Which lens option?

Not quite that far no. :p I think I would be reluctant to spend that much on an EF-S lens any way because it will no longer work when I eventually upgrade to full frame.

if you do need the wide aperture then I think the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 would be a good replacement.
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I've heard that the Sigma has really bad auto focus and that the Canon is better all things considered.

Could my problems be caused by not using strobe assist? I've always left the flash down.
 
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The Sigma 50mm f1.4 HSM has very fast AF, much better than the canon.

Unless your upgrade to FF is imminent then I wouldn't worry about buying EF-s lenses. Buy 2nd hand and you might make a profit.
 
D.P. said:
The Sigma 50mm f1.4 HSM has very fast AF, much better than the canon.

Unless your upgrade to FF is imminent then I wouldn't worry about buying EF-s lenses. Buy 2nd hand and you might make a profit.
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About half the reviews on Amazon complain of significant forward focusing, I know people are more likely to complain than praise things, but that's pretty extreme.
 
Had a good laugh in town today Wilkinsons cameras were selling the tamron for around 500. No wonder these shops are dying, yeah I may be willing to pay 20 more for a nifty fifty, but shops don't have 250 in costs to sell a single lens. What a rip off. And I thought the car crash was shocking!
 
Energize said:
About half the reviews on Amazon complain of significant forward focusing, I know people are more likely to complain than praise things, but that's pretty extreme.
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You will need to get a properly calibrated lens, high street shopsn are best way to go. The lens has very fast AF.
 
D.P. said:
You will need to get a properly calibrated lens, high street shopsn are best way to go. The lens has very fast AF.
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A lens should be properly calibrated from the factory, no way am I paying £600 or something ridiculous for a lens like that from the high street when people aren't having so many problems with the Canon f/1.4. I might as well sell my body and buy a D700 or 5D MKII for that price, that would be better value for money and faster than an f1.4 lens on my current camera.
 
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For starters the lens is £350.

Secondly both Canon and Nikon will sell lenses that are badly calibrated (I have had 2 Nikon lenses needing adjustment) costing thousands of pounds.

Thirdly I have not heard that many stories of calibration issues with this lens, but I don't look closely because both the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and 1.8G are better lenses. Moreover, a lot of people think they have focus issues but it is really their technique or misunderstanding. A fast 50mm prime is often the first wide aperture lens they buy that allows shallow DOF, it is only then that people see their focus errors since there slow kit lens gave them large safety margin with a big DoF. Many people do horrible things like focus and recompose, which on a 50mm @ f/1.4 will cause horrible issues, especial if the lens suffers form field curvature.

Fourthly, all lenses and cameras are only built within a certain tolerance. If both camera and lens are at extreme opposite ends of this then there will be focus issues requiring calibration. In these circumstances it is quite often the camera body itself. Again, people buying their first fast prime like a sigma 50mm may only for the first time be able to observe that their camera is mis-calibrated, but will likely blame the lens.


Fifthly, if you buy a new lens and it is clearly focusing wrong you can send it to the manufacturer for calibration.



Finally, you are thinking of buying the Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8. This lens has a very bad reputation for focus issues. I went through 3 different copies before giving up, i just purchased the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 instead. Far more people suffer focus issues with this lens than any other I have every heard of. I think it was Neil79 on this forum who was severely jerked around with this lens.

When I recommended the Tamron 17-50 I said "try before you buy". I would only buy from a brick and mortar shop, turning up with a printed focus chart and ask to borrow a tripod and do some tests, preferably opening several boxes and testing a few lenses to pick the best. If you can get a good one then it is a very nice, very sharp lens.
 
How is it possible to know if your camera is calibrated correctly or not and what high street shops sell the Sigma lens for £350? I've looked at camera shops in town and like I said for the Tamron many of the prices were ridiculous and they were special order, no way could I get out a bunch of lenses to try.
 
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Energize said:
How is it possible to know if your camera is calibrated correctly or not and what high street shops sell the Sigma lens for £350? I've looked at camera shops in town and like I said for the Tamron many of the prices were ridiculous and they were special order, no way could I get out a bunch of lenses to try.
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prices all between 360-380 for the Sigma 50mm, and these are the cheapest prices you can get including online:

I have used Harrison Cameras, very friendly and god shop. If you speak to them they will probably help you test some lenses.

Dale Photographic, no experience- cheapest you can buy in the UK from a reputable dealer.

Jessops, they may have to order in but then you can try before you buy, good price.

Walters Photo Video Ltd, Clifton Cameras, Castle Cameras.



All depends where you live and how much you care to travel.
Warehouse express has the chepeast price for the Tamron, and I believe you can indeed turn up to their premises to buy lenses and if you get chatting they will hopefully let you test several lenses.

Greys of westminster, Bristol cmaer
 
Thanks. Digitalrev are selling it for £310, but if it's so important to find one that suits my body then I guess it's worth it, I will probably also try the Canon 1.4 as well to get a comparison. Sorry if I seemed a bit abrupt before, still shook up from the car crash the other day. :)

Just have to find what's available in my local area, I'm not optimistic lol.

How will I know if the AF problem is down to my current lens or my body though?
 
So you think the best is the NIKON f1.4g for the three main focal lengths? May switch to Nikon then with the compensation payout.
 
Energize said:
So you think the best is the NIKON f1.4g for the three main focal lengths? May switch to Nikon then with the compensation payout.
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I think the best 50mm lens you can buy taking into account resolution, vignetting, CA, auto-focus, colour and rendition, Bokeh quality and price is the Nikon 50mm F/1.8G. There really isn't a need for the 5 Nikon 50mm f/1.4G, the 1.8 is in some respects better and is much cheaper. Saying that the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 G is better than the Canon and Sigma overall, but all of these lenses are pretty good. The only clear thing is the canon 50mm f/1.8 just does not compete and is clearly inferior. I don't know why Canon users like it so much, the rendering quality is not pleasant, the bokeh is very rough and it lacks contrast wide open, the Af is also unreliable, especially in the dark.
 
Suppose they haven't tried anything better, only reason I got it was because I couldn't afford the more expensive Nikon lenses and the bodies have pre-historic 24fps video recording, after you've been used to f3.5 in low light, f1.8 is a dream despite optical quality. :p
 
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F1.8 is fast enough the vast majority of the time imo.
I'v been thinking about buying a 28 F1.8 to go with a 85 F1.8, as a high quality lightweight solution for photography trips.
 
At f/1.8 indoors though my 550D has sometimes gone to ISO 6400 to maintain 1/500s. f/1.4 would at least help reduce noise.
 
Canon or Nikon?

On nikon the 1.8G has less distortion, both have similar vignetting at equal f-stops, sharpness is pretty equal throughout. They are basically identical lenses with the 1/3rd stop difference in aperture.
 
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