The only real sticking point is the exorbitant purchase price. Fast and virtually silent autofocus is delivered by the Dual Syncro Drive system and image quality is fabulous in all respects. As you’d expect with such a heavyweight lens, it comes complete with a tripod mounting ring and, as you’d hope for in a long telephoto zoom, optical image stabilization is built-in, with 3.5-stop effectiveness. The shortest focus distance is pretty impressive for such a long lens, at 0.6m or two feet. Even so, you can still get a fairly tight depth of field throughout the entire zoom range. Neatly picking up the baton from Leica’s 24-90mm, this telephoto zoom has a longer zoom range than the more usual 70-200mm fare and, as with Leica’s standard zoom, the aperture narrows from f/2.8 to f/4 at longer focal lengths. Read more: Sigma 20mm F2 DG DN | C review The construction features multiple weather-seals and is dust- and moisture-resistant, it combines intuitive handling with fast autofocus and impressive image quality, making it an ideal ultra-wide-angle lens for architectural interiors, sweeping landscapes, astrophotography and more besides. A more regular plastic lens cap is also supplied in the box. Like other lenses in Sigma’s I-series Contemporary line-up, the 20mm has impressive build quality based on a coated brass mounting plate, a metal barrel and even a metal lens hood and lens cap, the latter of which is magnetic. The look and feel are virtually identical in each case, with the same ‘Contemporary’ design ethos seeking to deliver excellent performance from a compact and lightweight build. There are also 24mm F2 and 45mm F2.8 options in the line-up. The Sigma 20mm F2 DG DN | C joins a growing range of fairly fast primes for Sony E-mount and Leica L-mount cameras in Sigma’s I-series range, which includes the 35mm F2 DG DN | C and 65mm F2 DG DN | C. Read more: Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art review A customizable Autofocus hold button is featured, along with a de-click switch for stepless aperture control, ideal for movie capture. Build quality is excellent with comprehensive weather-seals and a fluorine coating on the front element. Quality glass includes five SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, four HRI (High Refractive Index) elements and one aspherical element. The quality of bokeh remains excellent when stopping down a little, thanks to a very well-rounded 11-blade diaphragm. Ideal for portraiture, the Sigma delivers superb sharpness and contrast, along with beautiful bokeh. At the time of writing, Panasonic was just unveiling its LUMIX S 85mm f/1.8 lens, but the Sigma had already been on sale for three months, and is two-thirds of an f/stop faster. Unlike the Sigma 35mm and 50mm ‘DG HSM’ Art lenses featured in this buying guide, the 85mm prime was designed exclusively for mirrorless cameras, rather than being adapted from DSLR optics. Pincushion distortion if left uncorrected In all cases, the L-mount lenses take advantage of a relatively large mounting flange of 55mm, and a close proximity of 20mm to the image sensor. Sigma has the greatest selection of L-mount prime and zoom lenses, some of which are fairly subtle changes to existing DSLR lenses, while others are new or completely redesigned optics specifically made for L-mount (and Sony E-mount) mirrorless cameras. Leica has the opposite emphasis, with five primes and three zooms. Panasonic currently offers seven L-mount lenses, including six zooms and one prime. The supporting cast of lenses has been ramped up over the last couple of years. For its part, Sigma has its Sigma fp compact system camera, which has a remarkably small and lightweight build, while its Sigma fp L stablemate packs an impressive 61MP sensor for ultra-high-res image capture. Headline-grabbing cameras that use the L-mount include Leica’s own 47-megapixel Leica SL2, the Panasonic Lumix S1 24.2-megapixel all-rounder, the high-res 47.3-megapixel Panasonic Lumix S1R, the more video-centric 24.2-megapixel Panasonic Lumix S1H with 6K movie capture capability, and the most recent, budget-conscious Panasonic Lumix S5, which has a 24.2-megapixel image sensor. This enabled all three companies to manufacture cameras with ‘interchangeable’ lenses in every sense of the word. Bigger news came in September 2018, with the advent of the L-mount Alliance, formed by Leica, Panasonic and Sigma. With the subsequent launch of the Leica SL full-frame camera, the name was changed to the L-mount, with sub-categories of TL for APS-C format lenses and SL for full-frame. Growing in popularity, the L-mount is based on Leica’s T-mount system, which stems from the Leica T (Typ 701) APS-C format digital camera, launched in 2014.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |