Review: Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens

[Viggo]

Thanks! Yeah, I need a working AF as well, but I don't have the pressure of, say, a wedding photographer. And if I absolutely can't afford to miss, I use the 24-70. Or maybe try the 50 at f2.8, lol.

 

[razeac]

Hei Viggo, thanks for your comment. Yes I think it's the communication between the 5d Mark II and the 50 Art. I still don't have the dock yet. But what I am thinking now is to buy a focus screen to assist the autofocus. I mainly do portraits.

With regards with af bug, I am not sure if I am saying this correctly but I have disabled that halfway button function on the camera. So now, if I let someone take a picture of me using my camera, I need to explain the whole process of pressing the Af button or the pic will be just a useless unfocused shot. Lol

Yeah I have the same setup. I also use the AF-ON button for AF and only metering on the shutter. But if I start metering by holding down the shutter button halfway, like you normally would do to start AF, and then push the AF-ON button, it sometimes won't focus at all. So then I have to release the shutter completely and push the AF-ON first and then the shutter. It's very annoying ..

I hope you find a fix for that soon Viggo. I'll be surely pissed if I have it on my camera.

 

[Viggo]

Hei Viggo, thanks for your comment. Yes I think it's the communication between the 5d Mark II and the 50 Art. I still don't have the dock yet. But what I am thinking now is to buy a focus screen to assist the autofocus. I mainly do portraits.

With regards with af bug, I am not sure if I am saying this correctly but I have disabled that halfway button function on the camera. So now, if I let someone take a picture of me using my camera, I need to explain the whole process of pressing the Af button or the pic will be just a useless unfocused shot. Lol

Yeah I have the same setup. I also use the AF-ON button for AF and only metering on the shutter. But if I start metering by holding down the shutter button halfway, like you normally would do to start AF, and then push the AF-ON button, it sometimes won't focus at all. So then I have to release the shutter completely and push the AF-ON first and then the shutter. It's very annoying ..

I hope you find a fix for that soon Viggo. I'll be surely pissed if I have it on my camera.

Yeah, and I think it possibly can happen between shots in a burst, because sometimes in a burst it tracks VERY poor, and when I check images 2,3,4 the point of focus haven't moved from first shot.

I think it's a firmware issue with lens.

 

[skitron]

wow i cant believe the near hysteria this caused

Yeah, well we're all either fanbois with no objectivity or Canon-bashers with no objectivity, right? :

Two reviews have noted AF issues with the lens, other reviews have not (though many reviews don't actually test AF performance). Maybe Roger Cicala will get a large batch and provide some solid evidence one way or the other.

heres hoping roger can get a batch and test. his batch testing seems to provide the most objective and comprehensive analysis of lenses available. also if there are issues I hope they can be sorted with the sigma dock and the issues aren't random and all over the place like the old 50 was (well for me anyway) its odd that my wifes 5Dmk3 seems to have no problem with this lens and is providing amazing images wide open with remarkable AF consistency where as for me it was all over the place...

That is odd that it would be so different on identical bodies.

My dg did the roulette thing until I sent it to Sigma, has been decent,but not perfect since though. LOL, maybe the art has to be returned to them as well before it works?

 

[Viggo]

I shipped my 50 Art to service this evening. It seems me and Eldar experienced the same exact thing. It looks to be perfect, then a few days later it starts to drift and miss and then become perfect with yet another calibration, few more days same story over.

So if a reviewer only does the number of shots over a short periode it works brilliant. But more thorough and it goes straight down the , ehm, sounds like litter..

Hopefully something can be done. But I will take a stab at it and say this is done by Canon, a small disturbance in the firmware that handles AF communication. Would be VERY interesting to try my lens mount converted to a Sigma camera.

 

[neuroanatomist]

It might be time to give the Sigma bodies a serious look if they work well with their current glass. Anyone know of any credible reviews of their current bodies?

I read a review Michael Reichmann's (Luminous Landscape) review of the DP2M (which uses the Foveon X3 sensor) that raved about it. Was it credible? Well, he listed one of the cons as "poor image quality above ISO 400." I find it hard to rave about a camera with ISO performance similar to some of the earliest CMOS sensors, but if all you do is shoot at ISO 100, maybe you can consider a Sigma body.

 

[skitron]

It might be time to give the Sigma bodies a serious look if they work well with their current glass. Anyone know of any credible reviews of their current bodies?

I read a review Michael Reichmann's (Luminous Landscape) review of the DP2M (which uses the Foveon X3 sensor) that raved about it. Was it credible? Well, he listed one of the cons as "poor image quality above ISO 400." I find it hard to rave about a camera with ISO performance similar to some of the earliest CMOS sensors, but if all you do is shoot at ISO 100, maybe you can consider a Sigma body.

I'm all for just using something that works. That said, I actually deleted my post after reading some reviews on B&H, apparently while you were replying... High ISO is very important to me, so the Sigma body is a non starter. Plus some complained about af...

 

[scottburgess]

Hopefully something can be done. But I will take a stab at it and say this is done by Canon, a small disturbance in the firmware that handles AF communication. Would be VERY interesting to try my lens mount converted to a Sigma camera.

