Maannn...!!! I've Been Waiting For your Review So Anxiously...!! Your channel may not be the Biggest But Your lens reviews are By Far the Most comprehensive and Accurate Across All RU-vid. I Am A Big Fan Of your Work...😊
***** oh yeah it's tons better and in my experience the customer service is also miles ahead of Canon. They will fix the aperture motor if something does happen! There a bundle deal - 18-35 1.8 and 50-100 1.8 and the dock. Kindo makes me sad as a 18-35 owner =(
But if I buy a lens, I'd expect it to work for YEARS, not just the 1-2 years warranty (like in Europe, you get 2 years). So if stops working within 2 years the company is obligated to fix it. Even then, if they fix it and it happens again within a certain window of time, they have to fix it again - even if the original warranty period is over. I'm talking about keeping a lens for YEARS and YEARS. Like 5 or 10 years! I mean, when I buy a lens, I don't use it EVERY DAY like a phone, I use it when I take my camera out. And then, I don't use every lens every time I go out! So, I really do expect the lenses to last a long time. That's my only concern.
Guys, stop worrying about the focusing of this lens. It’s perfectly fine and a truly excellent lens. The issue is that at f1.8 the field of focus is so narrow that it’s not a surprise that some people can’t focus it properly. If you want such shallow depth of field you are far better off manually focusing and determining your point of focus. Often these problems happen when using a broad focus areas rather than single point. So whenever you want to use it wide open, set your camera to single point focusing if you want autofocus, but if the image is worth capturing at f1.8 invest a second longer and refine the focus manually with the ring and you won’t look back. Another suggestion is use back button focusing, this will give you better results for focusing with any lens, but especially one that requires such accuracy. There are loads of videos on this and once you switch you will never change back to focusing with the shutter button.
I have this & the 18-35 1.8 lens. Both being used on Canon 750D & recently with a 80D. I do have auto focusing issues with both lenses BUT Iv learnt not to rely on auto focus. (The focus is not constant, you can take 10 shots at the same object & auto focus will vary from dead on to focusing slightly in front or behind the focus point) My experiences is the 50-100 is more accurate at focusing than the 18-35. For me as a hack hobby photographer the joy I get from these lenses out way the inconvenience of the focusing issues. I absolutely love the colour, sharpness & shallow DOF these lenses produce. These lenses have given me a new visual experience & encourages me to get out more with my gear.
Hi would you mind saying a bit more about the focus problems you have faced? It seems to be the one major fly in the ointment here. I can deal with most things but not badly focused pictures! And because of my eyes I can no longer really rely on manual focus. Oh for the good old days of split screen viewfinders.
My thanks for this and indeed your other reviews. I’ve been using this lens with a Sony a6000 + MC-11 adapter since June 10 and I’ve been really impressed with its performance - a real favourite of mine. So, I'm picking up on a few of your points about this lens Focal length - It is self-evident that the reach of the 50-100 is shorter than a comparable 70-200 but then such lenses have less width, that is, the Sigma in 35mm terms, starts at 75mm whereas the 70-200 start at 105. For me that is a drawback offering less versatility. Moreover, the additional length of the 70-200 offers only little advantage in that the reach, at least for me, is frequently not great enough - I tend to use a 300 & 400mm for greater reach and obviously the 70-200 does not go that far. Max Aperture - In your opinion, the Sigma at F1.8 (in contrast to the 70-200 F2.8) offers little or no advantage in terms of sharpness as the Sigma only matches the 70-200 when set at F2.8. It is my sense that might just be down to the focus of your Canon camera where I suspect the auto-focus is not as sharp as the Sony I use - across the focal plane. It is certainly not something showing in my outputs. Moreover, I’ve tried this lens on the Canon 7D and found the auto-focus accuracy poor (4 out of 5 failing) and generally not as sharp as the Sony outputs. However, the auto-focus of the Sony combo is not quite as slick but I'm well satisfied. Sticking with the matter of the F1.8 aperture - it is obvious but worth pointing out that for those who need to take maximum aperture pics in low light the Sigma has the advantage. Weight and size - Yes, it’s a large heavy beast but the upside to that is additional weight helps me maintain a steady grip and helps avoid camera shake. I use it for action, portraiture, social events and street scenes where things are happening. Never been disappointed with it.
