Review on Sigma 16Mm Contemporary Lens Sony by Jessica Russell

After seeing so many 5 star reviews and good photos I thought this would be a good buy for my Sony E-mount camera. The truth is , not worth it $423 after tax. 200 maybe. But certainly not twice as much. The picture won't be as good until you edit it. See photos before and after. I'm a professional photographer and the base image is pretty bad. At f1.4 there is LOTS of GRIT with a very muddy look. It also has terrible bokeh for a basic lens. It's more like an f2.8 lens, you see a lot of detail in the background where you should have an extremely blurred background. Suitable for beginners, but not for professionals. Other lenses like the Canon EF F1.8 50mm blur the background completely, cost $100 and can be adapted to the Sony E-mount! I use Fotodoix adapters and to be honest my results are much better. This lens really doesn't look like F1.4 until you take night photos. Only then can you get a lot of detail, ie f1.4 quality. There is a lot of light, which is ideal for night shots. It even makes great night videos, but tends to overexpose a bit without additional accessories. For everyone else, choose the best glass. This overexposes images on several occasions, introduces extra graininess, offers no stabilization and creates terrible bokeh. All of this for over $400. It's a solid lens for night photography, but nothing more. If you don't want to edit a lot of bugs. This is also not good for YouTube videos, by the way. The manual focus ring is large. You can't hold this lens and stay in focus 100% of the time. This lens ruined a lot of my shots because it didn't have a focus lock feature. This is an average starting f1.4, no Sony G glass or Zeiss material. So if that's what you're looking for, just buy the best glass. Good luck and don't fall for rave reviews like me. Most of the reviewers are clearly new to photography. Note: top photo edited, bottom photo not.