dSLR Dad

Popular Photography Magazine has published their lens test report of the Sigma APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC HSM:

Rest on its laurels? Not Sigma. Just look at the updated version of its bright 50–150mm f/2.8 digital-only (DC) zoom ($675, street), part of the company’s top-drawer EX family of glass. Its predecessor performed admirably in the Pop Photo Lab just two years ago (January 2007). Since then, the company’s engineers have twisted, squeezed, and tweaked its design in an attempt (we’re guessing) to catch up to the optical superiority of Tokina’s remarkable 50–135mm f/2.8.

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Something for you Sony dSLR Dads. Photozone.de has added a review of the Sony SAL-50F14 50mm f/1.4 Lens (available at Amazon and B&H Photo):

The Sony 50mm f/1.4 Lens is a typical representative of the standard lenses that were designed back in the 70s to 80s. The max. aperture (f/1.4) should be generally avoided due to weak contrast, poor borders and a significant amount of longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA). The image quality is already vastly improved at f/2 including a technically better (smoother) bokeh. The truly excellent peak performance is reached around f/4. As to be expected neither distortions nor vignetting are real issues but lateral CAs could be lower for a fix-focal length lens.
The build quality is pretty decent and the conventional screw-driven AF is very fast although somewhat dated regarding Sony’s SSM (supersonic motor) ambitions. At around 320€/US$ the lens is priced at the upper end compared to the other major brands – maybe some food for thought over at Sony.

You can read the entire Sony SAL-5014 50mm f/1.4 Lens Test Report here .