MC-21 Sigma SA to L mount

Hi, I am considering buying a Sigma FP but I am torn between this and a Sigma Quattro H. I have an SD15 and the 18-35 F1.8 Art and the 50-100 F1.8 Art.

These I understand would be fine on the Quattro. However I go down the FP road and use the MC-21, will I get vignetting or experience cropping of the FP sensor given my lenses are APSC?

I can't really justify the expense of buying new L Mount lenses at this time.

My thanks in anticipation

George

George1958 wrote:

Hi, I am considering buying a Sigma FP but I am torn between this and a Sigma Quattro H. I have an SD15 and the 18-35 F1.8 Art and the 50-100 F1.8 Art.

These I understand would be fine on the Quattro. However [if] I go down the FP road and use the MC-21, will I get vignetting or experience cropping of the FP sensor given my lenses are APSC?

Yes.

Others may be along shortly to disagree ...

George1958 wrote:

Hi, I am considering buying a Sigma FP but I am torn between this and a Sigma Quattro H. I have an SD15 and the 18-35 F1.8 Art and the 50-100 F1.8 Art.

These I understand would be fine on the Quattro. However I go down the FP road and use the MC-21, will I get vignetting or experience cropping of the FP sensor given my lenses are APSC?

I can't really justify the expense of buying new L Mount lenses at this time.

My thanks in anticipation

George

George,

If you use APS-C lenses on a full frame camera you will definitely get vignetting. If the camera can detect APS-C it will auto switch to the APS-C crop size if the camera has that feature or you could change the setting to APS-C by way of a switch or in the menu, again if the camera has that feature. Most of them do. I do not know whether the fp or fp L has. Have a look at the User Manual on the Sigma website for information on that.

The lenses you reference above will be ok on the sd Quattro H, the 18-35mm may vignette slightly up to 19 or 20mm  but will be ok up to 35mm.

S

Yes you will...Depending upon your preferences, you can choose DC Crop on or Dc Drop Auto On or DC Crop Off. With the FP and DC Crop On, your image is reduced dramatically in size - just under 10 mp. Using the 10-24 ratio with a 60 mp you would be reduced to 25mp. If you are willing to do your own cropping, here is a table based upon the fp (24mp) and the 8-16:

8m.........12-13mp

10mm...14-15 mp

12mm...18-19 mp

14mm...24mp

16mm...24mp

Now don't assume that these ratios are the same for other lenses. My point is that using DC Crop on or on auto, you give up a lot. But you may not want to crop so many images. If you are a windows user, FASTSTONE has a cropping function that displays the new size on the bottom of the screen and has a whole bunch of presets as far as ratio goes. And it also has a horizon-straightening option and a whole bunch of other stuff.

There are two reasons to buy the fp : much higher ISO in colour, and being able to use manual-focus lenses from film SLRs.

If neither of those matter to you, then I think the sdQH is a better camera for still photography. However, it might be good to get an MC-21 soon while it's still available, so that you can buy an L mount camera in the future. SA cameras have no long term future.

I bought the fp to use alongside the sdQH, as I have a number of old lenses that I like. It's a fun camera, but realistically the sensors are not yet ready for use without a shutter. (Sony have a newer sensor in the AI that is much faster, and I expect to see fp models that can work properly with flash in a year or three.)

Don Cox

George1958 wrote:

Hi, I am considering buying a Sigma FP but I am torn between this and a Sigma Quattro H. I have an SD15 and the 18-35 F1.8 Art and the 50-100 F1.8 Art.

These I understand would be fine on the Quattro. However I go down the FP road and use the MC-21, will I get vignetting or experience cropping of the FP sensor given my lenses are APSC?

I can't really justify the expense of buying new L Mount lenses at this time.

My thanks in anticipation

George

George, what are you hoping to accomplish? Do you want a smaller camera? Do you want to get more resolution in your images? Are you wanting a tilting viewfinder? (I'm guessing that's not high on your priorities list, since you're considering the SD Quattro H.) Do you want to be able to shoot at higher ISO settings, with better results? Do you just want an EVF? Are you looking to increase the speed at which you can shoot?

If you like the Foveon look, you are probably going to be happier with the SD Quattro H, though I don't think you'll be able to get one new now. If you want to be able to get good results shooting at ISO 6400, then I suggest the fp as your solution. I believe the SD Quattro H will give you very similar results to your SD15, though with more resolution. Even at ISO 3200 though, the image quality is pretty horrendous, unless you're shooting in monochrome or converting your images to monochrome. I think of all the Sigma cameras with Foveon sensors to be limited to practical ISO settings from 100-1600, and I almost never go above ISO 200, because I just don't like the noise in my images. I feel the same way about using high ISO settings with other cameras too, but not to the same degree. I have actually shot my Nikon at ISO 6400.

