Anyone use the Sigma 16mm F1.4 ?

Hi, maybe these pancake trio be useful for your street shooting:

16mm f/2.4

30mm f/2

10mm f/3.5 fisheye

Discontinued and rather old but cheap and maybe acceptable quality.

(Especially that 30, I think is unique. And tempts me to buy it with a NX300.)

How would these fit to any EOS M?

Sorry didn't write they are Samsung NX.

I felt Bejersey's top priority is pocketability and these can't be found anywhere else.

dolivaw wrote:

Sorry didn't write they are Samsung NX.

I felt Bejersey's top priority is pocketability and these can't be found anywhere else.

Thanx for clarification.

A wonderful lens, I use it a lot for vlog at home.

- The autofocus is fast and quiet (good for video recording)

- Very sharp even at f1.4. F1.4 provides good background blur and I can record video at low light environment

- Good build quality

But I don't often take it outdoors because it's a bit heavy. I prefer to use my 22mm F1.8 manual lens or other EF-M lens such like 15-45 or 32mm f1.4

cr3shooter wrote:

Like others have said, the 16/1.4 is way too heavy and bulky for me to carry, especially since it's a focal length I don't use particularly often. I can manage with the wide end of the 15-45 kit lens.

I wish lens makers would stop trying to out-do each other with large, heavy f1.4 efforts and make more pancakes and small, light f2 or f2.8 primes.

And my desire is just the opposite.  I’d love a fast 22mm f/1.4 to pair with my 16, 32, and 56mm f/1.4 lenses!  These guys really kick butt!

R2

R2D2 wrote:

cr3shooter wrote:

Like others have said, the 16/1.4 is way too heavy and bulky for me to carry, especially since it's a focal length I don't use particularly often. I can manage with the wide end of the 15-45 kit lens.

I wish lens makers would stop trying to out-do each other with large, heavy f1.4 efforts and make more pancakes and small, light f2 or f2.8 primes.

And my desire is just the opposite. I’d love a fast 22mm f/1.4 to pair with my 16, 32, and 56mm f/1.4 lenses! These guys really kick butt!

R2

There's the Viltrox 23mm f1.4, decent AF, respectable IQ and very nice handling.

Use it all the time, carry it and the 56, both on M6 IIs, in a ProTactic shoulder bag, they are both great performers, mounted on a great body....pretty fun combination, I usually keep the Canon 32 and 55 - 250 close by as well, everything is relatively light and relatively inexpensive, IMO...

shuutrr

R2D2 wrote:

cr3shooter wrote:

Like others have said, the 16/1.4 is way too heavy and bulky for me to carry, especially since it's a focal length I don't use particularly often. I can manage with the wide end of the 15-45 kit lens.

I wish lens makers would stop trying to out-do each other with large, heavy f1.4 efforts and make more pancakes and small, light f2 or f2.8 primes.

And my desire is just the opposite. I’d love a fast 22mm f/1.4 to pair with my 16, 32, and 56mm f/1.4 lenses! These guys really kick butt!

R2

Yep, I think Sigma made a mistake with the 30mm f/1.4 IMHO. Looks like they have to sell it now for much less to compete against Canon's 32mm.

I'd have bought in a snap, a Sigma 23mm f/1.4 instead. The quintessential FOV for general photography.
Yes, there is the Viltrox 23mm but that silver thing is unsightly and the quality no better than the Canon 22mm considering its size.

Rock and Rollei wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

cr3shooter wrote:

Like others have said, the 16/1.4 is way too heavy and bulky for me to carry, especially since it's a focal length I don't use particularly often. I can manage with the wide end of the 15-45 kit lens.

I wish lens makers would stop trying to out-do each other with large, heavy f1.4 efforts and make more pancakes and small, light f2 or f2.8 primes.

And my desire is just the opposite. I’d love a fast 22mm f/1.4 to pair with my 16, 32, and 56mm f/1.4 lenses! These guys really kick butt!

R2

There's the Viltrox 23mm f1.4, decent AF, respectable IQ and very nice handling.

Yeah, I’ve debated that one since it came out.  However I’ve been looking for outstanding AF for shooting action, and maximum sharpness so I can push the ISOs (without turning everything to mush).

