I needed a lens that I can use for low light photography and this one, with its maximum aperture of f/1.2, fits the bill. Very sharp near the center wide open, but quite soft around the edges and corners. Stop down to f/4.o and everything just pops out! Images are contrasty and colors are well saturated. Who needs AF anyway, when you can have one great imaging tool with this lens. There are lots of lenses out there similar to this one, but this is, for me, the best of the lot. The Ziess 50mm f/1.4 ZF.2 is sharper, but it's more that twice the price!!!
I purchased this lens for low light and fast sports action. I have take only a few low light pictures but have been very pleased. I am looking forward to use it this week at my grandsons football game.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Awesome lens! This is a transitional model which is very close to the 58mm 1.2 noct from Nikon without the ED glass and the 3 mm more focal length...not to mention the extra few thousand dollars! I find it to be very sharp, easy to focus and perfect for selective focus photography.
If you expect the same quality as the modern lenses then you should forget it. At 1.2f there are some halos around bright spots in the pictures, Hard to get sharp images because of the shallow depth of field. Even with sony A7 focus peeking its not easy to get a correct focus every time, I would say I manage to get 5/10 pictures sharp, so thats really a 50/50 chance even with focus peeking. Contrast and overall sharpness compared to modern lenses are weak. It is enough for someone as me because photography for me is a hobby, free time activity. But if you want this lens for a professional work I would say better stick with modern alternatives that has AF and better control over the sharpness and overall image quality. The only advatages of this lens is its weight which is only 410g compared to canon 50mm L which is over 1kg. And dimensions, this 55mm 1.2f is small compared to other 1.2f lenses. If you dont need speed, if you want to have that 1.2f feel in your pictures, if you are conserned about your camera weight and if you dont really need Sigma ART lenses sharpness then you might want to try this. It is a lot of fun using this lens, but be aware of manual focus hardships, I would only recommend this lens with sony A7 series cameras because they have focus peeking. You can use this lens with canon cameras, but the focusing will be extremely hard.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The 55 ƒ 1.2 is the fastest lens Nikon ever produced in quantity. This particular lens is AI'd, not AI, as stated in the product description (and I informed the seller of that fact...) I use it on an F3HP and have had a good result with the only shot developed so far...
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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