Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary real-world sample gallery

I agree it's and after thought for 4/3. I don't know about useless part of your statement tho. Seems less than ideal with more compact alternatives for 4/3s.

I remember there was once a Konica Hexanon 60mm f:1,2 M mount lens. Was/is quite a dream lens for many :-)

For M43 the closest this lens is equivalent to is the PanaLeica 25 f1.4. That's one of my favourite lenses for the format because it does offer in the real world [with people photography] enough focal compression to get nice subject isolation. This lens will do even better due to its slightly longer focal length, but will be more limiting where space is tight. That's an issue which presents a limitation to the usefulness of the PanaLeica too, but it would be interesting to see how these optics perform against each other. The Sigma obviously has less appeal for me since I already own the 25/1.4, but otherwise would appeal.

What I'd really like is a 35mm equivalent for shorter ranges, but it would need to be faster still to match longer lenses for isolation. The Oly 17mm f1.8, whilst a nice lens, isn't really up to that job. I guess the issue is size/weight price. There are manual focus alternatives out there, but I still feel there's a sizable gap. This lens is welcome competition.

In the 90th I used the Micro-Nikkor 60mm 1:2,8D as a standard lens.

Thats because this lens is literally an after thought. It was designed for apsc in mind. Making a 43 mount is quick add on.

60mm is not "wide enough" for walk around. Not even the 50mm is. This 30mm obviously was not designed for m43 in the first place. However for APS a nice 45mm eq. is excellent.

I've walked around with a 60mm equivalent (the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 on MFT) and found it wide enough for the photography I wanted to do.

For example, it's wide enough to capture context and environment when shooting on a typical street, rather than just street portraits. I've gone out taking similar shots with the Panasonic 20mm and come back with similar pictures at the end of the day.

I find the idea that 50mm isn't wide enough for a walk around to be rather bizarre, especially if a slightly wider 45mm is "excellent". For a long time most cameras came with a 50mm/55mm/58mm standard prime. Wider lenses are the current fashion for street, but most of the older street photography I've seen was taken at around a 50mm focal length.

I would gladly welcome Sigma 16/1.8 lens, because Sony 16/2.8 is a shame and I believe many Sony users would buy it (probably Fuji too if it had Fuji mount too).

Rishi !!!
OMG, you're so popular and active in chat,
Girls gonna love and wait for your comments

Hahaha

Oh man you guys really need to bring some ND's

You dialled in the same -0.7 EV for the other shots in that same sequence too, so that doesn't explain the f/1.4 exposure being the same as f/2

-0.75 IN POST said Rishi

Yes, from the pics it is obvious why Sigma didn´t give it the Art badge. However it surprises me that barrel distortion affects also standard focal length; I thought it was typical for wideangle lenses like 18mm and wider. As far as I remember the cheap 35mm prime I had (Pentax 35mm/2,4) made lines as straight as a ruler.

I'm speaking from a marketing perspective not a scientific one please credit me with some intelligence.

@ Iudex I think it happens when you have the ingredients of a fast aperture and a low price. I've noticed similar with other lenses like the SLR magic 35mm T1.4

An f/2.4 lens is probably comparatively easier to make within the same budget.

:) yeah, sorry i didn't want to sound like that... it's just that, also from a marketing perspective, they also have the 30/1.4 Art for APSC DSLR, at 500$

Fair enough observation, but if these pictures are any indication, this 30mm C is optically superior to the APS-C Art version, except for the stronger distortion.

I wonder if this will affect the production of the much cheaper DN Art version? That lens is a cute little thing, and quite fun to carry around for street photography.

Thanks for the clarification. I find the DN Art lenses to be something of an oddity among the Art lines, in the sense they're optically very good, but still designed to be budget lenses with a moderately fast maximum aperture. I think they're fair trade-offs since the smaller maximum aperture keep the distortion very well controlled while delivering a very light, cheap and small combination that deliver pretty good quality images. I don't see myself selling the 19 and 30mm lenses for faster version C lenses as I don't really need the faster aperture, but a 60mm f1.4 however, is something I'd get in a heartbeat.

I'm hoping Sigma starts looking into building weather sealed lenses, and offering aftermarket sealing conversion for existing Global Vision lenses. Weather sealing may not be completely necessary, but it's something that opens up more shooting options if you do have sealed camera bodies.

Good point with the weather sealing. I wonder why e.g. the 18-35mm is not weather-sealed, since it zooms and focuses internally, so there is not much to seal. For example Pentax can make weather sealed zooms that extend quite a lot when zooming (which is much more complicated to seal). And I believe it is even less complicated to weather-seal a prime (with less moving parts).

I would guess this is to keep costs down. I might be wrong, but I think they only do full weather sealing in Sport line.

And it might actually be that some other Sigma lenses are weather resistant to large degree, but announcing your lens as weather sealed is a liability, as users tend to do more extreme things with such lenses. I think Sony got burned by exactly that :-)

The aperture doesn't have much to do with it. See e.g. the 24-105 f4. But I agree anyways that a standard zoom should start wide. If it's 'just' 28mm equiv. on the wide end for me it could start at 35mm equiv. just as well.

Good point, I forgot the 24-105. And also this mirrorless prime shows taht fast aperture does not necessarily mean Art lens. So I hope a successor to the 17-50/2,8 will be an Art series lens (although a 16-50 would be even better).

probably yes... but it takes time for them to update the whole lineup. I bet they want too all their lenses to be compatible with the USB dock and now the sony adapter.
A 16/17-50 F2.8 Art will be super on the A6300. Also it's unlikely to update it to the Contemporary line, since they've already put the 17-70/2.8-4 there :)

totally two different lenses...Apsc at F2.8 gives P&S like portraits, object isolation...however, at F1.4, you can compete with FF F1.8 glasses. and create much interesting shots...you can also use this F1.4 lens as landscape lens..it's sharp across the frame and i cant see distortion to be concerned.that looks very promising lens for apsc e-mount, which is hunger for such a fast lens for quite a long time.

Yeah, what Rishi said. This lens has a different purpose, for instance i'm shooting with an old mf 40/1.8 for available light street photography, but i would love something wider, faster and cheaper with AF. I think this lens is the one for me.

I know... but... i think that one was designed for a DSLR with its longer flange distance. I hate having a 30 or 35mm lens that's as long as a 100mm one. I am a bit envious of the one Fuji has, pretty small and awesome piece of glass.

fuji 35 1.4 is painfully small and noisy...and not that sharp at F1.4,,,only center has acceptable sharpness..also focuses very slowly.

@noflashplease - what are you talking about? As far as I can tell Sigma has never produced what was being asked for which is a 20mm or 24mm prime for APS-C. The old 20/24/28mm f/1.8 sigmas are full frame lenses and have been discontinued because they were so bad. A 18/1.8 Art for EF-S and DX would sell like gangbusters! We know this since Nikon/Canon users have been begging for this for a decade (myself included) and, at least in nikons case, they think it's good enough to release a FX 20/1.8 for $900.

So yes nimrod it also covers S35 when mounted on a m43 camera with a S35 sensor.(JVC makes them)

That's great - thanks for the info guys. I'd like to try one on the FS5.

It will be some task for software developers to profile this lens ...

JET LAG. Still.

But the 30mm is a stop faster for less money.

Ha! An expensive one though. Also, don't forget the D500... :)

Is there any particular reason as to why the A7Rii in APSC mode would perform better than A6000/6300? I know the statement is semi-serious. I'm just curious. Theoretically dedicated APSC cameras with higher megapixel count would still deliver better image quality than a FF body in crop mode right (notwithstanding the supposedly superior sensor tech)

Very nice lens and excellent shots... however for someone like me with both FF and APS e-mount cameras the Sony FE 28mm f2 -which is pretty good too but 1-stop slower- would be the better option or if you have 300 more, the Zeiss 35mm 2.8 is amazing.

The Sigma lenses do seem nice, but they would be nicer if they actually targeted Micro Four Thirds specifically...

http://camerasize.com/compact/#289.548,289.352,289.411,ha,t

Maybe Sigma can cover the admittedly lucrative Sony market with that E-mount adapter thing together with their existing Canon/Sigma mount lenses, making room for a more optimised line-up for MFT.

@Vermaden

True, for Sony APS-shooters this lens is godsent as they are starved for affordable, fast primes. But for m43 owners I don't really see the appeal.

Pana-Leica 25mm f1.4 is actually very good lens. I won't say it is overpriced.

Rishi, can you explain why that is more true for wide lenses than long ones? We get told regularly that there's less and less advantage to smaller formats as the glass get longer because the lens can't shrink by the same ratio as the sensor.

I'd be more interested in seeing the vignetting this lens produces on a Sony A7 body? Maybe it's a hidden gem. More likely than not it's just a crop circle lens, as described, which makes it of very little interest at all in 2016.

Like I said - it's a crop circle lens. Far too much vignetting on FF, at all apertures.

@mosc - Unfortunately, I can't, but it's something I've directly asked many manufacturers, who've confirmed for the large part. I will have to study up on my optics - always more to learn! :)