First Sigma 30mm f/2.8 review!
Our reader Tobias Giesen posted the very first short Sigma f/2.8 for m43 lens review (Click here to read it). In short, he found the Sigma lens focuses fater than the 20mm f/1.7 lens. And that’s certainly a bit of a surprise. The lens is decently sharp wide open but there is one major issue…CA (Chromatic Aberration). But read his full test and see the many image smaples to get an idea of the image quality. You can (pre-)order the lens at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here) and Fotomundus (Click here).
Speaking of Sigma, DSLRmagazine (Click here) interviewed Mr Kazuto Yamaki (CEO of Sigma). The interesting bits of info. The 30mm and 19mm lenses are deisnged for their own DP series, NEX system and m43 system (For cost savings reasons). The MTF graph is very good but MR. kazuto said that sadly they cannot rely on the camera software for automatic lens corrections.
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Comment from : Pretty sure they do don't they? Also isn...
Comment from Z-man: The 30mm F3.5 is not amazingly sharp eit...
Comment from avds: Though I too find the 20/1.7 "just good"...
Comment from austin: I thought the 30mm was supposed to have ...
david
3 months ago |Why would focusing faster than the 20 be a surprise? The 20 is certainly a nice lens, but it’s a real slug in AF compared to most of the others.
avds
3 months ago |+1
No surprise for me.
I wonder though why the lens won’t use camera corrections if its fully compliant with the m43 standard. Super-strange.
mountainwalker
3 months ago |I think, the camera bodies would need software updates containing the lens specifications in order to “know” how to do the corrections. Usually this works within one brand (Lumix lens — Lumix camera, Olympus lens — Olympus camera). I’m only surprised that this obviously doesn’t function across different companies who have joined the m43 standard.
Panda
3 months ago |Lumix lenses are corrected for distortion on Olympus bodies, and Olympus lenses are correct for distortion on Panasonic bodies. Sigma would simply need to work with Panasonic and Olympus to be included as this is part of the m4/3 spec.
Lumix lenses are also corrected for CA on Panasonic bodies, but that is not done by Olympus bodies with any lenses.
david
3 months ago |The lens firmware contains the correction information. That’s why distortion is corrected on all micro-4/3 bodies. For whatever reason, Olympus doesn’t use the CA correction information though (or provide it for their lenses).
Me
3 months ago |CA correction is not part of the mFT standard, that’s why Oly doesn’t care to correct it.
Digifan
3 months ago |The correct remark should be doesn’t correct CA it in software! It’s corrected in the hardware as good as they technically can.
Anentropic
3 months ago |it’s a bit of a drag there’s not some internet service where all the lens manufacturers (or 3rd party testers) upload their correction parameters, that we can then download in appropriate format to install on any m43 camera
essentially what Lightroom and other RAW editors provide but ‘open’ and installing to the camera
Panda
3 months ago |Olympus and Panasonic have a joint firmware updating service in place. I can, for example, update the lens firmware of my Panasonic lens while it is attached to my Pen body. If I owned a Panasonic body, I would be able to update my Olympus lens firmware through my Panasonic body.
I suspect that eventually Sigma will be part of this, otherwise there would be no mechanism for updating Sigma lenses.
Digifan
3 months ago |You CAN update third party lenses the same way!
bilgy_no1
3 months ago |At the very least they could work more closely with providers of image processing software, so that they can include the optimal corrections in PS, PSP, APerture, Picasa etc.
Bob B.
3 months ago |20mm f/1.7 very slow and noisy focus. Useable, though..and it is a short-throw lens which means that it doesn’t have to move too much to focus like say a telephoto lens would….but def. slow compared to say the Pany/Leica 25mm f/1.4 prime.
oh..BUT give me the 20mm f/1.7 ANY DAY over the Sigma. LOL!
