andrewdoeshair
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- May 23, 2016
- Messages
- 179
- Reaction score
- 133
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Sorry to bug you with a problem I could eventually figure out through google and youtube. I'm just hoping one of you has been through this and can save me a few hours of Internetting...
I've got a Sigma 50mm Art lens that I use on my 5Diii and most of the time I love it, but I spend a good chunk of time hating it. I recently took a trip to Ireland and brought my Canon 50mm F1.8 instead of the Sigma just because I didn't want to lug around so much weight, and I was very happy with the performance. Sometimes the bokeh was a bit jarring and the contrast was really harsh, but the physical performance of the lens was on point, focus was always accurate and it was fast enough. Yesterday I went to Disneyland for the day and brought the Sigma lens, but by the end of the day I wanted to throw it off the top of the Matterhorn. More often than not the autofocus would grab the background instead of the subject, and I'd miss a shot because of it. It's not so much that it's trying to hit the subject and then back focusing or front focusing a little (it did that for a while until Sigma got my money for their USB dock) but that it hunts a lot and then decides I want the trees in focus but the face out of focus. This is like 3 out of 5 attempts.
I'm using the back buttons for focus, the "AF-ON" button for a single point and the "*" button for the whole area (you know, the [ ] selection), then if my subject is moving I'll hold the * and also hold the DOF preview button to switch from one shot to AI servo and track them. With every other lens I have (canon 16-35 F2.8L ii, Canon 24-70 F2.8L, Tamron 150-600mm, and that nifty fifty) this method gets me the shot, but this Sigma lens always acts like I just woke it up from a nap, slightly disoriented, not ready to get to work. When I have a still subject and can set up a shot it works fine. Anything moving and the lens doesn't keep up.
Is this just a thing with this lens? I mean, I know they're plagued with front and back focusing issues, but is it known to perform poorly with focus tracking? I've never fiddled with the first AF menu in the camera's settings (tracking sensitivity, etc) and am wondering if learning about that will help this lens to perform better. If that won't fix it, I guess I'll be selling it for another red ring. Or else I'll keep the lens around for the studio, where I have a model who isn't moving and doesn't have trees around them...
I've got a Sigma 50mm Art lens that I use on my 5Diii and most of the time I love it, but I spend a good chunk of time hating it. I recently took a trip to Ireland and brought my Canon 50mm F1.8 instead of the Sigma just because I didn't want to lug around so much weight, and I was very happy with the performance. Sometimes the bokeh was a bit jarring and the contrast was really harsh, but the physical performance of the lens was on point, focus was always accurate and it was fast enough. Yesterday I went to Disneyland for the day and brought the Sigma lens, but by the end of the day I wanted to throw it off the top of the Matterhorn. More often than not the autofocus would grab the background instead of the subject, and I'd miss a shot because of it. It's not so much that it's trying to hit the subject and then back focusing or front focusing a little (it did that for a while until Sigma got my money for their USB dock) but that it hunts a lot and then decides I want the trees in focus but the face out of focus. This is like 3 out of 5 attempts.
I'm using the back buttons for focus, the "AF-ON" button for a single point and the "*" button for the whole area (you know, the [ ] selection), then if my subject is moving I'll hold the * and also hold the DOF preview button to switch from one shot to AI servo and track them. With every other lens I have (canon 16-35 F2.8L ii, Canon 24-70 F2.8L, Tamron 150-600mm, and that nifty fifty) this method gets me the shot, but this Sigma lens always acts like I just woke it up from a nap, slightly disoriented, not ready to get to work. When I have a still subject and can set up a shot it works fine. Anything moving and the lens doesn't keep up.
Is this just a thing with this lens? I mean, I know they're plagued with front and back focusing issues, but is it known to perform poorly with focus tracking? I've never fiddled with the first AF menu in the camera's settings (tracking sensitivity, etc) and am wondering if learning about that will help this lens to perform better. If that won't fix it, I guess I'll be selling it for another red ring. Or else I'll keep the lens around for the studio, where I have a model who isn't moving and doesn't have trees around them...