As far as vignetting is concerned, your APS-C lenses will indeed work pretty well on the SD Quattro H, but not so well on an fp. If you get the fp-L though, you'll have enough megapixels that you can crop a lot, and still have a 30 or 40 MP image. Also there is the possibility of using some of the different shooting formats. If you use 21:9 or square format, for example, you may find you'll get very little vignetting at most focal lengths with your lenses.

Scottelly wrote:

If you get the fp-L though, you'll have enough megapixels that you can crop a lot, and still have a 30 or 40 MP image.

Scott, what would be "a lot" in this case?

Bearing in mind that even a 30MP image would result from a crop of only 0.707 times the linear dimensions, I'm not sure that cropping 30% off is actually "a lot"?

Admittedly, cropping from FF to APS-C would still get you about 27MP ...

rick decker wrote:

With some of these new AI up-sizing products such as Topaz and Photoshop SuperRes, you can blow things up "a lot" and then crop a "whole bunch"!

Good point ... computational photography rules, IMHO.

Some day who knows...one lens shoots all !!

That would be the Otus 55mm, I reckon ...

xpatUSA wrote:

rick decker wrote:

With some of these new AI up-sizing products such as Topaz and Photoshop SuperRes, you can blow things up "a lot" and then crop a "whole bunch"!

Good point ... computational photography rules, IMHO.

And like all rulers, it can make big mistakes.

Some day who knows...one lens shoots all !!

That would be the Otus 55mm, I reckon ...

Don

rick decker wrote:

With some of these new AI up-sizing products such as Topaz and Photoshop SuperRes, you can blow things up a "lot" and then crop a "whole bunch" Here is one example:

fp 45mm 600x400

Same Image run through PS SuperRes to 12000x8000 and cropped d own to 6000x4000

Some day who knows...one lens shoots all!!

I have mixed feelings about what I get out of from these techniques. It often tries to sharpen things that should not be, like the fence behind the riders in your example.

amweber21 wrote:

rick decker wrote:

With some of these new AI up-sizing products such as Topaz and Photoshop SuperRes, you can blow things up a "lot" and then crop a "whole bunch" Here is one example:

fp 45mm 600x400

Same Image run through PS SuperRes to 12000x8000 and cropped d own to 6000x4000

Some day who knows...one lens shoots all!!

I have mixed feelings about what I get out of from these techniques. It often tries to sharpen things that should not be, like the fence behind the riders in your example.

Which is why many of these techniques come with adjustable parameters requiring additional intelligence from the User ...

xpatUSA wrote:

Which is why many of these techniques come with adjustable parameters requiring additional intelligence from the User ...

In Camera raw, like he's used here, it's just a "you get what you get" check box. No parameters are far as I know. Topaz has some control, but it has even more artifacting in my limited experience with it.

xpatUSA wrote:

Scottelly wrote:

If you get the fp-L though, you'll have enough megapixels that you can crop a lot, and still have a 30 or 40 MP image.

Scott, what would be "a lot" in this case?

Bearing in mind that even a 30MP image would result from a crop of only 0.707 times the linear dimensions, I'm not sure that cropping 30% off is actually "a lot"?

Admittedly, cropping from FF to APS-C would still get you about 27MP ...

Considering an APS-C sized crop would be less than half the image, I'd say that's a lot. I did say he'd ". . . still have a 30 or 40 MP image." I stand by that claim.

Good to know.. From what I have done, Adobe seems to be a little better, but maybe because it is less aggressive so it is more subtle. I had tried processing some raws through DXO PureRaw on my last wedding (using a trial), while the natural lighting looked okay (not a huge difference for the huge file size increase) the group and couple shots using flash came out absolutely horrendous! Nothing could have saved them, and again, no control on how it processes. I just editted those as normal. I have noticed it cleans up my M43 cameras in low light pretty well.. But I held off on buying it for now.

Dear all , thank you for your time in replying to my question and your thoughts .

I am primarily a stills shooter and lean toward fine art, mostly plants and some landscape . I do love the foveon look, colours and detail. I have grown used to using base ISO and also having to work with the slower approach. 
after reflecting on the various comments I am going to be looking for a Quattro H to work with my current lenses. Appreciate SA mount is not a long term plan but I don’t need that many lenses either, perhaps an additional macro lens such as the 70mm. My relatively fast F1.8 zooms cover most over focal lengths I use and work well with portraits etc.

I remain very interested in the FP but rebuilding a system is expensive and I seriously wonder how much more my photography would benefit? . That is accepting I have never minded being at base ISO with my SD15, or it’s slow operational speed and other quirks .

I have noticed the Quattro H is still on the Sigma UK site as a live product but many retailers do not appear to have any stock. Given I am in the UK I wonder if it’s a brexit effect , lots of other non sigma gear seems to be out of stock?

regards

George