An excellent allrounder, esp. for trips and night photography; for the latter usage, I prefer it to the Noct Nikkor (while the Noct has other qualities that make me use it more often – see my user review). VR is also a plus; even with modern sensors, it is a blessing to be able to shoot at 1/8s without using a tripod (occasionally down to 1/4s, but with a reduced success rate, so better take series of 3 shots).
I generally cannot stand conspicuous longitudinal chromatic aberrations, but my copy at least does not seem to suffer badly from it, fortunately.
Kenneth Almquist
July 11, 2020 10:37 pm
I bought this lens to use with my D7200. I use it even when shooting under bright light because its optical qualities are good, but the combination of optical stabilization and a fast aperture has allowed me to shoot a lot of low light images that I couldn’t have gotten without it. At $399, which has been the going price for several years (I bought it in 2017), this has been one of my most successful purchases in terms of bang for the buck.
David Burns
July 9, 2020 4:53 am
As ever, Nasim, thanks for the excellent review.
I became dissatisfied with the large aperture performance of my Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-S G some time ago and decided to get the Sigma 1.4 50mm to replace it. This proved to be (as you have stated in this review and others) a very, very sharp lens. But, it simply would not focus consistently on either my D810 or D500, often being in focus for less than 50% of the shots. This made it unusable as far as I was concerned. I tried three different copies, much fine tuning and they were each as bad as the other.
I gave up on the Sigma and bought the Tamron 45mm instead. Happily, I have not had any significant focussing problems with this and have only performed fine tuning on my camera bodies. I like it very much and it is much, much better than the Nikon at large apertures. It makes a slightly longer than ‘standard’ lens on a DX camera as well. Rather good for portraits I find. It is also much heavier and more expensive than the Nikon though!
Bun Ichihara
July 6, 2020 12:22 am
$399 seems to be a permanent sale price for this lens. It’s not just for the holiday.
An excellent allrounder, esp. for trips and night photography; for the latter usage, I prefer it to the Noct Nikkor (while the Noct has other qualities that make me use it more often – see my user review). VR is also a plus; even with modern sensors, it is a blessing to be able to shoot at 1/8s without using a tripod (occasionally down to 1/4s, but with a reduced success rate, so better take series of 3 shots).
I generally cannot stand conspicuous longitudinal chromatic aberrations, but my copy at least does not seem to suffer badly from it, fortunately.
I bought this lens to use with my D7200. I use it even when shooting under bright light because its optical qualities are good, but the combination of optical stabilization and a fast aperture has allowed me to shoot a lot of low light images that I couldn’t have gotten without it. At $399, which has been the going price for several years (I bought it in 2017), this has been one of my most successful purchases in terms of bang for the buck.
As ever, Nasim, thanks for the excellent review.
I became dissatisfied with the large aperture performance of my Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-S G some time ago and decided to get the Sigma 1.4 50mm to replace it. This proved to be (as you have stated in this review and others) a very, very sharp lens. But, it simply would not focus consistently on either my D810 or D500, often being in focus for less than 50% of the shots. This made it unusable as far as I was concerned. I tried three different copies, much fine tuning and they were each as bad as the other.
I gave up on the Sigma and bought the Tamron 45mm instead. Happily, I have not had any significant focussing problems with this and have only performed fine tuning on my camera bodies. I like it very much and it is much, much better than the Nikon at large apertures. It makes a slightly longer than ‘standard’ lens on a DX camera as well. Rather good for portraits I find. It is also much heavier and more expensive than the Nikon though!
$399 seems to be a permanent sale price for this lens. It’s not just for the holiday.
Thanks for letting me know! I haven’t been tracking the price of this lens, but at $399, it is of excellent value!