Sigma 30mm F1.4 DN is Horribly HUGE :(

007peter wrote:

captura wrote: Upon scanning the reviews, comparing the Sigma 30mm F1.4 DN for M43 vs the same lens for Sony e-mount, I concluded that:

- The Sony version has much superior centre sharpness, and

- TheM43 version is superior in most other aspects.

My cameras are the 24mp Sony NEX-7 (which is STILL an excellent landscape camera)

and the Olympus OMD E-M10. The Olympus offers 3-axis image stabilization, the Sony does not. My quandary....which lens to get?

Get the SONY!

• Sigma 30/1.4 DN is the sharpest E-mount lens according to DXO
• Sigma 30/1.4 DN for $339 rape $1099 Sony 24/1.8 in sharpness or bokeh
• Sigma 30/1.4 = 45mm Walk-About Prime (like a Pansonic 20/1.7)
• You don't need Image Stabilization on the Wide End, 45mm FF can be easily handhold without IS when you have fast f/1.4

On the M43, Sigma 30 = 60mm. Which land itself much more in the portrait lens category. I had a Panasonic 25/1.7 (50mm) and I find it very restricting as a walk-about. Keep in mind that M43 has 4:3 ratio, much tighter than the 3:2 ration on Sony NEX.

On M43, you have so many choices and Sigma 30 is a split in the middle between walk-about-prime to portrait lens.

• Panasonic 25/1.4
• Panasonic 25/1.7
• Olympus 25/1.8
• Olympus 25/1.2

• Sigma 30/1.4

• Olympus 45/1.8
• Sigma 60/2.8

I sold my Sony NEX long time ago, but this Sigma 30/1.4 is making me thinking about picking up a used NEX for fun.

You know your stuff.

I use the Panasonic 20 a fair bit....lovely pancake size, a good lens.  I have the Sigma DN 30/2.8 for Sony. The lens barrel sticks. Hardly ever use it and will sell it. Don't like my Olympus 45 either, probaly a dud.

This 30/1.4 should easily outperform all of them on either camera body, but I'm leaning towards the Sony version.

007peter wrote:

captura wrote:

007peter wrote: Get the SONY!

On M43, you have so many choices and Sigma 30 is a split in the middle between walk-about-prime to portrait lens

I use the Panasonic 20 a fair bit....lovely pancake size, a good lens. I have the Sigma DN 30/2.8 for Sony. The lens barrel sticks. Hardly ever use it and will sell it. Don't like my Olympus 45 either, probaly a dud.

What's wrong w/ your Oly 45? What don't you like about it? The sharpness or the Bokeh? I'm just curious to hear your point of view.

It's a dud. Maybe the store owner dropped it, or something. Very unsharp, quite useless. I should have returned it a year ago before it was too late.

This does change my recommendation. I recommend Sony version because Sigma 30/1.4 on M43 becomes a Portaits lens that compete against Oly 45. If you don't like your Oly 45, then buying the Sigma 30/1.4 for M43 makes lots of sense.

No, the Sigma 30 becomes a 60mm equivalent on M43. A standard prime lens.The Oly 45 becomes a 90 mm equivalent which is a more typical portrait FL.

But yes, I'm still leaning towards the Sony version.

PS: I have also have the Sony stabilized 50/1.8 lens; also very sharp.

Do me a favorite, once you bought the Sigma 30/1.4 (m43). Do some portraits shooting battle between Oly 45/1.8 vs Sigma 30/1.4 for me.

I'm getting rid of the 45, if I can find a local buyer.

This 30/1.4 should easily outperform all of them on either camera body, but I'm leaning towards the Sony version.

Sigma 30/1.4 DN revived my interest in Sony, even over Fuji.

I was seriously looking into buying a Fuji A3 + XF 35/1.4 for better low light iso3200/6400. Unfortunately, the more I examine Fuji carefully, the more flaws I discover. Fuji AF is slow, like an OLD Olympus E-P1 slow. While the most expensive XT2 focus better, majority of Fuji lens focus SLOW as well. Another problem is AF noise, all Fuji lens I've seen so far makes AF noise. This makes them unsuitable for making video. Having been spoiled by Panasonic ultra-fast & quiet AF lens, as well as Canon STM lens, its to go back to ancient noisy lens. AF noise was the reason why I sold my panasonic 20/1.7, so it makes little sense to buy into Fuji with a collection of lens that AF like a old Panasonic 20/1.7.

Sigma 30/1.4 DN is only $339, and it focus is instant & quiet. I think this lens single-handily ridicules the $449 Fuji XF 35/1.4 (which is badly in need of a modern update).

On the subject of Bokeh, I found this at Digital Rev:

"Sony A6300 @ 1/4000, f/1.7

You can refer to our most recent Battle of the Bokeh video for a bokeh comparison, but we found the bokeh of the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 to be decent, with relatively clean and pleasing depth-of-field areas. The out-of-focus areas aren’t distracting at all, and are gently separated from the subject. However, the fact that there isn’t clear separation from the subject is also an issue, as the images tend to look a little flat and two-dimensional.

The bokeh in general isn’t exciting, and when the subject isn’t very close to the camera, the background details can be distracting.

Considering the equivalent focal length is 45mm for APS-C and 60mm for MFT, Micro Four Thirds users can expect creamier backgrounds, since we shot these test samples on APS-C."

So, the M43 version has nice creamier bokeh. That is much more important to me for this application, than the slight differences in focal length.

On the subject of Sharpness, I found this at DxOMark:

Comparing:

https://www.dxomark.com/Reviews/Sigma-30mm-f-1.4-DC-DN-C-lens-review-Third-party-MFT-standard-prime

to

https://www.dxomark.com/Reviews/Sigma-30mm-f-1.4-DC-DN-C-lens-review-Sony-E-top-ranking-prime

Overall DxO score 24 for M43 version mounted on an E-M1 vs 27 score on a an A6300.

Sharpness score 10-P Mpix on M43 vs score 15-P Mpix on the A6300.

I WENT DOWNTOWN TO HENRY'S TODAY, AND TRIED THE SIGMA 1.4/30 DN DF LENSES ON THE M43, A6000 AND A6300.
THE BOKEH WITH THE M43 (E-M10 II) WAS AS ADVERTISED, MARVELOUS/ CREAMY, 'BOKELICIOUS' AS THAT STRANGE GUY KAI USED TO SAY. THE BOKEH WITH THE A6000 AND A6300 WERE WORSE THAN 'NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT'.

I COULDN'T COMPARE THE SHARPNESS, OBVIOUSLY.

THE A6000 COMBO WAS RELATIVELY SLOW-FOCUSING. THE E-M10 II COMBO WAS DOUBLE THE SPEED. THEN I TRIED THE A6300 COMBO AND IT WAS, IF ANYTHING, EVEN FASTER.

Very well said.

30mm F2.8 was my first lens back in the day. And 30mm is the perfect all around lens to me. I loved the view of angle.

Recently I sold my olympus 45mm1.8 Finally havr chance to back to 30mm... But that amazig lens is so huge! I can't imagine it on my baby GM1 ! 25mm 1.4 is also a fine lens, which is super ugly! I own a 15mm 1.7 leica a beautiful combo with that small body cam. And has an aperture ring. 25mm lacks of it. Panasonic/Leica should make an updated 25mm 1.4 with 42.5mm outlook. At least an aperture ring is needed!

Beno

Kostaseg wrote:

Hi, not sure I completely undrstand your questions, but I will try...

30mm in mft (60mm in FF) look much but the same moment we can shoot objects at longer distances than 17 or 20 mm.

Well I have the P. 20/1.7 and it is wider of course. The 30/1.4 will be a good portrait lens for M43 with it's narrower view and tremendous background blur.

Do you have think what is usually our indoor frames?

People sitting at tables or sofas, etc. Usually we can do little back to fit the frame.

For indoors I would also carry the 20 or 1.7 for times when the space is cramped.

At the same time we can shoot a portrait without touching the face of the person.

I am a photographer who prefer to shoot photos than to search the details of gears at the sites.

A bag full of lenses with various focal length, doesn't make us photographers.

I have in my little bag (ThinkTank 20) the EM 5 or the EM10 mk2 with Oly 12-40 pro on it, Sigma 30mm f1.4 and Oly 40-150mm. A mini tripod and a second battery.

With these 3 lenses I can cover all scenarios with great success.

I can't imagine my self to shoot an event with 4 prime lenses to change every 2 minutes.

Unfortunately we haven't in mft system a zoom lens as it is Sigma 18-35 f1.8. So zoom in-out by leg and every one can use the focal length fit more at his style. 17mm and go close to your subject or 25-30mm and go far.

I have the good old P.14-45 which still works great.

Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a grade lens about sharpness edge to edge, distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration. You can use it general. Yes hasn't extreme bokeh and if you are far some times maybe the background take the attention but all of us we use Lightroom or other editors to fix it. From the other side, let you to shoot in focus 2-3 people they are siting one beside the other without blurred two from the three as they do most of prime lenses.

I found it had a lot of creamy bokeh on the M43 version. But the main features with the 30/1.4  must be the wide f1.4 letting in a lot of light in low light situations. Also the low price.

Extreme bokeh is interesting at portraits, when you want a real portrait.... For that you need ALSO Areal portrait lens.If you don't want to spend a lot for that, the solution is Oly 45mm or Sigma 60mm f2.8 . I prefer Sigma because my opinion for nice portrait you need more mm than 45. Very good for outdoor portraits and enough for indoor with good lights. But who shoot portrait without external lights?

If you are shooting indoors, and conditions are more crowded, (say at a party) then a wider portrait lens should be helpful.

-- hide signature --

Olympus EM5, EM10 mk2, 12-40 f2.8 Pro, Sigma 30mm f1.4, Sigma 60mm f2.8, Oly 40-150 f4-5.6

Kostaseg wrote:

captura wrote:

Kostaseg wrote:

Hi, not sure I completely undrstand your questions, but I will try...

30mm in mft (60mm in FF) look much but the same moment we can shoot objects at longer distances than 17 or 20 mm.

Well I have the P. 20/1.7 and it is wider of course. The 30/1.4 will be a good portrait lens for M43 with it's narrower view and tremendous background blur.

Do you have think what is usually our indoor frames?

People sitting at tables or sofas, etc. Usually we can do little back to fit the frame.

For indoors I would also carry the 20 or 1.7 for times when the space is cramped.

At the same time we can shoot a portrait without touching the face of the person.

I am a photographer who prefer to shoot photos than to search the details of gears at the sites.

A bag full of lenses with various focal length, doesn't make us photographers.

I have in my little bag (ThinkTank 20) the EM 5 or the EM10 mk2 with Oly 12-40 pro on it, Sigma 30mm f1.4 and Oly 40-150mm. A mini tripod and a second battery.

With these 3 lenses I can cover all scenarios with great success.

I can't imagine my self to shoot an event with 4 prime lenses to change every 2 minutes.

Unfortunately we haven't in mft system a zoom lens as it is Sigma 18-35 f1.8. So zoom in-out by leg and every one can use the focal length fit more at his style. 17mm and go close to your subject or 25-30mm and go far.

I have the good old P.14-45 which still works great.

Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a grade lens about sharpness edge to edge, distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration. You can use it general. Yes hasn't extreme bokeh and if you are far some times maybe the background take the attention but all of us we use Lightroom or other editors to fix it. From the other side, let you to shoot in focus 2-3 people they are siting one beside the other without blurred two from the three as they do most of prime lenses.

I found it had a lot of creamy bokeh on the M43 version. But the main features with the 30/1.4 must be the wide f1.4 letting in a lot of light in low light situations. Also the low price.

Extreme bokeh is interesting at portraits, when you want a real portrait.... For that you need ALSO Areal portrait lens.If you don't want to spend a lot for that, the solution is Oly 45mm or Sigma 60mm f2.8 . I prefer Sigma because my opinion for nice portrait you need more mm than 45. Very good for outdoor portraits and enough for indoor with good lights. But who shoot portrait without external lights?

