DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Sigma EF-M Mount Lenses - Post your PHOTOS! Part 2

Started Jul 28, 2021 | Discussions thread
tamaraw35 Contributing Member • Posts: 784
Re: Sigma EF-M Mount Lenses - Post your PHOTOS! Part 2
1

Larry Rexley wrote:

tamaraw35 wrote:

I just got the 56mm the other day. I have only been out at night since then, but here are a few of my first shots. It's very sharp wide open and AF is convenient but it has disappointingly high levels of pincushion distortion.

Did somebody say pincushion?

I don't see any lens corrections for this lens in Canon DPP 4, but other software can correct pincushion distortion, including the free irfranview for the PC with all its plugins (perspective corrections but you do it manually). Distortion was apparently the compromise Sigma made on this lens to keep great sharpness in the corners at such a fast aperture, which is understandable as distortion is one of the easiest aberrations to correct.

I use DxO PhotoLab 5 which has an excellent set of corrections for the Sigma lenses and make the corrections totally transparent to you. If you are not familiar with this software, they have a free trial for 30 days. DxO has industry-leading de-noise which will allow you to reduce the grain to levels which will just preserve enough detail up to very high ISOs of 6400 and beyond - see my high ISO images posted here with the M6ii of the night trains. I have an M50ii as well (which produces images like those of the M50) and it does almost as well, lagging behind about 2/3 - 1 EV with noise level compared to the M6ii.

There is no automatic distortion profile in DPP afaik, but it can be corrected manually with the distortion slider under the lens tab. I did that for some of the photos but not others. (For example, the p1800 photo required correction because of the grid on the wall.) The Mothra poster is intentionally uncorrected as an example of what you would get reproducing artwork; not ideal. That's unfortunate given that the focal length and sharpness would make it a good choice otherwise.

What I don't like is that the distortion makes technical compositions and precise framing in-camera basically impossible since you don't know exactly what you are going to get. Don't get me wrong, I love rangefinders, but that's not what this camera is or should be doing. It's also obnoxious to see through the viewfinder, especially with interiors. It appears that digital correction also costs you a bit of resolution. Additionally, while I do end up processing most of my photos anyways, I don't *need* to with my other lenses.

As for noise, I personally don't mind a bit of luminance noise and mostly focused on chrominance reduction in those photos (in DPP). I did briefly try DXO 4 (which does feature automatic optical correction for this lens) on these photos but wasn't really hooked. I should probably give it a second shot at some point and learn the interface better, I'm just used to the Canon controls and processing look. I have seen some cool examples with their prime noise reduction though, seems technically impressive.

Post (hide subjects) Posted by
MAC
MAC
MAC
MAC
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow