Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX Review

According provided by Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX lens for Nikon cameras huge thanks to the store www.fotika.com.uawhere you can find a huge number of different used photographic equipment, including this model.

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX Review

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX Review

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX - high-aperture prime, produced since 2008 for different systems. This review presents a version for Nikon cameras. Among third-party manufacturers, so far only Sigma produces modern 50 mm fixtures. In addition to the Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX, there is still a no less sensational - Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM Art.

At first I was very skeptical about Sigma's fifty kopeck piece, but when I got my hands on it, its large front lens, with a 'professional' filter diameter of 77 mm, made me fall in love with it, and then our relationship was strengthened by a good picture. True, it's a pity that the good relationship lasted until the first focusing mistakes :(.

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

The lens is focused using the HSM motor (Hyper Sonic Motor, Nikon SWM analogue). Focusing is fast and quiet. Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX (version for Nikon cameras) fits all Nikon digital cutting cameras, even to those who don’t inboard motor focusing. The minimum focusing distance is 45 cm (normal MDF for 'fifty dollars'), and the maximum magnification ratio for macro photography is 1: 7.4.

On the case there is a window with a focus distance scale in meters and feet, as well as depth of field labels for F / 8 and F / 16. It’s a pity there is no hard stop for quick and accurate aiming at infinity. You can also find the AF-M focus mode switch

The focus ring is rubberized, rotates 90 degrees in the active position. Due to the fact that the lens is very chubby, such a small stroke of the focus ring is quite enough for comfortable work with manual focus. During auto focus, the ring remains stationary. In manual focus mode, when the ring reaches its extreme positions, it does not rest, but continues to rotate, slipping, like on many native Nikon lenses.

The lens does not have internal focusing, but is designed so that during focusing the front group of lenses moves inside the lens body, while the trunk of the lens does not lengthen. Such focusing will in no way interfere with the use of any special filters, for example, gradient or polarizing.

When using the lens on the camera Nikon D700 I encountered frequent misses in auto focus mode. If in good conditions for focusing the lens more or less coped with focusing, then as soon as it came to low-contrast scenes, side and backlight, automatic focusing became almost useless. And in general, I got a lot more blurry shots due to focus automation errors than with any another native fifty dollars from Nikon. Perhaps this is just such a feature of the instance from the review and it is when working on D700... Personally, I was very pleasantly surprised by the focusing speed with the Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX and greatly upset its accuracy. Also, there are rumors that during aperture there is a focus shift (aka 'focus shift'), but personally I did not notice such a disease behind the lens.

Wardrobe Case Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Wardrobe Case Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

The lens has the function of constantly accessing the focus ring, but the Sigma 50 / 1.4 does not have a full-fledged mode of constant manual focus control Nikon M / A... In autofocus mode 'AF', set with a switch on the lens, performing manual focus override rivals camera and lens automatics. We can say that the Sigma 50 / 1.4 only has a focus mode Nikon A / M.

For comparison - native Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1: 1.4G immediately disables auto focus as soon as you touch the focus ring and it does not depend on the focus mode set in the camera. Mode Nikon M / A is sometimes a very nice 'little thing' that most third-party manufacturers never learn to copy. Of course, you shouldn't worry about this shortcoming, I think that none of the Sigma 50 / 1.4 users are particularly upset about the lack of a mode Nikon M / A. Moreover, if you use different buttons to activate focus and release the shutter (AF ON or AF-L / AE-L), then the lack of a lack of regime M / A completely disappears.

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Compared to a native similar lens - Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1: 1.4G, Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX focuses an order of magnitude faster (if you compare the focusing time from infinity to MDF and vice versa). Personally me in Nikon 50 / 1.4G the slow focusing was very annoying, and in general it is strange that the 'flagship' among the 'fifty kopecks' Nikon 50 / 1.4G focuses more slowly than the simpler model Nikon 50 / 1.8G. But dear Nikon 50 / 1.4G has a much higher 'tenacity' of focusing than the lens from the review.

For an additional detailed comparison of all Nikon 50mm autofocus lenses, see 'Autofocus fifty dollars Nikon'.

