A few months back, I did a blog post reviewing the Canon EOS R. After that, I posed the question on my Facebook Page asking what else people would like to see reviews on. There were a few suggestions asking me to compare the Canon 50mm 1.2L and the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art, since I own them both. I thought this sounded like a great idea and put it on my “to do” list.

In the interim, I’ve also obtained the Canon RF 50mm 1.2L (the 50mm made specifically for Canon’s RF mount mirrorless bodies). I won’t be keeping them all, since I have no need for three 50mm lenses (four if you count my broken 50 1.8). That said, while I had all three, I wanted to do a comparison.

Before getting the RF, the Canon EF was my favorite. I’ve had it for many years and even though it doesn’t resolve quite as much detail as the Sigma, it has a very, very characteristic look, impeccable focus, and I love the color it produces. It’s also the smallest of the three. It’s actually quite solid and is a lot bigger than the 50 1.8 and 1.4, but it’s not giant. That said, the Sigma Art is very sharp and also a fair bit less money, but I’ve had the characteristic Sigma focus issues on my DSLRs. The Sigma works much better on the EOS R, though, and its overall focus speed is faster than the EF 50 1.2. I was able to get the RF mount 50 for a really, really good deal and had been impressed by what I’d seen from it, so I jumped on it. At the end of the day, they’re all great lenses with pluses and minuses. What you choose will depend on budget, what type of performance you want, if you have any size restrictions at all (for example, the RF lens is REALLY BIG for a 50mm, or even for a lens, period) and what kind of camera you’re using.

I recently got a little break from my work as a RI family photographer and took my lovely assistant for a quick shoot where I took a series of photos. I took photos of three different poses, all shot with the lenses at their widest apertures, only adjusting the shutter speed on the Sigma to compensate for the narrower aperture.

The example photos are below. Additionally, there is a video at the end of the post where you can see me do a MUCH more involved comparison of each of the photos, comparing and contrasting them, zooming in 1:1 and doing side by side comparisons.

In each sequence of photos below, the order of the photos is the same. The EF 50 1.2 is first, then the Sigma Art, then the Canon RF mount. If you’re shooting DSLRs only, the RF won’t even be on your radar right now, but I did want to compare it when the chance was there to compare all three. All images in this post are straight out of camera and were taken with the Canon EOS R; the RF to EF adapter was used for the Canon EF as well as the Sigma lenses. I did not move forward or back during shots, nor did my model.

My first pose was this full-body portrait orientation photo. All three photos look well focused, though the Sigma and the Canon RF resolve more detail. You can see that there are slight differences in the overall look of the blur with all three lenses. It also appears, at least in these photos, that the EF 50mm offers a slightly narrower angle of view than the other two lenses.

While this next shot is not one you’d necessarily want to shoot wide open due to the super shallow depth of field, I wanted do do a more close up photo to show what detail and focus on the eyes looks like, as well as what background blur looks like when you’re closer to the subject. Again, the Art and RF resolve more detail, although all three produce sharp images. As is noticeable in all images compared, the Sigma Art produces the warmest images. While the RF produces skin tones that are a bit warmer than the EF 50 1.2, it still has bluer greens than the Sigma.

We’re seeing more of the same in regards to color, resolution, sharpness, and background blur here (check out the video below for WAY more detail). The one thing that pops out in this photo is that the vignetting on the RF lens is a bit darker than the other two. it’s also most apparent in this image out of all of them, at least to me, the difference that the half stop between 1.2 and 1.4 makes in the look of the background blur. It’s not much, but it is a difference.

Check out the video below to see a MUCH more in depth comparison of all three lenses.

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