Didn't know your channel yet got here because of this specific comparison for wildlife photography. I really liked the practical, no nonsense approach and the info was very helpful. Thumb up!
How can a fact that a lens was designed for aps-c be a downside on itself? It's as if a medium format shooter said that all full frame lenses have a downside because they're designed for full frame and not for medium format. A lens designed exclusively for aps-c is not a negative thing, it's a positive thing because of the lower price and size.
the downside is that if you are a pro with FF cameras, you can't use them on both, or if you think of upgrading to FF mind you, not a huge disadvantage, but disadvantage still
Chris, I'm not sure I have already, but to be sure, I just wanted to thank you for honoring our requests to review this lens. This is a very comprehensive and beneficial review as usual.
Another fact that Chris forgot to mention is that it is a parfocal lens - as you zoom in or out, the focus point does not change. This lens is great for video makers when paired with a sturdy tripod or even a sensor stabilized body.
You're right that I forgot to mention this but, I can tell you now - this lens is /not/ parfocal. Thefocus point changes as you zoom in, I'm afraid. You can actually see this on the two video shots where I zoom the lens in - if you look carefully, at the widest angle, the footage is slightly out of focus.
Nice review. I have not seen one of yours in a while so I was surprised you didn't use your regular building. It was a really nice feature and we knew what to expect. Thanks in any case.
Well, all the best no matter where you are and what you do. I've enjoyed your reviews for a long time and they helped me make up my mind on lenses more than once.
The size of the house had one big advantage, you used real world distances instead of test charts which are often close up to fill the image. Your new chart looks bigger (what size is it actually?) but still can't test near infinity image quality. For some lenses it's not big difference, for others it changes a lot. So I liked the house too.
The house had advantages - but so does the test chart. The test chart has been printed out very large and at a very high quality, at quite an expense. Thankfully it is big enough that problems with close focusing aren't a real issue (lenses which are softer at close distances are only ever so when you're /very/ close to your subject)
Real difficult to choose between this and just getting Canon's 50mm and 85mm, which would end up at half the price. But I don't find the image quality of those older lens all that good, at least in comparison to this lens. So it's definitely a you get what you pay for scenario. This lens is on my bucket list.
You can use this as a 100mm f1.8 prime lens for full frame. Yes some vignette, but certainly reduceble in post and for video, the vignette get cropped anyway.
I just bought this lens. It is heavy, that's true but the image sharpnes recompensates its weight. In my opinion is very well built and focus and zoom rings are amazing in comparison to my older lenses - they works so smoothly and precisely. It is worth of buying.
The CA in the video looked heavy. Do you find it a problem ? I'm looking to pick up a used/ open box one but I'm on the fence. I'll be shooting it on the 77D or M6ii
@@RONNIEJNZN Hi. Sorry for my late answer. I do not use it to shot videos. The biggest issue of this lens that autofocus misses often, maybe due to shallow depth of field. Chromatic aberrations can be fixed easily with novadays software.
@@AK-de3ejThanks for the reply. I've sice received it. $678, from Japan. Looks brand new. Plan on using it this weekend with the family. The few shots I took look amazing on the M6ii.
@@RONNIEJNZN Yes, this is amazing lens. The most beautiful images I have I took with this lens. It is super sharp, but the autofocus is not as fast as I wanted to have (lot of glass to move). Images taken with Sigma 50-100 are magical. But yes, this lens is big and heavy. I am using DSLR Nikon camera but I do not plan to sell this Sigma after switch to mirrorless due to its great performance and magical images.
I know this is a bit late, but I'm wondering if this will fill up my lens line up nicely. I just got myself the Sigma 15-35 1.8, 17-50 2.8, and the 150-600 contemporary for wildlife. I do have the 18-300 3.5-6.3 but being able to cover 15mm to 100mm at F1.8 would be fantastic. All this on my Canon R7.
@@AlungSion It's OK for sharpness, but I keep it around for the macro ability as it's the only lens I have that has this. But it works nicely on my M50. I'm thinking if we do a zoo trip, I'll give my kids that pairing since it's a "do it all" versatile lense.
I'd procure one if it came with IS and was available in Fuji X and full-time Sony E mounts. The clarity, sharpness and bokeh rendition are as impressive as My Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II L.
Got it. LOVE it. I plan on staying in Nikon APSC for a long long time and plan on lots of portraits so it's worth the investment. After having it for about 3-4 months now I have a hard time taking it off and using any other lens. The weight is definitely there, and I have a monopod that I use occasionally, but after about a month or so of using it a lot I got used to it an only use the monopod for events like boxing where I'm basically never putting the camera down.
Awesome review! I like your videos very much. They're very informative and interesting. Could you do a review of the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 (non-Art)? In some reviews they say that it's better value than Nikon and Canon offerings, but the reviews weren't as in depth as Yours. It would be very nice if you could do that. Good luck and best wishes from Lithuania!
Hi Christopher, i'm thinking of buying this lens. I allready own the 18-35 f1.8 and love it. I use it on a 80D. Did you encounter focussing issues with this lens? I love you're lens reviews so keep it up. Greetz from holland
I own 18-35 sigma with canon c100 mkii and autofocus is snappy and accurate. I was thinking about buying this 50-100 and I own a professional tripod that has drag pan and drag tilt adjustments for ultra smooth pans. Or just go hand held with canon 70-300 USM ii as autofocus on that sucker is fastest nano technology for video lenses
As you said primes or this one, I have Sony a6000 so forget 70200 2.8 at 2700 Uss but I was checking the zeiss 55 and this one can be a strong winning instead! . I will check some other tutorial about results with the mc11 adapter :). Many thanks
i think this lens is an excellent choice for video work, when you work more with tripod or monopod with any lens in that mm, so the fact that it doesn't have OS it's no so important, and the 50-100mm range is very usefull for closer frames, because in video you don't move too much like in photo for getting cleaner shots. But in photo mode, i agree that for that price its better get 2 primes, because, the OS is more important, you can move more and change lenses more often than in video and get more sharper and better images with a 50mm or a 85mm mixed lenses. Great review!!
I find myself here many years later as this lens is currently on sale and it's one I've not heard of but it sounds really useful. Having an f/1.8 aperture in that zoom range could be really handy for photographing events, where you don't typically need much range but you do need a wide aperture due to poor lighting. It could be nice to have something to put on my crop sensor cameras. But after hearing about the focus problems I'm wondering if there's been an update in the last 5 years that addresses it. But there's no mention of either the problem or an update here.
What focus problems exactly? The lens actually seem to perform quite well on Canon R7 and R10 with an EF to R smart adapter that Canon sells, surprisingly its much quicker than on the Canon 90D and Canon R7 having IBIS makes this a joy to use.
@@SMGJohn look at some of the older reviews. It always had focusing issues. It wasn't consistent. But apparently adapting them to the R7 has fixed that, same as the Canon 50 MM EF f/1.2.
@@swistedfilms Yeah I know they had issues on Canon bodies which is really odd because on Nikon and Sony those issues were either minor or not there at all. No idea why Sigma screwed it up so badly with Canon....
All other reviewers complain about unreliable focus (check Tony's review). Can you please add focus reliability to your reviews (both normal and low light)?
RETHOGHTS deciding to pick up a Canon R7 camera, what are your thoughts on this lens without the image stabilization where the R5 has IBIS? Do you think that it will be enough handheld for video or photo or would you recommend staying with both LIS and IBIS?
