Sigma 14mm f/1.8 ART lens

[basketballfreak6]

coz i am too lazy here is a repost of my post on POTN forum...

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dropped into local camera shop today to check out the sigma 14mm they just got in, long story short my mate made me an offer i just could not refuse

so without further adieu here is the brick wall test everyone's been looking forward to :P

full frame:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 ART Test by Tony, on Flickr

top right corner crop:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 ART Test Top Right Corner Crop by Tony, on Flickr

centre crop:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 ART Test Centre Crop by Tony, on Flickr

leveled to the best i could and shot on a tripod, shot from UNDER 1m away from the wall (sorry i don't have a big enough brick wall to stand further back from)

raw ran straight through lightroom to export as jpeg with no adjustments

so my findings:

- auto focus snappy and accurate
- build is excellent, typical of what you've come to expect from an ART lens, has rubber gasket around lens mount for weather sealing
- some of the best focus ring i've experienced that's not named zeiss, nicely dampened and very smooth
- lens is SHARP wide open, sharpness only falls off at the extreme corners and i'd say quite evenly around all 4 corners, i'd rate very sharp up to past mid frame and sharp up to the edges and soft at extreme corners (possibly slighest field curvature?)
- vignetting not too bad, practically gone by f/2.4 (or "2.5" on canon body)
- handles distortion very well (as pictured), especially considering how close i was to the wall (again, under 1m), simple barrel distortion, i am sure non-issue out in the field

only thing left for me to test is coma, planning to head out in couple weeks time at new moon, hopefully will be putting up some astro samples soon (or just in my backyard when i get a clear sky lol)

but for now assuming you get a good copy i think sigma's knocked it out of the park with this lens

[ameerat42]

That should be interesting. What shall we do till then, though
Can't you poke some pinholes into a dark sheet and photograph some of
the bright points?

[basketballfreak6]

That should be interesting. What shall we do till then, though
Can't you poke some pinholes into a dark sheet and photograph some of
the bright points?

lmao

i am just as anxious to take it out for a proper astro test hahaha

[Morgo]

Looks the goods, keen to hear how it performs for astro.

[basketballfreak6]

once again repost from my thread at POTN...just a quick and dirty one but i will hopefully do a proper one over next week...but it is looking very good

ok guys...came home from work and it's clear skies, this more or less just a preliminary test as i rushed this coz it's late and i am tired and moon is rising, just a quick and dirty test and edit in lightroom

shot in our suburban backyard

to me coma is very well controlled...it's there but it's minimal, perfectly acceptable to me, YMMV of course, the slight elongated stars is probably just star trailing but also noticing possibly just the smallest amount of field curvature, when i have time over the weekend i'll set up my tracker to test it again (hopefully clear sky and before moon rises), but this should give you some idea

added +40 to vignetting slider in lightroom and it looks good already, i made no CA correction

this lens is looking super promising to me now

full frame:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 quick coma test by Tony, on Flickr

top right corner crop:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 quick coma test top right corner crop by Tony, on Flickr

top left corner crop:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 quick coma test top left corner crop by Tony, on Flickr

centre crop:
Sigma 14mm f/1.8 art astro coma test centre crop by Tony, on Flickr

[MattNQ]

Ooh, I love brick walls
Thanks for the review Tony.

I loved my old Sigma 14/2.8 - until it fell in the river. The old one had weak corners on full frame though.

This one looks light years ahead.



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[arthurking83]

....

to me coma is very well controlled...it's there but it's minimal, perfectly acceptable to me, YMMV of course, .....

I think what you call coma may be astigmatism.

Coma will make point sources look more like asteroids(trailing tails spreading out kind of appearance).
Astigmatism looks like cross lines emanating out from the central point.

Coma looks very well controlled.
Does have a very slight amount of astigmatism on the sagittal plane, but hard to see it clearly and differentiate it from any rotational drift.

either way, lens looks very good .. and now I'm jealous(but not thinking about this lens myself)

[Hamster]

What's the price on this @basketballfreak6. Getting on for $2k?
Does your friend work in Perth and can you get me a similarly good deal?

[basketballfreak6]

I think what you call coma may be astigmatism.

Coma will make point sources look more like asteroids(trailing tails spreading out kind of appearance).
Astigmatism looks like cross lines emanating out from the central point.

Coma looks very well controlled.
Does have a very slight amount of astigmatism on the sagittal plane, but hard to see it clearly and differentiate it from any rotational drift.

either way, lens looks very good .. and now I'm jealous(but not thinking about this lens myself)

that's great info! thanks for that, actually didn't know the difference, but yea i'm so excited to take it out for a proper shoot!

What's the price on this @basketballfreak6. Getting on for $2k?
Does your friend work in Perth and can you get me a similarly good deal?

hey Alex in Brissy unfortunately haha

he promised me not to disclose price to anyone because it's one of those "today only and i will most likely get in trouble with management" type deal...but i'll say it's within 10% of US RRP but in AUD if that makes sense...so yea that's why i just couldn't say no despite very little info on how the lens performs on the web (but also i liked what i saw snapping around store and outside)

[Hamster]

hey Alex in Brissy unfortunately haha

he promised me not to disclose price to anyone because it's one of those "today only and i will most likely get in trouble with management" type deal...but i'll say it's within 10% of US RRP but in AUD if that makes sense...so yea that's why i just couldn't say no despite very little info on how the lens performs on the web (but also i liked what i saw snapping around store and outside)

Oh well, worth a try
I'll have to have a play at my local supplier.

[basketballfreak6]

Oh well, worth a try
I'll have to have a play at my local supplier.

oh yea you won't disappointed i am sure

[basketballfreak6]

really falling in love with this lens...distortion control is magnificent, my copy seems to deal with flare pretty well too

and did i mention it's SHARP?

zero distortion correction here:
Sigma 14mm ART Sun Flare by Tony, on Flickr

[Cage]

The lack of distortion is quite remarkable Tony.

It should also be a winner for interior architectural work.

[basketballfreak6]

The lack of distortion is quite remarkable Tony.

It should also be a winner for interior architectural work.

hey Kev, this is an absolute winner of a lens IMHO, quite remarkable what Sigma was able to do with a lens this wide and this fast that's so well corrected in so many facets

[arthurking83]

flare does look good .. ie. nothing!

really falling in love with this lens...distortion control is magnificent ....

Seems to be a Sigma trait.

12-24's both the f/5.6 versions as well as the 10-20/5.6 Dx lens .. and the 12-24/4 and 8-16/5.6 Dx lens also both look good in terms of distortion levels.

Sigma seems to have a handle on how to iron out distortion on their ultra wides .. this one is no different

[basketballfreak6]

flare does look good .. ie. nothing!



Seems to be a Sigma trait.

12-24's both the f/5.6 versions as well as the 10-20/5.6 Dx lens .. and the 12-24/4 and 8-16/5.6 Dx lens also both look good in terms of distortion levels.

Sigma seems to have a handle on how to iron out distortion on their ultra wides .. this one is no different

what also impressed me was how contrast and clarity held up despite shooting into the sun

[robz]

i have the 35mm art series and it is also very sharp and crisp. Good lens

[basketballfreak6]

thought i'd share a few more sample pics here now that i've had some time with it, really is a great lens

Milky Way over Glass House Mountains by Tony, on Flickr

First attempt at interior/real estate by Tony, on Flickr

[Cage]

So no distortion adjustment on #2 huh?

[basketballfreak6]

So no distortion adjustment on #2 huh?

very little, only +7 in lightroom (mainly for the door on the right hand side) and i was VERY close (as you can imagine apartments in the CBD lol)