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

Product Information

This lens is a pain compared to Nikon or Canon's f/1.4 or f/1.2 lenses; this Sigma is too darn big and heavy to actually want to carry it around all day. If I was working in nasty, dirty areas, I'd forget the cap, and use an uncoated 77mm Tiffen UV filter instead. Uncoated filters are much easier to clean, but more prone to ghosting.

The HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) ensures a silent, high-speed AF function. Optimizing AF algorithm, smoother AF is achieved. Also, this lens can offer full-time MF function by rotating the focus ring of the lens while auto focusing. Without changing the AF/MF Focus Mode Switch, it allows faster focus adjustment. When shot wide open, the center of the lens is quite sharp. And the corners, while still very good, are a bit soft in comparison. The front element features Sigma’s water and oil repellent coating, which is designed to repel water drops and provide resistance to fingerprints I may be a little weird, but I always invest long term. I'd be shy about this Sigma lens because I demand the lens I buy today to be earning money for me for at least the next 20 years, and to still be serviceable and valuable when I sell the lens after all that time. My Nikon and Canon pro lenses do this for me. I bought my Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S in the 1990s, and it's still Nikon's top professional ultrawide zoom 15 years later (the Nikon 16-35 VR is only a consumer lens, and the Nikon 14-24 is a special-purpose lens much less useful than the 17-35). My 17-35/2.8 is still worth, used, what I paid for it new.It is supposed to work on all EOS cameras, which means everything from 1987's EOS 650 to everything in 2014.

As an off-brand lens it has unproven (with me) service facilities, and unknown future parts availability. When the HSM motor dies, you're dead unless you can get a replacement part — and you just might not be able to in 10 years when you'd most need it. Since it has no aperture ring, it's just about useless with manual focus film cameras. It will shoot every shot at its minimum aperture. Since the 50mm focal length has been a standard for decades, there are many alternatives to this lens in many price ranges. All major camera brands have 50mm f/1.4 lenses. And many of those brands also offer a less-expensive 50mm f/1.8 option.

Key Features: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art

I wish they would improve on the amazing 24-35 f2 art for E and add a 40-80mm f2 dg dn art as its brother. 2 amazing lenses to do weddings with The design of the 014 version of this lens is similar to the 18-35mm f/1.8 zoom lens that we tested last year. It has a large ribbed rubber focus ring that is comfortable to use, even with gloves on. Beneath a small window sits the focus distance scale, while the side of the lens includes an AF/MF switch. It should be noted that this lens is not optically stabilised, which should be a consideration if you have difficulty holding heavier lenses steady. However, I used the lens with a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and had little problem shooting handheld. Sigma's caps aren't as good as Nikon's or Canon's. Leave them in the box for resale, and buy a real Nikon 77mm cap to use with this lens instead, regardless of which brand of camera you shoot (Nikon makes the best caps). Also get a Nikon rear cap or Canon rear cap and leave the Sigma cap in the box. Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 125, 1/160, f/1.6 Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/1000, f/1.4 Ghosting and Flare

Optically this lens is extraordinary —but so are the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 G, Nikon 58mm f/1.4 G and Canon 50mm f/1.2 L. This Sigma lens is a little sharper on the test range, and has less distortion than any other f/1.4 or f/1.2 lens —but I'd never see any difference in real-world shooting.

MTF Chart

In this box sits the case with the lens and hood inside. The case is the padding - there is no foam. Utilizing know-how and the latest design technology accumulated through the past developments, it corrects the aberration thoroughly and achieves high resolution and astonishing rendering performance even near the edge of the image. A deep petal-shaped hood is supplied with this lens, which does a good job of shielding the lens from extraneous light that may cause loss of contrast or flare. Even when shooting into the light, contrast remains good and flare is virtually non-existent.

If you remove the lens hood, stop the lens down beyond f/11 and shoot against a very bright source of light, you might see a little bit of ghosting and flare, but it is still barely noticeable and not too damaging to the image: Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/100, f/16.0 When used on a DX or APS-C camera, it sees an angle of view similar to what an 80mm lens sees when used on an FX or 35mm camera. Generally speaking, the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM brings reasonable resolving power. So it won’t break even under the pressure of a high-megapixel sensor. Although I am still waiting for the Nikon version of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art to carefully analyze the lens using the high-resolution Nikon D800E, judging from the images I got out of the Canon 6D, I can say that the lens is very sharp wide open at f/1.4 – much sharper than the Nikon 50mm f/1.4G for sure! Center performance is excellent and peaks at the f/4 mark, while the corners start out a little weaker, but get pretty solid when stopped down to f/5.6. You can see lens performance comparisons to Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4, the older Sigma 50mm f/1.4, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G and Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G in the lens comparisons section of the review, while the Imatest figures for the lens are shown below. Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/160, f/1.4 Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/1600, f/2.0 Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art MTF Performance I freely admit to being one of those people. One of my favourites is the Nikkor F 50mm f/1.4 that, when wide open, has low contrast, is soft focus and has a tendency to flair, yet it looks great photographing certain subjects.The 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens is designed for the working professional. Or it’s for the advanced enthusiast who wants a fast prime lens and is willing to pay for quality at the cost of convenience. (This is a large, heavy lens for a 50mm.) Sigma also clarifies that any DC lenses where the image circle is made to match APS-C sensors is used, the EOS R won't automatically switch to its built-in 1.6x crop shooting mode, meaning it will have to be set manually. A future firmware update, expected to be 'announced at a later date,' will make this switch automatic and add support for the EOS R's Scene Intelligent Auto mode.