Digifan
3 months ago |Even the 17mm F2.8 is faster than the 20mm. One of the reasons I didn’t bother with the 20mm.
stopkidding
3 months ago |that is one ugly looking lens
Vivek
3 months ago |It would be a beauty on the NEX-7 though (the E mount version)!
reverse stream swimmer
3 months ago |30mm x 1.5 = 45mm
30mm x 2.0 = 60mm
19mm x 2.0 = 38mm, might be the better choice in near future. However not as compact though.
Regarding Pana 20mm/F1.7, one can wish they accepted a bit larger housing to accomodate a bit more powerful focusing motor. Maybe for an upcoming version II of the same lens?
jim
3 months ago |I doubt its even power of motor thats the limmiting factor. Rather the controler/driver circuit for the stepper motor runs at a not cutting edge frequency – possibly a pedestrian 8000 steps per sec… some kick ass ones can exceed 50,000 steps per sec!
Vivek
3 months ago |A more powerful motor won’t result in miracles. The 20/1.7 is an unit focusing lens. If they make one with internal focusing mechanism, that would make it faster focusing and also without all the noise the 20/1.7 makes while auto focusing.
Yes, the E mount Sigma 30/2.8 would fill a big void at the moment.
The Pana 20/1.7 is actually quite nice on the NEX despite the extreme corner darkness.
Agent00soul
3 months ago |The MSC lenses have voice coil actuators, which are silent and fast but can’t pull too much load. So the lens will have to be totally redesigned to accomodate for this.
Nico Foto
3 months ago |These lenses will come into their own in the NEX universe. Actually, i’m surprised they first launched the m43 version – these are focal lengths that don’t make much sense this side of the fence.
On the other hand, for NEX, i’d say they are a compelling option…because of the lack of other options!
Test
3 months ago |I guess that it has something to do with the number of mft cameras users compared to the number of Nex users. Nex is a younger system and probably has less users, aka less potential buyers… Although mft users are IMO less likely to buy it, given the choice of available lenses in this format.
bilgy_no1
3 months ago |The 19mm seems like a useful focal length: right in between the 17mm and 20mm pancakes. It really is a very versatile FOV for general photography.
But that also makes it a tough sell. The 17mm is also cheap and a pancake; the 20mm is 1.5 EV brighter, pancake and not that much more expensive. Of course, on the NEX it will be a nice 28mm prime that is not yet available and fills a real gap.
30mm does indeed seem like a more appropriate FL for NEX. However, I have sometimes found the 35mm f/3.5 ZD lens to be good for general photography.
stopkidding
3 months ago |That is not true. The m43 standard specifies that any correction parameters be made available through the lens FW to the camera body. It is up to the body to implement them. Since the lens was made for sigma’s DP mount, I think they don’t have the technology to specify the corrections in the lens FW and they don’t want to add something specific for m4/3. This is a lazy port of the lens mount without actually paying much attention to the m43 standard
Anentropic
3 months ago |Are you sure they’re stored in the lens? I keep reading that Oly lenses aren’t corrected on Panny bodies and vice versa. Which would suggest that the lenses just identify themselves but the correction parameters are in the body’s firmware?
Panda
3 months ago |The lens correction parameters are stored in the lens. Olympus and Panasonic bodies correct distortion for both Olympus and Panasonic lenses interchangeably. The confusion arises because only Panasonic lenses on Panasonic bodies correct for CA (Chromatic Aberration). Olympus bodies do not correct for this.
Refudiation
3 months ago |That is false. Panasonic lenses are corrected for geometric distortion on Olympus bodies. Olympus lenses are corrected for geometric distortion on Panasonic bodies. The parameters for this correction are extracted from the lens firmware and embedded in the RAW file (or expressed in the in-camera JPEG).
The only caveat is that lateral chromatic aberrations are only automatically corrected with Panasonic lenses on Panasonic bodies.
spam
3 months ago |Agree, the parameters are stored in the lens. It’s the only possible place to store it. If they stored correction parameters in the body then you’d need a firmware upgrade for every new lens that was launched.
