Canon 50mm 1.8 vs 1.4

anda

anda

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Hello,

I want to buy a nifty fifty as you guys call it, because i think portraits look amazing with this lens. But was looking at the price and 1.8 goes for like 60-80 pounds used and the 1.4 goes for about 250 i think there is one for sale on here.

How different are they in performance compared to the price? I know 1.2L is an exceptional lens but its way too expensive for me so wanted to see what you guys got to say about these two.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a 1.4 and believe me the difference is great the first time you use it bet you get a white out photo.

this is a fine prime fast lens for not very much buck, outside inside studio very professional lens, if buying second hand watch for motor problems as they can burn out quickly, canon know this as well but as yet are only honoring repairs to in warranty or just out of lens,

Merc
 
The Canon 1.4 is a much better lens regarding sharpness, AF and build quality.

The Sigma is even better if you can stretch your budget a bit.
 
Mark i can imagine the image would be whiteout :)

micloi which sigma are you refering ? thanks
 
I had the 1.8 and loved it - a fab lens, even if it sold at triple the price. Used it alot and loved using it wide open.

Then I got the 1.4 instead, and somehow it's just so much better. Is it worth the extra - when you see the shots it can take, you know it's worth it. Smoother operation, faster af, quieter, manual focus is more controllable, and the iq is even better. If you can afford it, get the 1.4
 
concur with these guys

there is something about the images the 50 1.4 produces - on crop or full frame, that just have a touch of magic.
 
Thanks for all your replies guys, but i have read somewhere that sigma has a problem with the AF system? Doesn’t focus consistently anyone experienced it?

Also atm i am just learning, but i know i will go ff in a year or 2 because the world of photography amazes me, so maybe the canon would be better for FF or they both equally good?
 
If you are buying this for portraits then look no further than 85mm f1.8. It is sharp and well built unlike the other 2 paperweights. Longer focal length is in fact much better for portraiture anyway.

The current 50'ies are so bad that I decided to wait for 50mm f/1.4 II.
 
The Sigma is just fine. It was said that the first few batches had some AF problems but, even if it was true, that was more than 2 years ago.

My copy focuses perfectly and is very sharp even at f1.4

The 85mm will be too long on an 1.6x crop (your 50D) IMHO.

Even on my 1.3x body I prefer the 50mm.

The 85mm is perfect on full frame bodies (I had one when I owned the 1DsII)

So as an, ex, owner of the Canon 50mm 1.4 and the Canon 85mm 1.4 and a current owner of the Sigma 50mm 1.4, I personally prefer the Sigma by far.
 
anda said:
Thanks for all your replies guys, but i have read somewhere that sigma has a problem with the AF system? Doesn’t focus consistently anyone experienced it?

Also atm i am just learning, but i know i will go ff in a year or 2 because the world of photography amazes me, so maybe the canon would be better for FF or they both equally good?
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The Sigma has no 'problem' with AF as far as I know. It uses HSM; I had a 10-20 with that and I couldn't fault it, amazing fast & accurate focussing ability and the focus ring was lovely to use. Canon's 50mm f/1.4 uses a micro ultrasonic motor so not a real Ring USM, the focussing therefore isn't as good as it could be and the focussing ring is horribly damped, really bad like feels that something's broken because it doesn't move smoothly.



daugirdas said:
If you are buying this for portraits then look no further than 85mm f1.8. It is sharp and well built unlike the other 2 paperweights. Longer focal length is in fact much better for portraiture anyway.

The current 50'ies are so bad that I decided to wait for 50mm f/1.4 II.
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On optical quality I have to disagree with this. Have you used the fifties properly? The 1.8 is very sharp and great value for money and the 1.4 is a step up still optically. For the price I don't see a valid complaint really.

I'll be interested in seeing the II if it does make it to the shelves though but really I can't see anything wrong with their current line up...
 
daugirdas said:
The current 50'ies are so bad that I decided to wait for 50mm f/1.4 II.
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Not quite sure what you've got aginst the current fifties, the complaints I have heard are few and far bettween about either and very rarely relate to image quality or sharpness.

On a crop body I've found 85mm a bit long for most portrait shots, the 50 is just about perfect. I currently have an f1.8 nifty but would love to upgrade it to a 1.4 simply for the rounded aperture blades which give nicer out of focus highlights, certainly wouldn't fault my nifty for image quality!
 
a1ex2001 said:
Not quite sure what you've got aginst the current fifties, the complaints I have heard are few and far bettween about either and very rarely relate to image quality or sharpness.

