Sigma 50mm F1.4 Art DG HSM Lens for Canon

Ill start with the transparency that is telling you that Ive owned this lens now for one week. Its not a significant amount of time to fully review any lens, but I always come back to update on my lens reviews after a few months, so this is just my initial thoughts. Ive used this lens on two jobs so far and have been very pleased. This lens went on my Nikon D810 for two paid jobs. My first job was tethered shooting in studio with controlled lighting. I DID NOT shoot at f/1.4 - in fact f/16 all night for product style photography and the image quality that came out was superb. But youd expect ultimate sharpness at f/16 in controlled lighting. The the build quality is pleasantly bulky and sturdy feeling. No rubber gasket for weather sealing but Im not super worried about that. I then took this out the following day on a frozen lake to do some shooting for a client and found this to be a better performance test. I tested a range from f1.4 up to f/11 both using nd filters screwed on and without. Image quality was fantastic all the way down to 1.4 (where the image was focused). The plane of focus is razor thin, but being careful and slow allows for a good percentage of shots in focus. I only have my previous nikkor 50mm f/1.8 to compare to and this sigma blows it out of the water. This is a whole lot sharper. I hope to take this out and test it in more landscape scenarios and astrophotography to get a handle on how well it handles in the corners wide open in low light scenarios.

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The lens is beautiful, the quality is excellent, but my wrists cant take the strain for long periods of time. The lens is nearly 2 pounds, and when its attached to my Nikon D5600, which is relatively lightweight, it creates an uncomfortable shift in the balance that strains my wrists. Im not weak, but Im very petite with apparently sensitive wrists. When I upgrade my camera body this year (likely to something heavier), Ill consider repurchasing in hopes that a more balanced set-up will be more comfortable. I wish there was somewhere near me to rent this gear before buying!

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I am a professional wedding photographer shooting with a 5Dmkiii and 6D. I have owned all three of Canons current 50mm lenses. This lens is head and shoulders above them all. After I micro adjusted the lens, the focus is quick and spot on. It is razor sharp. Even at f1.4 it is much sharper even then my 135L @f2. The color and contrast at f1.4 are perfect. No purple haze or CA like I experienced with the 50 f1.2. It is bigger and heavier than Canons 50mm offerings, but not as heavy as the Canon 85mm 1.2L. More like the 135 f2. Well done Sigma. Update on durability: I dropped then lens while shooting a wedding. It fell hard about three feet onto a marble floor. Something inside of it came loose. Sent it into Sigma and it was 150 to get it fixed.

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By far the best lens I own. The sharpness cant be beat. Its on the heavy side I will admit but its so worth it. I used it with my APS-C sensor and it was a nice 75mm portrait lens with the crop factor and now using it with my full frame and plan to still use it as a portrait lens, especially for larger families. You wont be disappointed here. I dont notice any problems without image stabilization unless youre using a really low shutter speed and if you are, just use a tripod. All around a great lens and my favorite lens right now.

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