Sigma 50mm F/1.4 Art price to be announced on April 11th...

[jdramirez]

I will wait until all of the first two batches are sold to all the people that just HAVE to have it, then get bored with it and sell them almost unused for way less than new, including a filter to me. Never fails.

HEY!....while your waiting would you like to purchase my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM ? I will throw in a Tiffen filter, but I am keeping the B&W! 8)

I almost bought one for $275 thinking it will tide me over until my price drop happens... but I resisted.

 

[preppyak]

But I'd like to hear how the non-resolution upsides of the Otus might benefit video -- after all, it's not $4k just because of resolution and build quality. I hear it manages chromatic aberrations well, has low distortion, great bokeh, etc. -- are those especially desirable for video?

For those asking about the cost of cine lenses, I can tell you that sharpness is not the prime consideration. Lack of chromatic aberration, distortion, and light fall off are important as those are very hard to correct in post on video.

This is your answer, unless you are shooting in RAW for video, it's nearly impossible to correct CA and fall off. Distortion is more correctable, but, it can be a pain if the scene has multiple subjects. You certainly dont want to be correcting it shot to shot.

The good quality cine lenses are extremely expensive because they can be. It's a niche market and the other production costs for shooting video are so high that the cost of the lens isn't much of a consideration.

Not to mention that a lens with a long focus throw and that is parfocal gives you so many more options on set. Renting the equipment is part of the expense, but having to do several takes cause the lens is crap to pull focus with costs more in time and energy

 

[Solar Eagle]

As someone who has not shot any video on my DSLRs, can someone explain to me the value in spending 4k on a 50mm zeiss lens to mount on a DSLR that is going to down sample the image to 2 mega pixels?

This EOS Cinema prime vs L-series prime comparison is pretty good. Shows how much better the cinema lenses are, although I don't know if the ziess is as good the EOS cinema lenses.....

Canon Cinema Primes vs. Canon L Series on Vimeo

 

[leGreve]

As someone who has not shot any video on my DSLRs, can someone explain to me the value in spending 4k on a 50mm zeiss lens to mount on a DSLR that is going to down sample the image to 2 mega pixels?

Because its not all down to dslr now is it.... The Otus will work wonders on a RED or Sony F55 and handle very well...

Have you seen the focus throw on the Sigma? Its litteraly like 20 degrees or something like that.
For video, being able to find focus very accurately manually is key. If moving the focus 2-3mm means moving sharpness 1-2 meters then the lens is useless for accurate focus. That whole in and out of focus thing that comes from people with no experience or proæer gear.... Its not charming, its bad craftsmanship.

The Otus performs close to the ultra primes, its solid metal all the way, the focus ring is incredibly smooth and the focus throw is around 270 degrees and damn precise.

If I was only shooting stills and needed AF, I would consider the Sigma. But since I mainly do video on various cameras from dslr to sony yo red, the Sigma makes NO sense what so ever.

 

[Marsu42]

Oh snap. Hotcakes, I say. It will sell like hotcakes.

And there's your problem - if they produce it for different mounts right from the start they'll run into huge production problems given the demand, and there will a early adopter's premium. Plus *announcement* doesn't mean delivery... so Canon has another 1/2 to 3/4 year to sell their ancient "micro"usm 50/1.4

 

[Artifex]

As someone who has not shot any video on my DSLRs, can someone explain to me the value in spending 4k on a 50mm zeiss lens to mount on a DSLR that is going to down sample the image to 2 mega pixels?

Because its not all down to dslr now is it.... The Otus will work wonders on a RED or Sony F55 and handle very well...

The market is even bigger since the metabone speedboasters are getting more and more popular. People are now using EF lens on all sorts of camera, like the Sony FS-700 and BMCC for instance.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

As someone who has not shot any video on my DSLRs, can someone explain to me the value in spending 4k on a 50mm zeiss lens to mount on a DSLR that is going to down sample the image to 2 mega pixels?

Because its not all down to dslr now is it.... The Otus will work wonders on a RED or Sony F55 and handle very well...

The market is even bigger since the metabone speedboasters are getting more and more popular. People are now using EF lens on all sorts of camera, like the Sony FS-700 and BMCC for instance.

+1

 

[RAKAMRAK]

(Just because I have not written on CR for many days so I felt I should write something)

The sigma lens will be priced at $999 (±$50) in USA.

I don't think you're too far off. I do expect the price to be 999 USD / 899 EUR.

How did I hit the bullseye?

 

[wickidwombat]

got an email from B&H yesterday with preorder price of $949!

 

[terminatahx]

This looks to be another excellent lens by Sigma. But their inconsistency in copies totally scares me away from spending any serious money with them. Hopefully that reputation will eventually change. Until then. I'll side with consistency.