50mm lenses are the most popular fixed-focal length lenses around. On a full frame camera, they make excellent general purpose lenses, because 50mm is zoomed in enough to give you a good emphasis on the subject you’re taking pictures of, but it’s still just about wide angle enough for a wide-range of other everyday shots, like landscapes. On a more common APS-C camera, 50mm is a lot more zoomed-in, so it’s a good focal length for portrait photography, and getting an even tighter perspective on your subjects.

Having a fast aperture like f/1.4 means that this lens is great for low light photography, shooting at nightime or indoors, and also, that fast maximum aperture can give you a very out of focus background, giving your pictures some serious depth.

This Sigma lens is a pretty big and hefty, especially for a 50mm lens, being about twice as big and heavy as the competition. However, it looks very business-like and professional, and it comes with a handy lens hood and lens case.

Sigma have really upped their game, engineering some very high quality lenses indeed, and this is another shining example of their impressive manufacturing expertise. It really is the best 50mm lens we’ve ever tested here.

Watch our detailed lens review which includes sample images and video footage: