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Fr3d
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Registered: Nov 28, 2008
Location: Germany
Posts: 13
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Review Date: Nov 14, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $300.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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f1.4, sharp, bokeh heavens, comes with hood
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Cons:
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only worth it if you buy it for the bokeh, strange wave like distortions
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After reading about the focus issues and soft copies I almost didn't go for this lens. But after trying it out in a shop I soon changed my mind not to buy it. It is sharp (on 5DII) wide open (center) and gives a lovely creamy bokeh that realy makes the subject in focus pop. Something my 50mm f/1.8 coudn't do. The only thing I don't care for is the wave like distortion. But this only shows up when photographing something with straight lines going from side to side in the frame. Overall I would recommend this lens to anyone who wants the sharpness and bokeh.
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 Nov 14, 2009
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Ralph Conway
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Registered: Jul 31, 2008
Location: Germany
Posts: 643
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Review Date: Nov 11, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Excellent IQ, Bokeh, colours, sharpness wide open
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Cons:
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I tested 5. All had a FF with my Canon Eos 5D MK II. My dealer sent in two copies for calibration. Nothing changed. I bought two and brought them to sigmas service together with two bodies (5D MK II). They calibrated both lenses, which are excellent now!
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I owned a great EF 50mm 1.4 (here I tested 7 and bought the best). I was happy with that lens, except its weekness (??? - sorry about my english) at 1.4. Then I saw some pictures of sigmas competitor. Its bokeh looked superb and the pictures seemed to be sharp wide open, too. So I went out to check it and ended up with a horrible FF of 30 mm within 50-70cm distance. Jere I read that many happy customers had the same issue that was fixed by factories recalibrating. So I bought one after my dealer promised he would take it back, if I am not happy with the result.
There is still a FF of 6-7mm in nearest distance. And I first fixed it with lens adjustment. It was sharp in that area after but not in further distances. So I set adjustment back to zero and founf out that the FF does not make any problems in daily use.
The opposite is fact. This lens now is an excellent peace of glas. crispy sharp even at 1.4 great colours, contrast and bokeh and a fantastic smooth gradient to blurring.
It even feels better then the Canon equivalent. The manual focusring is imo fitting to tight, but this feels more comfotable to me than Canons "loose" one.
They could have sealed it better to make a great competitor against Canons "L". But for me it is the better choice.
Great lense after calibration to my body.
Ralph
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Nov 11, 2009
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mckenzy
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Registered: Mar 19, 2006
Location: Singapore
Posts: 5
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Review Date: Oct 26, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Sigma glass when done right is very VERY nice...
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Cons:
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heavy, abit of a tight squeeze on the mount... focus issues... fix one, break the other...
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Had it. Sold it.
I still have the 30/1.4 and that is probably what spoiled me...
Physically:
Heavy. fits better on a xxD and above series of bodies... on a xxxD body its just to large and imbalanced.
Focus ring is nice
the mount however is pretty tight and needs a little bit more of a twist. i'm nitpicking of course...
AF:
aside from the usual BF/FF issues, the focus hunts when lighting goes abit low... i'm not talking about late evening low... just cloudy... overcast skies... end up pre-focussing and using AF at the last part (something like shooting macro photography kind of method)... in essence... not fast enough for the type of shooting i do when i use this lens.. i.e. portraits...
FOCUS:
my copy could not focus to infinity after Sigma calibration for front-focus issues... so they solved one aspect but created a a new problem...
IQ:
colours are nice but a tad poorer that the 30mm... nothing to shout about...
for this price... expectation goes up... and Sigma fails... i wish it didn't...
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Oct 26, 2009
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BrentM
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Registered: Jul 19, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Oct 22, 2009
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xxcromxx
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Registered: Jul 22, 2009
Location: Finland
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Oct 12, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp even at 1.4,creamy bokeh, hsm, build quality, comes with hood.
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Cons:
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Not found yet
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Very sharp. The bokeh is creamy.
Mine fokusing perfectly, I think I have more miss with my 85/1.8..
comes with hood.
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Oct 12, 2009
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JRKO
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Registered: Jan 13, 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3
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Review Date: Aug 17, 2009
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Recommend? |
Price paid: Not Indicated
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Pros:
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Great for low light non flash photography - lightweight
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Cons:
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more expensive now than when I bought it!
