Time for a new lens -.-

Carlh

Carlh

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Carl
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Ok,

I'm after a nice fast F1.4 or even F1.2 (if its cheap enough)

I've been having a poke about on google. Since I bought a siggy 105mm F2.8 macro, I've been blown away with how sharp this lens is but Im needing a F1.4 or F1.2 for my business side of things.

These are my options - though you might have others, I'd appreciate any options if you have any! - I dont want to go too cheap as its a reflection of IQ and I do need it to be as best as I can, for the funds I have available.

Lenses are in order of preference.

The Sigma 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM - which is at my top end of being favourite at the moment, its got good reviews and 85mm is very nice
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L at £875 - http://www.simplyelectronics.net/
Theres the Canon USM 50mm F1.4 at £300 - good reviews though its not going to be built as good as the L series - but how does IQ fair ?

Looking at this page:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/...meraComp=453&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=1

and comparing the siggy 1.4 HSM to the canon 1.2L, sharpness wise, it seems to win it, with less CA. Some hands on experience of these lenses would win over the purchase me thinks.

Cheers
 
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I own 2 of those lenses.....

the sigma 85 is pretty good. When you nail it, it's fantastic - sharp, contrasty and nice colours, but it's not 100% reliable on focus and there is some fringing sometimes (but some of that might be operator error). It's obviously in a different league to my favourite lens, the sigma 35 1.4 which is amazingly good.

I dont like my canon 50 1.4, it's my least-used lens. I dont like the colour reproduction and i never really trust it. I'm tempted to get the sigma 50 1.4 to replace it, apparently that's a belter - have you thought about that?
 
If it was a 50mm focal length then i'd personally put my money on a Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART lens. For the 85mm have you looked at the Canon 85mm 1.8, small, image quality in buckets and cheap as chips.
 
mikeyt said:
I own 2 of those lenses.....

the sigma 85 is pretty good. When you nail it, it's fantastic - sharp, contrasty and nice colours, but it's not 100% reliable on focus and there is some fringing sometimes (but some of that might be operator error). It's obviously in a different league to my favourite lens, the sigma 35 1.4 which is amazingly good.

I dont like my canon 50 1.4, it's my least-used lens. I dont like the colour reproduction and i never really trust it. I'm tempted to get the sigma 50 1.4 to replace it, apparently that's a belter - have you thought about that?
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Hmmmm. I need the focus to be nailed, I use spot focussing - I did find the 105mm macro to be a bit "findy findy" on the AF and I cant afford a lens to behave like that, especially for say a wedding, fine for portraits, I can faff about with those, but weddings, not so much faffing about to get away with. Will go look at the 35 1.4 though !

Sharky said:
If it was a 50mm focal length then i'd personally put my money on a Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART lens. For the 85mm have you looked at the Canon 85mm 1.8, small, image quality in buckets and cheap as chips.
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The 1.8, not so much - I need a bit more bokeh (weddings) and a fairly shallow DOF, 1.8 is a little too much and I dont think is going to stand up to other more open lenses with wedding photos - but since you're saying about the siggy 1.4 as well, will go have a look now

Thanks chaps!
 
hmmm. Digital Rev are selling the 1.4 art's for £579, everywhere else its £669 so a fair bit cheaper too. Am soooo tempted to get this... Need some more convincing though !
 
What's left to convince?

The new Sigma's are absolutely awesome. Used a friends 35 art and it was so nice. Really sharp, well built and the new look is the biz.

Really fast apertures are a pig to focus and get it bang on, but the shorter focal lengths are easier. The Canon 85 1.8 is a fab lens so don't be too quick to knock it into touch. It's extremely sharp and is capable of throwing the background out plenty.
 