I was happy when I saw the notification. lol but what really surprised me was that you didn't face any focusing issues which seems to be quite talked about on this lens.
Hello Christopher, first at all you have done a great work with all this reviews... I want to ask you, which lens is better? the Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM or this sigma lens at 100mm f/1.8? I mean, which one is more sharper, faster (autofocus), which one have less vignetting, barrel distortion and which one have better out of focus backgrounds (bokeh)? And finally, I've read at DxOMark the Sigma 50mm f1.4 is a little bit less sharper than this lens mounted in Canon APS-C bodies, so, would you recommend this lens (the 50-100) before the 50mm f1.4? Thank you for your reviews and God bless you...
I've seen another review that said the focus misses randomly quite often, something the dock can't fix since it randomly front or back focuses but sometimes hits.
Great review, I have similar doubts to yours re usability of this lens. On one hand I love sigma art series and would love to have it, but I would probably struggle to find any use for it.
I bet this would do pretty well in a photo pit at a larger venue. Kind of miss some more active night shots, but really it's hard to complain about these impressive reviews :D
Hi Chris, I'm fairly new to photography. I have a canon 80D and looking for a portrait lens that will give me nice background blur. I really like this review, but the size might be too large for me. How does the sigma 50 mm art prime compare to this for portrait on the 80D?
On the subject of tripod plate problem, you can alleviate it by placing something (like a rubber washer) between the screw and the tripod foot of the lens. You say that the hole is "not deep enough", but from the lens photos it seems to entirely pass through to the other side of the tripod foot?
Hey Chris, me again with some questions. Hope you see this. I was looking for a new lens for my 7d2 and 80d, and watching your review for like the tenth time, and this lens is really good. But with that price, would a 70-200 F4L is be better？I do some portrait work and often go hiking, so would that be better？I remember your review stating it's very sharp for apsc sensors.Weight and size isn't my main concern, with either lens being quite heavy and large. Which one do you think is more bang for the buck？ Thanks for reading Chris.
so in conclusion, sigma 18-35mm f1.8 art is still better lens for the money right? even though sigma 18-35 is not a portrait lens. i heard about 50-100mm lens focusing issues but in this review it seem the focusing is fine. haha. what a shame with the 50-100mm downside. i really looking forward for this lens for portrait
FAAAN BOOOI Thanks Man..!! Also I think the Bokeh Will be Improved as compared to a DX sensor. So Can I Conclude that It will perform better on a D610 (without any problems) than on a DX body (e.g. A D5300) ??
The bokeh should be the same as if it was on a DX camera (on account of the crop). If anything the only thing that may be superior is how the sensor handles noise and color gradation, because FX sensors are usually superior in this regard.
+Keith Spillett I don't mean to bring you down, but with that lens on m4/3 you would effectively have a 100-200mm f3.6 lens. There's no shortcut to gathering light, I'm afraid. I wish there were.
Sigh.... no, it would make it effectively an f/3.6 200mm. If we're going to use the equivalent focal length then it only makes sense to use the equivalent aperture as well. Please don't both arguing this with me, I would hate to have to copy an paste my replies to the dozens of people that wanted to argue it in the past. I'll make it clear here, this is for standing in the same spot, using the same size of image from both sensors for final comparison, and when I say this is the equivalent aperture I mean that it is where you will have about the same amount of noise and depth of field, for the noise assuming the sensors have roughly the same quantum efficiency. Yes, your camera will recommend faster shutter speeds as if it were 1.8, but that is because that is baked into the ISO measure.
Hi Chris and thanks for another great review! My question is this: Have you noticed any autofocus issues? Back- or Front-focusing? My Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 Art has serious AF-issues on my Canon 760D at least, and I've read that is a common issue with Sigma lenses. Best regards, Daniel.
