eon_designs wrote in post #16528733
Well my Sigma 50mm has started to annoy me, the front focusing is getting to be an issue. I can MA adjust, but that is only correct for a certain distance from the subject.
That's the norm with this lens. Good focus is give and take depending on the distance. they apparently are purposely set to front focus a little if you are attempting to focus close, or near minimum distance. From what I understand Sigma tunes the focus at around 8 feet from the subject.
When people get this lens they want to move in close to fill the frameand usually that ends up being too close, like 3 feet away, and this is why it front focuses. Micro adjust to plus 15 or 20 and the close stuff will be in focus much better but then the far subjects will be back focused badly.
Once I understood this and that this is just the way the lens is I then began to get comfortable with it. I did a dot tune micro adjustment and tuned it for subjects about 4 or 5 feet away, which ended up being a plus 5 micro adjustment. That gives me the best compromise for subjects around that distance while still not throwing off the far subjects.
Recently, and I don't know why I didn't do this before, when iam inside and I know my subjects are going to be very close, 2 and 3 feet away, I go in to the micro adjust a crank it up to plus 15 or plus 20. It takes about 5 seconds to switch it for just that session, then I put it back to plus 5 after for normal use. And another way is simply to manual focus in live view, or even use live view auto focus.
With magic lantern on my cam I can set the 10X zoom to be automatic when I press the shutter half way, then adjust focus manually until sharp. So that is three different ways I can handle subjects close in where it would normally front focus closer that around 7 or 8 feet. Once you get used to it you realize that it's no big deal and that the photos are VERY MUCH WORTH the small extra trouble. When done right, this lens can take astounding photos as this sample thread shows.
This lens competes or us actually better than the 50L, so the photos are definitely worth the small bit of messing with live view or manual focus or simply changing your micro adjust quickly if you are going to be very close.
The main point is, I don't think there is anything wrong with these lenses, it doesn't have the floating element thing and therefor focusing at different distances is supposed to be a compromise, the bit of front focusing close in is exactly what it is supposed to do, that's how Sigma sets it. In the end, for me, the photos are VERY VERY worth the quirky personality of this lens.
