Matti6950
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
I had the GM I (a little bit supbar copy, but even a normal copy would more or less be same for what i will be saying now). I also now own the Sigma and The GM II.
Sharpness: Sigma and GM II wins easely, at infinity is wash (old much wors at 70mm). At close focus distance GM II hands down (but it's not a macro for sure, need to stop down a lot still. GM II might have a hair more microcontrast then Sigma, but Sigma and GM II are way better then gM I. My GM 1 had also astigmatism at 24mm wich was supposed to be strong but not everyone had this. Both Sigma and GM II have way less astigmatism in corners.
Chromatic Aberration: GM I very bad, lot of pixels purple in lot of situations around branches. Sigma: still has some but way better, in fact i think it's slightly better then GMII wich is a bit worse then Sigma but way cleaner then GM I.
Flare: GM I worst, Sigma quite good, GM II very clean (especially contrast near light source).
Size: GM I very bad, the front heavyness is a lot worse then the Sigma, imo even being only 56 gram less weight the Sigma wins hands down in an use all day situation, it's very balanced if you hold hand under or on top of lens near mount (GM I is not, front heavy). And the GM II: big winner. In fact of all the reasons to buy the GM II this is the biggest (way more then image quality or focus speed etc, although they matter as wel). I'm not a person who will buy a lens for extreme low weight and 'no image quality gains', i don't mind heavy lenses like my Sigma 35mm F1.2. But still it's impressive how small, easy to use and portable Sony made this lens. Nitpicking: the GM II is the tiniest amount ever 'backheavy' now rather then frontheavy or balanced. But if you hold one ringer near the mount it's still by far the most balanced and comfortable lens to use (less backheavy then either Sigma or GM I is frontheavy). Round applause for GM II.
Build quality: a wash more or less. The GM I zooms quite stiff. The GM II has a very smooth and slightly stiff (not as stiff as GM I) mode. Sigma zooms very nicely, focus ring a bit to loose (but tbh that's true for GM I and GM II as well, although GM II is nicest to use. The aperture ring i thought (in such a small lens) would be annoying (GM II) but they really thought it well out, the click from A (not using ring) is strong enough to prevent accidents and the ring is tiny making if you hold the lens it wont turn suddenly. Just because of the new options the GM II wins. One small unimportant point. While the GM II really is build nice - the following part doesn't diminish that - of all the plastics used it feels the cheapest, but really by an incredible small margin (it's for sure better then Tamron 28-70, Sony 24-105mm (wich already is damn nice). This was probably a compromise for the weight and as I say it's still very nice build with no complaints.
Bokeh: GM I worst, no arguments, although it wasn't super terrible, there were worse zooms then it on market. Sigma's biggest surprise for me was that next to sharpness, it managed nice bokeh! The GM II is certainly better then GM I, it falls of faster then Sigma, so the transition is smoother, but the bokeh itself i prefer slightly on Sigma i think.
Colors: GM 1 had a weird color profile for landscape imo. Not as vivid as Gmaster 24/35mm, also reds and blue's where under tuned making sunsets on the hard side, green was good but a bit harsh due to how this lens renders high contrast scenes. The Sigma colors are a tiny bit on vivid side, but never exaggerate. For Landscape it's really a nice start if you want to go to the vivid side. Some people dislike the Sigma colours, but since it's subtle, it should be no issue for anyone, the start 'the JPG' file imo needs way less work then GM I, and a bit less work then GM II. That brings us to GM II: this was my biggest dissaopintment. Not because it's a big issue, more because i didn't expect it from a gmaster. It has more subtle colours then the Sigma, Sony Gmaster 24, 35, 12-24mm, 100-400mm GM etc. I think It's like because it's such an allround lens that they wanted it clean enough for everyone. This makes Jpg's loose a bit of punch (although the microcontrast of the lens is really good, making a bit colour punch back. So GM I the worst, the GM II subtle but workable. Sigma imo (for landscape) least work.
Autofocus: GM I was fast, but in sports sometimes couldnt follow like cycling. Didn't test GM II in speedy situation yet, but the speed and accuracy of acquisition give me high hope for sports. The Sigma is the worst in this. Pure accuracy wise it's still very good, speed is better then any non pro DSLR lens (non trinities basically). But this will be better on GM II. GM I is a little faster then Sigma (but not per sé more accurate. Especially for having the closest focus capabilities at 70mm, the speedy AF operation makes a big difference (there it would have been annoying with old speed sometimes).
Price/performance: GM I by far the worst if bought new. Since there's a big gap in the price from cheap to new i'll list them all, old price 2400€: bad, new price now: 1899€ supbar, Old used price 1500€ good, newest used price: 1150€ just short of very good.
Now Sigma. That one is easy: Outstanding. 1200€ brings you almost GM II performance in almost very regard, safe a few (it even wins in a few). Sometimes it cost even less. Hence best price/performance. And image quality is way better then i could ever hope. I expected more compromises. It's the lack of those that makes it so good in P/P.
GM II: the second best (or worst if compared on used prices).. However i would still give it a 'good' rating because of some factors. For same price as old GM I you now get a way better lens (especially in weight and aperture ring). Secondly, it's clear this weight wasn't simple to make, it beats any competition by 100 grams at least, and some low weight lenses are quite costly. For a quite normal OEM price (cheapest of trinity) you get a really good lens. Though the 70-200mm GM II is clearly a bigger improvement.
Edited on Aug 29, 2022 at 02:42 AM · View previous versions
|