R2

just got my 16mm 1.4 last week and I'm really happy with it.  it's sharp and punchy and I like the fact that it seems to have faster AF than my 32mm 1.4 on my old M5.  It just seems snappier and more decisive in focusing.

I'm not bothered by the size/weight.  the 16mm 1.4 without a hood is about as long (but thicker and heavier) than the 32mm 1.4 with its proper hood.  I'm used to DSLRs so this is still pretty fine with me especially with the IQ i'm getting from it.

deanmejos wrote:

just got my 16mm 1.4 last week and I'm really happy with it. it's sharp and punchy and I like the fact that it seems to have faster AF than my 32mm 1.4 on my old M5. It just seems snappier and more decisive in focusing.

I'm not bothered by the size/weight. the 16mm 1.4 without a hood is about as long (but thicker and heavier) than the 32mm 1.4 with its proper hood. I'm used to DSLRs so this is still pretty fine with me especially with the IQ i'm getting from it.

Big congrats!  It's a truly wonderful lens.

Enjoy!

R2

R2D2 wrote:

Rock and Rollei wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

cr3shooter wrote:

Like others have said, the 16/1.4 is way too heavy and bulky for me to carry, especially since it's a focal length I don't use particularly often. I can manage with the wide end of the 15-45 kit lens.

I wish lens makers would stop trying to out-do each other with large, heavy f1.4 efforts and make more pancakes and small, light f2 or f2.8 primes.

And my desire is just the opposite. I’d love a fast 22mm f/1.4 to pair with my 16, 32, and 56mm f/1.4 lenses! These guys really kick butt!

R2

There's the Viltrox 23mm f1.4, decent AF, respectable IQ and very nice handling.

Yeah, I’ve debated that one since it came out. However I’ve been looking for outstanding AF for shooting action, and maximum sharpness so I can push the ISOs (without turning everything to mush).

R2

I agree, I keep thinking about the Viltrox 23mm f1.4 to get another stop advantage from the Canon 22mm f2, but its image quality from reviews has kept me from buying it.

I do extremely low-light railroad videos with the M6ii, and lately have been shooting them with a fast prime wide-angle on an M6ii and a fast telephoto on a second M6ii.

For the telephoto, I've been using the manual-focus Rokinon 135mm f2 lens with the Viltrox 0.71x speed booster for an amazing 100mm f1.4 lens. That turns out to be a sharp combination, even at f1.4, yields great sharp low-light video. I'd prefer an autofocus lens of course as trains are a moving subject, but have been making do.

For the wider-angle lens for the videos I've been experimenting with the Canon 32mm f1.4 and the Siggy 16mm f1.4. Both are fantastic, and have low flare --- so when the brilliant train headlight shines into the camera lens as the train approaches in very dark lighting, it doesn't blow out the image too badly.

Here's a video made with the 32mm f1.4 in extremely low lighting:

https://youtu.be/yyrfjTEjAdw

Here's a video made with the Siggy 16 in extremely low lighting:

https://youtu.be/dKUfDphOrWg

I believe both videos show some of the highest quality (low noise, nice color and contrast) night railroad video out there. Much of it is so good it almost looks like it was shot in daylight even though the light conditions were so dark you could not see much with your unaided vision! The train crossing the Cass St Bridge in the Siggy 16 video is a very, very dark location yet the train still shows detail.

I did this by shooting at 4k, stabilizing and processing the video in post (Adobe Premiere Pro), shooting with standard high ISO de-noise turned on, and downsampling to 1080p to recover the sharpness and reduce noise. All other night train videos I've been able to find on youtube have nowhere near the image quality.

With the Canon 32, I have to stand back a bit from the tracks and can't really pan while the train is passing (so I don't crop the train's top or bottom) unless I'm at a bit of a distance, which is not always possible. So I often end up shooting the train coming at me but let it go out of the frame as it gets too big.

With the Siggy 16, a much wider lens, I can easily pan and get the train passing without cutting it off, but the lens is so wide that the train is very small in the frame until it gets close to me, so my usable video of the train tends to me much shorter time length.

