elbeasto
Registered: Aug 05, 2010
Total Posts: 219
Country: Australia
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ct8282 wrote:
I posted a few samples in another thread but this lens deserves a quick review all of it's own.
The lens arrived about an hour ago and I stuck it straight on the D4 and fired off a few shots about the house. Lighting was poor so I was at ISO500, achieving shutter speeds of about 1/160th to 1/200th and of course was shooting at f1.4, wide open.
Build quality is simply superb. Solid, heavy and just oozes quality from top to bottom. It's so damn sexy looking and feels awesome in the hands. When I was unpacking it the first thing I thought was 'damn the box is small'. I thought they might have sent me the wrong lens. The lens is twice the size of the Nikon 50mm f1.8 but the box is much much smaller. It comes with the usual padded Sigma case which is great.
Autofocus is extremely good for a 35mm f1.4 lens, quick and accurate. I think mine requires around a -2 MFA on my D4 but I need to confirm that with some controlled tests, but for now it looks almost smack on perfect. Most of my Nikons have needed more than this, so thumbs up to Sigma there.
Anyway, sod all of that nonsesne. What about picture quality? Well, HOLY MOLY!! I'll say it again, HOLY MOLY!!
DSC_2673 by ct8282, on Flickr
Let me be very clear here. These are shot at f1.4 and have had NO sharpening applied whatsoever. The only processing was some tweaks to exposure compensation and that's it.
I'm not being funny but there are still some doubters lurking about and I understand that. I have never bought into the non OEM lens thing and have always preferred to pay more for the OEM version. However, based on my very unscientific tests here I have satisfied myself that Sigma have seriosuly delivered, BIG TIME.
Wow indeed, I'm very impressed with how sharp it is wide open.
Why pay all that money for a Nikkor or Zeiss when you can get the Sigma.
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