What do you think of the Sigma wides?

[Nicholaus James]

Since Nikon is taking away all their good glass, and I want to have some fast, wide lenses in my kit, how do the Sigma 20mm, 24mm, 28mm f/1.8 stack up?

I know the Nikon 28mm f/1.4 is king, but do you guys think these would be nice to have in a Nikon mount RED?

BTW, do these still have the aperture ring on them?

 

[hunterrichards]

I think most of the sigma primes are soft towards the open side and show some CA/ flair issues. It would be best to do a Google search for particular lens reviews (i.e. kenrockwell.com, ect.)

 

[Obin Olson]

crap, just shot with them. bad lens. really soft, low res, and lots of CA

 

[Obin Olson]

friggen Tokina is a HIT lens with me, I LOVE IT, 11-16mm and it's sharp as shit! and built well....even had a custom lens gear made for mine

runs circles around the Sigma.

 

[Nils J. Nesse]

The Sigma 24 and 28 are very sharp, as long as you have a good one. (Sample variations seem to be Sigma's weakness.) I've heard fewer positive words about the 20, I have the impression it's somewhat soft. But, try it.

Have you considered the Zeiss ZF 28mm f/2?

 

[hunterrichards]

obin- How are you handling aperture with the tokina 11-16? The "tooth-pick" method or did you figure out something else.

 

[Leon Trinidad]

yes, please explain how you can use the tokina 11-16mm, I heard the lens was sweet!

 

[Mark K.]

Of that lot I've only tried the Sigma 20mm f/1.8 - I was thoroughly underwhelmed by it (primarily the way it renders colour and contrast).

For the wide stuff, your only real option for fast glass is the 17-35mm f/2.8 (which isn't particularly wide, but until something like the Birger Mount arrives it's your best option).

 

[A. Bastaki]

the best wide photo lens in the world
12-24mm sigma

 

[Nicholas Shields]

Our Sigma 20mm is very soft - outside edge softening more.

 

[ZeissUser]

I have the Sigma 20mm which I use on a Letus Extreme. It is sharp enough for what I am doing, shooting TV spots for television. We're not making movies. My main gripe (which is minor in the grand scheme of things) is that the focus ring is noisy when you turn it too fast, and it moves in the opposite direction as my Zeiss ZF primes. Otherwise, it's a fine lens for the price. All lenses sharpen up when you stop them down, and this one is no exception.

Even wide open, it's perfectly acceptable for television shoots, imho. Compared to the Nikon AF 20mm f/2.8D, it is WAY sharper... hence the reason why I upgraded to the Sigma...

 

[ZeissUser]

Just another note.. I know for a fact that many current national political commercials are being shot on lenses that are not any sharper than Sigma's. I mean the big time, big budgets jobs that I have assisted on. And the clients are fine with the results. So ask yourself, is the sharpness of a "soft" lens that big of a deal? I personally don't think so.

 

[A. Bastaki]

guys the sigma 20 f1.8 is a shitty lens.. the bokeh is sharp and shitty.. its noisey.. its a crappy lens by all means.

 

[Harrison Diamond]

I had a Sigma 28/1.8 DG for a very short time.
It wasn't truly sharp until f/5.6, had loads of CA, and even at 5.6 and beyond it never seemed to have the same level of sharpness, contrast, or color rendition as my Nikkors. I returned it.

the best wide photo lens in the world
12-24mm sigma

My vote goes to the Nikon 14-24/2.8 for that though

 

[Charles Angus]

Nikon 14-24 is best.

I have a Sigma 10-20, though, and its ok - corner sharpness not so good, autofocus is not at all accurate, but reasonable elsewise.

I haven't heard anything good about wide Sigma primes - especially not the fast ones.

c.

 

[Mark K.]

The 14-24mm is tremendous, particularly when you're using just the centre of the glass (à la S35mm-crop), the problem is that none of the wonderful new still camera wide-angle lenses have aperture rings... so they aren't really usable.

 

[Mark B.]

Rather than pre-judge Sigma, why not wait until the Birger mount ships and then look at first-hand examples from Sigma lenses? I've had good and bad luck with Sigma lenses... different models will have different quality, and I've heard some say there is variation between identical model lenses. So until there's a good sampling taking place, it's hard to say what the overall actual quality is.

 

[Harrison Diamond]

The 14-24mm is tremendous, particularly when you're using just the centre of the glass (à la S35mm-crop), the problem is that none of the wonderful new still camera wide-angle lenses have aperture rings... so they aren't really usable.

Well the Birger mount will, I believe, support iris control of G lenses. So that would be the ideal solution. I wonder if P+S Technik's IMS will support it. I would guess not, but they do offer an EF mount which means they should have some method of interfacing with the lens electronics.