The 22mm focal length would be the sweet spot, so I shot a similar video Monday night with the Canon 22mm f2 in similar night conditions. As with day and night videos I've shot previously with the 22mm lens, the field of view is 'just right' for trains --- however the lens optically appears to have much stronger flare than the Canon 32 or Siggy 16, is less sharp, and the loss of a stop of light is enough to leave me with a 'washed-out' looking video that can't be corrected in post.

I didn't make a video from the 22mm footage, but here's a still frame of a train in similar lighting to the other videos taken with the 22mm at 1/60s (shutter speed used for the videos). Even DxO with Deep prime and contrast maxed out, sharpness way 'up' could not bring up the details of the train with the image downsized to 1080p size, it has that high-ISO washed-out, muddy look I don't want. The lens has too much flare and not enough contrast to handle this scene, in this low light. An f1.4 lens would have only needed 1 stop ISO push in post instead of the 2 this shot needed - I know this would have been a usable shot with the Canon 32 or Siggy 16.

CSX I046 intermodal train leaving Tampa at Orient Rd, Canon M6ii, Canon EF-M 22mm f2, f2, 1/60s, shot at ISO 3200, pushed to ISO 12,800 in post

From the reviews, I think the Viltrox would give me similar results to the Canon 22mm, with enough flare and color fringing to make it unusable for the night train videos I create, and not enough sharpness across the frame to get clean results.

Sittatunga wrote:

Larry Rexley wrote:

I agree, I keep thinking about the Viltrox 23mm f1.4 to get another stop advantage from the Canon 22mm f2, but its image quality from reviews has kept me from buying it.

I do extremely low-light railroad videos with the M6ii, and lately have been shooting them with a fast prime wide-angle on an M6ii and a fast telephoto on a second M6ii.

The Samyang (Rokinon) 21mm f/1.4 would be well worth trying if you can get hold of it. I think mine is sharper than my EF-M 22mm with stronger colours and a tiny amount of simple barrel distortion. It's 3x the size of the Canon 22mm but less than half the size of the Sigma 16mm and 120g lighter. Come to think of it, it's so much better for astro than the RF 35mm that I sent my RF lens back. The UK importers discontinued it just before I bought mine, and it's expensive for a manual focus lens without contacts, but you're used to those. I've not checked mine for flare against my 22mm, but this is what lenstip.com said about its flare. https://www.lenstip.com/462.9-Lens_review-Samyang_21_mm_f_1.4_ED_AS_UMC_CS_Ghosting_and_flares.html. thoroughly recommended if you can live without autofocus at f/1.4.

Thanks for your thoughts on this, I've been looking at the Roki 21mm f1.4... I've had great experiences with the Roki 12mm f2, 8mm f2.8 fisheye, and 135mm f2.0 mentioned above. All are sharp and have nice, slightly warmer color rendering that the Canon and Sigma lenses.

I do feel that AF is very important for my train videos --- at the distances I'm shooting the train is close to me and moving, so focusing needs to be fast and continuous. For the wider 12mm and 8mm focal lengths, manual focus would be good enough due to the depth of field even at f2, but at 15-16-22mm and f1.4, AF becomes a must-have for me.

Also for me, already having the Roki 12, Siggy 16, Canon 22, Canon 32, and the 3 Canon EF-M zooms that cover the 22mm focal length I've invested a lot in this lens range already, and am reluctant to crowd that field a little more.

I think I'm just going to fall back to using the Siggy 16mm for the wide shots as the compromise. There really is no lens that can do what the Siggy 16mm f1.4 does --- which is why it's such a popular lens across brands. Its usefulness offsets its higher size and weight compared to the other EF-M native lenses we're used to --- we have to keep in mind that the Siggy 16's size and weight is close to what full-frame users are used to.

I thought about using the M200 as its 4k video is cropped and would give the Siggy 16mm f1.4 about the desired 22m, field of view --- but the M200's sensor is 2/3 EV noisier in low light, its 4k video max is only 24 fps and not the 30 fps I shoot in for youtube, and the 4k video AF uses contrast-based focus instead of the slower dual-pixel AF. The M50ii would have the same issues.

... From the reviews, I think the Viltrox would give me similar results to the Canon 22mm, with enough flare and color fringing to make it unusable for the night train videos I create, and not enough sharpness across the frame to get clean results.