Product Description

The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the new large aperture 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM standard lens. This is a large aperture prime lens with a standard focal length of 50mm, ideal for all digital SLR cameras. This lens has superior peripheral brightness even at the maximum aperture and corrects a possible sagittal coma flare. This lens is perfectly suited for a wide range of subjects enabling outstanding, sharply defined images against a nicely blurred background. The fast, F1.4 aperture makes this lens desirable for use with Digital SLR cameras. This lens effectively becomes a 80mm medium telephoto lens on digital cameras with APS-C size image sensors. The optimum optical design and molded glass aspherical lens elements provide excellent correction for all types of aberrations. The super multi-layer lens coating reduces flare and ghosting. Superior optical performance is also ensured throughout the focusing range. This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 17.7" (45cm) and has maximum magnification of 1:7.4. It creates a very attractive blur, even when a small aperture is used. This lens incorporates HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), which ensures a quiet and high-speed AF as well as full-time manual focus override. Minimum Aperture - F16 Filter Size - Diameter 77mm / 3 in. Dimensions - Diameter 84.5mm X Length 68.2mm / 3.3 in. X 2.7 in. Weight - 505g / 17.8 oz

Product Details

• Brand: Sigma
• Model: 310101
• Dimensions: 2.70" h x 3.30" w x 3.30" l, 1.14 pounds

Features

• Large Aperature, standard prime lens, has superior peripheral brightness and corrects the sagittal coma fare
• Standard lens with large maximum aperture of F1.4.
• Creates sharp images with high contrast and ensures superior peripheral brightness
• Incorporates molded glass aspherical lens, perfectly correcting coma aberration and creating superior image quality.
• Super multi-layer lens coating reduces fare and ghosting.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, sharp, fast, and fantastic bokeh
In a world of zooms, many people would find plopping down $500 for a 50mm prime -- from a third party manufacturer, no less -- to be a bit absurd.

However, if you are a "prime person" -- and you know who you are -- you'll love the performance of this lens: super sharp photos, incredibly creamy background bokeh, nice contrast and flare resistance, and operation in low-light without needing super-high ISO or a blast of flash.

Pros:
+ @1.4 it's quite usably sharp
+ @1.8 and beyond, it's very sharp
+ the bokeh (rendition of out-of-focus areas) is really amazingly smooth. More so behind the DOF than in front, though
+ colors, contrast, etc, all excellent
+ great build quality, solid feel, free case and lens hood

Cons:
- weight
- price
- big filters (77mm)

Canon already has three 50mm lenses: the 1.8, 1.4, and 1.2L, so you might wonder why Sigma felt the need to jump into this market. The Canon's are all pretty good, with the 50/1.8 being an great value at $80, the 50/1.4 being a reliable workhorse (though prone to a dreamy look wide open), and the 1.2L, being, well, $1500. This lens is priced between the 1.4 and 1.2L, and judging from photos I've seen, it probably performs in that range as well. So it is filling an niche in the wide gulf between the 1.4 and 1.2L.

On my camera, a 400D, a 50mm is like a short tele, and I use it mostly for relatively close up photos of people. I like that when if upgrade to FF, I'll be able to continue to use this lens (and I'll sell my Sigma 30/1.4) whose place it would take.

The lens has not been out very long, and, to my knowledge, no formal reviews have been published (8/2008), but the general "buzz" is that people are seeing AF problems at distances beyond a few meters subject distance.

I personally have not done exhaustive analysis, but I feel my copy performs quite well. Then again, I don't use this lens for far-off subjects very much, and almost never wide open in that case. So there may indeed be problems with this regime, but I don't feel it affects my photography much. That said, it could be that I'm just not as exacting as some, or my camera's AF is sloppy enough to hide lens variation to begin with. However, I do pixel peep a lot and I get about the same hit/miss rate as I do with other lenses I own.

So far, I'm a happy customer.

Amazing value for the money
I'm a primary Canon user. I owned before the canon 50 mm 1.4, a trully excellent lens for the money too. But not to sharp wide open. You have to stop down at least to f2 in order to get good contrast and saturation. Also, the focusing ring was bad in my opinion.
In the other hand, the 50L 1.2 was a big dissapointment to me.I expected the same image quality as the 35L or the 85L for that price.
When I received the Sigma lens I really love it at once. The construction was amazing, solid as a tank, and the ring is very smooth.
What have really impressed me was the performance wide open. Images are clear as crystal with good color and rendition.
Fully recomended.

Portrait Perfection
This is one of the best portrait lenses I have ever used.

I had originally bought the new Nikon AF-S version of this lens. While it was nice, I really had a problem with the way small bright lights looked in it's bokeh. After using the Sigma version once I sold my Nikon and never looked back.

First, the bad:

At F/1.4 this lens is slightly softer than the Nikon version. Unless you're printing poster sized prints and then standing a foot from them you will not notice. At about F4-F5.6 its razor sharp.

Quality control...Sigma has a poor reputation in this department. Unlike their other lenses I have yet to see reports of this lens having the same issues, but you never know.

Weight...it weighs a fair amount, and a little bit more than the Nikon version. Both are heavy however, and if you're used to using a lens of this quality you won't notice.

Now, the good:

The Build Quality is superb. I'd have no regrets with shooting in the rain, snow, or desert.

Bokeh...Wow. The first word that comes to mind whenever I take a picture with this lens is "Creamy". It truly has some of the finest bokeh I've ever seen. When taking portraits you want nothing to distract the viewer from the face of the model; this lens does just that. It turns the background into a beautifully soft collage.

When comparing the bokeh of the Nikon and Sigma lens it is really clear who the winner is. The Nikon is just SO harsh with lights (especially Christmas style) it really distracts the viewer.

Bokeh is the reason most people buy F/1.4 lenses these days, don't waste your money on the inferior Nikon.