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

The Japanese assembly of the lens is top notch, the lens itself is very pleasant to the touch, with a characteristic Sigma velvet coating (newer versions of the same lens have a body made of ordinary plastic without velvet). The lens weighs 570 grams and looks great on the camera due to its huge front lens. Before the Sigma 50 / 1.4, I had never seen a fifty dollar lens with such a large front lens, for example, my own Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm 1: 1.4D uses tiny light filters with a diameter of 52 mm.

Housing parts Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Housing parts Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Included with the lens is a special small case (shown in the picture in this review) and a hood. The lens hood can be installed in the reverse position (transport mode), only when the hood is worn back and forth, access to the focus ring is completely lost. The hood is latched with special grooves.

Aperture blades Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

Aperture blades Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX

The optical design of the lens consists of 8 elements in 6 groups, with one of the elements being an aspherical lens. The uninitiated don't care about all these elements, groups, etc., but what's funny is that Sigma is 3 years ahead of Nikon in implementation. aspherical elements in 'fifty dollars'. So, until 2011, until it came out Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm 1: 1.8G SWM Aspherical, all Nikon XNUMXs were designed without the use of aspherics.

By the way, Canon since 1989 also launches its Canon Lens EF 50mm 1: 1.0 L USM with two aspherical lenses :).

Enlightenment of the front lens

Enlightenment of the front lens

The lens uses a diaphragm with 9 blades that form an almost round hole, which very well affects the nature of the luminous discs in the blur zone. The aperture closes to F / 16, and the maximum aperture of F / 1.4 allows you to use the lens with slow shutter speeds in low light. It is a pity that Nikon and Sigma do not produce 50 / 1.2 class autofocus lenses (and I am already silent about 50 / 1.0).

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX and MS Helios-81H 2/50

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX and MS Helios-81H 2/50... The difference in aperture ratio is 1 stop, and the difference in size is colossal.

The 'EX' ('Excellent' - top quality lenses) prefix on the lens barrel is well deserved. Optically the lens turned out to be good. First of all, F / 1.4 aperture, especially in the center of the frame, is absolutely 'working'. With aperture, the edges of the frame also return to normal. Otherwise, the lens is good too. In particular, I want to undo his nice 'drawing'.

Here link to the archive with the originals - 762 MB, 67 photos in .NEF format (RAW) from cameras Nikon D700 (FX) and  Nikon D80 (DX). When shooting on Nikon D700 some photos were taken using Nikon flash SB-900, and when shooting on Nikon D80 a Citiwide CPL 77mm polarizing filter was used.

EGF Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX when used on Nikon DX cameras will be 75 mm, which is quite suitable for portrait shooting.

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX and Nikon ED AF Nikkor 80-200mm 1: 2.8D (MKII)

Who is bigger? Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX or Nikon ED AF Nikkor 80-200mm 1: 2.8D (MKII)

Prices for the Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX lens in popular online stores can look at this link.

Comments on this post do not require registration. Anyone can leave a comment. Many different photographic equipment can be found on AliExpress.

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX on ZK Nikon AF N8008S

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX on ZK Nikon AF N8008S

Results

Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX is a very good lens, there are certain drawbacks with focusing on some models and with some cameras, but in general, it can be a worthy replacement for the native 50 / 1.4 class lenses, and sometimes much better than the native XNUMX / XNUMX lenses '.

UPDATED

A detailed review was released on Radozhiv Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG Art.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

Add a comment: Ruslan

 

 

Comments: 170, on the topic: Sigma 50mm 1: 1.4 DG HSM EX review

  • Simon

    when you say what you say ... why then did you write this comment? Write what you mean ...

    • Simon

      Is not 35 mm 1.4?

      • Jury

        Not 35, - 20 1,4 Art

        • Simon

          I can perceive your positive emotions in the context of this article as blurring the truth ... Since in this article on diets we are talking about a different lens and what you write about in a different price category and has nothing to do with this article ...

  • Alexander

    Sigma 50 1.4 is also available in Art. This lens got a lot of negative reviews. Big, heavy, pulls off his arms, legs give way, the eye trembles, saliva runs ... .. junk in general. In addition to everything, it is incredibly sharp since 1.4, always in a miss, the DoK station does not save at all, when it falls from the height of the 3rd floor, it breaks the camera, the box breaks the turd. there is no drawing and does not exist…. And that's not all. Zeiss - where do you want to shove them with their price now? … And here I am filming with him and I do not understand in any way; - why is he so hayut. I like this.

