Sigma lens

New_Zealand

New_Zealand

Veteran
I was in a camera shop today looking over lenses and the guy there said that the Sigma lens are great lenses. I looked at the 50mm Canon ($100 - $300) and 50mm Sigma ($500) and the Sigma was much bigger and heavier then the canon. I also looked at the 85 Sigma ($900), Canon 70-200 f4 ($1300) and Canon 70-300 ($1500) - (damm can't remember which one).

Soooooo many choices to pick from. The Zoom covers so much area that it can cut down the amount of lenses in your bag but on the other hand the primes are so clean and clear. I was thinking of the 70-200 but now really lost.

I think if I got the 50mm Sigma (really liked the way it felt) and one other lens (maybe the 70-300 Canon) I would be set or at least somewhat set. I'm filming ext only on this next shoot. Alfred Hitchcock (if I remember right) only used the 50mm lenses for his film.

ANY feed back would be great.
 
I don't know much about lenses but I think if the glass is heavy and the lense feel strong that got to say something for it. One thing I don't feel bad not knowing much about it since there has been over a 100 others looking at this page and not knowing anything about lenses either :-) I would say go with the sigma and skip the two crappy canon built lenses. As for the zoom go with the 70-300 it won't be as large as the 70-200 just shorter and fater. Also you will get an extra 100mm in distances with it.
 
I would suggest that you have a look at the Samyang 85/1.4 manual focus, and a manual focus 50/1.4. None of the lenses above have hard stops, and while they do have decent manual focus rings, I find MF lenses are just so much smoother.
 
The shop didn't show you the full range of Canon 50mm lenses. The 50mm F/1.8 (aka the "nifty fifty") for around $115 is tiny & difficult to focus manually because the focus ring is so small but is optically a great sharp lens & a fantastic bargain. The 50mm F/1.4 at around $375 is easier to grab to focus manually as it is bigger than the F/1.4 but still smaller & lighter than the Sigma. The Canon 500mm F/1.2L is a beauty but pretty expensive at around $1500. It's in different league in terms of build quality & is optically superb. All the prices are quoted from www.amazon.com where I see that the Sigma F/1.4 is around $400.

The 70-300mm zoom is a variable aperture lens F/4 at the wide end but F/5.6 at the long end. This is a pain for video use as you need to adjust exposure with altering ISO as you zoom. The 70-200mm is a constant F/4.
 
Well actually the f1.2 is optically inferior if you close the aperture to f4. Canons f1.4 50mm also has a worse mf ring than the Sigma 50mm f1.4 and the bokeh is not as good. The sigma is a great choice.
 
maarek said:
Well actually the f1.2 is optically inferior if you close the aperture to f4. Canons f1.4 50mm also has a worse mf ring than the Sigma 50mm f1.4 and the bokeh is not as good. The sigma is a great choice.
Click to expand...

+1

I have had the sigma 50mm for over 3 years now and absolutely love it. I have used it for alot of video work on my 7d. I did have the issue of it front focussing when i first got it but sent it off to sigma for an easy fix. Just ordered the 5Dmk3 and am drooling at the prospect of using the siggy 50 on it.

It is an amazing stills lens as well
 
Having used MANY Sigma lenses myself, I can tell you this, I love their prime lenses, I am not a fan of their zoom lenses. I've used their 30mm on almost EVERY shoot I do. We have two of them, and they look fantastic on ~APS-C sized sensors. While I haven't picked up the 50mm yet, I used it as well and really thought it did great.

I've not used the 85mm yet, but that is probably because I have a Bower (which I believe is the same as the Samyang and Rokinon) F1.4 and it works great as well. Although if the contrast/color in the 85mm is the same as the 30mm, I'd probably switch pretty quickly.

I recently bought the 17-50 F2.8 and I just do not like the focus ring OR the zoom, to sensitive. Going to switch to the Tokina as I love the 11-16 I already have.
 
I was hoping to save some cash by getting the Sigma 24mm f1.8, but the Chromatic Aberrations were really strong when shooting at f1.8 to f2.8. So I just bit the bullet and got the Canon 24mm F1.4 II which is a much better lens (way less color fringing / aberrations), but costs 2x the money. The focus throw is also 2x as long on the Canon (which is good for video)

As for the 30mm f1.4, I have mixed feelings about that lens since I owned it. The thing with Sigma lenses (or at least the ones that I have), they tend to have a yellow color bias which I don't like. I also have the Samyang 35mm f 1.4 which I think is much better than than the Sigma 30mm f1.4 because it has a 6 inch closer focusing distance (which is great), more neutral color than the Sigma and the focus throw is almost 180 degrees vs. the Sigma which is about 90 degrees (almost 2x as long which is good). Plus, it has a manual aperture ring so you can use it on a bunch of different camera bodies.

As for the Canon 50mm 1.4 (the $400 version), that is a really good lens. I actually like it better than my Zeiss 50mm f1.4 because it has less color fringing when shot wide open. For an auto lens, it has a fairly decent focus throw, about 180 degrees.
 
Hmmm, this must go back to the quality control on the 30mm F1.4s. We have two and love them. Almost every time people find out it's a Sigma, they don't believe us! :) Haha.

In the town I live in there are two camera shops that regularly stock a wide selection of lens. I go local so I can try them out OR buy online with a place I can return easily if I don't like. I can tell pretty quick if I like a lens or not! :)
 
gene_can_sing said:
As for the 30mm f1.4, I have mixed feelings about that lens since I owned it. The thing with Sigma lenses (or at least the ones that I have), they tend to have a yellow color bias which I don't like. I also have the Samyang 35mm f 1.4 which I think is much better than than the Sigma 30mm f1.4 because it has a 6 inch closer focusing distance (which is great), more neutral color than the Sigma and the focus throw is almost 180 degrees vs. the Sigma which is about 90 degrees (almost 2x as long which is good).
Click to expand...

I disagree slightly on that. The Sigma 30mm has perfect focus throw. Atleast when used handheld. The Samyang 35mm f1.4 is WAY too long.
 
maarek said:
I disagree slightly on that. The Sigma 30mm has perfect focus throw. Atleast when used handheld. The Samyang 35mm f1.4 is WAY too long.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I like the focus throw of the Sigma 30mm F1.4 as well. I do focus pulls with it ALL the time.
 
I got rid of the sigma 30 because the focus throw was so short. at 1.4 with such a short throw its excedingly hard to nail focus manually. In my opinion the sigma might be good for pics but its terible for video. Traying to rack focus is a joke with the sigma. I just got the canon 17-40 f4L and that lens is amazing, highly reccomend it and used its not much more than the sigma.
 
In my experience sigma sucks........
I have bought many of them and often regretted.

50mm is a good one so is 30mm, but the 50 must be checked first for focus issues

50mm sigma the second best 50mm lens ( leica excluded of which i have never owned one ) apart from canon 50mm 1.2....and no canon is not inferior to any of them on f4....but not better either which is very common in lenses. Good lenses all perform great in medium apertures.......

You should first take a look at what you use most of the time and what your budget is. Many lenses could be had which perform well for little mony, like samyang/rokinon/walimex or whatever they call it where you live and older nikon or pentax lenses.

Get the samyang 14mm/35mm/85mm ( where i live this costs us under 1000 euro's new and maybe 600 second hand ) You will have everything you need for now and cant complain about quality
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top