Sigma 311101 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art Lens for Canon, Black

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The wide maximum F1.4 aperture means this lens works amazingly will in lowlight conditions like photographing gigs or capturing those unforgettable moments at a wedding reception. But it can also create the most attractive shallow depth of field and blue to your images. This is a quality that a lot of photographers strive to achieve, and with this lens, it's easy. Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM) System So optically the Sigma is definitely superior, but obviously it’s also larger, heavier and roughly double the price. I’d say it’s worth it if you can afford it and don’t mind accommodating the heft – and if it helps you justify the price, remember another advantage of the Sigma is being able to pay to switch mounts should you swap camera systems in the future, thereby protecting your investment. Oh and it comes with a lens hood too. Some of you requested some portrait shots. The best I can do tonight is these shots of my very squirmy kids. Still, you can see the Sigma edge the Canon in sharpness and the Canon seems to have a creamier bokeh. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is a lens that delivers outstanding performance at a reasonable price.

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Review - Photography Life

For me, the Sigma looks a tad sharper again. The Canon has a little bit of a “haze” going on. But still looks pretty good. The Test Even if you’ve only skimmed through this comparison, it should be quite clear which of the three 50mm primes reigns supreme. With its extraordinary sharpness across the frame at all apertures and beautiful bokeh, the new Canon RF 50mm 1.2 is the kind of lens for which portrait or wedding photographers would literally switch camera systems. Performance is absolutely outstanding in terms of sharpness and clarity. Epic levels of sharpness are maintained even when shooting wide-open at f/1.4, not just in the central region of the frame but right out to the extreme edges and corners. The new DN lens easily steals a lead on the former DG edition in this respect. Autofocus performance lives up to its billing, with an excellent turn of speed and it’s virtually silent in operation. Manual focusing is very smooth and allows for very fine adjustments. As for the EF version of the 50mm 1.2, I cannot help but feel it is beginning to show its age. It is inferior to both the RF lens and the Sigma in almost every way, yet costs more than the latter. Put simply, the Canon 50mm F/1.8 is sort of a clunker. It’s AF is loud and screechy, and as mentioned above, the manual focus is a real pain.

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This lens feature Sigma's HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) technology. This system ensures quiet and fast autofocus yet, you also have full-time manual focus override accessed by simply rotating the focus ring. Sigma's enhanced autofocus system, you're able to get a much smoother autofocus experience. Designed to be robust and durable

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Review - More Image Samples Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Review - More Image Samples

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. In terms of optical quality, the Sigma 50mm Art exhibits higher contrast and sharpness across the frame. The Canon 50mm f1.4 roughly matches it in the middle of the frame at around f2.8, but in the corners of a full-frame image you’d need to close the Canon to f5.6 to come close. The Sigma also suffers from much less vignetting. In terms of Bokeh the Sigma also renders larger and more circular-looking blobs at the same aperture. Leica L-mount owners have the Panasonic offers the Lumix S PRO 50mm f1.4 for 2300 USD or the Leica Summilux SL 50mm f1.4 for 5300 USD, making the arrival of the Sigma a very welcome ‘budget’ option. Lateral chromatic aberration is entirely negligible throughout the entire aperture range, even out at the edges and corners of the image frame. Axial chromatic aberration or ‘bokeh fringing’ is often problematic at very wide apertures with fast lenses, but it’s very minimal in this case.

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Chromatic aberrations are virtually non-existent, with Imatest only able to detect fringing of a quarter of a pixel width towards the edges of the frame at f/1.4. This is exceptional performance, which will allow shooting of high contrast subjects with no qualms or worries. The focal length, maximim aperture and filter thread size (82mm) are all printed on the barrel just behind the focus distance window Beyond Art

Head2Head: Sigma 50mm F/1.4 DG HSM Art vs. Canon 50mm f/1.2 Head2Head: Sigma 50mm F/1.4 DG HSM Art vs. Canon 50mm f/1.2

Above from left to right: Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S, Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art, Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4 (Sigma and Zeiss in Nikon F-mount version) I am just going to come out and say it, there is no comparing the Sigma 50mm F/1.4 DG HSM Art to the Canon 50mm F/1.8. The Sigma is better in every aspect with the only exception being the cost. But still, there is a reason for the comparison you are about to see/read. Nikon has come out with a new standard lens for their mirrorless system, the Z 50mm f1.8 S costing 360 EUR / 600 USD. See my Nikon Z 50mm f1.8S review. The Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art is a fitting member of Sigma’s renown Art series offering very high optical performance at prices that are comfortably lower than the professional lenses from either Canon, Nikon, Sony or Panasonic. It delivers very good image quality in the center even wide open at f1.4 when mounted on a 46MP full-frame body easily surpassing the performance of Canon’s or Nikon’s standard 50mm f1.4 lenses. And it shows a gradual softening toward the corners and a beautiful Bokeh which makes it a prime choice for portraiture.

Sigma Global Vision - Art

In designing the lens with a large 85.4mm diameter, and placing the widest elements within the front group, greater peripheral brightness is more easily attained when working with larger apertures. This design also lends itself to minimizing vignetting throughout the aperture range for greater clarity and detail across the image frame. Super Multi-Layer Coating As you can see from the image above, the Sigma is significantly larger than the Canon 50mm F/1.8. Not only is it larger, it has a solid build. Where the Canon is almost all plastic, the Sigma is almost all metal.