I recently picked up the sigma 50mm f1.4 art lens for my Sony a 7iii. I must say the lens is great and sharp. I have a line up of 17-28mm and 70-180mm from tamron but I was missing everything in the middle. I was just browsing through Amazon and notice that sigma have a 24-70mm for E-mount lens. What should I do in this case? Return the 50mm f1.4 and get the 24-70mm f2.8 instead?? I know prime lenses are design for a specific task but don’t really know what to do here. Please help me decide.
It used to be (back in the last century) that zoom lenses did not have the quality of prime (fixed focal length) lenses. That is much less so these days, and the newest lenses are amazing in quality.
In any focal length range, there will be cheaper lenses of lower quality and more expensive ones of higher quality, but I would bet that the best 24-70 f/2.8 is indistinguishable from the best 50mm f/1.4 unless you absolutely need the faster lens. And you may find that for some uses you would need to stop it down a bit anyway, for better quality.
With the other two lenses you describe,I would not be happy without the fuller coverage of a good 24-70.
Thank you so much @Diane_Miller I watched plenty of videos on the 24-70mm f2.8 art lens and learned nothing but best review. I only purchase the 1.4 aperture just because I needed a much faster lens and in case I will need one that will help me use the full low light capability of the sony a7iii. But like you said, I am missing big time on the 24-70 range. I also was planning on purchasing a 35mm f1.4 art lens from sigma but when I think about changing lenses here and there in the middle of my shoot would not be convenient for me. With all honest opinion, should I ditch the 50 f1.4 and get the the 24-70 f2.8?? I know I will lose in the larger aperture and maybe in quality but I will gain in focal lenght… what would you do in this case?
Without a doubt, and in a heartbeat, I would have the 24-70 instead of the 35 and 50 primes. The only difference would be not being able to get the shallower DOF of f/1.4, but I can hardly see the difference between the two for anything I shoot, including studio setups, and I can selectively blur BGs with software. For night or low-light night photography, the additional light-gathering could be a good thing, but with the modern noise reduction software, I would just go to a higher ISO.
Thank you so so much @Diane_Miller you are just the confirmation that I needed… Although I made up my mind but I was kind of worried that I am making a big mistake by giving up 50mm 1.4 for 24-70mm 2.8… you just made my evening
