Sigma 50mm f1.4 - First Shots

My Sigma 50mm f1.4 turned up on Wednesday and I've spent a short time walking around trying to get some shots that get the best out of it.  This lens - like all very wide aperture lenses - has it's limitations, but if you work within those you can have a lot of fun - I'm certainly enjoying it so far!

I'm really tired tonight, so I'm almost just going to put the pictures down which I like the most out of the shots I took today and yesterday.  I will say a couple of things about the lens first though:

• It's fairly big and heavy - nothing too major, but significantly bigger and heavier than the 50 f1.8 that I also own.  Having said that, the build quality if miles better, and the filter size is 77mm which matches 3 of my other lenses too.
• It suffers from CA at extreme wide apertures.  Apparently, it's pretty well controlled in this lens compared to other similar lenses (including the £1300 Canon 50mm f1.2L), but it's something that you have to get a bit used to.  It seems that having bright highlights around the edges of the sharp part of the image will create obvious purple and green fringing.  Having said that, it's noticable at 100%, but I think in real terms and with real uses for this lens it's not actually going to be an issue.
• It fringes massively when overexposed - e.g. exposing for tree branches with the sky blown out behind.  Again, this is worse wide open, and again it's not a typical use case for this lens.
• It seems quite soft at f1.4 (as per the reviews that I read).  Having said that, portraits again I don't think it's a problem in real terms.

I need more time to fiddle: I think it needs some microadjustment to the focus and I've done some quick tests to determine a figure but I need to prove my results with something a bit more controlled.  I've also got a bit to learn about the best use of that shallow DoF!

(Note: You can click any of the images to see a larger size version)

I'm in a "high contrast" mood tonight - quite a few of the images below have been processed to deliberately be bright and dark in the same pictures, with quite vibrant colours.  It's not the lens, I'm just being creative :-)

Springing (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/800s, ISO100)

The focal point was wrong on the one below, but I've included it as it showed an interesting thing in nature - the spiky leaves of the flower have grown straight up through the oak leaf in 2 places and skewered it:

Spiked (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/1600s, ISO100)

I liked these 3 flowers out on their own in a row:

Three in a Row (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/2000s, ISO100)

Wooden Bridge (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/1250s, ISO100)

This is a post marking the edge of a path - I focussed on the top to show the DoF in action and the bokeh on the leaves at the back:

Post (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/500s, ISO100)

More daffodils - it's definitely spring out there! (although it's raining as I write this - it's definitely England too...):

Daffs (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/12500s, ISO100)

Spring has Sprung (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.8, 1/1250s, ISO100)

I've been to this derelict building a few times before.  I'm not sure what it is - it seems like some kind of store house but it's got electricity and a telephone line going into it, despite being derelict:

Derelict (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.8, 1/60s, ISO100)

This one was focussed on the point of the broken glass.  It's the first time I've seen a definite difference between the higher accuracy centre focus point and the outer points on the 5D2.  There was no hope of getting decent focus with the outer points, but the centre point consistently caught what I was after:

Shattered (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/100s, ISO100)

And this was a deliberate self portrait against a piece of dirty, derelict broken glass:

Broken Portrait (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/100s, ISO100)

Ivy (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/500s, ISO100)

Finally, I can't let Holly get away with it - she's been my loyal subject for quite a few tests over the last week (all photographic, I hasten to add!).  Here she is again, in f1.4 glory:

Holly Again (5D2, Sigma 50mm f1.4 at f1.4, 1/100s, ISO800)

In conclusion: careful use is required to avoid the limitations of super wide aperture primes like this (when wide open), but I'm enjoying this lens so far and looking forward to capturing some great shots with it :-)