Anonymous
3 months ago |Pretty sure they do don’t they? Also isn’t this why older Panasonic bodies don’t support newer Panasonic lenses? This is a genuine question as I have seen Olympus for example update their cameras to support newer Panasonic lenses.
anony
3 months ago |Do you lose the software correction when using a pana lens on oly body?
Digifan
3 months ago |No
bilgy_no1
3 months ago |Only the Chromatic Aberration correction, but most Panasonic lenses don’t display too much of this anyway.
Distortion and vignetting are corrected for Panasonic lenses on Olympus bodies and vice versa.
jules
3 months ago |Not exactly compact size to lack OIS, unfortunately. But its $200.
Esrhan
3 months ago |Anyone think the lens’ image quality is overall just meh? Well, the price is low I’ll give it that.
Fants
3 months ago |It’s never possible to judge IQ from awful in-camera JPEGs. On one hand, I very honestly appreciate people who post these tests – on the other, I’m dumbfounded whenever they don’t do it with RAWs.
Jason
3 months ago |The 20 mm f/1.7, 25mm f/1.4, 25 mm f/.95 and 17.5 mm f/.95 are all better lenses. Still, I bet the Sigma IQ beats the MFT kit lenses – including the new 12-50mm.
Tobias Giesen
3 months ago |I guess I will have to make some direct comparison test shots to verify that.
Jason
3 months ago |Please do…
konikonaku
3 months ago |…and post your result
Yun
3 months ago |I sold my 20mm F1.7 but if I have to pick again , definitely I’ll pick it rather than this Sigma . fast focusing ? no , thanks . I need fast lens .
My opinion , a prime m4/3 lens should come out with huge aperature & F2.8 is not good enough in a M4/3 body , it suit APSC based cameras more .
Digifan
3 months ago |I wouldn’t pick the 20mm even if it was F0.95.
20mm is an awkward lens on (m)43. It’s so popular because there were no other fast lens solutions availble first.
To me the 14, 17, 25 and 45 are the best solutions.
They are the closest to the old 28,35,50 and 100mm range that I used. 20mm is “vlees noch vis”.
avds
3 months ago |Though I too find the 20/1.7 “just good” (4-star), mostly due to vignetting and some corner softness, your reasoning about its popularity felt curious but doubtful, so I checked amazon for its selling history an it appears that more than half of reviews for the lens (mostly 5-star) were sumbitted in 2011-2012 when all other options were already available and it was not sold as a lens kit anymore. So its popularity seems to be “genuine” so to say.
Digifan
3 months ago |F2.8 has never been considered slow on any format.
If extreme shallow DoF is your thing than you shouldn’t look at (m)43.
Fants
3 months ago |It looks to me like it suffers from the typical Sigma “softness at MFD” issues. If you notice, the corners on the bookshelf image are markedly better than the corners on the alphabet toy image, which appears to have been shot at a much smaller distance. Either way, let’s get a NEX test and some RAW conversions instead of cruddy softened in-camera JPEGS!
Bimbo
3 months ago |Admin, the results of the Q&A are in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Uf2N-aJRf4
flash
3 months ago |For the price it seems ok, so far. Look at the diffraction in the higher F stops, wonder if on a 12 meg sensor it would not be as pronounced. A good lens to take pictures of small children, or for pictures when out at night with ones friends (maybe their shorter length for that).
Should be a fun lens.
Miroslav
3 months ago |“Mr Kazuto said that sadly they cannot rely on the camera software for automatic lens corrections.”
If this means that these lenses do not need to be digitally corrected, that explains their size. And that’s good news indeed.
austin
3 months ago |I thought the 30mm was supposed to have macro ability? Why would anyone on the nex mount pick this over the 30mm macro, which is $50 and has 1:1 capability and only half a stop slower. Performance on that lens has been raved about, and aside from half a stop and $50 this lens has absolutely nothing on the sony.
Z-man
3 months ago |The 30mm F3.5 is not amazingly sharp either and the bokeh on the sigma (as far as I can make a judgement of the pics) doesn’t look nervous/distracting.