Au revoir old 50mm... bonjour new 50mm!

bellebouche

bellebouche

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Adrian
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In a minor butter-fingered rush to shoot a hen-harrier having a go at some chicks in my garden my old faithful nifty-fifty f1.8 hit the deck, sprang apart.

I put it back together again and the AF now seeks wildly (on an EOS40D) before its locks on so it's effectively consigned to manual focus only. Not such a problem for me - I'll leave it as a fallback spare on an older EOS400D.

Two immediate choices. Another f1.8 @ £79 from amazon or the f1.4 @ £299.

Anything else I should consider, am I missing a trick iin not looking outside the Canon stable?
 
Don't know anything about Canon lenses but I HATE with passion buying the same thing if something brakes cause I feel like I paid twice for something. I see it as an opportunity to upgrade and thus I'd buy the 1.4 no questions! :D It is like when my MTB got stolen, I had a 400£ GT from halfords, well let's just say I didn't go to buy another one of those and now I own a self built Anthem X :)
 
The Sigma 50mm f1.4 is supposed to be rather tasty, although I think it's a bit more expensive than the Canon one...
 
I went through the dilemma of "which 50mm do I buy?" recently and decided on the Sigma 1.4 - a bit more expensive than the Canon but generally considered the better lens by the majority of people, here & elsewhere. Many compare it to the Canon 50mm L 1.2 - can't say whether they're right or not, but can vouch for the Sigma - built like a tank and takes a lovely pic! If you can afford it, then I think you'll be very happy. It's a big step up from the 1.8
 
Sigma! Or wait until the new Canon 50mm comes out, when ever that may be. There's something on Canon rumours.com about it.
 
The Sigma 1.4 is superb but it's huge in comparison to the canon 1.8 just a little point to consider as some of the draw of a prime is it's less conspicuous. Love my siggy btw but I did like my little nifty too.
 
:agree: the Siggy is bigger and has received glowing reports
Dave
 
I made the upgrade from Canon f/1.8 to Sigma f/1.4. I don't regret it one bit.

The sigma is the sharper of the two until about f/2.8, than it starts to even out a little, I dare say the canon is as good if not better at f/5.6. But I use it for low light, or sperating subjects from thier surroundings. For which the Sigma's wider aperture is key.

The bokeh the Sigma produces is in a different league to the nifty fifty (as you would hope for the price difference).

Can be a pain to focus correctly in certain conditions though!
 
Thankyou, everyone, for your feedback and input.

I've pondered doing nothing and sticking with manual focus for a week or two now... I still have 50mm capability but know it's limitations.

So, I decided that the plastic-fantastic f1.8 was probably the thing to go for again. I had 5 years out of the last one and it shaped much of who I am as a photographer. I *know* that I'd abused it and that although it didn't have full time manual adjust in AF mode I just used to shunt it around and listen to the scalextric noises coming out of the gearbox!

The Sigma f1.4? I could have been persuaded... a large number of the Amazon reviews poo-poohed the variability in the lenses and the front/back focus capability. My main camera doesn't have a per-lens adjust so it'd have to be right. This is something that put me off the Sigma wide angle lens when I was after one of those and why I stuck with Canon. My 10-22 is a monster. Physical size might have been a minor issue-ette there.. it's a 77mm dia. lens I understand - a bit of a whopper but I like the fact that you get a case, hood out of the box. Canon are so naughty when it comes to this.

Wait for a new Canon f1.4? Mebbe. I saw the patent details on canon rumours a few weeks ago so had an inkling that one might be along sometime... but nothing concrete yet.

So.. I've been conservative, have gone for the Canon 50mm f1.4 from Amazon. Will compare and contrast the snaps I take with it when it arrives next week and report back. If I'm not 100% thrilled I'll revisit the Sigma option.

Again, thanks to all who commented back - veyr much appreciate your input and guidance.
 
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