    • Valery A.

      Great comic commentary. And he finished "for health."

    • Koba

      You know, before this Sigma 50 Art in the reviews put in the minus of the lenses everything that was fixed in it. Now people are dissatisfied with the fact that the lens does not have those drawbacks that could be used to write reviews, and they pour dirt on it due to unstable autofocus and heavy weight, that is, due to the use of real high-quality glasses with a large diameter in it! But no one says this when they say about Lake that they don’t have autofocus at all, and that the matrices in the cameras are simply sloppy, and the DD is lower than from the surveillance cameras, and in the latest M10 model they finally put the same matrix as in the Nikon D600 and everyone just lost their minds with happiness and buy it at a price of $ 7000! By the way, autofocus works fine, especially on Nikon, my friend has it and he does not complain.

      • Nikolay Eremeev

        Dear, who are these "all"? The numbers are bought for show-offs, and not to shoot. In shooting, any advanced DSLR beats it in all respects. It is absolutely useless in many situations. You do not know much about the subject. They buy a digital watering can, put it on a shelf and get it out a couple of times a year for a small series of test frames. I would hardly have started buying this sigma, too big and weighty. Nikon 50 1.4g like more.

        • anonym

          Dear, this is exactly what I am writing, including Ohr Leikah. And also the fact that this Sigma is just a tempting lens ... By the way, Nikon 50.1,4G is also just a wonderful lens and despite the fact that it loses to this Sigma when fully open in resolution, it is still preferable, since the weight is less, there are almost no AF misses. and also costs significantly less. Personally, I would prefer this fifty kopeck piece to another, older fifty kopeck piece with 1,4 aperture from Sigma, DG EX version ...

  • Ruslan

    Hello, Arkady. Thanks for the review.
    D700 and D80 cameras with a small number of megapixels, and the picture looks great ...
    But what if I put such a lens on my d5200? Will it be enough for 24MP?
    I look at the first fix (after helios) and doubt between fifty dollars: this and Nikkor 1.4 and 1.8
    Judging by your reviews, I liked the picture most of all from sigma ..

  • Yaroslav

    I am taking off this fifty dollars from sigma for the 4th year. I must say right away - FAVORITE LENS that I will never sell. Native Nikon's fifty kopeck sold immediately after comparison. I have 85 1.8. And next to him he did not stand in sharpness with a fifty-dollar sigma. Looks like people just have no luck with copies, or something else ... I have 1.4 fully working. Excellent sharp picture. I use it on both of my carcasses (D700 and D7000). No autofocus adjustment is required at all. I shoot them about 60-70% of the wedding day. Almost the entire walk on 1.4. Twice they had to shoot their entire wedding all day long (once for the sake of experiment, and once…. It happened).
    In general, a gorgeous lens, completely worth the money.

  • Ramis Ebellehovich

    Do I need an adjustment for a lens that does not have auto focus?

  • DARYA

    Hello! Recently purchased lens 50 1.4 not Art. I'm trying to shoot with Canon Mark2. I really liked shooting in the evening in cloudy weather. I was delighted with the pictures. They turned out so romantic. But I still understand ....))

    • Vyacheslav M.

      The delight from Art you will pass over time. The review hero has an interesting picture. Although not as sharp at 1.4 as Art. On the other hand, to see this, you must have both for comparison.

  • flat

    terrible portraits, some kind of plastic. Byaka, not Boke.

  • Alexander

    Good day. I have a canon version. There is no DG HSM marking on the lens itself, only EX. I could not find a description on the Internet. Can someone tell me how it differs from the DG HSM? It focuses quickly, quietly and accurately, and this is on 5D. The first ancient nickle. Thanks.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Send a photo of the lens. As far as I know, they were all DG HSM

      • Alexander

        Arkady, good afternoon. Sent pictures to the mail. I don’t understand how to attach it. Thanks.

