50mm...which one?

So I'm deciding which 50mm to get:

Canon 1.4

or

Sigma 1.4

I've been reading reviews on both for a while, and can't really make my mind up. They both look like a fantastic lens, unfortunately I've had no chance to try either of these because no shops locally, seem to have them in stock ever!

So what are your thoughts? Pros/cons? Anything to be considered.

Thanks!

Sigma Art.

I had the Canon 1.4, didn't like it. I prefer the 1.8 Mk I version to that.

Definitely save a little longer and go for the Sigma 1.4 ART when it starts shipping.

Pre-order the Sigma 50 1.4 (new version). Looks like the beast out there.

looking at your pictures on 500px, I would say Zeiss 50mp f2 ZE - allows you to work with macro/close-ups too and if you willing to buy used, there are a few good deals around.
If you don't mind MF, which seems that your style/preferences fits in with, it's an exceptional lens - the 1.4 version is great too, but you would take more advantage of the MP macro abilities

Brelly wrote in post #16861417
So I'm deciding which 50mm to get:

Canon 1.4

or

Sigma 1.4

I've been reading reviews on both for a while, and can't really make my mind up. They both look like a fantastic lens, unfortunately I've had no chance to try either of these because no shops locally, seem to have them in stock ever!

So what are your thoughts? Pros/cons? Anything to be considered.

Thanks!

Heya,

Sigma in my book here. Especially if you can get the new Art series, might be worth looking into. The Canon 50mm has always made me wonder why it's their non-entry and definitely non-premium of current lenses, as it's a good focal length and great aperture, but otherwise, not a stellar lens (I would imagine they'd want their 50mm to be the best it could be, since it's one of the most widely used focal lengths out there and occupies a ton of market). It's gears are not great, it's prone to damage due to design (keep a hood on it, always, always), it's not the sharpest (but it's not soft, mind), and certainly not wicked sharp wide open (kind of hurts the point of having F1.4 on a prime). Though it's priced nicely. I guess I just really felt it didn't feel like a good, solid lens that could survive the day to day with me.

On another note, the 50mm family of lenses is massive. If you are interested, you can get a bunch of them in the F1.4~F2+ area for literally dirt cheap for their quality if you look into manual lenses. The M42 mount is lovely.

Very best,

NWPhil wrote in post #16861864
looking at your pictures on 500px, I would say Zeiss 50mp f2 ZE - allows you to work with macro/close-ups too and if you willing to buy used, there are a few good deals around.
If you don't mind MF, which seems that your style/preferences fits in with, it's an exceptional lens - the 1.4 version is great too, but you would take more advantage of the MP macro abilities

This. The Zeiss 50/2 is a fantastic lens, still thinking about getting one myself sometime.

If not the Zeiss, I'd go with the Sigma. To those saying go for the Art... it's 3 times the cost and twice the size. Yeah, it's a better performer, how much that matters to most shooters... well, I'm not even going to go there

I think the decision between Canon 1.4 & the [old] Sigma 1.4 is tough. I have had Canon for 3 years no issues although I did look into swapping it out recently.

In the end I went down the manual lens route as I find it interesting & appealing at the moment & I am very much enjoying it

LCE Plymouth had a used Sigma 50/1.4 for about £230 I think a few weeks back & they said via email to me that they would be willing to send it out & let me 'test' it with a 14 day returns policy which would only cost me postage obviously. I thought that was worth a go from them but like I said I changed my mind over it.

The new Sigma Art does looks a nice lens but it's a lot of money in comparison to the other two.

Thanks for all the input so far guys, I must have been super tired when I wrote this last night.

I forgot to mention that I'm working on a budget of up to and around £400.

I'm looking at beginning to shoot more portraits to start practicing for weddings and the likes, so going on that basis.

Does anyone have any more/other ideas on which way to go?

Thanks again!

Brelly wrote in post #16861417
So I'm deciding which 50mm to get:

Canon 1.4

or

Sigma 1.4

I've been reading reviews on both for a while, and can't really make my mind up. They both look like a fantastic lens, unfortunately I've had no chance to try either of these because no shops locally, seem to have them in stock ever!

So what are your thoughts? Pros/cons? Anything to be considered.

Thanks!

None. They both seems to be uesless wide open. Wait for this:

http://www.canonrumors​.com …a-new-50-coming-soon-cr1/

Canon should finally update their old EF 50 1.4 USM for today's requirements. Just like EF 35/2 IS USM, EF 24 2.8 IS USM and so on.

EF 50 1.4 USM is a good lens, but not even close to fantastic.

Hermelin wrote in post #16862324
None. They both seems to be uesless wide open. Wait for this:


http://www.canonrumors​.com …a-new-50-coming-soon-cr1/

I would't say they're both useless wide open.

It depends when this is going to be released, I'd rather get something early doors so I get get practicing with it!

I have the sigma and love it! Picking up a used one is totally affordable as well.

I chose the Sigma 1.4 over the Canon due to:
1) The quality of bokeh
2) The warranty
3) The build quality

When I first bought mine, I did a series of AF tests and sent the lens along with the test results to Sigma, and they recalibrated the lens. Since then, it has been very good.

Here is shot direct from the camera wide open.

Here are 2 crops, one out of camera, the other with a bit of sharpening that I would do for post processing.

Useless? You make the decision. Stop the lens down into its sweet spot, and it is outstanding. My one and only gripe is the amount of CA wide open, it is not very controlled.