Good evening fellow canon m50 users! I am kind of drooling over a sigma 70-200 2.8 - I can only afford a used one, so will not be the sport version. I understand I will need a canon ef-efm adapter - the man at Wex said that this would work fine without any trouble. However, I emailed sigma about the compatibility, and they have emailed me back saying they wouldn’t recommend this as it won’t be compatible and will affect AF? can anyone confirm or deny? Confused.
I have the M50 and i use quite a few sigma lenses i don't have that lens but so far every thing has worked i use the canon ef to efm adapter, i get all my adapters second hand from mpb.com, each on my ef lnses has its own adapter so when i'm switching between ef efm or M42 i don't have to stop and think about it. i'm going to ask on the M50 facebook group to double check as there are alot of users there and the likely hood of someone having the combination is pretty high here is a list of all my lenses i use with the M50
the feed back so far says yes it does work with the canon adapter and M50 i was looking at the 70-200mm ƒ2.8 lenses a month or two ago, i wanted one with IS but i also wanted one that started wider than 70mm, having it an ƒ1.8 would also have been great too with the price and weight of the 70-200mm ƒ2.8 lenses from both canon and sigma it wasn't looking too great, during a generic ebay search just to see if there was an ƒ1.8 starting at 50mm or less going out to 150mm+ i discovered the sigma 50-150mm ƒ2.8 EX which has image stabilization too, i had already known about the 50-100mm ƒ1.8 sigma but the lack of IS and its shorter zoom left it off the table for me, i was a bit hesitant on the 50-150mm as it was an older EX lens and i had heard that the older sigma zooms wern't that great , not compared to the modern sigmas which are stella i thought i'd have a look on ebay to see what was about and i saw a brand new one which hadn't been used, £450, i took a closer look at some of the youtube reviews of this the third gen one and they seemed pretty good so i got it, its been a great lens i do have some images from it on this forum here https://www.canonforums.com/threads/test-time.7445/
Thank you for your reply, I am far more confident in buying this lens now also going to keep my eye out for the 50-150mm, and watch a few reviews on YouTube! Lovely images, thank you for sharing!
I’ve been looking on eBay the last few days and for a similar price for a newer sigma 70-200 2.8, I could have an older canon 70-200 2.8! My questions are, I know this lens is notoriously heavy, and my canon m50 is quite light! Only 300 grams of there about ? Do you think this lens would put strain on my camera? Would I look completely ridiculous with this combination? Is it a ridiculous idea? Have I bought the wrong camera to want to use this lens? I take photos of dog sports, but have recently invested in back drops and soft lights because I’d like to take photos of pets indoors more close up? any help would be appreciated! I’m very new to all this
i use the sigma 150-600mm and the sigma 105mm ƒ1.4 lenses on the M50, so i'm very used to big lenses on the M50 with all my ef glass i use the canon ef to efm adapters, i get mine second hand from mpb.com, each lens has its own one that stays on it so i'm just dealing with efm mounts as for the strain on the camera i mount any tripods to the ef adapter because i get them with the tripod foot, that way the only weight on the M50 when mounted is the camera not the lens when hand holding you cup the lens with one hand which takes the horizontal load when shooting and the other hand which is on the camera is only supporting the camera so you can look through it and its a lighter hold as the fingers are moving around pressing buttons as for carring the lens about, this is for the 50-150mm and 100-400mm c and under in terms of weight i either carry them by the camera body hanging vertically so the load of the lens is spread evenly around the mount or via the tripod plate with the heavier lenses i put a tripod plate (200mm) on the ef to efm mount so the lens is easier to handle and gives a carry place if you try carrying heavy lenses and hold them at a 45 degree angle via the body then you will have a significant levering force around the mounts, dont do that i never use the camera body mount for tripoding ef lenses, 1 because i have the foot on the adapter and the plate doesnt get in the way of the batt door and 2 i have taken a few M50's apart and the body mount is not that strong, its made of metal but its a pretty small bracket held onto the metal chassis with a couple of screws, only really good for tripoding efm lenses so yes the M50 is perfectly fine on huge lenses, when they get to a certain size its a camera mounted to a lens rather than a lens mounted to a camera
as for pets indoors the canon efm 32mm ƒ1.4 and sigma 56mm ƒ1.4 are my goto lenses, they are nice and bright at ƒ1.4 so they let in a huge amount of light and the canon efm 32mm is a high resolving lens designed for the 32mp sensor so it gives very good images portrait work be it people or fur babies comes down to lighting more than the lens, learn about lighting for sure, conrtol of it and types of it like soft and hard etc on youtube karl taylor does alot of videos about lighting
Thank you so much for all of your advice! Will definitely take it all on board and I’ll check out Karl Taylor too! So, another question, would you go for an old canon 70-200 2.8 as a decent zoom lens over a sigma? There’s quite a few on eBay atm for around 500 quid and the sigma ones aren’t too much cheaper although they may be a little newer? I will check out those 35mm and 56mm for indoor work too! Xx