  • Igor

    I took this sigma ideally, there is back focus, but if you try to fine-tune it, even if you set +20, then the focus on the line / table changes at most, by a couple of millimeters.
    Bundle of Nikon D800 and Sigma 50mm 1.4 DG HSM

    • Votarist

      Try resetting all the settings in the camera. And then by the method of samples and sticks, expose your settings in turn. It helped me with the Sigma 105 mm 1: 2.8 DG Nacro HSM EX. He brought it home, began to check, and he had focus, now in front, then behind, instead of the object being shot, he already wanted to call the seller and give it back. I reset the D5200 and everything worked as it should.

  • Shufryga

    How true is it that lenses from Sigma give away yellowness?

    • Pokemon

      Depends on the specific model and its age.
      But to fresh EX DG and ART models almost does not apply.

  • Igor

    Good day. Yesterday I just asked you about the Nikon AF-S 1.8G, and today they offered this Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG HSM EX.
    Like new and only slightly more expensive.
    The seller swears that there are practically no misses in focus on his D3 carcass and that this is the first time he hears such a thing.
    Sigma is simply gorgeous to look at, but not all gold that glitters, as they say ...
    What choice would you make?
    We are looking for a budget but acceptable portrait lens, there is simply no money for ART yet.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      A budget portrait lens is 85 / 1.8, 80-200 / 2.8 mkii.
      In general, this Sigma is more interesting than the native 50 1.8zh

    • Igor

      I have 80-200 / 2.8 mkII. It's just a song.
      Thank you for not buying the mkI. ;)
      But it took 50mm and lighter than 2.8
      Bought it today ... Sigma.
      I have nothing to compare with - only the Minolta MD 50 / 1.4 via an adapter (here without the Sigma champion options).
      Well, the view ... Samets!))

  • Igor

    Please help me with choosing a 77 mm filter for protecting the lens.
    the choice is great and the prices are also different. Of course, I'm interested not to lose quality, as much as possible.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Watch on a budget, primarily at B + W, Kenko, Hoya HD, Marumi DHG

    • Pokemon

      There are very inexpensive used new or almost new ones at flea markets such as Avito.
      Can be found for less than $ 10.
      Look at Kenko and HOYA if you want inexpensive and high quality.

  • Vlad

    Tell me, does anyone have any experience of using the Nikon bzk via ftz? How does autofocus, aperture control work? Does af for eyes, 3D tracking work?

    • coriander

      But for me on z6 everything works fine both in the eyes and in whatever way.
      Nikon's 1.4g didn't catch on at all, there were 2 copies and both had problems with sharpness, and the motor rattled loudly on the z6, and the focusing speed was slow.
      I liked 1.8g, but the drawing is boring. But nimble, compact and lightweight. Sigma looks too cool 😊

  • Vlad

    Good evening, Arkady. Such a problem: I decided to buy 50 1.4 ex, from my hands. When checked, the lens worked fine at d90, with a slight back focus, but already at f2 it is not critical. And on d5600 - autofocus does not work. The MF parameter is specified in the camera menu in the af settings, and this item is inactive, cannot be changed. I dug the Internet, they advised me to roll back the firmware to an older one. It rolled back from 1.10 to 1.02, but the autofocus did not start. As a result, I had to abandon the purchase. It's a shame, I wanted this lens for a long time, and Art is too expensive ((don't tell me, what could be the solution to this problem?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      There is no solution. The old non-native lens and the new camera did not make friends.

    • Victor

      Try to roll back to 1.01, there is a chance that Nikon has not screwed up there yet. Googled on softpedia.

      Similar problems with all new firmware on fresh (and not very fresh) Nikon cameras - focus on Sigma stops working (even where it worked perfectly before). For example, on D7100, when upgrading from 1.03 to 1.04, the same problem.

      • Arkady Shapoval

        d5600 is too new, it won't work there

        • Victor

          Yes, probably.

          If a rollback from 5500 to 1.01 still helps at 1.00, then most likely not here, even the original firmware will already be with the changes made.

