I borrowed the Sigma 16mm F1.4 lens from my friend Amir Shariff and did some shutter therapy with that lens on my own Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. I have actually shared my thoughts on this lens before, you can check out my previous full review article in Ming Thein's site here (click). I won't repeat what I have written before here, but I can confidently say after shooting with this lens again this round, my findings are consistent with what I have written before, and I shared my thoughts in my latest YouTube video instead (click here). In short, the lens is just too large for a Micro Four Thirds prime and I was disappointed with the uncomfortably soft images shooting wide open at F1.4. I cannot recommend this lens to anyone, there are better options out there. For this entry, I shall just spam the new images I have taken in the past few weeks with this lens.
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Wonderfully engaging pictures as usual, Robin! I've always felt that Sigma could have really competed more intensively in the Micro Four Thirds market by producing smaller lenses with better ergonomics, instead of hedging their bets and producing lenses that can be adapted to APS-C systems (like the Sony E-mount where Sigma seemed to be propping up that market by actually making lenses for it).
ReplyDeleteI will have noted before that their Art series lenses had impressive autofocus and optics but just seemed too large when sat next to Olympus primes, making me want the Olympus products instead, even at a premium. And with the mount fitting rather tight and the second generation Art models having that waxy coating instead of the plastic ridging featured in the Contemporary models (and the first Art models), together with the broader lens barrel and with the barrel itself acting as the focusing ring, it just seemed like a product that would always be competing on price rather than taking on Olympus and Panasonic directly.
It's a shame, really, since Sigma have probably done more than any other third-party lens manufacturer to integrate their lenses with the camera functionality: autofocus, manual focusing controls, and so on. And the optical quality of the Art lenses seemed pretty good, too.