Originally posted by Edgar_in_Indy My old Sigma EX 30mm 1.4 is pretty sharp in the center at f/1.4, but we're speaking relatively.
Originally posted by Digitalis Everything else outside the center even at f/11 is complete rubbish...
Seems like we've been down this road once or twice before, and I still love my Sigma 30mm!
Here's a couple quick shots I just took with my Sigma 85mm 1.4 wide open. In the first shot, the focus was on the eye. And while the eye looks pretty sharp to me, everything else softens up pretty quickly because of the thin DOF. In the second shot, the focus is shifted a tiny bit to his neck and front of his jacket, and you can see how soft his eye has become. So for close subjects, f/1.4 is not terribly useful, even if it fairly sharp.
You can click on each of the pictures for a direct link to the full-size, uncropped image.
I'll look through my pictures if I get a chance before I head to bed, and I'll see if I have any good real-world examples of f/1.4 in use. In the meantime, here's the same subject shot at f/8, for the sake of comparison.
Okay, I dug up a couple more pictures at f/1.4. Like I said, this isn't an aperture value that I use often. One picture is a cement truck, the other one is a baby.