1.26.2009

New Lens = Legend

WARNING: NERDY PHOTOGRAPHER GEARSPEAK AHEAD!

A new Sigma 50mm 1.4 graced me with its arrival earlier today. So you know what that means! You get a picture of me!

The lens is epic. Its nearly one stop faster than my old 50mm 1.8, two stops faster than the 35-70 it replaces, and a whopping 4 stops faster than my 18-135. It is also 'uge (thats so huge you drop the 'h'), which you can see in the above photo.

I love the depth of field: shallow even at 5 feet:
The focus is also really quiet. And fast. And quiet.
But my favorite part of it is the bokeh. Those who know me well know that choppy bokeh that recreates the background drives me crazy. This lens has the smoothest bokeh ever. Its awesome. Science has proved its awesomeness.

Looking back, I'm really suprised I managed to get three different animals into one post.

Look for more later!

6 comments:

Brian said...

Awesome! That 1.4 sure does make a difference over the 1.8. You almost make me want to chuck my currant 50mm. I think if I upgrade I'll wait till I can afford canon's 1.2 though. Can't wait for more!

Emily said...

I didn't understand half of what you said >_< But the pictures look pretty awesome :]

What does stop mean?

Nick Peckover said...

Thanks guys!

Emily: By stop, I mean f-stop, which is your aperture. Basically, the f-stop is a numerical designation indicating the size of the aperture. Smaller numbers let in more light. Larger number let in less light. There are other implications that come with that, too, like smaller numbers (larger apertures) have less depth of field. I just got a lens with a huge aperture (f-stop 1.4), which lets in a lot of light. The next aperture up, (f-stop 2) lets in half as much light. The next one (f/2.8) lets in a quarter of what f/1.4 lets in. With more light comes a faster shutter speed. My 18-135 is an f/5.6 lens (the f-stop/aperture is 5.6). My new lens has an f-stop of 1.4, and that is four f-stops (see? f-stops = stops) faster. That is four times the shutter speed. That gets your shutter speed from 1/15 to 1/125.

I really hope that makes sense. I'd pick up a copy of "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Petersen if I were you. It is the single-most helpful book I own, and well worth the money.

Nick Peckover said...

Wow. That was a long comment.

Emily said...

ooohhhh.
Thanks for explaining that :]
I know what aperture is i just get all the terms and definitions all confused, lol

awesome, i'll have to look into that :] thanks

Unknown said...

That is enormous, but the pictures look fantastic. I can't wait to see what other pictures you shoot with it.