i haven't had the chance to use any canon ef lenses as yet because the ones i want are pretty expensive so sigma has been the better option in price, i have had good experience with sigma lenses, don't let this sway you as canon lenses can be very good too, also a consideration is the weight, most of the 70-200mm lenses from the same era appear to be a similar weight, the older sigma EX looked like a lighter weight one but with my research i did before i settled on the sigma 50-150mm the canon mk II and III were the two 70-200mm ƒ2.8 lenses i was preferring, i thought one of those was going to be my first canon ef lens but i went with the sigma for price (£450 inbox brand new) and also the focal range was more what i was looking for at the wider end and i already have longer zooms as for older canon think about image stabilization, as the M50 doesn't have IS in the body (only digital stabilization) you may want the lens with IS (canon) or OS (sigma) i find this comes in very handy, nay necessary when hand holding in lower light, i consider any lens over 2.0 as slow, (using ƒ1.4 lenses moves the boundaries lol), so though an ƒ2.8 is a faster lens that the base lenses its still on my slower list, but you can get some really clean shots in lower light with them when they have IS/OS too one to stay away from is the 75-300mm canon as its well known for being soft at 300mm, some like it so i suspect copy variations are a thing here, defiantly one to test in person but there are better options a person i recommend on youtube for lens reviews is christopher frost
Thank you again for all the time you are taking to help me I appreciate it so much when you say “soft” at 300mm what do you mean by soft? And why is this happening at the longer focal length? I set up my backdrops and soft boxes this evening and did some food catching pics with my dogs, through the viewfinder the images looked crisp and well lit, when I’ve viewed them larger on the iPad I’ve noticed they are grainy and slightly blurry, I’ll post them below. I was using a 15-45mm kit lens, iso 20000, f.4.5 1/800s Even though the lens is f 3.5 - 5.6, it seemed I wasn’t able to lower my aperture anymore than 5.? Why was this? what settings should I have changed? Also I’ve had a bit of a mare trying to set up a fortisan soft box, the poles don’t seem to fit but this Ishtar be a problem for another thread! Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I’ve seen a 50mm 1.8 lens for sale for a good price this evening, I wonder if this would be better for my dog photos indoors like I was doing this evening? Does the 50mm mean it’s one set focal length, it doesn’t zoom in or out anymore? sorry if I’m asking very dumb questions I’m new to this and want to learn as much as possible
with the zoom lens if you zoom it all the way out so its at its widest then reduce the ƒ stop to its lowest it will then go up as you zoom in then come back down as you zoom out, if you set it at say ƒ8 then it will stay there when the lens is zoomed in then the ƒ stop is limited to the focal distance, ie you can't have it as ƒ5 when its zoomed right in as the minimum all the way in is ƒ5.6 iso 20000? do you mean 2000 either way thats pretty high for the M50 on a standard kit lens the high iso is making them grainy, also do you have exposure simulation switched on? this will more accurately display the exposure on the screen for the settings being used th histogram is the best 'meter' for getting a good exposure, you can set that to be on in the yellow menus (i take it you have switched to standard menus and not still in the white guided ones) if you have good lighting you should be able to do iso 800 and lower, preferably 400 or lower, shutter speed is about right maybe a bit faster at 1/1000 but with the kit lens you will struggle indoors with poor lighting to get these settings, defo going to need some extra light a faster lens will help, ƒ2.8 to ƒ1.4, the ƒ1.4 will let in much more light so you can have lower iso to stop the grain and have a fast shutter to stop the motion nice and crisp but the depth of field might be too shallow if you not using servo mode and good at tracking or throwing the food at the right spot. ƒ2.8 will be a bit faster than the kit lens and have a better depth of field allowing for more area of the dog in focus the 50mm lens is indeed one focal length, it will be a bit tighter than the 45mm end of the 15-45mm kit lens. the ƒ1.8 is good though, going to help with light personally i think i would be looking at maybe the efm 32mm ƒ1.4 though it is an expensive lens but worth its price tag, mpb.com have a couple in last time i looked for around £300 uk a lens i always recommend a beginner on m system getting is the 18-150mm efm lens, though this is probably not alot of help on the light front unless you got great indoor lighting or taking the photography outside it is a great lens for general photography and its also a great tool for checking out focal sizes when you looking for new lenses its also got great image stabilization, keep an eye out for one if you see one you can afford its a lens i always grab when i just going out for a walk etc on a small carry which shooting drive are you using? slow continuous will be best in servo mode as the slow is better for keeping the moving subject in focus if its changing its distance from camera alot where as fast continuous is best for a moving subject that is staying in a relatively similar distance from the camera so a side ways on shot might work are you using constant lighting or flash?
