50mm f/1.4 shooting advice

[tris101]

I've just bought the Sigma 50mm 1.4.
The first one went back because it was front focussing, & the second one I had to MA to +19. And its still a bit squiffy untill you got to about f2.2.

Still unsure as to keep this lens.:shake:
Could really do with comparing it to a sharp one!!

BTW. I rang Sigam Uk, who told me that they will calibrate it to my camera foc.
As long as I pay the postage to send both lens & camera. (take approx 2 weeks):bang:

Spence

It might be quicker than 2 week if you are lucky, I had a flash rechipped FOC they qouted 2 weeks. It was there and back in under a week.

 

[danski]

BTW. I rang Sigam Uk, who told me that they will calibrate it to my camera foc.
As long as I pay the postage to send both lens & camera. (take approx 2 weeks):bang:

Spence

if you have your Sigma calibrated to your camera, could that have a knock-on effect on how well your other lenses perform? I have 3 L lenses that perform exceptionally well & wouldn't want their performance to degrade if I had the Sigma calibrated

 

[HoppyUK]

if you have your Sigma calibrated to your camera, could that have a knock-on effect on how well your other lenses perform? I have 3 L lenses that perform exceptionally well & wouldn't want their performance to degrade if I had the Sigma calibrated

No, it shouldn't. They don't touch the camera.

It just means that when Sigma calibrates the lens, it it to your camera and not to the 'standard reference' they would normally use. This ensures that if your personal model is not 100% to standard, it will still be right.

 

[spencer]

No, it shouldn't. They don't touch the camera.

It just means that when Sigma calibrates the lens, it it to your camera and not to the 'standard reference' they would normally use. This ensures that if your personal model is not 100% to standard, it will still be right.

Have you had a Sigma lens calibrated? Or has anyone else had theirs calibrated?
And if so did it come back sharp?

Spence

 

[Cistron]

Shamelessly stolen from someones flickr.

That looks like quite an old lens, or does anyone still make 5-bladed apertures?

With 35mm f1.8 AF-S, I had best results with focusing one shot and depressing the shutter all the way as quickly as possible. Often it's either you or your subject moving that is causing the focus to be off.

 

[Raymond Lin]

if you have your Sigma calibrated to your camera, could that have a knock-on effect on how well your other lenses perform? I have 3 L lenses that perform exceptionally well & wouldn't want their performance to degrade if I had the Sigma calibrated

This was the reason the CPS was created, back in the film days, pros used to send in their entire kit and canon would calibrate it all.

Now days with micro adjust you are less likely to need to do that.

Sided note, each lens have a tolerance in accurately in focus, same as the camera.

E.g. The lens can be between as much as -2 to +2 off the "centre" and it would still deemed good.

The camera will be the same in accordance manufacturing spec.

Therefore, if you have a lens come in at -2 and your camera is +2 then you would have a pin sharp lens. Except if you put that same lens on someone's camera with -2, they might say it's a dud.

 

[SamP]

That looks like quite an old lens, or does anyone still make 5-bladed apertures?

Well the 50 1.8 is... IIRC that was shot on some kind of MF 6x6. Cant remember now, was one of the first results on google to illustrate the point of pentagonal bokeh.

 

[neil_g]

Actually pentagonal - the nifty only has five aperture blades.

I never was very good at shapes with more than 4 sides