In the very beginning of my journey into photography, I bought a Canon Rebel XT and a little SIGMA 50mm macro lens, which was sharp and versatile. I bought that lens because it was the most affordable good lens I could find at the time. Little did I know that lens would begin to shape the entire way that I would shoot for the next 17 years.
Since the XT was a crop body, the 50mm behaved like an 85mm would on a full-frame camera. To this day, I still prefer the 85mm focal length over every other lens that I own. In fact, I went a couple of years without having one and when I picked it back up again I felt a huge sense of relief. It was like coming home. The SIGMA 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art is still my favorite lens right now.
Now I own six lenses and they’re all SIGMA primes. I have never found anything that I love as much as SIGMA lenses for color rendition and sharpness. My SIGMA lenses always perform, and I’ve come to depend on their reliability. When chasing toddlers or capturing a jumping dancer, quick focusing is critical. There is a lens for everything I want to capture. Why do I love SIGMA lenses? Let me count the ways:
They’re super sharp
I actually have pretty terrible eyesight without my contacts. I also have a fascination for tiny details and up-close photos. When I take a picture, I want to be able to zoom in and see EVERYTHING in it. Every little eyelash or fine hair, every jewel on a dress or petal on a flower… I want to see it in the final image. That’s what I love most about sigma lenses. No matter which of my lenses I grab, I know that I will be able to get every bit of detail I want in the final picture.
They make for perfect color across multiple lenses
One of the things that drives me crazy is if I use multiple lenses across a photo session, having to change the color as I go through afterward. I want to have consistent color through every shot that I take without having to edit each set of photos I took with separate lenses. SIGMA lenses are perfect for this. The color on my 45mm matches the color on my 85mm, which matches the color on my 105mm in most of the lighting situations I shoot in.
They’re fast and accurate
Since I do photos of quick-moving subjects like toddlers and dancers, but I absolutely need a lens that can track those quick people and keep the focus on them while they’re moving. It’s critical that the lens motor can move the glass fast enough to keep up with everything I need to take pictures of. I’ve had several slower lenses in the past, and I have missed photos due to the lens still being in motion when I needed it to be in focus.
They’re durable
I think it’s almost an inside joke now with the people who know me as to how many times I have thrown a lens on the ground (not the concrete, mind you.. just the dirt or grass). I think I have dropped every single one that I own as well as some loaners or rentals that I haven’t owned. I bang them into doorways and trees on the regular, and in general, they all get slightly beaten up with me. I only buy a lens if I think I can’t break it. SIGMA lenses are that brand for me. Having tossed everything I own in the mud at least once with nary a dent or scratch, I know they can stand up to continue to abuse.
They do backlighting beautifully
Backlight is my favorite kind of photo lighting, but it’s a tough thing to capture. Often the light coming into the front of the lens will create a rainbow of flare across the glass, which you can see in the final image. Having a lens that can handle backlight without flare that you don’t want is super important if you like a lot of backlighting like I do. Any SIGMA lens I’ve ever owned is amazing for backlighting, but I’d have to say the SIGMA 105mm F1.4 DG HSM Art is my favorite.
SIGMA lenses have been with me every step of my photography journey. I am so grateful that I can rely on my lenses to help me achieve my vision.
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