Just returned the Sigma 30mm, what should I be opting for ?

[TheAngryAudiophile]

Rolled with the Sigma 30mm with my A6000 and I enjoyed it, but I was hoping for something with better bokeh, something that also has better color vibrancy that isn't a zoom. I also own the 210mm and I enjoy it, but I need a portrait lens that is a bit smaller than that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Blackubuntu]

Try some legacy glass and an adapter, like the Minolta MD glass, Canon FD stuff, or Pentax Takumar's or an Olympus 50mm 1.8. Set the camera on peaking and have fun. Or get the Sony Zeiss 35mm. All work great for me.

Regards,

Jess

 

[dquangt]

Rolled with the Sigma 30mm with my A6000 and I enjoyed it, but I was hoping for something with better bokeh, something that also has better color vibrancy that isn't a zoom. I also own the 210mm and I enjoy it, but I need a portrait lens that is a bit smaller than that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

can you post some photos of the bokeh that you aren't happy with? do you not like the quality, or do you think there's not enough. 30mm isn't terribly long so to get bokeh you probably have to be somewhat close to the subject with a large aperature.

 

[Foxbat121]

That Sigma is known for sharpness, not for bokeh. I have one as well.

If you are looking for smooth bokeh, try the Sony SEL35F18 or SEL50F18. Both are great portrait lens with much nicer bokeh than the Sigma.

I have seen a few photos from Sigma 60mm/2.8 on this board and they look nice.

If you want to try manual lense, Rokinon 85mm/1.4 is one nice portrait lens.

In short, you need longer FL and larger aperture to get nice bokeh.

 

[José B]

Rolled with the Sigma 30mm with my A6000 and I enjoyed it, but I was hoping for something with better bokeh, something that also has better color vibrancy that isn't a zoom. I also own the 210mm and I enjoy it, but I need a portrait lens that is a bit smaller than that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Depending on your budget, you might want to look at the Zeiss Touit 1.8/32. It is my standard lens for the A6000. Love the colors, contrast, flare and purple fringing control and the bokeh is beautiful.

Here are some images from the lens

cheers,

José

 

[captura]

Do you have any more shots with models displaying smooth bokeh?

 

[captura]

Generally speaking, lenses with larger apertures and longer focal lengths will display more bokeh. It also helps if the camera is closer to the subject.

For example, it is quite certain that a 50mm lens at f1.4 will clean the clock of your 30mm f2.8 Sigma lens in the bokeh department.

 

[captura]

Do you have any more shots with models displaying smooth bokeh?

Correction: Do you have any more shots with models, displaying smooth bokeh?

 

[nevercat]

Rolled with the Sigma 30mm with my A6000 and I enjoyed it, but I was hoping for something with better bokeh, something that also has better color vibrancy that isn't a zoom. I also own the 210mm and I enjoy it, but I need a portrait lens that is a bit smaller than that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

When you want blured backgrounds there are a few things you can do:

1. put less distance between your camera and your subject and, at the same time, more distance between your subject and the background

2. use a lens with a longer focal length.

the quality of the bokeh is an other thing, that is controled by the background and the lens.

When you want nice background blur with a native E-mount lens, go for the 50mm f1.8 (or the 55mm f1.8 when you ever plan to go Full Frame) Here is a picture taken with the 50mm F1.8




SEL50mm F1.8 @F4

The Next picture is taken with the 18-105 F4 lens @f5.6:




SEL 18-105mm f4 @105mm Af5.6

As you can see the background blur is nice in both pictures, I know you don't want a zoom lens, but the quality of zoom lenses can be outstanding, not realy a problem anymore. Yes purist will tell thast primes can be better(and they are right), and that primes can be smaller then zooms (and they are right again) and that primes can have larger appertures (bingo again!) but in the end when you get a good zoom lens you will see hardly any difference and still get great results... And for the Bokeh you see that both pictures are not at the widest apperture, and still great background blur.

 

[Mark100]

Depending on your budget, you might want to look at the Zeiss Touit 1.8/32. It is my standard lens for the A6000. Love the colors, contrast, flare and purple fringing control and the bokeh is beautiful.

Wow, nice images. I have seen a lot of great photos posted from that lens, am starting to wish I had picked up the 2 Touit deal that B&H had recently.

Jose, did you use lighting/reflectors on those models and is there a lot of post processing in those photos? Photographing people is not my thing but I'd like to get better at it. Those shots look great, hard to believe you used the same camera I own!

Mark

 

[José B]

Depending on your budget, you might want to look at the Zeiss Touit 1.8/32. It is my standard lens for the A6000. Love the colors, contrast, flare and purple fringing control and the bokeh is beautiful.

Wow, nice images. I have seen a lot of great photos posted from that lens, am starting to wish I had picked up the 2 Touit deal that B&H had recently.

Jose, did you use lighting/reflectors on those models and is there a lot of post processing in those photos? Photographing people is not my thing but I'd like to get better at it. Those shots look great, hard to believe you used the same camera I own!

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I post process my images using CS6, Nik Efex and etc. I don't use reflectors because I shoot solo but a lot of times I use flash (both on and off camera). Our gear is so light that for off camera setting, I hold the F43am on my left hand with the cable connected to the A6000 which I grip with my right hand.

Best regards,

José

 

[uhligfd]

Rolled with the Sigma 30mm with my A6000 and I enjoyed it, but I was hoping for something with better bokeh, something that also has better color vibrancy that isn't a zoom. I also own the 210mm and I enjoy it, but I need a portrait lens that is a bit smaller than that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I think you acted totally too soon, too rash by rejecting this lens. This outcome is completely due to you not understanding how to achieve bokeh and ultimately it is an operator error.

