my Pelican Case fits it nicely with all my other cameras and their gear.

Still the lens is worth getting, in my opinion. You really get what you pay for. If you can afford the high-price, then go for it, if not, I recommend the Canon equivalent.

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Cameras Overview

This large aperture prime lens with a standard focal length of 50mm is ideal for digital cameras. This lens has superior peripheral brightness and provides high contrast image even at the maximum apertures. It is ideal for several type of photography such as portrait, landscape and reportage. The molded glass aspherical lens elements provide excellent correction of chromatic aberration and ensure superior optical performance. The fast F1.4 aperture and rounded 9 blade diaphragm creates an attractive blur to the out of focus areas. This lens incorporates HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), which ensures a quiet and high-speed AF as well as full-time manual focus override.

List Price : $499.00

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Customer Reviews

Excellent lens..my copy is free of any focus issues - Ariel - Los Angeles, CA
I must be lucky. I have six Siggies for the Nikon, and every time I read these horror tales of front or rear focus issues I re-test each and every lens (other than my 10-20mm). Everytime each and every lens passes free of any front or back focus issue. Each test is performed on a tripod to avoid the issue of user error, with two similar objects placed two-three inches apart depthwise and each time the focussed on object is in focus and the other is not. My lenses include 50/1.4, 24-70/2.8, 18-50/2.8, 50-150/2.8, and 150/2.8(macro). Five for five (actually, six for six) is as good as it gets. Perhaps I should quit while I am ahead. I might add that I also have five Nikon lenses all of which are likewise free of focus issues.



Worst lens and service ever. - Richard C Seldomridge - Colorado Springs, Colorado United States
Good optical quality when it focuses correctly. Too bad it never focuses. The AF on this lens is the most atrocious thing I've ever seen, less then 20% of images are in focus at most. I've tried micro focus adjustment and it doesn't help. Sent it in to Sigma TWICE and they won't fix it (and their customer support is horrible). Amazon won't let me return it now. A complete waste of 0.






Could easily be 5 stars, if you get a good copy... - J. Gotti - NJ
Unfortunately, my 50 suffered from the known front focus issue. At first I didn't test it, I was too anxious to get out and shoot with it, and I noticed that I wasn't getting many keepers after a few days. I thought it was just my fault, until I got frustrated with some really nice shots that I missed from them being out of focus. I tested it and it was focusing about 2-2.5 inches in front of where I wanted it to. A Pretty substantial amount, especially when shooting wide open. I find it really unfortunate that Sigma produces some really fine lenses that can compete with the Nikon counterpart but they still can't get their quality issues under wraps.

Now for the good. The shots that I did wind up getting were stunning : extremely sharp with smooth bokeh. The lens has some heft to it and is well built. I didn't have any issues with the speed of the focus [on my D90] and it was smooth and quiet.

I really hate to take a star off just because I received a faulty copy, but Sigma needs to wake up a bit and get on the ball with their copy variations. Even though I had to return this lens, I will be buying another Siggy 50 in the near future and would recommend this lens to those looking for a really good prime [as long as they know of Sigma's rep on quality].

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jan 06, 2010 16:14:03

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