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I've had more experience with this lens now and realize that my initial complaint of focusing issues was all my fault!
When you've got f1.4 at your disposal your gonna use it. Just make sure you are not too close to your so that you DOF is more than a knats wing deep!!
Here are some better examples I think
http://jrko.zenfolio.com/p353921713/h39c4c1ee#h39c4c1ee
http://jrko.zenfolio.com/p353921713/h39c4c1ee#h26ef5d5c
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Aug 17, 2009
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SoCalHaze
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Registered: Jan 19, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 256
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Review Date: Aug 11, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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bokeh, HSM, razor sharp. Did I mention the buttery bokeh?! Works like a champ on the 5D.
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Cons:
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needed a factory visit to straighten out the focusing issue. Now focuses at all distances extremely well.
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Totally worth the extra effort to get the focus right. Will be holding on to my copy for the foreseeable future.
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Aug 11, 2009
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Mingming Lu
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Registered: Feb 4, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 282
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Review Date: Aug 4, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $450.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Sharp wide open, decent build(better than Canon), nice bokeh
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Cons:
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A little soft around MFD, warmer color(may not be a problem)
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I jumped on this lens after doing research online for many weeks. Finally I decided to part with my Canon 50/1.4 and give this Sigma a try. So far I'm pretty happy with the switch. I feel my Sigma is slightly sharper than my Canon from f/1.4-2.0 though Canon is not bad at all within this range. As I'm a picky person on image sharpness, before I always used my Canon at f/2.0. Now I find myself use my Sigma at f/1.6 most of time happily.
The AF is pretty good most of time. The only problem I noticed is the images around MFD look a little soft sometimes, but not all the time. As I haven't done any extensive testing, I'm not sure if this is caused by the infamous AF issue or just some accident.
Color from this lens tends to be a little warmer(yellowish), which is not a big deal and can be fixed easily in photoshop. Bokeh is a big advantage over Canon. It's smooth and silky, better than Canon's. Overall, it's a very good purchase if you're a normal lens person and don't have over $1,000 for 50L.
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Aug 4, 2009
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Digital Fury
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Registered: Jun 10, 2009
Location: France
Posts: 3
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Review Date: Jul 30, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $500.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Boken, out of center focus, very usable at f/1.4, built quality, comes with hood and case, money saved vs. Canon 50mm f/1.2
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Cons:
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Boken CA (true of most such lenses), a bit pricey for a Sigma but the quality is there, no weather sealing.
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I'm using this lense on a Canon 5D MK II and I believe it's much better than the Canon 50mm f/1.4, and much cheaper than the Canon f/1.2.
I'm not using this lens stopped down and/or for distant objects, but for photojournalism and/or indoor shots it's quite awesome, light, well constructed and very usable at f/1.4 ...if only it had weather sealing.
Very happy with it.
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Jul 30, 2009
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LZ7J
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Registered: Feb 22, 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 141
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Review Date: Jul 28, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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First off, I love L-glass and I own both this superb lens & a 50L. Everything about this lens is great, bokeh, sharpness wide open, color/contrast, flare & CA control. I would have rated this lens a 3/10 before I had sent it to Sigma (twice!!!). So be warned, you will most likely have to send it in for calibration... but let me tell you, the 1 week wait was very well worth the effort. I'll be selling my 50L (UV, my 7th copy I tried that still focus shifts).
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Cons:
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Needs calibration/Poor QC. Manual focus is no where near the 50L. Build is 9/10 vs perfect 10 for the L.
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Jul 28, 2009
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kirstin
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Registered: Oct 5, 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1311
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Review Date: Jul 8, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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I never want to use a zoom again
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Cons:
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focus is random and the finish is weird and it has no L or a red ring... but I'm a grand richer!! suits me.
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On 5dII had to adjust +8 then it started working for me. Here: http://www.kirstinprisk.com/blog/?p=363
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Jul 8, 2009
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bysensitivo
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Registered: Jan 1, 2007
Location: Italy
Posts: 38
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Review Date: Jun 20, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $500.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Boken = 10
Focus = 10
Build = 10
I have used Planar and Summicron 50/1,4 but this prime lens is really fantastic.
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Cons:
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none
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Jun 20, 2009
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