Sigma claims that this lens is a "pro level performer for shooting everything including portrait photography, landscape photography, studio photography and street photography", so I put it through its paces to see if that was true.
If you'd like the short version right here, the lens mostly holds up to those claims.
This review is more about how the lens performs in the field, and I haven't comparedit to any other lenses even though I have a couple of Nikkor 50mm lenses. I didn't want the review to be about this-50mm vs. that-50mm. There are several other blogs and photography or tech-related sites that have made those comparisons. Skip to the Image quality section for links.
What makes editorial photography more challenging is the tighter budget that magazines tend to have compared to commercial productions. It entails travelling light, shooting quickly, and being cognisant about where and how the photos are going to end up, way before you hit the shutter release.
Palette is a device that's designed for folks that prefer the tactility of dials and sliders. It's "tightly integrated with Adobe Photoshop CC", or so they claim. Based on the photos and Youtube videos of the device being used in action, I'm inclined to believe them. And pick one up.
I've been using Adobe's CC-based subscription model for a little over a year now. For the most part, I couldn't be happier with their Photography Plan, which for the very reasonable price of Rs. 499 (or $9.99 USD), offers Photoshop and Lightroom. Updates are quick, and if you happen to use two computers, your settings and workspaces sync. They even sync with their mobile products -admittedly I've never seriously used those, but the feature is nice to have.
However, one lingering annoyance that a lot of users had been forced to endure thus far was that it's Creative Cloud application would often pop up and steal focus from whatever application you happened to be using. Not very productive when you're drawing a path with the pen tool, or if you're editing in full-screen mode in Photoshop. Or, y'know, other equally important stuff. Like watching cat videos on Youtube. Don't scoff at the cat videos. They provide health benefits. No, seriously.
Thankfully, with the latest update on 7th July, this has been fixed. As per Adobe's release notes (I italicized the text):
Version 2.1.3.121 released on 7/7/2015
Creative Cloud desktop app no longer pops up in the middle of your workflow.
The Exchange plugin will now correctly install Adobe Add-ons.
Additional bug fixes have improved overall experience.
Thank you, Adobe. High time. Won't be gnashing my teeth and closing the CC app in frustration any longer!