If you are shooting indoors, and conditions are more crowded, (say at a party) then a wider portrait lens should be helpful.

With 20mm or 30mm you can't have all. Some times 20 will be less to you and some times 30mm will be too much for me. If 20mm is more useful to you, you have do the correct choice. But as I wrote, every one of us has different priorities.

The best it is a zoom lens f1.8 like sigma APS-C 18-35mm

At day light photos I am using Oly 12-40 f2.8 Pro and believe me I have the best results. Maybe isn't so sharp as a prime, but I have exactly the frame I want and most of times I don't need editing my photos from this lens. (very small difference at sharpening at my tests against Sigma 30mm f1.4. Against Panasonic 25mm f1.7, Olympus 12-40 is much more sharper special when the distance from the object is medium and up)

So if on future we have available a zoom lens f1.8, I will give all primes and I will keep only one for portraits.

Yes an f1.8 zoom lens would be very nice, for sure. Might be a bit large and expensive, though.

How do you like your Sigma f1.4/30?  I see it on your list.

007peter wrote:

captura wrote:

I WENT DOWNTOWN TO HENRY'S TODAY, AND TRIED THE SIGMA 1.4/30 DN DF LENSES ON THE M43, A6000 AND A6300. THE BOKEH WITH THE M43 (E-M10 II) WAS AS ADVERTISED, MARVELOUS/ CREAMY, 'BOKELICIOUS' AS THAT STRANGE GUY KAI USED TO SAY.

Photo Please

THE BOKEH WITH THE A6000 AND A6300 WERE WORSE THAN 'NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT'

Photo Please

I believe you, but I want to see the actual photos however lousily compose in a camera store. For me, seeing is believing. I did a DofMaster calculation, the DOF on M43 version would indeed be very VERY THIN. However, it won't be as thin as Olympus 45/1.8. So I'm definitely interested in seeing your results.

Assuming you went ahead and buy the Sigma 30/1.4 for your Olympus. Why bother keeping Sony NEX-7???

The NEX-7 gives me  better JPEG colors than I could get with the newer Sony A series, and is just as sharp. And much sharper than anything I've gotten from my E-M10., with any lens.

I kept no photos...didn't bring an SD card.

I'll probably get the M43 version, for the great bokeh. But the 60mm equivalent FL is a bit long. Still undecided.

Kostaseg wrote:

captura wrote:

Kostaseg wrote:

captura wrote:

Kostaseg wrote:

Hi, not sure I completely undrstand your questions, but I will try...

30mm in mft (60mm in FF) look much but the same moment we can shoot objects at longer distances than 17 or 20 mm.

Well I have the P. 20/1.7 and it is wider of course. The 30/1.4 will be a good portrait lens for M43 with it's narrower view and tremendous background blur.

Do you have think what is usually our indoor frames?

People sitting at tables or sofas, etc. Usually we can do little back to fit the frame.

For indoors I would also carry the 20 or 1.7 for times when the space is cramped.

At the same time we can shoot a portrait without touching the face of the person.

I am a photographer who prefer to shoot photos than to search the details of gears at the sites.

A bag full of lenses with various focal length, doesn't make us photographers.

I have in my little bag (ThinkTank 20) the EM 5 or the EM10 mk2 with Oly 12-40 pro on it, Sigma 30mm f1.4 and Oly 40-150mm. A mini tripod and a second battery.

With these 3 lenses I can cover all scenarios with great success.

I can't imagine my self to shoot an event with 4 prime lenses to change every 2 minutes.

Unfortunately we haven't in mft system a zoom lens as it is Sigma 18-35 f1.8. So zoom in-out by leg and every one can use the focal length fit more at his style. 17mm and go close to your subject or 25-30mm and go far.

I have the good old P.14-45 which still works great.

Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a grade lens about sharpness edge to edge, distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration. You can use it general. Yes hasn't extreme bokeh and if you are far some times maybe the background take the attention but all of us we use Lightroom or other editors to fix it. From the other side, let you to shoot in focus 2-3 people they are siting one beside the other without blurred two from the three as they do most of prime lenses.

