Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens for Nikon F (321955)

Just so you know - for what it is worth I am a former professional photographer (retired) with a degree in photography from RISD. This is an honest unsolicited review.I had been eyeing this lens for a while and debating spending that much money. I am sick of the slow zooms and their lack of sharpness. As it was tax free weekend I wanted to take advantage of it and the night before I bookmarked the lens as it was under $1000. The next day I got up to order and the price had gone up by exactly 0.06125%, which is exactly the tax rate in MA. Go figure. Back to the lens.I have only been using the lens for a day but this lens strikes me as amazingly sharp, even wide open at F/1.4, albeit with the extremely shallow depth of field. Being a prime lens I would expect it to be sharper, but I was surprised at just how sharp. I think attached photos 1 and 2 demonstrate this sharpness. The lens was mounted on a Canon 80D. While not a great photo, I took it since the dew in the grass gave interesting detail for testing. This was taken handheld and used the camera's autofocus. I was pointing down, right at the edge of the minimum focus distance. The file from the camera was RAW but in editing no processing was done other than a bit of exposure and white balance compensation. There was no sharpening or other filters used. The first image is full frame with a red box drawn to show the enlarged section taken for the second image. I was blown away by the detail of the tiny droplets, including the images within the tiny drops. I hope this comes thru on the images uploaded to amazon after their processing. The final photo is of our rabbits. They are sooo cute, and I wanted them to get some publicity. Again, taken at F/1.4, this lens allowed me to take this interior shot in low light.About the lens overall.It is a bit bulky and heavy which for me makes it difficult to shoot using live view unless mounted on a tripod. Except for still lifes and portraits, I will likely e using the viewfinder and bracing the camera and lens against my body, as I have always done with my 35mm film cameras. (Yes, some of us still like and use film!).The autofocus in this version appears very quick and responsive, and so far I have not seen it hunt. Again, remember I have only used it for a day.Focusing is very smooth with no backlash. I also like that with autofocus OFF the focus blocks in the viewfinder still blink on and off as you manually focus , which is a great feature, One slight drawback is that there is no close focus. I found myself backing off from objects to allow for minimum focus distance.I might pull out my lens charts and do a real test, and if I do and find anything of note I will update this review.Finally, If you decide to get this lens I would suggest buying an 89mm UV filter for protection, as there is a lot of glass in the front of this lens that you want to keep clean and free of scratches.

Just a quick FYI: This lens has a T-STOP of 1.7 (For any cinematographers or photographers that care). So the light making it out the back is pretty good. Not perfect at about a half stop of exposure, but it's by far not that bad.At first I thought, it's crazy, why would I spend $1200 on a lens to just take pictures of my cat. But then I got the lens and I've gotta say, this is by far the BEST cat picture taking lens available. I will say, though, I wish it had some weatherproofing or should I say, drool resisting at the very least!I started taking pictures of my cat though and boy, was I hooked! My cat never looked so good (And he knew it!)!On a more serious note, this lens is a beast. I've had no issues using it whatsoever on my D500. Once I dialed in the focus on the lens (Which literally took me about 10 - 15 minutes), it's been razor sharp (You can use this with the Sigma USB Dock, not included, but just so you know). Focusing has been fast and precise. Bokeh is glorious and creamy. The lens isn't that heavy (But then again I'm used to hand holding 7lb lenses). The build quality is fantastic, and the giant focusing ring is a pleasure to use for photos and videos. The lens hood feels great, and the case the lens comes with is also pretty adequate. The only issue I have with the lens is the lens cap, but it's really nothing to complain about I just hate how you put it on and take it off. It's a great lens and if I had the choice of buying this lens or something else, I'd definitely pick this one up again.I will say that compared to this and my 150-600 Sport lens from Sigma. I definitely feel like I have to baby this lens considerably more. This definitely feels like a lens that's aimed for studio use or only to be taken out on nice days.Sigma has stated that this lens (Among many other ART lenses) is NOT meant to be out in harsh weather, and it is definitely not meant to be outdoors during pouring rain for an extended period of time. If you are going to use this lens outdoors unprotected and in harsh weather... Be warned that the lens might not be able to take it.Update from 6/2/17:After using this lens for the past few months, I gotta say I'm still in love and it's really good value for what you get.I want to take a minute though and go over some things that some people have had issues with.So, first things first. This is still a relatively cheap lens. Granted, it's not $100, $500... But this isn't a 200 f2. You're not spending over $5,000 on this lens. Even some 70 - 200 2.8's from Nikon and Canon need to be calibrated and they're around the $2000 mark. They aren't always perfect either. There are bound to be some of this lens that aren't perfect, that's just how manufacturing goes. They don't have the time and resources to make sure every single one of these lenses that goes out are absolutely perfect, and nor can they. Whatever body they might use and test could be completely different from what you're using and might not make ANY difference.Using the Sigma Optimization Pro software is literally one of the most useful things and I would say almost required if you have a Sigma lens. You need to get the Sigma USB dock (I got mine for free when I got my 150 - 600 Sport lens but I believe it's $60) Sigma makes it extremely easy for you to fine tune the focus on your lens.I've attached a picture showing my lens, and what my adjustments are (Obviously, this is only for this one specific lens). But it is SO easy to fix back and front focusing, all you need to do is spend 10 - 15 minutes, and that's it. It'll be perfect.There are actual cases though of lenses that ARE too far gone to be fixed. If you go the ENTIRE range from -20 and +20 and nothing helps... Then in that case, I would send the lens back. However, some people are saying they sent back multiple lenses more than likely isn't a lens problem, it's a problem with that person and not knowing how to fix this on their own. They likely expect it to just be perfect straight out of the box, which isn't how most lenses work (At least, under the $3000 range).If you have a problem with this lens and you're not fine tuning the focus (Assuming of course that you have a body that is able, if you don't then you probably shouldn't be shooting with this lens.), there isn't a lens problem there... There's a you problem.The only other thing I want to bring up is that this lens (It should be obvious anyway) does NOT have any sort of VR/IS of any sort. I know people who got this lens and for some reason was under the impression it had some sort of image stabilization. It does not. If you tend to shoot at slow shutter speeds and rely on VR/IS to make your photos sharp... You'll only be disappointed here because that doesn't exist so all you're going to get are blurry photos.Also note that this is similar to other Sigma lenses, which means it does tend to hunt quite a bit. That's just how a lot of them are, it's something you should be aware of. There's plenty of videos and reviews online that talk about this. Even in well lit, optimal condition this lens will tend to hunt more than first party lenses.

Best lens I have ever used.

Beautiful lens. Incredible for portraits.

This is my first “big girl lens”. I’m a newish photographer needing a quality lens for my new business. The first thing that stuck out was how big and heavy this lens is! You could seriously whack someone in the head on accident and it could kill them. But as soon as the judge sees the murder weapon, INNOCENT.All jokes aside, I really like this lens…just from the few sample photos I took of my dog and of other random things like my shoe, the photo quality is stunning. Edges are nice and well defined, bokeh is beautiful. My only complaint would be the lack of image stabilization for a lens of this price point. With the lens being so heavy, if you don’t use a tripod you’re gonna get the shakes which equals blur. I am using it with my Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR and so far, so good. Once I get some actual photos worth posting in a review, I’ll come back and update….but this lens is quality.UPDATE : DO IT! Buy this lens! The images it is giving me, WOW is all I can say. I tested it out while two horses I know were running around and playing and this images are incredible.