It's actually priced in the lower end of native FE auto focus lenses if you look at MSRP at release time. Not counting budget lenses like Samyang, which has a current 45/1.8 for $150 or so less.
Not knocking Samyang (or Helios, which I also love) but this is a metal lens of modern design. Sigma is a pretty established name in high-end glass. The build quality alone would appear to be a justification for the price difference. I'm also seeing quite a bit of sharpness wide open, but I'm at the point in my photography life, where sharpness is one of the criteria that I look at, but it's far from the most important one. Almost all non-defective modern lenses are probably sharper than anyone needs, especially when printing or viewing at large sizes is rare. For my application, a lens needs to be small, loght, well-built with good handling and nice rendering. Sharpness is a given, but this lens would appear to tick quite a few boxes for me. I also shoot 80/20 stills and video, so I need to see how it handles in video, if the on-board mic will pick up focus motor noise, how well face-detect works and how pleasant and accurate the manual focusing is on it.
Guess I'll see in a few days, will report back.
scalanc2 wrote:
I’m under the impression this lens is nothing special apart bokeh.
A 45 2.8 so expensive must carry a high resolution from wide open in my opinion.
Then bokeh is an added value.
Unless it is considered a special lens like 60’s or 70’s legacy lenses like Helios or similar but which cost is 10 times lower.
Also the missing coating....!
Strange approach.
Nevertheless Fred’s picture are beautiful, but he is a great shooter!
I hope to be wrong in my reading.
