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Reviews (1)
01 Aug, 2014
The best value 50mm lens for DSLRs on the market.
I'll start by saying that I use the humble 50mm lens a lot. A lot a lot. An average wedding for me consists of about 1200 photos, of which Lightroom tells me that on average about 800-900 of them are shot with a 50mm lens. Like I said, a lot.
I've been using the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D lens for about 10 years now, a lens that was designed and built in an age when 35mm film was the standard and DSLRs were the future. The last couple of years I've been using the newer Nikon 50mm f/1.4G lens occasionally which has been great for faster focussing but is about on par with the D lens in terms of overall sharpness and performance. However, it was still designed before 24 to 36 megapixel cameras were the norm and so every slight imperfection really shows up when shooting wide open and viewing full resolution.
Enter the Sigma EX 50mm f/1.4 HSM DG, which I've been using for the last few months now.
First things first, you notice how different this lens is compared to its peers from a design point of view. This is big. Big and heavier. That's not to say that's a bad thing or that it's unweildly, quite the opposite. It balances very nicely on a pro DSLR such as the Nikon D800 and the build quality is as solid as solid can be. As an added bonus, the 77mm filter thread is the same size that's found on the staple Nikon 24-70mm lens that most pros have in their kit bag, so you won't need to go buying extra polarisers etc if that's your thing.
When it comes to using the thing, it's a dream. Focus is fast, accurate and silent. There's no focus hunting, it just hits the spot and it's done. It doesn't really work too well with phase detection AF in live view, but the only time I use live view is for zoomed-in manual fine tuning when shooting still life. Who uses live view AF?
As far as image quality goes, the Sigma is bang on what you'd want. With the Nikon 50mm 1.4 D and G lenses I'd always end up stopping them down to f/2 just to get useable images on the D800, not so with the Sigma. It's been said a million times, that you don't buy an f/1.4 lens to use at f/8 or even f/2, you buy it for that extra light gathering capability and shallower depth of field. I'm very happy shooting with the Sigma at f/1.4. The sharpness, contrast, low chromatic abberation and depth of field are all fantastic.
But the best thing about the Sigma? The price.
If you want a 50mm lens better than this, you'll have to shell out three times as much for Sigma's new Art series lens. Or 10 times as much for the Zeiss 55mm. As far as the affordable (less than £300) 50mm lenses go, this thing is the king. No question.