Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

  

  Previous versions of Jman13's message #11154412 « Sigma 19mm f/2.8 Impressions (m4/3) »

  

Jman13
Offline
Upload & Sell: On
Sigma 19mm f/2.8 Impressions (m4/3)


Got my Sigma 19mm today (picked it up for $150 at Amazon). Some quick impressions:

The lens is built very well. It\'s a little larger than it probably should be, but it\'s small enough to still fit in my belt pack on the GX1. It balances well. In pictures it looks cheap, but the plastics used are high quality and the lens is built to high tolerances. It feels solid in the hand, the focus ring is wonderfully damped and it\'s just solid. It is a boring looking lens, though. The lens hood design is fabulous...when reversed, it sits extremely close to the lens body, such that with hood reversed, the lens is barely larger than with the lens hood off. It\'s the best fitting reversed hood I\'ve owned. Sounds odd to go on about that, but it\'s very nice. And hey...Olympus...take notice: Sigma can package a very nice lens hood AND a very nice lens case with a $150 lens...stop being cheapskates! Only downside to the build is that the focusing group is loose when the lens is off the camera, which makes a not so reassuring rattle. It locks into place on the camera, though.

First impressions on image quality: It renders like a Sigma. The lens is very sharp over most of the frame at f/2.8, with only the corners being a little soft. By f/4, it seems quite sharp across the frame. We\'re not going to break records, but it is nice and crisp. The lens focuses VERY close, and when near MFD, sharpness does suffer a bit wide open, especially in the corners, which gain the \'Sigma Glow\' on high contrast edges (very similar to most of their other primes near MFD). Stopped down it stays sharp even near MFD. Bokeh is decent, though not exceptional, and partially because you can\'t really get a lot of background blur due to the short focal length and moderate aperture. Still, it\'s generally pleasing. Can\'t really evaluate color yet...just did some indoor shot under fluorescent light.

Some quick snaps (all wide open):

























Some pics of the lens on the camera (just snapped with my iPhone, so excuse the quality):



















Nov 29, 2012 at 09:13 PM





  Previous versions of Jman13's message #11154412 « Sigma 19mm f/2.8 Impressions (m4/3) »

 




This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.