I found it had a lot of creamy bokeh on the M43 version. But the main features with the 30/1.4 must be the wide f1.4 letting in a lot of light in low light situations. Also the low price.

Extreme bokeh is interesting at portraits, when you want a real portrait.... For that you need ALSO Areal portrait lens.If you don't want to spend a lot for that, the solution is Oly 45mm or Sigma 60mm f2.8 . I prefer Sigma because my opinion for nice portrait you need more mm than 45. Very good for outdoor portraits and enough for indoor with good lights. But who shoot portrait without external lights?

If you are shooting indoors, and conditions are more crowded, (say at a party) then a wider portrait lens should be helpful.

With 20mm or 30mm you can't have all. Some times 20 will be less to you and some times 30mm will be too much for me. If 20mm is more useful to you, you have do the correct choice. But as I wrote, every one of us has different priorities.

The best it is a zoom lens f1.8 like sigma APS-C 18-35mm

At day light photos I am using Oly 12-40 f2.8 Pro and believe me I have the best results. Maybe isn't so sharp as a prime, but I have exactly the frame I want and most of times I don't need editing my photos from this lens. (very small difference at sharpening at my tests against Sigma 30mm f1.4. Against Panasonic 25mm f1.7, Olympus 12-40 is much more sharper special when the distance from the object is medium and up)

So if on future we have available a zoom lens f1.8, I will give all primes and I will keep only one for portraits.

Yes an f1.8 zoom lens would be very nice, for sure. Might be a bit large and expensive, though.

How do you like your Sigma f1.4/30? I see it on your list.

I like to use it at any low light situation and for indoor portraits.

For outdoor shots I prefer my Olympus 12-40.

Some samples:

My dog in very low light

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lzs5hxfvt2tvrcl/Photo%2015-12-16%2C%2011%2007%2004%20%CE%BC%CE%BC.jpg?dl=0

A boy night with fluorescent lighting

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7kjvk9t3zunfs8/Photo%204-12-16%2C%205%2050%2012%20%CE%BC%CE%BC.jpg?dl=0

I just got home from buying the M43 version of the Sigma 30/1.4.

I will post an example of the beautiful bokeh this lens affords. (only with the M43 version.)

addlightness wrote:

captura wrote:

I just got home from buying the M43 version of the Sigma 30/1.4.

I will post an example of the beautiful bokeh this lens affords. (only with the M43 version.)

Looking forward to them. The price has dropped to $339 across many online stores. I have some rewards points to spend

Edit: do you have comparable lenses, e.g. 25/1.8 or 45/1.8, to compare to? Thanks.

Edit2: I'm debating between this and Samyang 50mm f1.2 going for about the same $$

I don't believe the Samyang 50 has AF.

I have the Samyang 7.5 mm which is very sharp.

addlightness wrote:

captura wrote:

addlightness wrote:

captura wrote:

I just got home from buying the M43 version of the Sigma 30/1.4.

I will post an example of the beautiful bokeh this lens affords. (only with the M43 version.)

Looking forward to them. The price has dropped to $339 across many online stores. I have some rewards points to spend

Edit: do you have comparable lenses, e.g. 25/1.8 or 45/1.8, to compare to? Thanks.

Edit2: I'm debating between this and Samyang 50mm f1.2 going for about the same $$

I don't believe the Samyang 50 has AF.

Yes, you're right, it's MF. The Mitakon 25/0.95(MF too) is also in my list. I plan to buy one of this trio for indoor video mostly with the GX85. My 25/45/f1.8 is not fast enough and wanting to keep @ISO1600 max, I'm looking for 2/3 to 1 stop faster.

I have the Samyang 7.5 mm which is very sharp.

Agree. I have one of those

The S. 30/1.4 has adequately fast AF in dim indoor light, at f1.4.  And it seems accurate. I wouldn't give that up for a MF lens.

MichailK wrote:

My Sigma 30/1.4 is on its way - to fund its purchase I sold my Zhongyi Lens Turbo that when coupled with a Nikon 50mm/1.4 Ais gave me a combo of 36mm/1.0(bokeh but 1.2 luminosity due to pixel vignetting).

