My experience is that pretty much all of the 1st party 50/1.4's are weak wide open. The FA's probably the best of the lot, but it's weak until f2, the Canon is very bad, the old Nikon 50/1.4 is mediocre, the new version is somewhat better but still not what you'd call sharp until f2.8.
If you want wide-open performance the Sigma 50/1.4 will simply destroy any of the non-exotic 1st party options, its aspherical element increases performance at wide apertures by a very noticeable amount. -Adan On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 6:23 PM, Jeffery Smith <jsmith...@gmail.com> wrote: > My concern with the Sony was the weak performance wide open, which is > sort of counterproductive for a fast lens. Dpreview is the only review > I have seen of it. They did feel that it was comparable to the others, > when stopped down. The problems with it seem to be exacerbated when > using a full frame digital" > >From Dpreview > "Having reviewed four other 50mm F1.4 lenses of similar design over > the past few months, we weren't expecting any major surprises from the > Sony version. And in broad terms it's not hugely different from its > Canon, Nikon and Pentax equivalents; as befits a quality prime it > gives excellent image quality when stopped down, but struggles > somewhat when used wide open, showing common problems such as corner > softness, halation, bokeh chromatic aberration, and vignetting on full > frame." > > On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Adam Maas <a...@mawz.ca> wrote: >> On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 2:13 PM, Jeffery Smith <jsmith...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> I looked at the new Sony FF dSLR, and wasn't impressed by the specs in light >>> of the fact that its normal (50mm) lens is decidedly sub-par compared to the >>> competition. >>> >>> Jeffery >>> >> >> The Sony 50/1.4 is as good as the Canon or Nikon 50/1.4's and almost >> as good as the FA 50/1.4 (which is IMHO the best of the 1st party >> 50/1.4's). Sony's 50/2.8 Macro is pretty much best in class for a 1st >> party normal macro. Their only weak spot for normals is the lack of a >> FF budget 50mm, which they share with Pentax (as neither currently >> makes their older 50/1.7 designs). While a lot of Sony types like to >> complain about the lack of a Zeiss ZA 50, there's nothing wrong with >> the current option other than it doesn't render similarly to the >> popular ZA primes. >> >> The best 50/1.4's on the market today are the Zeiss Planar (available >> in K, F and EF mounts, but not A mount) and the Sigma 50/1.4 HSM >> (available in all common mounts). >> >> -- >> M. Adam Maas >> http://www.mawz.ca >> Explorations of the City Around Us. >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> > > > > -- > Jeffery L. Smith > New Orleans, LA > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- M. Adam Maas http://www.mawz.ca Explorations of the City Around Us. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