Daniel Frantzen To be fair, most lenses need to be AF fine-tuned/micro adjusted whether you are in Canon/Nikon/Pentax World, especially when we are talking about large aperture lenses
Jim Huang to be fully fair, the problems people are having and complaining about with this lens is random miss focus both front and rear. That type of miss focusing cannot be calibrated away.
@@s87343jim you can micro-adjust only when the lens is consistent, and when it misses focus by a little, not when it focuses meter away from the intended focus plane
Very interesting review for me, since I am on the edge of getting one (basically it is a 70-160 for APS-C). One other review mentioned occasionally occuring, appalling focusing problems. Did you expirience any of those? (btw I got a 70D to use with)
hello chris, what would you recommend, sigma 70-200mm f2.8 HSM II (non-OS) or the canon 70-200mm f4 non-IS? ill be using it shooting very fast paced triathlon most of the time...
Hi Chris, thank you very much for the great review. For Canon DSLR shooters, do you recommend changing the Canon Eh-S Super Precision Matte Focusing Screen when not using Live View Mode?
I really would like to buy the new 50-100 f/1.8 I have a Canon 80D and looking for the full frame quality which this lens provides on a APS-C, but after a lots of reviews it seems that everyone's has the same focusing problems, is this going to be solve soon, if so, I really would like to get it, just looking for a solid positive answer. Best regards
Too bad the CA seems so bad at 50mm F1.8 , I would love ro see a review at 85mm vs the Tamron 85mm VC and I would love to see another comparison with the 105mm 1.4 g NIKKOR
.Hi,Chris I am really sorry for all of these question but can you give me a recommendation for a good wide angle lens for an aps-c camera for astro photography and landscapes and i can put filters on it
Not sure why he's so negative about this lens, it's one of the sharpest, fastest zooms ever created. Re: the size and weight, yeah of course it's large and heavy, that's physics. And if everyone cared about dainty things size/weight we'd all be shooting m43 and using words like "jeans pocketable". ;-)
Hey Chris, does the zoom effect already in effect when I'm using a Canon 60D? How do I extend the focal range of this lens so I could mimic a 70-200 :)
I haven't tested that 70-200 lens I'm afraid. I'm not sure how sharp it would be on APS-C. It would certainly give you far more telephoto reach, though, but it won't be as nice for portrait pictures.
Chris I love your review format. Its concise and very informative, thank you. I'm in the market for a zoom in this neighbourhood for my 70D. Its a shame that the wide open apertures on this one is basically unusable from what I can see, "ghostly" images you said and bad fringing. But of course there are work-arounds. What there's no post processing solution for is when your picture is out focus. Have you seen Tony Northrup's review? He got quite wound up by the focusing problems he was having saying it wasn't even a question of miscalibration because sometimes it front-focused and at others it back-focused. I haven't found any other of the ususal RU-vid reviewers mentioning it but there's a fair number of user forums where it has come up. Did you have any such problems?
When shooting through the viewfinder, there's autofocus inconsistency sometimes even with Canon lenses, because the phase detection technology is a bit outdated these days. That's why I mostly focus in liveview these days, or use mirrorless cameras
Christopher Frost Photography no problem,I want to see you compare the image quality and bokeh from this setup vs canon 70-200 f2.8 and 6d or 5d mkiii combo.
Hi, I'm interesetd in how does it stack up against the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8 EX DC APO HSM II? I assume it is significantly better but does it justfy the price?
I saw that review, his conclusion was that he could not recommend the lens due to the problems with focus, even using Sigma dock to calibrate couldn't fix the problems. Definitely stopped me from purchasing it.
In japan, you can send your equipments both camera and lens to Sigma and they will make the adjustment for free. So you can buy the Art without worrying about focus problem.
Would've been a sweet lens if it was a 35-85 lens. A focal range beginning at a 56mil equiv, and ending at 136 would've been much more useful than one starting at 80 and ending at 160. Not to mention it'd be a great complement to the 18-35.
