Sigma 35mm f1.4....?!!

Very tempted to get this along with a Canon 85 1.8 after a quick browse through here... Seems to have comparable IQ to the Canon L lens at a significantly lower cost... Just curious on the best place to buy?

It's £80 cheaper from digitalrev than it is a UK stockist, but then I lose the UK based warranty... decisions decisions!
 
Mine went to Sigma HK from OneStop HK on the 23rd, I expect it to be back very soon now. I bet UK customs hold it up though :/ Not worried about charges as Onestop should cover all that anyway like last time. I just don't want the delay lol.

If I was buying now I'd stick to UK sources. Back when I got the lens it was £550 on import so made perfect sense to save around £200 getting it from HK.
 
£620 from Amazon is the current cheapest, so I think I may go for that. Time to chop in my 50mm it seems! Cant really get on with it that much on FF compared to crop
 
Janesy B said:
In all fairness the Sigma is about £400 cheaper than the Canon equivalent and a grand cheaper than what you could spend on a Nikkor 35mm f/1.4.

Most of the sharpness issues come down to the fact you have to be very careful with focusing when wide open as it's very easy to miss the spot and I expect some micro adjustment is required with some bodies. You get good and bad copies like with all lenses too.
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That is some pretty strange pricing for the Nikon:
current UK lowest prices:
Sigma £639
Canon £1069
Nikon £1260


The sigma is definitely great value for money. The Canon is pretty old now and due for an update, rumors a new one will be released this year or early next. I'm expecting a price tag of £1500-1600 given Canon trends.
 
I'm hoping Sigma make a new 24mm f/1.8 or 1.4 that is as good as this 35mm. Their current 24mm f/1.8 absolutely sucks balls. If Sigma do manage to get a 24mm that is on par with the Nikon and Canon then it will make a superb set.

Otherwise on the Nikon side of things I am more in favour of getting the painfully sharp 28mm f/1.8G - kind of covers both the 24 and 35mm focal lengths in a single cheap lens with phenomenal performance.


Also there are rumors that Sigma are working on a 24-70mm f/2.0 OS (yes f2.0 not 2.8). Given that their 18-35mm f/1.* seems to be breaking sharpness limits we might be entering a new era of FF fast zooms. If it is as good as the 18-35 then I woulkd sell my Nikon 24-70G and maybe add the Nikon 28mm f1.8G as a single fast prime, get rid of all the others. I don't need or want the f1.4 apertures (purchased the 85mm f1.8G on purpose over the 1.4G) I could happily live with f2.0 over f/1.8.
 
They are making a 24-70 f/2 (whoops, not 1.8) OS although it is not confirmed if it's gonna be DX/DC or FX/DG.

If it's DG then awesome, it "might" tempt me because of the video abilities of OS stabilising footage in places a FlyCam isn't convenient.
 
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mrk said:
They are making a 24-70 f/2 (whoops, not 1.8) OS although it is not confirmed if it's gonna be DX/DC or FX/DG.

If it's DG then awesome, it "might" tempt me because of the video abilities of OS stabilising footage in places a FlyCam isn't convenient.
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If it's not DG then my feelings towards Sigma are going to keep decreasing....

kd
 
mrk said:
They are making a 24-70 f/2 (whoops, not 1.8) OS although it is not confirmed if it's gonna be DX/DC or FX/DG.

If it's DG then awesome, it "might" tempt me because of the video abilities of OS stabilising footage in places a FlyCam isn't convenient.
Click to expand...

If they make it it will be for FF camera, they have the 18-35mm f/1.8 for crop
 
alexisonfire said:
My 24 1.8 was crazy sharp (before i dropped it :p). Up there with my nikon 85mm & 50mm. The focus wasn't the most accurate but it was fast.
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You sure it was a different lens, the Sigma 24mm f/1.8 breaks records for softness:D
The very center is sharp enough (but still not veyr shapr) but this is an incredibly small part of the frame that is acceptable.
http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/206/cat/30
http://www.photozone.de/nikon_ff/756-sigmaex2418fx?start=1
 
mrk said:
Inaccurate focus can be fixed with microadjust - that's the whole point of having it on the body though.
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Depends if it is consistent. Most people when the say inaccurate focus they mean that it is random whether it suffers from back or front focus from shot to shot, which is not fixable. If there is a consistent error then this is simply referred to as back or front focus, not accuracy.

Some really horrible lenses are just completely random when it comes to back or front focusing ona shot by shot basis.

Although mathematically consistent back/front focus is a high precision low accuracy error and an error that is wildly inconsistent maybe very accurate but have low precision - e.g. throwing millions darts at a dart board may give the mean position of the bulls eye even if no darts even got on the board...
 
mrk said:
Sometimes it seems the manual focus era had it better off :p
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with proper split prisms, ground glass in huge viewfinders that would actually show the light and DoF from lenses faster than f/2.8 and lenses with big smooth precise focus rings then manual focus really wasn't so bad, could be very quick and relatively accurate.

Now a days we all have small viewfinders, even the FF camera have small finders, no easy manual confirmation and we can't see anything beyond f/2.5 or so.
 
I think the 5D3 viewfinder is rather large and not far from 35mm film of the day. My uncle had/still has an AE-1 and I recall that having a nice viewfinder. Not far off.

Now I want to check out old FD lenses and an EF<>FD adapter ring...
 
mrk said:
I think the 5D3 viewfinder is rather large and not far from 35mm film of the day. My uncle had/still has an AE-1 and I recall that having a nice viewfinder. Not far off.

Now I want to check out old FD lenses and an EF<>FD adapter ring...
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Just go buy some Zeiss EF lenses :p

I've got relations who still have their film cameras around, might have to look through some of their viewfinders and see how they compare. Pretty sure we have an AE-1 and one of the old nifty fifties in the house, so may have a look.

kd
 
Somehow I managed to post this reply in the wrong thread... KD can you delete my other post in there please? The gig thread's last reply ta!

Update!

It came back today. It reached Onestop HK around the 23rd and they sent it off to Sigma HK then so from that point the turnaround was approx 13 days. No customs note or anything like that and they shipped it via DHL.

The friction/noise on the barrel is fixed and I swear the lens looks like it's had a refurb or is in a new casing as it looks like there are no little scratches on the body or lens cap at all, I do recall a few from rings/surfaces etc. The lens mount also fits tighter than I remember it being, it's now more like how a lens is when brand new until things settle into place from use. Same serial of course so it's definitely the same lens. I guess they just cleaned things up/replaced bits but I'll never know as no note was included on what was done.

Sharpness is still pinhead.

A26A9239.jpg
(off centre AF point on the EX logo).

Overall I am happy with the HK warranty service. Took a while to get it back yeah which is a bummer but it didn't cost me a penny and I had no paid jobs lined up the time it was away.
 
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