I shall write my comparative experience once I get it, however I have no useful pictures of the combo as I found out that with such shallow depth of field, taking closeup snapshots had me miss focus all too often resulting in photos missing this "sharpness" sparkle that I finally discovered with the Sigma 60mm/2.8. So that combo was used too little to make it worth keeping the Lens Turbo and to ebay it went.

So as far as the 36/1.0 combo goes, I did some homegrown comparative experiments and found out that the extravagant wide open spherical aberration of the 50/1.4 Ais makes it usable for my kind of hobby photography only after (Fcombo:2.0) and then again it robs a tiny bit of sharpness off the 50mm/1.4 lens attached on the Lens Turbo. And this manual 50/1.4 Ais maybe very nice on an F3 full frame camera but not so much on the MFT sensor now that I saw what a properly sharp native lens can do (60/2.8) and it also has Autofocus not to fight with the focus ring all the time however fetish-y doing this feels.

My conclusion about the Lens Turbo: These adapters are best suited for directed video shooting as critical sharpness is less needed and focus is properly orchestrated and choreographed before shooting so no problem missing it. And it all boils down to how well the chosen lens play game with the Lens Turbo as other manual Nikon lenses I had at hand behaved differently as far as frame wide sharpness and vignetting.

My comparison of the Sigma 30/1.4 versions on the Olympus M43 vs the A6300, led me to a similar observation.  Putting arguments about equivalence aside, the Sony version 'sparkles' with sharpness, as you say. But the M43 version has that creamy bokeh at f1.4 - f2.0. It was a buying decision which I had to make. I opted for the M43 version because I don't own another great bokeh lens. Should be great for portraits, especially.

Rombo wrote:

The Sigma 30 1.4 got an honourable mention as almost making it to the list of three best lenses of the year by the people from The Camera Store TV with the top3 all being expensive giants. They said it's insanely sharp.

Most people interested in M43 probably missed it because they skipped to the worst still cams.

You're missing the point here. The Sigma DN DF 30/1.4 lens is NOT particularly sharp with M43 cameras.  Most tests, including the Camera Store's, were performed on the Sony APS-C cameras.

MichailK wrote:

sharp and contrasty enough for me (despite jpeg compression: https://flic.kr/p/V3xH8Y )

.. as for the "too big" valid argument of this thread (it could be much smaller if it was an 1.8 and mft only lens) , I trimmed a bit the total length by screwing on a cheapo leica style hood from ebay that also makes the lens look more "special"

A good idea!

I may also get the Sony e-mount version, as I run both systems. The Sony version is supposed to be the sharpest lens ever measured by DxO, on an e-mount body.

Tom Caldwell wrote:

captura wrote:

MichailK wrote:

sharp and contrasty enough for me (despite jpeg compression: https://flic.kr/p/V3xH8Y )

.. as for the "too big" valid argument of this thread (it could be much smaller if it was an 1.8 and mft only lens) , I trimmed a bit the total length by screwing on a cheapo leica style hood from ebay that also makes the lens look more "special"

A good idea!

I may also get the Sony e-mount version, as I run both systems. The Sony version is supposed to be the sharpest lens ever measured by DxO, on an e-mount body.

If you have the EF adapters the Sigma lens could be used on M4/3 and Sony E.

You can only go one way with that, using a very thin adapter to put an M43 manual lens onto an e-mount body. But it still won't work with this Sigma lens because it has AF and auto exposure.

By-eye wrote:

You’ve posted the lens with the hood, comparing it to smaller ones without theirs. Which exaggerated the difference (hugely). And it’s an f1.4. So it will be bigger. Shouldn’t really be much of a surprise, or issue.

I bought mine a few months ago after much procrastination and despite its size.  But there is no denying it's big:

15/1.7, 25/1.8, 30/1.4, 45/1.8, 75/1.8 - all w/o hood

Its IQ is really good and of course its f1.4 is the main attraction.

I found it's bokeh to be phenomenal; soft, creamy, smooth, buttery...oooh! I just gave myself a slap and woke up!