Los Angeles Making-Of | Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART Review | Sony a6000 XAVC-S test

Hello everyone, 

from the title you can already guess that this post is about to get cramped. 🙂 It is not only our first post to be done in america, since we have been in LA for about a week. It is also a new making-of video from marie’s first shoot, lucky you it is a bikini shoot, but it also features a few words on the 50mm 1.4 ART lens from sigma and since that isn’t enough we also throw in a few words on doing video with the new XAVC-S codec on the a6000.  So head on to the full post to read all about it and see some pictures from the shoot itself. And don’t forget to watch the video at first:

 

So we arrived in LA last week and we love it so far. You have to get used to spend a lot of time in a car and I mean it, a LOT OF TIME, since LA is HUGE but if you get passed that it is an amazing city. Marie set up a shoot with model Lucetta on our 3rd day we have been here. We already know Lucetta from a shoot we did back in 2014 so it was nice to shoot with someone we already know. We drove out to malibu to shoot on a more deserted beach and luckily we have nearly been on our own. I must admit it wasn’t the perfect weather for a bikini shoot but Lucetta did great without complaining about the cold.

Marie shot the whole shoot with the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art.  And even though it is a beast of lens in the tiny hands of this little photographer girl it delivered quite nice pictures. There isn’t really much to say about all the ART-lenses from Sigma. There are super sharp throughout the aperture ranges and the fifty is no exception. Personally I think the bokeh could be a bit smoother but that is about my only complaint. AF-speed is also what you would expect so no hassle in this part aswell. We are not really about scientific tests and photographing charts and stuff like this so just head on and see some pictures from the shoot itself. They should be able to give you an idea of what to expect from the lens.

 

Lucetta did a great job of giving a lot of usefull poses while it was actually super cold for california. Marie Bärsch, Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART.
Lucetta did a great job of giving a lot of usefull poses while it was actually super cold for california.
Marie Bärsch, Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART.
The 50mm is a very versatile lens since it is not to wide and not to tele-like. Some might say that makes it boring but then you can just go for a beautiful model just in shorts to make up for that! ;) Marie Bärsch, Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART
The 50mm is a very versatile lens since it is not to wide and not to tele-like. Some might say that makes it boring but then you can just go for a beautiful model just in shorts to make up for that! 😉
Marie Bärsch, Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART
If you're close enough the bokeh is awesome and the sharpness is jut out of this world even wide open! Marie Bärsch, Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART
If you’re close enough the bokeh is awesome and the sharpness is jut out of this world even wide open! Marie Bärsch, Nikon D810, Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART

A few more words about the video itself.  I shot it exclusively on my Sony a6000 with the new 2.0 firmware. This firmware is said to bring a faster start-up time (umm, well not really) and it also enabled the camera to shoot video in the sony-made XAVC-S codec. I’m certainly no expert in video things but when you work with the files you noticed that they are a lot more robust in grading and give you a greater dynamic range to start with. As far as I know it is some kind of consumer version of the high-end codec you can find in sony’s high-price film cameras. A little tip, if you want to use the codec make sure you use a SD-XC card with a minimum of 64GB capacity.

I shot the whole thing with my Sony/Zeiss 24-70/4 all handheld. I actually brought my manfrotto monopod but ended up not using it since the OSS in the lens worked quite good and I had no coffee that particular morning so my hands have been quite stable as well! 🙂

I hope you enjoyed the video, the pictures and the little bits of, hopefully useful information.

All the best from LA,

Alex & Marie

If you want to get more of a detailed hands-on experience of our work and trips, make sure to follow us on Instagram: Marie’s FeedAlex’ Feed!

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3 Kommentare auch kommentieren

  1. Brian Chen sagt:

    thanks for the article!

    1. AlexWaetzel sagt:

      Hey Brian, thanks for reading!

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