Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

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Cassario
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p.1 #1 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

I posted a review a few weeks back that got a lot of mixed reviews, and a lot of guys that own the Nikon upset that I said to sell their Nikon's for the SIgma. Well my partner at the Lightshop who has never owned anything but Nikon glass decided to give it a whirl, lets just say that even though he liked it, he didn't have the same enthusiasm as I did.

Here is his review of the lens, with some sample shots of me and my wife. He tests lenses the way he uses them, so this is the perspective from a wedding photographer, and I played model for the day in the freezing cold Jersey weather. Just wanted to share it with you guys, to let you know that even my partner will not be selling his Nikon for the Sigma anytime soon.

Ray's take on the Sigma 35mm
http://mylightshop.com/articles/sigma-35-second-opinion
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Feb 04, 2013 at 02:38 AM

BenV
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p.1 #2 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new.

Also, every 'review'/opinion you guys have, do you create a new thread to advertise for your site? Seems like spamming to be honest.

Feb 04, 2013 at 03:20 AM

Cassario
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p.1 #3 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Im not spamming at all, but I can understand that take on it, but I dont make any money on the site. I just know that I recieved a lot of emails from Nikon guys about the review so I wanted to share my colleagues review. I will remove it if you guys feel that it doesnt belong, I have no problem with that. I apologize if thats what it looks like. We've put a lot of work into the site and the reviews and just looking to share them thats all.

Feb 04, 2013 at 03:39 AM

SHUM
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p.1 #4 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

I don't think it's spamming. It was a good read. I just got the Sigma 35mm and I'm thinking of selling my Zeiss 35/2 now.

Feb 04, 2013 at 04:44 AM

Gregg Heckler
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p.1 #5 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

Feb 04, 2013 at 05:19 AM

runamuck
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p.1 #6 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

If Nikon wants to sell me theirs, they had better drop the price by $0 bucks or more.

Feb 04, 2013 at 05:59 AM

DontShoot
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p.1 #7 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

I would.

A lot of folks seem to have this notion that Sigma owners chose the Sigma because it's cheaper. While that idea is generally true for most Sigma lenses, that's simply not the case with this 35 1.4 HSM. Cost was not a factor for me, I wanted the ultimate in sharpness and rendering, and the Sigma delivered. The $900 price tag was just a bonus... but hell I'd happily pay anything as long as it delivers.

Feb 04, 2013 at 06:02 AM

michaelwatkins
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p.1 #8 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Re the % in focus, what I've found with my copy is that when I do a good job at testing and assigning the best AF fine tune value for the lens, focus consistency is extremely high, often reaching 100% in focus.

I've done tuning using the eyeball method and FoCal; the latter method makes it easier to perform AF consistency tests and through those tests I've been able to observe that there can be multiple AF fine tune settings under which the lens will perform well but with a difference in consistency.

Picking a tuning value by eyeball evaluation, in my case, didn't allow me to pick the value with the highest focus consistency.

Feb 04, 2013 at 07:23 AM

Cassario
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p.1 #9 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

DontShoot wrote:
Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

I would.

A lot of folks seem to have this notion that Sigma owners chose the Sigma because it's cheaper. While that idea is generally true for most Sigma lenses, that's simply not the case with this 35 1.4 HSM. Cost was not a factor for me, I wanted the ultimate in sharpness and rendering, and the Sigma delivered. The $900 price tag was just a bonus... but hell I'd happily pay anything as long as it delivers.

Exactly...I actually had the money set aside to buy the Nikon when I first caught wind of the new Sigma coming out so I held off. I have used the Nikon many times so I am very familiar with it.

Glad you guys like the review, I still personally believe the Sigma is a better all around lens, but I thought that Ray had an interesting view on it. He is a die hard Nikon guy and owns nothing but Nikon glass, so I was curious of what his thoughts were on it once he shot with it. This was the first time he had actually ever shot a third party lens.

As far as the AF fine tuning goes, he didnt eye ball it like I actually do, he pulled out his fancy dancy and expensive fine tuning kit as soon as he screwed the lens on. I honestly don't have a fancy dancy kit, I have one that I printed out myself...thats right. Maybe one day I'll invest in one and do it the right way. His test results have too many other variables involved for me to fully agree with them, and I still believe that the Sigma is sharper and better all around.

Edited on Feb 04, 2013 at 03:10 PM · View previous versions

Feb 04, 2013 at 02:03 PM

mco_970
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p.1 #10 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Micheal, thanks for the tip on that. I eyeball tested mine to +2, now I'm interested to setup FoCal and see what it says.

Feb 04, 2013 at 02:08 PM

Nikon_14
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p.1 #11 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Good REAL-WORLD review written by someone who feels gear is made to be used capturing images, not measured in a laboratory. Thanks for sharing.

A suggestion for a follow-up test:
You switch the lenses. He doesn't know whether the glass is Nikkor or Sigma. See if he can tell right away.

Love my Sigma 85mm f/1.4, BTW. Focuses quicker than the Nikkor G. No problems when the AF needed to be repaired. If the same had happened w/ the G- well, I'm glad I don't know, given all the horror stories about Nikon's warranty service.

Feb 04, 2013 at 02:24 PM

Cassario
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p.1 #12 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Nikon_14 wrote:
Good REAL-WORLD review written by someone who feels gear is made to be used capturing images, not measured in a laboratory. Thanks for sharing.

A suggestion for a follow-up test:
You switch the lenses. He doesn't know whether the glass is Nikkor or Sigma. See if he can tell right away.

Love my Sigma 85mm f/1.4, BTW. Focuses quicker than the Nikkor G. No problems when the AF needed to be repaired. If the same had happened w/ the G- well, I'm glad I don't know, given all the horror stories about Nikon's warranty service.

Thanks Nikon_14! I appreciate it. That was our goal with our reviews, real world and not just charts and numbers. I love my Nikon gear, but I test any lens that I plan on purchasing, and three times now I have chosen Sigma over Nikon. I own three Sigma lenses, and the lower price is just a bonus. I own the 85mm1.4 and the 50mm1.4 in addition to the new 35mm1.4.

Feb 04, 2013 at 02:32 PM

Danner
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p.1 #13 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

I'll stick with the Nikkor, thanks. Regardless of he price.

Feb 04, 2013 at 02:39 PM

Lightsearcher
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p.1 #14 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Great review and thank you for posting it.

I had bad experiences in the past with Sigma but looks like the new primes are performing excellent according with some reviews.

I was very close to buy the 85mm 1.4 from Nikon but I think I'll try Sigma again.

Thank you.

Marcelo

Feb 04, 2013 at 03:49 PM

michaelwatkins
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p.1 #15 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

mco_970 wrote:
Micheal, thanks for the tip on that. I eyeball tested mine to +2, now I'm interested to setup FoCal and see what it says.

BTW, +2 makes a big difference in sharpness over 0. I was suprised and pleased as my experience with Canon AF fine tuning has been, errrhm, FRUSTRATING (!!) to say the least due to focus inconsistency.

Never having shot Canon or Nikon digitals, this is all new to me. FoCal is fairly new to me too although I spent a rainy day working with it and think I have it dialed in. I even took the stock target and scaled it up, printed large, so I could retest with the camera set farther back. Doing so seemed to change the most consistent tune value from -4 to -6, and as -6 has been showing up in the autotune reports and AF consistency test as quite reliable focus-wise, I've gone to that.

When I eyeballed focus tuning, I had mine set to +5. Don't ask!

The AF consistency test might be more useful than the tuning test itself - assuming FoCal is accurately reporting on the situation (and it seems to be as I have also been reviewing the captured images) there are always one or two AF tune settings which have demonstrably more consistent results. These settings often don't match up with the absolute highest focus quality value - I just made a judgement call to decide which points at both extremes should be considered as outliers. Tightly clustered results all close to max focus as measured by FoCal got the nod.

This all said I've not done a lot of real world shooting since I did all this testing but the early results look good.

Feb 04, 2013 at 05:32 PM

BenV
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p.1 #16 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

But it is... so your statement is invalid. It's literally almost half the price, and performs better. Only thing Nikon has going for it is the weather seal.

Feb 04, 2013 at 05:55 PM

James R
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p.1 #17 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

Cassario wrote:
Thanks Nikon_14! I appreciate it. That was our goal with our reviews, real world and not just charts and numbers. I love my Nikon gear, but I test any lens that I plan on purchasing, and three times now I have chosen Sigma over Nikon. I own three Sigma lenses, and the lower price is just a bonus. I own the 85mm1.4 and the 50mm1.4 in addition to the new 35mm1.4.

In the real wold you and your partner make a lot of sense. Both of you make a living with the camera and your customers are what's important. The lens doesn't seem to be the deciding factor.

Feb 04, 2013 at 06:04 PM

James R
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p.1 #18 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

BenV wrote:
Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

But it is... so your statement is invalid. It's literally almost half the price, and performs better. Only thing Nikon has going for it is the weather seal.

If the OP were talking about Nikon pricing, your comment would be more on point. But, the object of this thread is to present a contrary view to the OP's opinion of the Sigma 35 1.4. The lens price was not a determining factor of their reviews.

Feb 04, 2013 at 06:24 PM

runamuck
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p.1 #19 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

runamuck wrote:
Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

If Nikon wants to sell me theirs, they had better drop the price by $0 bucks or more.

Actually, I meant to type in 650, not zero. OOPS!

Feb 04, 2013 at 06:47 PM

BenV
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p.1 #20 · Sigma 35mm F1.4 - A 2nd Opinion

James R wrote:
BenV wrote:
Gregg Heckler wrote:
"make sure he knows theres a $700 difference brand new."

Would you still buy the Sigma if it was the same price as the Nikkor? I doubt it.

But it is... so your statement is invalid. It's literally almost half the price, and performs better. Only thing Nikon has going for it is the weather seal.

If the OP were talking about Nikon pricing, your comment would be more on point. But, the object of this thread is to present a contrary view to the OP's opinion of the Sigma 35 1.4. The lens price was not a determining factor of their reviews.

I was replying to Gregg Heckler, but thank you for your thoughts

Feb 05, 2013 at 12:56 AM

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