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

Product Information

The 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is Sigma’s second version of this lens. It replaces the older 50mm f/1.4 DG EX lens. The Art series was designed to provide a faster and sharper solution than its predecessor with better build quality and handling. The Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM Art joins the highly regarded Sigma Art series of lenses as a favourite amongst photographers. We have found it is particularly popular for wedding, portraiture and gig photographers due to the focal range and wide maximum aperture. The F1.4 aperture is not only perfect for lower light conditions that you might find at weddings or gigs, but you have the ability to really play with your depth of field to create unique and interesting images. Image: Shot at f/1.4, there is plenty of detail around the subjects’s eye, and the large aperture helps to create a lovely shallow depth of field Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A reveiw – Image quality This Sigma is also slightly sharper at f/2.8 than the Micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 AF is at f/2.8. Neither has any distortion at most distances, although the Sigma has a tiny bit of distortion at close distances which the Micro-NIKKOR does not. This Sigma 50mm f/1.4 is an optically superb lens. Optically it is the best 50mm, 55mm or 58mm SLR lens I've ever tested.

For axial chromatic aberration that is hard to correct even during the image processing, SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements are incorporated, ensuring high image quality throughout the entire focusing range. The lens achieves sharp and high contrast image rendering. 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. 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 This is good because no Nikon or Canon camera will be able to correct this automatically because there is no in-camera profile available.As far as sharpness is concerned, this lens puts in an excellent performance, especially in the centre of the frame. At f/1.4, sharpness in the centre is already outstanding, although clarity towards the edges of the frame lags behind somewhat. Sharpness towards the edges of the frame improves as the aperture is stopped down, reaching very good levels by f/2.8 and outstanding levels by f/4. Lateral chromatic aberration levels are pretty good, starting out at around a pixel, then coming down to close to half a pixel when stopped down beyond f/2.8. None of the images in this review were corrected in post-production for lateral CA. And even if you do notice CA in some situations, that’s pretty easy to fix in both Lightroom and Photoshop, so it is not a concern.

The only way to see any optical difference between these is if you're shooting test charts at f/1.4 and looking in the far corners. If not, Nikon and Canon's least expensive 50mm f/1.8 lenses offer images just as sharp, and also without any distortion in the case of the Nikon 50/1.8 AF-D. So when I first found out that Sigma had plans to update its existing Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM, I got really excited, since I knew that the new Art-series lens would not disappoint. It has been too long since both Nikon and Canon updated their 50mm f/1.4 primes. In the case with Nikon, its newer 50mm f/1.8G yields better sharpness than the bigger and heavier 50mm f/1.4G. In short, the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G is just not good enough for modern high-resolution sensors and its performance at maximum aperture is rather disappointing (and the Canon 50mm f/1.4 is quite similar in that regard). The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art announcement was very timely because it hits a sweet spot between the sub-par 50mm f/1.4 Nikon and Canon lenses, and the exotic manual focus Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4. Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/800, f/1.6 Overall, with this lens Sigma have created a lens which performs well in terms of sharpness and other optical attributes, for a fairly reasonable price. This combination of price versus performance will almost certainly win many fans for this lens, even despite its large size and weight for a 50mm optic.

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

The bokeh rendering capability of the lens is quite pleasing for a 50mm prime. Highlight shapes do show defined transitions, but they do not look distracting as on some lenses. The dreaded onion-shaped bokeh that I showed on the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art is barely visible when photographing extremely bright points of light. Below are two comparisons that illustrate bokeh rendering capabilities of the following lenses: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM, Nikon 50mm f/1.4G and Nikon 58mm f/1.4G. Here is the first comparison that shows bright highlights: On my Nikon D810 , AF was dead-on for every frame, especially shot at f/1.4 where this is critical. It's super sharp at every setting clear out to the corners, although just a little less sharp in the corners at f/1.4 due to a little bit of coma. It's very sharp in the corners at f/1.4, just quite not as sharp as at the center. It seems about the same as a common unit-focussed lens, even though it is a unique internally focused design. Rat Palm, 02 September 2014. 36 MP FX Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART, f/5.6 at 1/125 at ISO 100. Camera-original LARGE BASIC JPG (5 MB; the palm isn't flat so much isn't in focus).

The 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens sits right in the middle. So it’s the right choice for prosumer users who don’t want to break the bank. Image Quality 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. I love my sigma 40 art 85 art & 105 art for stills. once u use sigma art lenses, u realize your other lenses werent as good as u might have thought.

Distortion

When shot in the real world, any 50mm lens is going to be extremely sharp, and sharper than than a 24-70mm f/2.8 pro zoom. Before you go spending a lot of money on a super-duper 50mm lens, try any 50mm lens, especially the f/1.8, first. Longitudinal chromatic aberration also seems to be under control, although you might see a bit of it in some situations when shooting at f/1.4. Canon EOS 6D + 50mm @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/250, f/1.4 ART:"Art" series, which is more marketing baloney. I create Fine Art, not just "art" (I don't show my work in coffee shops), and would prefer a FART lens optimized for that.