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What would you pick?

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Sigma Nick

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On an SD1

70 f/2.8 EX DG MACRO
85 f/1.4 EX DG HSM

Main use is portraits... Macro would be for fun, Focus speed and accuracy does matter, 2.0-2.8 are my favorite f-stops. Whats better in your opinion? Is the 85 worth the extra money?

Sorry for the same old boring topics... just trying to justify a commitment.
 
IQ is better on the 70 both in flatness of field and absolute sharpness, but the AF is better on the 85. Which is more important to you?
 
For portraiture, the 85mm. The 70mm is an amazingly sharp lens but it's only good for portraits of kids or young girls because it'll show up every imperfection in the subject's skin. The 85 is more of a conventional portrait lens, and from what I've seen, produces very nice results.

70mm f2.8 Macro portrait: http://www.pbase.com/vitee/image/103699993
Sigma Nick said:
On an SD1

70 f/2.8 EX DG MACRO
85 f/1.4 EX DG HSM

Main use is portraits... Macro would be for fun, Focus speed and accuracy does matter, 2.0-2.8 are my favorite f-stops. Whats better in your opinion? Is the 85 worth the extra money?

Sorry for the same old boring topics... just trying to justify a commitment.
Click to expand...
--
Regards,

Vitée

Capture all the light and colour!



http://www.pbase.com/vitee/galleries
 
Contrary to what Ansel Adams said and may incorrectly believe, focal length does matter when it comes to perspective and getting the right perspective distortion to correctly represent the subject. Otherwise, you'll get an insipid, 'seemingly distorted' portrait.

Because of their flatter features, 'Eastern' faces should be shot with a shorter focal length lens than 'Western' ones. In that case the 70mm would be better than the 85.

--
William Wilgus
 
Mostly Lurking said:
Contrary to what Ansel Adams said and may incorrectly believe, focal length does matter when it comes to perspective and getting the right perspective distortion to correctly represent the subject. Otherwise, you'll get an insipid, 'seemingly distorted' portrait.

Because of their flatter features, 'Eastern' faces should be shot with a shorter focal length lens than 'Western' ones. In that case the 70mm would be better than the 85.

--
William Wilgus
Click to expand...
Actually it really depends on what you mean by "portrait." For instance, my favorite focal length for a tight head shot is around 100mm (using my 50-150, which is my main portrait lens), but for bust shots the 70mm fl would be fine.
 
FritsThomsen said:
mike earussi said:
IQ is better on the 70 both in flatness of field and absolute sharpness, but the AF is better on the 85. Which is more important to you?
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that ?? the AF of my 70 Macro is extremely acurate on all my Sd cameras....and fast enough to do this :





--
Please visit my galleries at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yoicz/
or
http://www.naturephotos.dk/NaturePhotos_ejergalleri.php?menu=3&_Ejer=57

Click to expand...
Better in the sense of faster. My 70 is accurate but very slow and noisy, and has a tendency to hunt.
 
I would get the 85mm. I use the 70mm Macro mostly in manual focus mode. Don't get me wrong autofocus works fine with the 70mm, but it takes time. The 85mm is fast and in my opinon AF is for Sigma standards very reliable.

If You are interested some examples (exif data within the jpgs), SD1M used mostly with the the 85mm:
http://neudecker.net/?p=4336#more-4336

and some portraits:
http://neudecker.net/?p=4196#more-4196

SD1M with 70mm, Macro:
http://neudecker.net/?p=3963#more-3963

Maybe that helped,
Florian
Sigma Nick said:
On an SD1

70 f/2.8 EX DG MACRO
85 f/1.4 EX DG HSM

Main use is portraits... Macro would be for fun, Focus speed and accuracy does matter, 2.0-2.8 are my favorite f-stops. Whats better in your opinion? Is the 85 worth the extra money?

Sorry for the same old boring topics... just trying to justify a commitment.
Click to expand...
--
http://fne.at
http://neudecker.net
 
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