Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM

[risc32]

this way i'll have some incentive to actually do it. (now that started a thread)

my sigma arrived today. first thoughts, it's heavy and seems very well made. hood snaps in place in a very nice positive manner. The focus ring has a short throw, and a just very so slightly scratchy quality. but my wrists might be more fine tuned than others ;D The focus ring also has a fair bit of damping, it's not going anywhere by accident. I'm impressed so far. I'm not reviewer, and i don't do much in the way of my own little tests, but i'll breakout the tripod and get something up. whatever i do, i guess i'll do the same with my 24-105 and 16-35 just for kicks.
anyway, i hope to get this up shortly.

 

[kubelik]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

looking forward to hearing more from you! thanks in advance for sharing with the rest of us

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

So my 3 year old didn't cooperate, and this very cloudy outside but i've got something.

first- I'd like to amend what I wrote above. the very first thing i thought when i got the package was that can't be the lens. it's far to small. If canon had packaged and shipped it, they would have used a box 4x as large. Also, i think i the focus ring has no more scratchy feel than any of my Canon L's. It's very good.

I shot these in RAW and used DXO to convert them. I turned off the distortion correction, CA correction, and vignetting correction. Actually, when it loaded the files it thought they might have been shot with the Canon 35. I was hoping that would happen, and it did. It tried to correct barrel distortion that isn't there, and ending up causing distortion. That might change with focusing distance, i don't know. I don't really have much to quickly test coma as the clouds are very much out tonight, but i tried to use some street lights the best i could. I don't have many of them either. i just need a clear night to really test that.
yeah, the shots are crap, even from a get a look at this subjective, but i'll do better.
I think i like this lens.

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

yes, that's my sweet p&S, on the Far, Far sweeter tripod i used to use for nonphoto related stuff. it's handy

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

Okay, the rest are to large to post.

 

[wickidwombat]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

thanks alot, those shots give a pretty good indication of the bokeh and blur which look smooth and clean
I definately cant wait to get my hands on one

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

I will get more tomorrow. In the many of the samples posted on the net thus far i thought the bokeh was a bit of a nervous mess, but i have't seen it yet in my shots. but it's early.

 

[japhoto]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

And this is why I'd like to have IS even on a f/1.4 lens.

The shots look quite nice, the out of focus areas are pleasing. A bit of color fringing, but nothing that a decent lens profile wouldn't fix (and I'd expect that to happen anyway).

The lens seems sharp enough, but motion blur at 1/13 and the second one at 1/40 is quite apparent. And these shutter speeds would be quite possible with IS or OS or what have you on the lens.

Sure, 5D MkIII and these were shot at ISO100, so bump that up, but for older cameras that don't handle higher ISOs so gracefully or just for someone who likes to use lower ISOs for quality, the stabilization would be good.

 

[EchoLocation]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

I'd love to see some more samples. I'm very interested in this lens. I'm basically just interested in seeing what it can do at F1.4 and shutter speeds of about 100-250ish on different ISO's.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy your new lens!

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

Anyone care to post/host some a few of my crappy test photos? they are very exciting, they are shots of the sigma box it came it, at f1.4-2-2.8 in the center of the frame and out at the furthest reaches of the live view magnifier! yes, wow! i hope to get a star shot this evening.

Also, sorry for the camera shake during those above shots. normally I could have done it handheld but i was fooling with the liveview feature and i just couldn't get it done holding the camera that way.

one last thing, earlier i said the focus path was short. well, it's 90degrees, so not so much.

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

the best i can do right now are some crops.

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

1.4 corner

 

[risc32]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4 test shots coming this evening.

mo'
again with DXO's whiz bang stuff switched off.

 

[bchernicoff]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

I just got my copy an hour ago and am sharing a quick set that were taken near minimum focus distance. These are 5D Mk III images, shot as RAW and exported full-size from Lightroom using default settings.

http://chernicoff.us/images/f1.4.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f2.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f2.8.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f4.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f5.6.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f8.jpg

The build quality on this lens is phenomenal. Feels very much like a Zeiss. I'll get more and better images posted. I also will do a longer comparison this weekend to Sigma's 50mm and 85mm 1.4's.

 

[Dylan777]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

I just got my copy an hour ago and am sharing a quick set that were taken near minimum focus distance. These are 5D Mk III images, shot as RAW and exported full-size from Lightroom using default settings.

http://chernicoff.us/images/f1.4.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f2.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f2.8.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f4.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f5.6.jpg
http://chernicoff.us/images/f8.jpg

The build quality on this lens is phenomenal. Feels very much like a Zeiss. I'll get more and better images posted. I also will do a longer comparison this weekend to Sigma's 50mm and 85mm 1.4's.

It looks like a winner to me

Where is the 50mm Sigma? I want one

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

Love the look of this lens, love the apparent sharpness of it. I'd still like to see more samples of the bokeh in different situations before I put the money down. I'm not blown away by what I've seen to date, and ooF rendering in this kind of wide aperture lens is pretty huge. I'd be very happy to be wrong about this.

I'm also interested in seeing more images from the new 35mm f/2 IS and would love to see some head to head comparos. We've seen very few samples from that lens.

 

[bchernicoff]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

These are all shot RAW on a 5D MK III and exported full-size from Lightroom with sharpening set to 0.

This picture of the orchid is blowing my mind at how sharp it is at 1.4:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1275.jpg

Another sharp flower at 1.4:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1290.jpg

Kitty cat f/2:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1208.jpg

Inside candid at f/1.4:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1330.jpg

OOF lights at f1.4 showing mild ringing/onion:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1183.jpg

OOF lights at f2 showing mild ringing/onion (the orange cast is from mix of fill flash and the light behind me):
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1184.jpg

 

[drjlo]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

OOF lights at f1.4 showing mild ringing/onion:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1183.jpg

At f/1.4, aren't the round lights overly football-like in shape?

 

[bchernicoff]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

OOF lights at f1.4 showing mild ringing/onion:
http://chernicoff.us/images/9Z9C1183.jpg

At f/1.4, aren't the round lights overly football-like in shape?

only when your subject is very close to the lens. At the distance you would really shoot people they are round. I'll have to post an example tomorrow.

 

[jeffabbyben]

Re: Sigma 35mm 1.4

I recently posted about the horrible onion ring appearance on my new Canon 35mm 1.4 L. A guy gave me this great link to help me learn about this. Basically my understanding is that it is a property of the way the lens is formed as well as a myriad of other things. Again my understanding is that it does not signify a "bad lens". Here is the link to the Zeiss booklet. Look at page 32
http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B8B6F/EmbedTitelIntern/CLN_35_Bokeh_EN/$File/CLN35_Bokeh_en.pdf

You will probably have to copy the link and paste because it doesn't seem to work otherwise.