I ordered the 50mm f 1.8 hopefully this will help with the light situation! I actually didn’t realise that the f. Changes as you zoom in, I thought this was something I set and it stays there, thank you for the tips! I’ve been back through my images and checked the info and they were indeed on iso 20000 :/ Yes I am using the standard menus, and I will check to see if I have exposure simulation on, I haven’t changed it so I, guessing no? And I noticed last week when I was out in the woods that my camera screen would display the image and then as I presssed the shutter half way the preview would change to a more under exposed image which was strange? Not sure why this was happening, it was just dusk and I was under the canopy if the trees so very shadowy and little light!
Caladina covered much of the bases on the settings around your lens and shots. I would call out the 15-45 is what is called a variable length zoom, the 15mm end is 3.5 while the 45mm is 5.6 meaning the minimum aperture changes as you zoom. You can't help this, this was a design choice to make the lens easier and cheaper to make, I know Caladina touched on the variable aperture I just thought I would call it out more bluntly. The mention of 300mm being soft is an observation of people who own the lens as a tendency, again a design choice. Take the 1.8 50mm II it was known for being soft wide open, I found I disliked shooting it wider than 2.5 myself. Usually you find some sacrifice(s) when purchasing a lens on the cheaper end of the spectrum. Be it something like softness or prone to color fringing or that variable aperture we talked about... example: a 70-200mm 2.8 IS costs over 2k and the 70-300 IS IS is variable 4-5.6 and removes the L series weather sealing and only costs $600. You will want to use external lighting in a studio setting, some sort of off camera strobes that way you can shoot at aperture like 5.6 and get enough depth of field for a portrait or deal with a dog who won't sit perfectly still but also you can shoot at a ISO which will not be super grainy. Picking up a prime that shoots wider than 4.0 is probably a good idea, even if you still shoot 4.0-5.6 on many dog portraits. 35/50 and 85mm are common primes but since your feet will be zooming with those, you need to identify if you live at the 15mm or the 45mm side. I have 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.8 primes an a 17-40 f4 that are probably my 3 go to lenses. For me the 50mm gets the most work in a portrait setting.
Thank you so much! Yes we must of replied at the same time! I’ve just ordered the 50mm prime lens so will see how I get on! when you say soft, what do you mean? What does this mean in a photo? I’m actually saving a little to buy a 70-200mm 2.8, I’ve seen on eBay that I can get one for around 500 pounds in the uk, but they are a little older, still have the image stabilisation, will a lens this old still give me good results? I have been asked to photograph a local dog show in the summer and feel this lens would be good? But I’m wondering will it be too old for my camera? Is an older version still of good quality and relevant now?
Softness is relative, some people complain about softness on the same lens where other do not, but yes it would be a lack of crispness on a properly focused image, this is generally noticed when zooming in and pixel peeping and comparing similar lens or or focal lengths. Sometimes it can be more noticeable, but usually is noticeable on crapped in images comparing two lenses side by side. Its hard to suggest a good lens for someone else; budget, look, feel, and your specific needs in the lens are all variables. I personally recommend when you can a fixed aperture for zooms, they are generally better designed/better performers, even on the modest price range end. I do imagine you will want to have some versatility so I would match your 15-45 with either that 70-200 your saving for or something of that sort since you wont always be able to get super close. You should be able to adapt any EF lens to your ef-m mount camera, others her have experience with that and any shortcomings you may find going with a non ef-m. Old lenses can be great some are reall gems for the price, but may lack the features (especially if they don't have the electronics in them for modern cameras) but plenty of people adapt old lenses. EF lenses are modern enough to have the features and in many cases be quite good lenses; they should all resolve a pretty high megapixel camera. I haven't worried and I have a a couple of 5d's one of which is the 50mp 5DS R