Im going to go for the 35mm, I think 50mm, might be a bit too long, 85mm even longer. Bugger it. 35mm is going to be wider and nearly £100 cheaper too. Im getting that, new toy to place with lol
 
i dont know where in the country you are, but you're welcome to try my sigma 35 & 85 if you're anywhere near stevenage.
 
minnnt said:
The Canon 85 1.8 is a fab lens so don't be too quick to knock it into touch. It's extremely sharp and is capable of throwing the background out plenty.
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Agree with David, the 85 is a cracking lens and due to the longer focal length it works wonders with the bokeh at 1.8. I have a the 35mm 1.4 art and 85mm 1.8 and they both come in handy :)
 
Carlh said:
Im going to go for the 35mm, I think 50mm, might be a bit too long, 85mm even longer. Bugger it. 35mm is going to be wider and nearly £100 cheaper too. Im getting that, new toy to place with lol
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From a wedding reportage point of view the 35mm is able to suck in the scene and does make sense, especially as you have the 105mm for tighter shots.
 
Btw, my lenses are Nikon but I've looked into the Canon 85 1.8 a fair bit and follow someone on Flickr who specialises in headshots and every single one is pin sharp at 1.8 on a 60d body. The 85L is aparently slow to focus so that could be a deal breaker.

Stick to the siggy imo, they've really upped their game from everything I have read.
 






All taken with 6D and Canon 50mm 1.4USM - I had some issues when i first got it where it was missing focus and everything was soft, however it went off to canon and when it came back it had a new barrel assembly and a new focus motor and its been spot on. Focus is difficult to nail at 1.4 and 1.6 but once you get it to 1.8 and above its a dream. I think in hindsight if i was to buy again i would have bought either the sigma 50mm EX or the ART if i could have afforded it (unlikely)
 
nickjohnwatson said:






All taken with 6D and Canon 50mm 1.4USM - I had some issues when i first got it where it was missing focus and everything was soft, however it went off to canon and when it came back it had a new barrel assembly and a new focus motor and its been spot on. Focus is difficult to nail at 1.4 and 1.6 but once you get it to 1.8 and above its a dream. I think in hindsight if i was to buy again i would have bought either the sigma 50mm EX or the ART if i could have afforded it (unlikely)
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Love the dof on those
 
GAS attack.... be careful there are 3 lens already on the feature list.

Man if only I had the money.... would love to give the 35mm and 85mm a go.

Think if you are planning to use it for boxing then the 35mm is the likely winner.
 
minnnt said:
Really fast apertures are a pig to focus and get it bang on, but the shorter focal lengths are easier. The Canon 85 1.8 is a fab lens so don't be too quick to knock it into touch. It's extremely sharp and is capable of throwing the background out plenty.
Click to expand...

IMVHO the Canon 85mm f1.8 isn't in the same class as the sigma, especially for bokeh.

I had the Sigma 85mm f1.4 until I sold it and all of my Canon gear, I used it on my 20D and 5D. I also had their original non art 50mm f1.4 which I thought was excellent and I think that the 85mm was even better and sharper at f1.4.

Personally, I never had any significant focus issues. I say significant because as Canon themselves say somewhere on their web site if you take three pictures you'll see focus differences between them and this is normal. I suppose that's a nice way of saying that their focus system is a little slap dash. Not to pick on Canon too much as I suppose they're all about the same. My point is that you'll see focus differences between shots with wide aperture lenses because the focus systems aren't 100% accurate every single time and whilst smaller apertures may hide any slight inaccuracies in the deeper depth of field wide apertures may reveal them. Of course there's also the issue of camera and/or subject movement to consider and there may be little or no room for nodding forward or backward as you press the shutter button, as some people do. So, if you shoot at wide apertures you're going to have some missed shots. I never trust anyone who says he gets a 100% hit rate. You're going to miss some, some will be your fault and some will be the gears. When pushing things to the limit of what I and/or the gear can do I try to take more than one shot.

Anyway, my 85mm performed very well even at f1.4 and I didn't get a significant number of misses.
 
Tintin124 said:
GAS attack.... be careful there are 3 lens already on the feature list.

Man if only I had the money.... would love to give the 35mm and 85mm a go.

Think if you are planning to use it for boxing then the 35mm is the likely winner.
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mainly weddings, portraits and my kids - but i'll give it go with boxing and see how it fairs
 
woof woof said:
IMVHO the Canon 85mm f1.8 isn't in the same class as the sigma, especially for bokeh.