As your name here says, please do get get too angry too soon, but instead try to learn and read up for example on 45 degree 'normal' angle lenses which are often not good for deep bokeh, you need a longer lens to start with. But that eluded you and it became your loss to learn. sorry. Just look at the Touit images: portraits with a standard angle lens are possible and have their own allure. And can be beautiful to boot! Your rash loss then.

 

[GaryW]

While it's true that focal length allows more or less bokeh, the quality of the resulting bokeh (how smooth) can vary between lenses.

Those two lenses (50mm and 18-105) have been praised for having good, smooth bokeh. The 30, not as much. Sometimes lenses can make a difference. Having said that, the Sigma 30 isn't too bad, still probably better than bokeh from most zooms. At first use, I wasn't too impressed with the Sigma's bokeh, but I've used it for portraits and other things, and the bokeh seems pretty good. I've seen smoother, but really, nothing comes close to the 30 for the price, for what it can do.

 

[shaolin95]

Like others have mentioned the SEL50F18 has very nice bokeh quality. I like that rendering for sure.

My favorite currently though is the Canon FD 100mm F2 with the Lens Turbo 2. I tested with my wife next to the stairs in our home entrance to see how much it blurs the background and I can fit her completely in frame (not just partial body shots which is easier since you are closer to the subject) and it still blurs things out very quickly if you like a lot of subject Isolation.


Sadly I am at work so I do not have a sample of the lens fully opened and showing closer objects but here is one I uploaded to Flickr which I think was maybe 2.8 or even F4 as I was just testing different apertures but she liked how she looked on that pose the best so of course THAT is the one that got posted

Another one fantastic with the Lens Turbo is the FD 200mm F2.8 for extreme blur.









--

Gabriel Gerena

Explore Gabriel Gerena’s 13 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[Itamath]

I'm surprised that you find the Sigma not good enough IMO it's a great lens.

I have the Touit 32 1.8 and it's also great with a bit slower focus (no PDAF) but cost much more.

 

[Michael Everett]

I'm surprised that you find the Sigma not good enough IMO it's a great lens.

I have the Touit 32 1.8 and it's also great with a bit slower focus (no PDAF) but cost much more.

Does the Touit 32 not use PDAF on the A6000? I have the Touit and the Nex 7 but just ordered the A6000, mainly to get faster AF.

Michael

 

[rogatsby]

Some good suggestions here. If you were happy with the 30mm focal length, the SEL35 would be a great upgrade. Nice bokeh, wider aperture than the Sigma, and it also has OSS. The SEL50 is also a top quality lens, and is quite affordable.

The 32mm Touit is nice, but much more expensive than the 35 and 50 Sony lenses, and I'm not sure if it is worth the price. The Touit also lacks OSS.

I also agree with the posters who opined that maybe you should have kept the Sigma. It is small and light, and produces outstanding photos.

 

[TheAngryAudiophile]

With respect, 15 years as a pro photographer. I know what I am doing, I simply just don't have experience with Sony E mount lenses and nothing near my living area sells these lenses.

Rolled with the Sigma 30mm with my A6000 and I enjoyed it, but I was hoping for something with better bokeh, something that also has better color vibrancy that isn't a zoom. I also own the 210mm and I enjoy it, but I need a portrait lens that is a bit smaller than that. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I think you acted totally too soon, too rash by rejecting this lens. This outcome is completely due to you not understanding how to achieve bokeh and ultimately it is an operator error.

As your name here says, please do get get too angry too soon, but instead try to learn and read up for example on 45 degree 'normal' angle lenses which are often not good for deep bokeh, you need a longer lens to start with. But that eluded you and it became your loss to learn. sorry. Just look at the Touit images: portraits with a standard angle lens are possible and have their own allure. And can be beautiful to boot! Your rash loss then.

 

[TheAngryAudiophile]

Some good suggestions here. If you were happy with the 30mm focal length, the SEL35 would be a great upgrade. Nice bokeh, wider aperture than the Sigma, and it also has OSS. The SEL50 is also a top quality lens, and is quite affordable.

The 32mm Touit is nice, but much more expensive than the 35 and 50 Sony lenses, and I'm not sure if it is worth the price. The Touit also lacks OSS.

I also agree with the posters who opined that maybe you should have kept the Sigma. It is small and light, and produces outstanding photos.

Very appreciative of everyones help here, I will probably be shooting for the Sony 50mm, seems the best balance of what I desire and need. The Sigma 30mm is not a good portrait lens to me but that is entirely subjective. I didn't like it, but regard it as exceptionally sharp. However, sharpness is not what I was after. I have an Olympus 45mm M43 lens on my GH2 and the bokeh on that rig is much nicer than the Sigma 30mm bokeh on my Sony A6000. ( Again, my opinion ). I am very aware of how lenses work and how focal length plays a part in Bokeh, the Sigma 30mm simply didn't appeal to me and when I'd purchased it I simply hoped for a bit more that what it was capable of in that department. The Sigma fell a bit short of expectations, so I returned it. Simple as that.

As per the sample images, I like the way the Sony 50mm looks and I will most likely end up with that soon. Thanks again, everyone.

 

[Itamath]

I'm surprised that you find the Sigma not good enough IMO it's a great lens.

I have the Touit 32 1.8 and it's also great with a bit slower focus (no PDAF) but cost much more.

Does the Touit 32 not use PDAF on the A6000? I have the Touit and the Nex 7 but just ordered the A6000, mainly to get faster AF.

Michael

No PDAF with the Touit, so I don't see the point swapping NEX7 with A6000. The A6000 is quiet amazing regarding AF but you need a lens that support it.