Sigma, A Great Choice

Ever since the dawn of 35mm cameras independent lens manufacturers have produced optics that generally carried a lesser price and was of lesser quality than those offered by the original manufacturer. A few independents however, do make lenses that often meet or exceed the major camera manufacturers’ products. These companies include Zeiss, Sigma, and Tamron.

Sigma, in particular, has produced perhaps the best standard 50 mm lens in its all-new 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM. Fixed focal length lenses are called “prime lenses” because they do not have to deal with the inherent compromises that the design of a zoom lens demands. Prime lenses are designed to perform extremely well at one focal length. This is important for photographers who need or demand the sharpest image that they can achieve.

This particular new Sigma lens has received wide acclaim, which it richly deserves-- along with many of the other lenses in Sigma's line-up. As do most independent manufacturers, Sigma makes its lenses available to fit Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony and Pentax camera bodies, while retaining all of the autofocus and auto exposure capabilities of the original manufacturers’ lenses, with only a few rare exceptions in certain Pentax models.

This new design from Sigma was just announced a few months ago and incorporates all of the positive attributes of a really good lens: rare-earth glass, multi-layer specialized coatings, hypersonic focusing-- which is silent, fast and accurate-- beautiful construction, but most importantly it produces spectacularly sharp pictures. This is a welcome change from the usual slow zoom “kit lenses” that are packaged along with most new digital cameras. In fact, this particular lens is an improvement over most other manufacturers 50mm lenses.

A lot of engineering attention was paid to make this lens the best in its class. The 50mm focal length has always been considered a classic 'standard' lens for 35mm full-frame cameras. This lens works equally well with standard sized sensors or smaller sensors. If your DSLR uses a smaller format sensor it is perfect as a short 'portrait' lens, with an equivalent angle of view of 75mm on the 1.5x 'DX' format cameras. The fast F1.4 aperture also provides a great advantage over most zooms, as they are generally considerably slower, with maximum apertures ranging from F3.5 to F6.3. This F1.4’s speed allows you to see a much brighter picture in your viewfinder and offers extremely fast focusing speed and accuracy, due to the extra light that wide aperture lenses pass.

The new Sigma 50mm F1.4 has created much excitement as the first new design and reasonably affordable fast 50mm lens in many years. This is definitely a top quality product, and as such, demands a premium over its lesser brethren. If you are serious about photography and want a tack sharp prime standard lens, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

For more information go to: www.Sigmaphoto.com

John Lentz, Jr.