I had the Sigma 85mm f1.4 until I sold it and all of my Canon gear, I used it on my 20D and 5D. I also had their original non art 50mm f1.4 which I thought was excellent and I think that the 85mm was even better and sharper at f1.4.

Personally, I never had any significant focus issues. I say significant because as Canon themselves say somewhere on their web site if you take three pictures you'll see focus differences between them and this is normal. I suppose that's a nice way of saying that their focus system is a little slap dash. Not to pick on Canon too much as I suppose they're all about the same. My point is that you'll see focus differences between shots with wide aperture lenses because the focus systems aren't 100% accurate every single time and whilst smaller apertures may hide any slight inaccuracies in the deeper depth of field wide apertures may reveal them. Of course there's also the issue of camera and/or subject movement to consider and there may be little or no room for nodding forward or backward as you press the shutter button, as some people do. So, if you shoot at wide apertures you're going to have some missed shots. I never trust anyone who says he gets a 100% hit rate. You're going to miss some, some will be your fault and some will be the gears. When pushing things to the limit of what I and/or the gear can do I try to take more than one shot.

Anyway, my 85mm performed very well even at f1.4 and I didn't get a significant number of misses.
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thats interesting because i thought that, even though on with the 50mm f1.8 mk2 (which is cheapo so i thought its cheap, its not going to be brill on focussing) and the macro 2.8 siggy, which does a lot of hunting, ok for some still portraits but i have a canon 2.8 70-200 so can still get the 105mm length on that. for weddings, i think it'll do fine, most things are moving slow enough for me to get the shots I will be wanting, boxing, i'll slap it on just to see how it goes, maybe at a training session and see how it fairs. thanks for your input though alan
 
minnnt said:
Who said anyone had a 100% hit rate?

When did I say the Canon was in the same league as the Siggy??
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minnnt said:
Btw, my lenses are Nikon but I've looked into the Canon 85 1.8 a fair bit and follow someone on Flickr who specialises in headshots and every single one is pin sharp at 1.8 on a 60d body. The 85L is aparently slow to focus so that could be a deal breaker.
Stick to the siggy imo, they've really upped their game from everything I have read.
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I could cherry pick my shots and every single one would be pin sharp :D but I just don't think it's possible to get every single one spot on in the real world and I never trust people who claim to. I know your not claiming to get every shot pin sharp at f1.x but some people do claim that and I think that it can lead to unrealistic expectations. IMVHO anyone shooting with wide apertures particularly as the focal length get longer is going to miss some shots and I just thought I'd just add my own little bit of real world experience to the conversation and that includes my own view that the Canon f1.8 isn't in the same league as the Sigma f1.4. No offence intended :D

What I should have added is that maybe it doesn't matter.

At the moment I have three fastish 85mm lenses, a Rokkor f2, a Zuiko f2 and a FD f1.8. Of these three the Rokkor f2 is the best but for ultimate image quality it doesn't belong in the same conversation as lenses of the calibre of the Sigma 85mm f1.4 but it still manages to create a nice look :D
 
For what it's worth, I use a friends Sigma 85 1.4 when I second shoot for her.

Like said earlier, it's excellent, sharp, lovely Bokeh and give amazing results.

When nailed..!

I found it on and off for anything over 40ft away.. I mostly go around doing candids with it and some when looking down the aisle need a retake..

In my opinion..
 
re 85mm, I'd wait for ART version if you can. For now there is a very decent Canon 85mm f/1.8 at 1/3 price, while Nikon shooters can buy a newly redesigned one at a great price. That should be a no-brainer.
 
@BennyBoo I did this too. Second shot for a mate and used his 85 1.8 for the reception and was totally blown away by it. Sufficient enough to come home and buy one for myself.

Also found your other comment to be true aswell. I'm a sucker for wanting everything at 1.8 and kind of get obsessed with it. Then find that I have missed the focus. At 1.8 the dof is tiny so you really do have to nail it. But when it's right, it is so so good.
 
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