          By the way. This applies not only to “new devices and old non-native glasses”, but also to old devices and old non-native glasses (about updating the firmware on them), and new devices and new non-native glasses (the problem with the impossibility of focusing the entire line of sigma art fixes on d6)

          Nikon's official answer seems to be related to “improving work in new firmware AF-p focusing”, but we know how much the sales of native optics are spoiled by the appearance of an alternative, cheaper and no worse (or even better) :-)

          And if on the new line it is still possible to achieve a firmware update released by sigma through the dock or at the service center, then for the lenses out of production this possibility is closed (answer of the official representative)

  • Dmitry Kostin

    Last year I bought this Sigma 50 / 1.4 EX DG HSM lens for a Canon mount.
    Initially, the choice was between him and the Canon 40 / 2.8 STM.
    Sigma focuses much faster, but as it turned out, it misses the focus, often leads to back focus, but sometimes the front.
    When buying, I checked the work of the focus mainly on MDF or close to it and everything was smooth, but as it turned out later, at a distance of 0 meters or more there is an error in back focus.
    Tried on film EOS 3 and 1Ds_mk2. On 1Ds_mk2 the situation is better, but the sharpness is not impressive. On film 3 out of 4 frames, 1 is in focus, 3 is back focus (sometimes 1 out of 3 is front).
    When testing Canon 40 / 2.8 STM surprised me with extremely slow focus, especially on film 3-ke. The focal length of this Sigma does not look like 50mm, rather there is 45-46mm, as some reviewers said about this. I hope it will be possible to solve the issue by adjusting in s / c. The color rendition is neutral and does not yellow.

    • Dmitry Kostin

      I handed it over to the official service for adjustment.
      According to the master 50 / 1.4 Art, they are structurally better made and lack some of the features of this lens.
      I have a late version 50/1.4 EX DG (no velvet).
      According to the master: All 50 / 1.4 EX DG lenses have a problem - the front lens block becomes loose over time. This process can exacerbate shaking or even a slight bump/fall. From myself I will say that I have met at least two reviews (one in English), where people complained that the front lens just fell out of the lens (one of the owners had it right when shooting). With active use, it is advisable to give it to the service for a professional examination.
      The offset of the front lens block affects the accuracy of focusing. Which was just me.
      In addition, at different focusing distances, the lens has a different miss. I mostly had back focus. At a distance of up to 2 meters - tolerable, but as if over time he began to miss more often.

  • Boris24

    As a fan of manual optics, it was interesting for me to try one of the best autofocusers in this case, Sigma. As for the misses in the open, yes, there were practically none in the manual, on the covered one, respectively, due to the depth of field, everything is fine, I advise using aperture 1.4 in M ​​mode. Now about the sad I have an old standard of sharpness Olympus g.zuiko f1.4 / 50 they are equivalent to a pancake when they made a plover and when the sigma plover is half as easy and cheaper for money. 1.4 is higher than all of them combined. As for the sigma, I’ve left spring now, I’ll test it in nature and at work. The result is not all that glitters gold.

    • Rodion

      And you show the edges from the plover and from the sigma.

    • Gregor_S

      “one of the best auto focusers”
      Are you talking about 50\1,4 art or 50\1,4 from the review?

  • Alexander

    I would be grateful to Arkady if I manage to clarify the situation on this lens. Used this Sigma with 700 and 750 in the best possible way. At 810 refuses to work. Thank you in advance for your response.

    • Dmitry Kostin

      The lens is unique. I have one for Canon EF and it also does not work well with all cameras. Even after adjustment. Advice: take it to the service for adjustment or hammer it, if you are really satisfied with its work on other cameras ..
      The master who adjusted this lens for me advised me to buy a Sigma Art 50 / 1.4, and sell this one.

      • Alexander

        Thanks for participating, the lens sold, I will try my native Nikon

        • Dmitry Kostin

          If it's not a secret, how much did you manage to sell for?
          On them (for mounts - both F and EF), for some reason, the price has noticeably dropped compared to the one that was 2 years ago.

          • Dmitry Kostin

            As a result, I sold my Sigma 50 / 1.4 EX DG. Even after adjustment, the officials with the film Troika (EOS 3) had AF errors. Not a number - everything is ok, on the crop, on the FF. I will look at native lenses.

  • Snagen

    Hello! I bought a Sigma 50 F/1.4. Everything is fine on the Z6II. On the D810 (also on the D7100), AF does not want to work. Why is this so and can something be done?

    • Dmitry Kostin

      If there is an official Sigma service center nearby, my advice is to take it there.
      They will look at it and, if necessary, fix it so that it works on all 3 cameras.

      • Snagen

        Thanks!

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