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

Product Information

As a member of Sigma’s renown Art series the Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art is expected to perform on a very high level. It is positioned roughly between standard 50mm f1.4 lenses and the top-end models from Canon, Nikon, and Sony in price. The big question then is how does it to compare to those below and above it in price? Does it offer a sufficient step-up from normal 50mm f1.4 lenses to justify the price, and does it give the pricier models a run for their money? To find out, Thomas and Gordon teamed-up to give the Sigma 50mm Art a real workout and compared it against a whole slew of other lenses including the Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4, Canon EF 50mm f1.2L USM, and Sony FE 50mm f1.4 ZA. We’ve completely updated our original review from 2014 with test-shots on the 46MP Nikon Z7 and the 42MP Sony A7R II. So if you’re interested in which high performance standard prime lens to choose for your camera system, you’ve come to the right place! The score in the “features-department” is 2[-]/5[0]/7[+]. On paper only the large size and weight is on the negative side, although for the money some weather sealing would have been nice. On the positive side is the unique option to get the lens-mount swapped. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. This is an in-depth review of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art prime lens that was announced on January 6, 2014 for Sigma SA, Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony A mounts. Ever since Sigma announced its new “Art” lens line, it has been releasing superb new lenses and updates. The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art received the highest praise from us at Photography Life, especially after we compared it to the Nikon 35mm f/1.4G and other 35mm lenses in our extensive review. Well, I’d say there’s a new King in town: Sigma’s 50mm f1.4 Art enjoys better sharpness and contrast in the middle of the frame, and delivers noticeably superior performance in the full-frame corners. The Canon suffers from far greater vignetting at apertures greater than f2.8, and doesn’t even come close to the corner sharpness until it’s closed to f5.6 or even f8.

Head2Head: Sigma 50mm F/1.4 DG HSM Art vs Canon 50mm F/1.8 Head2Head: Sigma 50mm F/1.4 DG HSM Art vs Canon 50mm F/1.8

Only standard lens that can swap mounts (at a cost) between Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony E, and Leica L-mount. can be content with “very good” rather than “extreme” sharpness at the fastest apertures or in the corners As part of the Art line within Sigma's Global Vision series, this lens' is designed to achieve truly notable optical performance and is ideally suited for creative and artistic applications. Molded Glass Aspherical Element The DN lens is noticeably shorter and lighter than the Sony E and Leica L mount versions of the older DG lens. (Image credit: Sigma Imaging)The Nikkor 58mm f1.4G is Nikon’s flagship standard lens for its DSLRs, yet it missed out on our top award in my review because its performance in the APS-C/DX and the full-frame/FX corner was a bit of a let-down for this price. As you can see in my review comparing the Sigma to this lens, the APS-C/DX corner of the Sigma is also a bit weaker than one could have hoped for but in the FX-corner the Sigma clearly prevails. The Nikon 58/1.4G generally has less loCA but compared to the Sigma suffers a bit from focus-shift and the resulting coloration plus astigmatism. Regarding coma both lenses are on the same pretty good level. The Sigma has the advantage in focus speed: 0.6 vs. 0.8 seconds. regularly use the 50mm field of view and/or very fast apertures for your work (portraits, weddings, events, etc.) and feel you will get a significant return on the investment The focal length, maximim aperture and filter thread size (82mm) are all printed on the barrel just behind the focus distance window Beyond Art Auto focus: all the lenses in this comparison except for the Zeiss have a built-in AF drive. Manual-focus override is by simply turning the focus ring. The Sigma, Zeiss, Canon and F-Nikkor have a direct linear mechanical coupling between the focus ring and the focus action. They also offer the distance and dof markings that normally come with lenses designed for DSLRs. The focus ring on the lenses designed for mirrorless camera bodies operate as focus-by-wire with no distance or dof markings. The Sony has a linear gearing while the Z-Nikkor has non-linear gearing which makes smooth focus pulling almost impossible for videographers. [+]

Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG HSM Art for Canon EF | Wex Photo Video

The first test scene of the day was a nice dandelion in some shade. In this scene, I specifically was looking for bokeh and sharpness. Before I tell you my thoughts on how they compare, take a look at the two shots yourself. Which one is which? When shooting at f/1.4, vignetting is noticeable towards the corners of the image frame. That’s not an altogether bag thing, as it can give an attractive look to many types of image, including portraits and still life shots. And if you’d rather have a more uniform level of peripheral brightness, in-camera correction for vignetting is available. The lens relies more heavily on in-camera correction for distortion, as is the case with the majority of recent lenses designed for mirrorless cameras. Whereas the previous DG edition was essentially a zero-distortion lens, the DN exhibits noticeable pincushion for a 50mm prime, when auto correction is disabled. All in all though, image quality and all-round performance are absolutely fabulous. As far as sharpness, in this scene it was a bit of a wash. In my opinion anyways, maybe the Sigma was a tad sharper. But they are both pretty close. (Plus a dandelion like this is somewhat hard to focus on in the first place.)Weight: The Sigma is a pretty heavy lens at 805g (28.4oz.) plus 43g for the lens hood only topped by the Zeiss at 945g + 64g lens hood. The Canon and the F-Nikkor are the lightest of the bunch at below 300g. The Z-Nikkor with its focal ratio of f1.8 is somewhat in between at 412g + 27g lens hood. The Sony is 780g + 33g lens hood. Keep in mind though that if you want to use the Sigma, Zeiss, Canon or F-Nikkor on a mirrorless body you need an adapter which weighs another 100 to 130g or in case of the Sigma get the respective mirrorless version which weighs 910g. [-] The Nikkor 50mm f1.4G was for a while Nikon’s ‘top-of-the-range’ standard lens, although the introduction of the 58mm f1.4G means the lineup now shares a similar strategy to Canon. As such the 50mm f1.4G is positioned above the f1.8G version, providing a relatively affordable step-up from the ‘budget’ model, but comes in considerably cheaper than the flagship 58mm. This means the Sigma 50mm Art is positioned, price-wise at least, roughly between the Nikkor 50mm f1.4G and 58mm f1.4G.