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a better fast 50mm then the canon 50mm 1.4?

drazin

Member
i shoot alot of concerts and i like to use my canon 50mm 1.4 @ 1.4 or 1.8 and the shots i get from it are unusable. soooo not sharp and very ****ty quality.

looking to upgrade my 50mm to something better for my canon 5dmkII

any suggestions?
 
You might well have a crummy copy of the f/1.4 model. It's not a Legendary Optic or anything, but a good one is capable of making really usable pictures even wide open. It's got a pretty nice DOF falloff as well in my opinion.

That said, I haven't used mine since the 1.2L came into my life. That's a great lens (that is demanding to use, but), rewarding in use.
 
T

tokengirl

Guest
The Sigma 50mm f1.4. You may have to microadjust, as it has a tendency to front focus. But once you've got it dialed in, its great. Very nice build quality, the case it comes in puts Canon to shame, super delicious bokeh.

Shot at f1.8:
 

mark1958

Member
The Zeiss 50mm f2.0 makro is great. You need to do manual focus but there is focus confirmation. Very sharp wide open
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
I assume you mean the Conurus conversion of the 50mm? What's it like for focus speed, how is the bokeh, sharpness wide open, how does it draw open or closed?
 

Steve Hendrix

Well-known member
I will also add +1 on the Sigma 50mm/1.4 (and I don't even sell it).

When I shopped for a 50mm, I considered Canon 50/1.4 and Sigma 50/1.4.

If you can afford the 50/1.2, great. But not in my budget.

Problem with the Sigma was the auto focus (which I use a lot). Very inconsistent, not reliable enough. But the copy I had seemed sharp, even at 1.4 and the out of focus rendering was what I was looking for. But frustrated at the focus issue (these are well known with the Sigmas).

I tried the Canon 50/1.4 and was not impressed at all by the quality wide open and near wide open. Could have been a bad copy. But I figured if I'm going to buy multiple copies to get one I like, I might as well try the Sigma again (my first choice).

So I did, I bought 3 at once, kept one returned the others. The one I kept focused close enough to the Canon USM and the sharpness was - even at 1.4 - completely usable. I normally am dealing with 40MP/60MP digital backs with sharp lenses and pixel peeping, etc, so I know sharp when I see it.

So I now happily own a Sigma 50/1.4. The sample below is at f4, but f1.4 is only a hair less sharp. Note the round points off the taxi lights.

I would say regardless of what you buy, I would purchase multiples, try them, keep the best. I don't sell Sigma, I sell Canon, so this is just from me to you, you owe it to yourself to try the Sigma.


Steve Hendrix
 

PSon

Active member
If funding is not an issue, here are my recommendation for speed:
1. Contax Carl Zeiss 1.2/55 Jahre in manual focus
2. Canon EF 1.2/50L for autofocus and sharpness
3. Leica Summilux-R 1.4/50
-Son
 
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