Dave Sanders
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 p.9 #3 · Pre-order: Sigma 24mm f/3.5, 35mm f/2 and 65mm f/2 DG DN lenses | |
JVan_02 wrote:
Yeah, about 5-10% of my shots might be close to maximum magnification of the 40, with the majority of that coming from photowalks and a minority coming from spontaneous documentation. Looking at that figure I could say it's not a must-have maybe, but I know I'm going to miss it if I don't have it. Sony's 35 1.8 is obviously the best replacement in this regard, and it might be what I end up pairing the α7C with—but I know I'm going to miss the 40's optics. Sony's 35 is not a slouch, per say, just not as special as the 40—again, something I hoped the Sigma would remedy. ...Show more →
I think my shooting style is similar, especially now that my commute to the office is from my kitchen to my dining room table. I force myself out to go for walks in my neighbourhood and I almost always take my A7RII and a lens, these days the 45/2.8 or 100STF. What I wind up taking a lot of photos of are flowers, leaves, interesting patterns, etc. I might say that 20% of my shots are what I would term 'close focus' but even before, MFD was always a huge consideration. I think it might be from the twin experiences of buying the Nikon 28/2.8 AIs, which has terrific close focus performance, for my F3 and the Minolta 28-135 AF for my Maxxum 7. That lens had an awful 1.5m close focus, though was optically excellent. I loved the Nikon, was frustrated as hell by the Minolta. I vowed to always pay attention to the MFD of my lenses after that.
We'll have to see. To be honest, I have a fascination/trepidation of Sigma's 45. It has produced perhaps the best looking images I've seen in a midspeed prime, but the SA that quality seems to come from has a huge amount of hassle attached to it. The 40 also has some SA—and while I don't agree with Zeiss' decision to take away control of the aperture when SA flares up I can kinda understand it: it takes the hassle out of the equation. However, the best control of this kind of look has to come from Sony's 20 G, 24 GM, and 85 GM: SA out of the plane of focus where you want it at almost any aperture. I hope that the 35 and 65 lean more towards Sony's best—maybe not to that degree but instead something like Pentax's Limited series of primes. Or perhaps even as good as the 35 sonnar. ...Show more →
I had thought that about the SA of the Sigma as well, and really went back and forth on my purchase decision. I finally said 'screw it' and just went for it and I'm really glad that I did. Apart from being a pleasure to handle and use, I think the designers achieved a very interesting balance. At arm's length, portraits are almost perfect; sharp enough but with a subtle and pleasing rendering. As you get closer than that, into the close focus range near MFD, that's where it gets problematic, but truth be told, I'm almost always going to stop down to f/4 or f/5.6 for DOF anyways, so I don't really see the problem in real world usage. I turned up in my testing, for sure, it's there. But it's just not how I naturally use a lens. At f/4 resolution almost explodes and the lens is critically sharp in a broad central area. At infinity, it's a near perfect landscape lens in terms of sharpness, sharp into the extreme corners by f/5.6 and certainly by f/8. So the SA issue really only rears its ugly (glowy?) head at or near f/2.8 and MFD.
Now, I'm a very un-demanding AF user, so I haven't run into the C-AF issue and can't comment on that. I have an A7RII so I use eye AF tasked to a custom button and in AF-S. No issues. I can imagine, though, how small focus inaccuracies in AF-C would drive someone crazy, especially on the 60mp of the RIV.
But if Sigma manages to get some of the 'magic' from the 45 into the 24/35/65 trio, I'll buy one for sure. I don't want them to duplicate the 45, just to add something interesting and unique. I look forward to seeing Mr. Yamaki's presentation...I love his detailed explanations. They're insightful and he is very real, not slick or polished, just someone who clearly believes in his company, his engineers and his products.
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I was just looking at the pictures thinking „man this 35mm and 65mm are ugly“ - don’t like this clutch-thingy that doesn’t seem to have a purpose. Also hate the lens hood