On a crop body I've found 85mm a bit long for most portrait shots, the 50 is just about perfect. I currently have an f1.8 nifty but would love to upgrade it to a 1.4 simply for the rounded aperture blades which give nicer out of focus highlights, certainly wouldn't fault my nifty for image quality!
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The f/1.4 aperture blades aren't rounded. There's just more of 'em, so you get more circular bokeh rather than pentagons.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Not quite sure what you've got aginst the current fifties, the complaints I have heard are few and far bettween about either and very rarely relate to image quality or sharpness.
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Build quality is awful, so I don't need to go any further than that. Optically 1.4 would be OK though, and 1.8 when stopped down is also fine.
I siply don't accept lenses that are very likely to break any day. Just search ebay and google for faulty 50mm if you don't believe.
 
the build quality of the 1.4 isn't exactly stellar but i wouldn't call it awful, and is the 50 L not made of metal? :shrug:

The 85mm 1.8 is practically the same build as the 50 1.4 except it has real USM not some pseudo ultrasonic jobbie. I've never heard you slate the 85's build quality though...

I don't know what constitutes awful build quality in your books but I suspect it's a significantly higher expectation than the rest of us :suspect:
 
I sold my 1.8 for the 1.4 and have no regrets! Much better build and the USM makes focusing much quicker!
 
I bought the 1.8
sold it on

I bought the 1.4
sold it on

whilst a good lens I did nt really see that much advantage over my tamron17-50 f2.8 to justify keeping it as my tammy is sharp enough at 2.8 for me to print mainly 7x5's

you pays your money you takes your chance....

notice how often 2nd hand 1.8's come up in the for sale section ;)
 
daugirdas said:
Build quality is awful, so I don't need to go any further than that. Optically 1.4 would be OK though, and 1.8 when stopped down is also fine.
I siply don't accept lenses that are very likely to break any day. Just search ebay and google for faulty 50mm if you don't believe.
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Given the number of f1.8's sold I think the number of complaints about faulty lenses is pretty tiny, you certainly don't see many threads on here with broken ones you much more likely to see a thread moaning about dodgy sigma 10-20mm or focussing issues on the sigma 50mm! Yes the build quality isn't the greatest but it gets the job done and for £80 you can hardly expect it too be solid metal, it's not like the average user takes it too a war zone!

As for stating that the build quality of the f1.4 version makes it a total non starter then you are ruling out the purchases of 90% of the lenses on the market, again the build might not be quite L standard but it's certainly not terrible and stands comparison with everything else on the market and I've never heard of a faulty one.

Googles first page of results for 'Faulty Canon 50mm' only contains one link about a genuinly faulty 50mm and that is the only one for sale on Ebay UK. If there were the serious issues your claim I would expect the first page of results to be littered with forum postings and rants!
 
kennysarmy said:
notice how often 2nd hand 1.8's come up in the for sale section ;)
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Mostly because people realise how useful a fast normal lens is that gives superb quality - they are more often than not selling it on to upgrade to the 50mm f/1.4 (canon or Sigma) or the 1.2, and they are doing so because they want a better built lens with better AF that will last longer. Canons 50mm f/1.8 is a gateway into a very fine optical world, and for the price (and resell price) I consider it a rental to see whether you like fast primes and superb optical quality.

I did the same, so have loads of others. On a full frame camera too, there's nothing quite like a fast 50.
 
One that often gets overlooked is the Canon 50mm f2.5. I have one as well as a Siggy 50mm f1.4.
 
I just took the shots below with the Sigma 1.4

f/1.4, ISO 2500

NO sharpening, just lifted the levels as they came too dark out of the camera.

First one uncropped, just resized
Second is a crop.
And finally the crop, sharpened

Look at the detail in the eye but, especially, on the nose (as the nose is at the edge of the frame). Both my Canon lenses (50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.8) were softer open wide at both the center and the edges.

+ the sigma is build like a tank!

ed84a309.jpg


24cab887.jpg


96d7fc2b.jpg
 
a1ex2001 said:
Given the number of f1.8's sold I think the number of complaints about faulty lenses is pretty tiny, you certainly don't see many threads on here with broken ones you much more likely to see a thread moaning about dodgy sigma 10-20mm or focussing issues on the sigma 50mm! Yes the build quality isn't the greatest but it gets the job done and for £80 you can hardly expect it too be solid metal, it's not like the average user takes it too a war zone!

As for stating that the build quality of the f1.4 version makes it a total non starter then you are ruling out the purchases of 90% of the lenses on the market, again the build might not be quite L standard but it's certainly not terrible and stands comparison with everything else on the market and I've never heard of a faulty one.

Googles first page of results for 'Faulty Canon 50mm' only contains one link about a genuinly faulty 50mm and that is the only one for sale on Ebay UK. If there were the serious issues your claim I would expect the first page of results to be littered with forum postings and rants!
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I am very happy with the build quality of 85mm f/1.8 real-ring-USM non-L for example. And I have ***personally seen* a large number of faulty 50mm 1.8 and 1.4 belonging to friends and camera club members. I have yet to see another such unreliable lens.
 
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