I really like the rendering from this lens. I think it has a character that resonates with me. I will likely pick this up as a street walk around lens.
'This is not a defect but a product specification. This product is designed intentionally to keep slight spherical aberration to achieve a unique representation performance especially in close-up position, and the symptom pointed out by this customer seems to be due to this reason.
In this situation, we recommend to use AF-S mode or adjust aperture 1-2 stop close down to improve focus accuracy. Hope this explanation helps and clarifies his concerns'
Based on this, it seems highly unlikely they will release a firmware update to address this.
Makes total sense! I'm only using AF-S with this lens with very accurate results. Too bad Eye-AF in AF-C is not reliable at close distance.
@Fred, could you clarify what “close distance” have you tested? Full body length distance, half or shoulders only? I wonder if there is a sweet spot for Eye AF?
Recently I picked up this lens. Still figuring out how to use it best, the result is quite dependent on the distance to the subject.
Closer than 1m there is quite a bit of glow, especially at f4 - 2.8. I like the glow in some scenes, not as much in others.
Dec 01, 2019 at 09:23 PM
imagesfromobjects Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Well, I broke down and ordered one. No BF specials so I went the Greentoe route and am pleased with the price I got for a new one. Now if [REDACTED] would just ship it, I'd be a super happy camper - can't wait!!
imagesfromobjects wrote:
Well, I broke down and ordered one. No BF specials so I went the Greentoe route and am pleased with the price I got for a new one. Now if [REDACTED] would just ship it, I'd be a super happy camper - can't wait!!
Same here, couldn't resist anymore.
So far I like it a lot!
That's a very nice review. Of course I considered the Samyang/Rokinon (which is almost universally recommended over the Sigma) but I knew I really wanted the Sigma.
What most of the reviews fail to emphasize, is just how smoothly the Sigma handles transition zones and busy backgrounds. Also, that the smoothness is still very much present at f/4-5.6, which is the range that almost all modern lenses start to show gnarly backgrounds, as the sharpness increases. The benefit of the Sigma design, is that, although it is soft wide open and shot from >1m away, stopping down to f/4 REALLY makes things pop and still keeps the bokeh magic in the background. This was what I tested for when I rented it and was absolutely hooked.
Things like "sharpness" and f-stop number are just much easier to put in absolute, quantifiable terms, so the important subtleties are often overlooked.
keepcoding wrote:
Same here, couldn't resist anymore.
So far I like it a lot!
Side note - I haven't tested it for centering yet, but this copy seems sharper wide open and up close than the one I rented. Maybe copy variance, but I'm not complaining!
imagesfromobjects wrote:
Side note - I haven't tested it for centering yet, but this copy seems sharper wide open and up close than the one I rented. Maybe copy variance, but I'm not complaining!
The smooth bokeh, focus transitions, color and smooth contrast rendering reminds me a lot of Canons EF 50 f1.2 and I wouldn't be able to distinguish them at comparable apertures, I think.
Did anyone compare these lenses directly? They share also the characteristic of having some glow wide open and at short distances.
Anyway, there's a lot of rendering magic going on in both lenses which is quite rare.
You make me very curious about 50L EF. Having Panasonic, it might worth a try for me. It was considered huge before but now? It is so tiny.
Ulff wrote:
The smooth bokeh, focus transitions, color and smooth contrast rendering reminds me a lot of Canons EF 50 f1.2 and I wouldn't be able to distinguish them at comparable apertures, I think.
Did anyone compare these lenses directly? They share also the characteristic of having some glow wide open and at short distances.
Anyway, there's a lot of rendering magic going on in both lenses which is quite rare.
Ulff wrote:
Did anyone compare these lenses directly?
Nope but I'm pretty certain that the Canon EF which I've used quite a bit for years has a lot, lot more field dependent aberrations (lots of big, fat "wings" in the corner of the frame when shooting point light sources, or quite a busy, nervous bokeh off centre, for example), and a lot, lot of chromatic aberrations. Both of which the Sigma 45mm tries to correct quite well (it's possible that by f2.8 the Canon corrects them decently enough that the difference isn't quite as noticeable... but I doubt my own hypothesis here, there's really a LOT of these to start with ).
What they both have in common is quite a lot of spherical aberration and a modulation of it that tends to produce smooth, somewhat gaussian and hazy-ish transitions from in focus to OOF background areas - even at the cost of a bit (in the case of the Sigma, being a f2.8 lens) or a lot (in the case of the Canon, being a much faster lens) of resolution, and that varies depending on focusing distance (with even more of it in close ups). We rarely see lenses like that these days (to my utter dismay).
Dec 06, 2019 at 06:54 AM
imagesfromobjects Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
So, my lens just crapped out. I used it very happily for exactly 3 days, shot an event this morning and was stoked about the results, got home and shot a few things... then the focus motor just stopped working.
It's still transmitting the data- the distance scale moves when in MF mode, but the focus doesn't move. Already cleaned the contacts, swapped the battery, tried every different focus mode... Nothing.
It's getting exchanged. What a bummer.
As an aside, anyone who got this lens new- do you happen to remember if the box was shrink-wrapped when you got it or not? All appeared as new, but the box had a couple wear marks and wasn't shrink-wrapped, so I'm trying to determine if the vendor sold me a truly new lens or not.
MayaTlab wrote:
Nope but I'm pretty certain that the Canon EF which I've used quite a bit for years has a lot, lot more field dependent aberrations (lots of big, fat "wings" in the corner of the frame when shooting point light sources, or quite a busy, nervous bokeh off centre, for example), and a lot, lot of chromatic aberrations. Both of which the Sigma 45mm tries to correct quite well (it's possible that by f2.8 the Canon corrects them decently enough that the difference isn't quite as noticeable... but I doubt my own hypothesis here, there's really a LOT of these to start with ).
What they both have in common is quite a lot of spherical aberration and a modulation of it that tends to produce smooth, somewhat gaussian and hazy-ish transitions from in focus to OOF background areas - even at the cost of a bit (in the case of the Sigma, being a f2.8 lens) or a lot (in the case of the Canon, being a much faster lens) of resolution, and that varies depending on focusing distance (with even more of it in close ups). We rarely see lenses like that these days (to my utter dismay). ...Show more →
The CV 40/1.2 and CV 35/1.4 E-mount lenses have similar SA at close distance. I shot with the Canon 50/1.2L for many years and although it's under-corrected for SA, I find its transition zone rather harsh in comparison to the Sigma which is smooth as butter.
The Sigma 45/2.8 is quite unique having highly corrected axial CA and superb resolution at long distance.
So, my lens just crapped out. I used it very happily for exactly 3 days, shot an event this morning and was stoked about the results, got home and shot a few things... then the focus motor just stopped working.
It's still transmitting the data- the distance scale moves when in MF mode, but the focus doesn't move. Already cleaned the contacts, swapped the battery, tried every different focus mode... Nothing.
It's getting exchanged. What a bummer.
As an aside, anyone who got this lens new- do you happen to remember if the box was shrink-wrapped when you got it or not? All appeared as new, but the box had a couple wear marks and wasn't shrink-wrapped, so I'm trying to determine if the vendor sold me a truly new lens or not. ...Show more →
I'm sorry to hear that. Looks like you got a lemon.
).