I wish you lived out here: we could hook it up to my old Elan IIe and see how it functions on that. In fact, I hope someone here will test the lens with an old film body.

I am not so quick to claim Canon jimmied the interface software. I think it just as reasonably results from a poor reverse engineering of the latest Canon interface unless I see reasonable evidence to the contrary. Hopefully someone here will have an old EOS 1V or EOS 3 or EOS D30 or something to test their Sigma 50mm Art with. I would be more suspicious that Canon is to blame if the AF works perfectly on bodies from the late 90s and early 00s but fails only on the newest models. Likewise, I would suspect Sigma is likely to blame if the behavior is more uniform.

Some folks care to investigate and report back?

 

[Eldar]

Has anyone read the comments on some of the Nikon sites? Do they report similar issues?

 

[wickidwombat]

mines been perfect since i calibrated it and posted those reports
I'll keep checking though....

 

[Viggo]

mines been perfect since i calibrated it and posted those reports
I'll keep checking though....

That's great, thanks. I'm glad people have working copies, keep us posted! I must say I'm beginning to really doubt it all. Does it make sense that I buy two sigma lenses and they both do the same while 98% of other people have flawless copies? Sorry, but I don't think so. It's just a little far fetched my luck is that bad, especially since we all got from the first batch. And a fellow Norwegian in Eldar also experience the same issue.

If anybody use it on a different body than the 1dx or even has that and another body, does the focus act up on those bodies as well?

And I was thinking the same thing about Nikon and the Sigma, maybe I'll I sign up there and start a thread about it.

 

[wickidwombat]

mines been perfect since i calibrated it and posted those reports
I'll keep checking though....

That's great, thanks. I'm glad people have working copies, keep us posted! I must say I'm beginning to really doubt it all. Does it make sense that I buy two sigma lenses and they both do the same while 98% of other people have flawless copies? Sorry, but I don't think so. It's just a little far fetched my luck is that bad, especially since we all got from the first batch. And a fellow Norwegian in Eldar also experience the same issue.

If anybody use it on a different body than the 1dx or even has that and another body, does the focus act up on those bodies as well?

And I was thinking the same thing about Nikon and the Sigma, maybe I'll I sign up there and start a thread about it.

I think you have the worst luck of any person on the planet with lenses...

 

[Viggo]

mines been perfect since i calibrated it and posted those reports
I'll keep checking though....

That's great, thanks. I'm glad people have working copies, keep us posted! I must say I'm beginning to really doubt it all. Does it make sense that I buy two sigma lenses and they both do the same while 98% of other people have flawless copies? Sorry, but I don't think so. It's just a little far fetched my luck is that bad, especially since we all got from the first batch. And a fellow Norwegian in Eldar also experience the same issue.

If anybody use it on a different body than the 1dx or even has that and another body, does the focus act up on those bodies as well?

And I was thinking the same thing about Nikon and the Sigma, maybe I'll I sign up there and start a thread about it.

I think you have the worst luck of any person on the planet with lenses...

;D perhaps, perhaps. I thought that when I bought the 35 Art when everybody was loving it and mine didn't work, it took a lot, but I admitted mine was one of a select few that didn't work. That's why I bought the 50 Art brand new and didn't wait, an easy return or repair or exchange compared to buy used, and guess what, glad I did. So my faith in Sigma is extremely limited now, if the 50 Art doesn't turn out right, that's it, I could never recommend buying Sigma to anyone ever again. And the "new" Sigma is still flawed with the same thing they always were. And it's just sad, because they got it 95% perfect.

 

[Sporgon]

Has anyone read the comments on some of the Nikon sites? Do they report similar issues?

I did a google search on AF issues with this lens and it apperas to be throughout Nikon and Sony too. Same thing; AF apperas to drift over time.

 

[Viggo]

Has anyone read the comments on some of the Nikon sites? Do they report similar issues?

I did a google search on AF issues with this lens and it apperas to be throughout Nikon and Sony too. Same thing; AF apperas to drift over time.

I did the same and couldn't find anything, do you have a link?

 

[Sporgon]

@Viggo, I re traced my search links and my apologies: the flicr boards were dealing with the old Sigma 50 1.4, not the new Art. I'm not picking up the CR threads on this either though, so will keep looking.

 

[Viggo]

@Viggo, I re traced my search links and my apologies: the flicr boards were dealing with the old Sigma 50 1.4, not the new Art. I'm not picking up the CR threads on this either though, so will keep looking.

Thanks! Maybe Sigma are working on a firmware and have paid google to remove it. "Eeeeexcelleent" *touching finger tips*

 

[Eldar]

Here is a typical example of the AF issue.

Single AF point on her right eye. Potentially I could have ended up with a slight front focus in this case, since her eyebrow and hair is closer to me. Instead you can see the focus plane on top of her head.

5DIII. 1/50s, f1.4, ISO6400

 

[Eldar]

Here´s another, shot 1 minute earlier. Single AF point on her left eye, spot on.
Same data

 

[Eldar]

Here is another, from the canals of Amsterdam, where it worked. Single AF point on the front white deck of the boat.
5DIII, 1/50s, f1.4, ISO6400