Sigma recently released a prime wide-angle lens that promises to be great. Does it meet the high standards of other lenses in its class?
First impressions of the lens
Taking the lens out of its recyclable packaging — the lens itself is in a small polythene wrapper, plus, it’s all recycled and recyclable paper and tags — I was immediately impressed. One of the first questions I ask when handling the device is whether it is up to quality. Its matte black finish looks great; It feels strong and has a high quality. This promises to be a good lens.
attached to me OM-1, it has been nicely balanced. It is similar to my width Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8, but slightly longer. This lens is not only compatible with Micro Four Thirds; Other versions are suitable for sony e, Canon EF-USA, Fujifilm X, And leica is mounts. It includes nine circular aperture blades, so I think the bokeh will be nice.
There are 16 lens elements, two of which are SLD (Special Low Dispersion) and three are Sigma’s FLD (Extra-low Dispersion); one can only guess why they use the F-glass and not the U in their acronym!). Those glass specs sound impressive, but they wash away me with a lot of pointless babble. When I ask other photographers, they often shrug and admit that they know nothing. I’ve tried lenses with all sorts of lens element combinations. Some have been great, and others not so. The only way to know is to take out the lens and try, that’s what I did.
Lens focusing performance
The focus of the lens is fast and accurate. Focusing isn’t as fast as some of the Olympus Pro lenses I own. However, speed isn’t necessarily an essential feature for a wide-angle lens like this, like when using a telephoto lens when you want to quickly lock onto your subject. Wide angle lenses are often used for landscape shots where it’s better to take things slowly. Focusing is quiet, and manual focus can be easily achieved. Interestingly, it also enables in-camera maximum focus.
Although the lens allows bracketing on my old camera (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II), on my camera the new one (one OM-1), in-camera focus stacking with this or other third-party lenses is not supported. As with all lenses, before you buy, you should check for compatibility with the camera functions you need. However, with a wide-angle lens with a large depth of field, focus stacking is not necessarily a function one would normally need.
Like the 30mm, it has a close minimum focusing distance. With that wide f/1.4 aperture, you can get amazing shallow depth of field.
As I expected, the out of focus area has a nice smooth feel. Mind you, Micro Four Thirds opponents, here’s the smooth bokeh and shallow depth of field achieved with a wide-angle lens!
Does the image stand up to the test?
Checking the edge distortion, I align the edges of the frame to different vertical and horizontal dimensions. For something as wide as 16mm, I was impressed by the lack of barrel distortion when using it.
There is no sign of distortion, even when focusing close-up. Impression!
This lens on my camera has a super focus distance of 12.08 meters at f/1.4. So if I focus at such a distance, everything from about six meters to infinity will be in focus. This test is where I encountered the shortfall of the lens. There seems to be a significant drop in focus on distance. However, I soon realized that focusing on subjects with fine detail showed the lens to be blurred at f/1.4.
Compare these two images. First, one shot at f/1.4.
The second one is at f/5.6.
There is a more noticeable difference in sharpness between wide and medium apertures than I noticed with the 30mm f/1.4 lens. In Lightroom, looking at images taken with the 16mm at f/1.4, there’s a bit of blur to small details, which is still apparent at 33% zoom. This phenomenon quickly subsided when I closed the aperture; at f/2.8 it’s barely noticeable and at f/5.6, the image is razor sharp.
When dropping an f/1.4 image into other programs, such as Topaz Sharpen AI, On1 Photo Raw, and DxO PhotoLab 6, that blur was effectively removed and the image was usable. Similarly, when viewed at a smaller size, the unprocessed image looks fine. So if you just post photos on Instagram, you won’t have to worry about this.
Color rendering in focus areas is good. Testing the same subject taken with my professional lens and this one, I couldn’t discern any difference. However, there is significant chromatic aberration at high-contrast edges, especially on the edges of the frame when shooting in extended mode. That’s workable in the process, of course, but the default settings in Lightroom didn’t remove it. Again, the results are much improved at f/5.6.
I lowered the aperture by four stops, and from f/5.6, I took a few shots with high-contrast edges to check how much chromatic aberration was visible there. Even with the lens profiles turned off in software, I couldn’t see anything in the areas in focus.
Besides, there is no dark phenomenon, another victory for Sigma.
Lens Flare is well controlled
Because it’s a wide-angle lens, I’m particularly interested in how it controls lens flare. Wide angle lenses are prone to this. Some people like flare lenses, while others don’t; I fall into the latter group. So I took out my camera at sunset and pointed it straight at the sun. (If you value your retina, please don’t do this with a DSLR and look through the viewfinder at the same time.) So I was pleased to see the starburst effect emanating from the sun and was amazed. It is interesting to not see the large purple or green spots where the light is reflected inside the lens.
What I like and what can be improved with this lens
This is a super lens. It’s a well-made device, pleasant to use, and the photos taken with it look good. f/1.4 is fast. Images from it across the aperture range are all usable, but there’s a significant difference in sharpness across that range and I was expecting that when wide open it would be sharper.
I don’t design lenses, but if I’m making a lens fast, I’ll do my best to make it work at its best when shooting at the widest aperture. After all, we buy fast lenses to use wide apertures, not at f/5.6. However, even though I made a lot of comments about f/1.4 smoothness and color fringing, it wasn’t all that bad; I’ve definitely used much worse. Images are softer at the widest aperture but are still usable, especially when provided via good sharpening software or viewed at a smaller size. However, that softness seems a bit dreamy, which can be suitable for some photography styles. Furthermore, as I said above, the right software can remedy that lack of sharpness.
Like the 30mm version of this lens that I recently reviewed, it is not weather or dust resistant. You may or may not consider that when purchasing this lens and it will depend on your shooting conditions. As I said in my review of the 30mm lens, it’s been a deal breaker for me. After all, I usually shoot in harsh environments. However, most photographers don’t, and in general, the camera is not meant to be used on a windy beach and splashed with seawater, as I tend to use them.
Of course, a fast, wide-angle lens makes one think of using it for low-light photography. It would be great for star trails when absolute sharpness is not required. Gladly, the OM-1’s AI focus on the starry sky works with this lens.
The best thing is the price. From $449, affordable and You can buy it by clicking here.
