PeterHarris's reviews

Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM

I am a very happy owner of Sigma 50mm f/1.4 HSM. So I am very excited to purchase a Sigma 85mm for portrait photography.
I must say that I am very please with the results in term of sharpness and bokeh, of subjects within about 5 meters. This means this lens is extremely excellent for head and half body shots. But it shows too much problems with auto focus when shooting far away objects. What I mean is that I was trying to shoot a couple of people were standing about 20 meters away from me, the lens just decided to focus on the background behind those people. I do not really understand why. If I want to have accurate focus for this case, I have to manual pre-focus and then activate the auto focus. And please notice that this weird focusing problem I never observe on my $499 Sigma 50mm and the same Pentax body.
To test PF, I did some test shots at people with bright sunshine. PF was observed and did not disappear until f/4.5.
I really want to have a good copy of this lens in my photography equipments, so I have been trying 3 copies.
First copy from 47st.photo bought on ebay: Back focus problem, needed +4 adjusted on K-5. And very heavily front focus for far objects, let's say about 10 meters, it has about 0.7 meter front focus. Returned as defective item, 47st.photo charged me 15% restocking fee even it has 14 days return policy. Ebay helped me get money back. Stay away from this seller.
Second and third copies from Amazon: very accurate focus for near objects, but random focusing for far objects. These two lens would be returned.

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