How the Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 Art Performs on Modern Bodies

Fast telephoto zooms on APS-C bodies are rare, especially ones that hold an f/1.8 aperture all the way through the range. If you shoot portraits, events, or low light work on crop cameras, that combination changes what you can get away with handheld.

Coming to you from Christopher Frost, this thorough video takes a fresh look at the Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art lens on modern high-resolution APS-C bodies. Frost tests it on a Canon EOS R7, pushing the lens with a 32.5 MP sensor and showing what happens from 50mm through 100mm at different apertures. You see right away how much subject separation you get at f/1.8 and how quickly backgrounds melt away, which is exactly what you want from a fast telephoto zoom on a crop sensor. At the same time, Frost is honest about softness in the corners at wider apertures and how much you need to stop down before things look truly crisp. The early part of the video gives a useful feel for real-world results instead of just shooting charts in a studio.

Frost spends a good chunk of time on handling, which matters with a lens this size. The barrel is metal and dense, with a tripod collar included as standard, so you can balance it better on support gear. The zoom and focus rings are smooth and mechanically coupled, which video shooters will appreciate, but you also see just how heavy the package becomes on a smaller mirrorless body. Autofocus uses Sigma’s HSM motor, so it is quick and quiet, yet the video makes clear that accuracy is more dependable on mirrorless than on older DSLRs, especially at f/1.8 where depth of field is razor thin. Frost also demonstrates the strong focus breathing, which can be distracting if you rack focus a lot in video.

Key Specs

• Focal length: 50 to 100mm (75 to 150mm full frame equivalent on APS-C)

• Maximum aperture: f/1.8

• Minimum aperture: f/16

• Lens mount options: Nikon F, Sigma SA, Canon EF

• Format coverage: APS-C

• Minimum focus distance: 3.12' / 95 cm

• Maximum magnification: 0.15x (1:6.67)

• Optical design: 21 elements in 15 groups

• Aperture blades: 9, rounded

• Focus type: Autofocus

• Image stabilization: No

• Tripod mounting: Fixed and rotating collar

• Filter size: 82 mm (front)

• Dimensions: 3.68 x 6.72" / 93.5 x 170.7 mm

• Weight: 3.28 lbs / 1,490 g

The video also digs into image quality in a way that is useful if you work on high-resolution APS-C bodies. Wide open at 50mm and 75mm, the center looks decent but not spectacular, while corners lag behind until you get to around f/4 and smaller. At 100mm, center sharpness cleans up quickly by f/2.8, and corners look more balanced than at the wide end, which makes that longer end very attractive for portraits. Frost also switches off in-camera corrections to show distortion and vignetting, so you can see that 50mm has only mild barrel distortion while 100mm picks up pincushion but still stays manageable.

If you shoot on something like the Canon EOS R7, the test is a good reality check on what a 2016 DSLR design can do with modern sensors. Frost shows that the lens can absolutely handle 4K video and general stills, yet it will not give you pin-sharp corners on a 30+ MP crop sensor at wide apertures. The close-focus examples are helpful if you like tight detail shots; contrast is weak at f/1.8 up close but snaps back strongly at f/2.8 and f/4. Later in the video, Frost explores flare resistance, bokeh characteristics, and chromatic aberration, so you get a feel for how highlights and color fringing behave in tough lighting rather than just ideal conditions. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Frost.