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Sigma 70mm Macro ART (14-24 Art too)


Marac

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Just picked mine up and will be reviewing it with a couple of images later if anyone is interested.

I also have the 14-24 Sigma ART lens too (on loan) and can tell you already it is amazing.

Full review will be posted on Macfilos comparing the Sigma 14-24 alongside the Leica 11-23. The only body I will use will be the Leica CL.

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This was a quick snap taken on the way home with the 14-24 at 18mm and f2.8, all i have done is straighten the image in LR. Heading into town now with the 70mm macro :)

 

Actually that shot looks quite soft here, in LR it is pin sharp and crispy, oh well

 

 

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Edited by Marac
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The sigma Art 70mm f2.8 Macro lens for L mount cameras is about the same size as the Leica 55-135. The front element of the lens extends when focusing.

The build quality is very good as with all Art lenses. At this time of writing, this lens drains the battery in a similar way the 45mm did before the FW update which helped, a bit.

There is no OIS. Manually focussing feels very nice. This lens has a FOV similar to a 105mm lens on a FF (I know the actual lens is, and always will, remain a 70mm lens).

The image quality is excellent and pin sharp (no they really are) uploading photos to the internet for some reason takes an edge off of them.

The 2 switches on the side are for focus limit and AF/MF. The lens has a 49mm filter size. Focus does tend to hunt a little especially in dimly lit areas. All the photos I took are at f2.8, they have only been resized, nothing else.

In my opinion, for the price and all things considered, it's not a bad lens at all, I bought mine and will use it for portraiture as well as a macro lens, it's a decent alternative as an AF macro lens that is designed for full frame cameras but works very well on the 1.5x crop bodies (CL, T, TL, TL2). I hope they provide an update for the battery drain issue as this is becoming slightly annoying now. I tested the 14-24 on the CL and that also drained the battery, in fact, it seemed to drain it a lot faster. 

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A couple more SOOC pics

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Sigma Art 14-24mm f2.8.

I just had to give the 14-24 a mention here, On the CL it is large but definitely not offensive, about the same weight as the Summilux 35, you can decide if that's too big.

I already have the amazing 11-23 Leica so from a focal length perspective they are similar, differences being f2.8 against f3.5-4.5, build quality? well maybe, the Art lenses are very well built indeed, Image quality? well here we have it, the Leica is certainly tack sharp, clinical, precise. The Sigma is a bit different, it is certainly sharp at f2.8 although not as sharp as the Leica, stopped down to match the Leica it was as sharp but not as clinical, the way the lens draws is very different, really reminds me of the old Contax Zeiss lenses. I could not pitch these lenses against each other because they are totally different. Sigma want me to return this lens tomorrow ..... Hmmmmm 

 

Both shot at f2,8 one taken at 14mm the other at 24mm close.

both are unedited 

 

 

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With the 60mm f2.8 Macro Elmarit’s (just bought that one) internal focus, I’m assuming one loses a little effective focal length up close due to that internal focus, while the Sigma 70 extends to focus, better maintaining the 70mm FOV so, at least up close, I would expect the Sigma to be more than just 10mm longer compared to the 60mm Macro Elmarit if one were to shoot the exact same subject up close from the same distance with both lenses.

Most likely not a “night and day” difference and I’m certainly more than happy with the Elmarit.

Edited by Gregm61
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21 hours ago, Marac said:

I think you may be right there.

i think the sigma 45/2.8 was just a few dollars higher than the posted b&h price, but i've seen the 45 reduced by $50 in the last month nearly everywhere.

i'd say call it nearly a draw. /guy

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If you own the 45mm I would highly recommend updating the firmware to ver 1.1 it really helps with the battery drain issue.

The macro 70 and 14-24 are both on ver 1.0 firmware and have high battery drain. I spoke with Sigma about this and they are already on the case with updated FW for both 14-24 and 70 macro for the L mount.

That little 45mm is a total bargain.

When they sort the FW update out for the 14-24 I am seriously trading off my 55-135 (I hardly use it) and grabbing the Sigma 14-24, it's that good.

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Seems like two entirely different lenses to be swapping, and I’m guessing you may already have the 14-24mm range “covered” with 1-2 other lenses. Why not exchange those and keep the longer range lens?

Edited by Gregm61
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10 hours ago, Gregm61 said:

Seems like two entirely different lenses to be swapping, and I’m guessing you may already have the 14-24mm range “covered” with 1-2 other lenses. Why not exchange those and keep the longer range lens?

I have used the 55-135 maybe a handful of times since buying it, I'm not really a zoooom kinda guy anymore. I remember a time I had 400mm and 500mm lenses for bird photography and trips to the zoo but these days I'm more into the wider side. My initial thoughts were to keep the 11-23 for my IR converted T, trade off my CL and the 55-135 & 35 Lux for either an SL mkI or the Lumix S1r or S1 and grab the 14-24. My thoughts are very much like the British weather, can change at any time.. hahaha.

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The main tech guy at Sigma UK, Dan, has been in touch with me this morning to confirm that new FW is available to download for the 14-24 battery drain issue and also that they are working on the whole line of L mount lenses to resolve the initial problems. I know Sigma very well and I imagine this will done very quickly.

The downloads are available from the Sigma global website.

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11 minutes ago, Marac said:

I have used the 55-135 maybe a handful of times since buying it, I'm not really a zoooom kinda guy anymore. I remember a time I had 400mm and 500mm lenses for bird photography and trips to the zoo but these days I'm more into the wider side. My initial thoughts were to keep the 11-23 for my IR converted T, trade off my CL and the 55-135 & 35 Lux for either an SL mkI or the Lumix S1r or S1 and grab the 14-24. My thoughts are very much like the British weather, can change at any time.. hahaha.

Marac, you make a very case for taking no sales decisions for the time being.  Wait until your mind is more  settled.

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5 hours ago, Marac said:

The main tech guy at Sigma UK, Dan, has been in touch with me this morning to confirm that new FW is available to download for the 14-24 battery drain issue and also that they are working on the whole line of L mount lenses to resolve the initial problems. I know Sigma very well and I imagine this will done very quickly.

The downloads are available from the Sigma global website.

i don't see any new firmware for the fp camera or the 45/2.8 lens, there are about a dozen updates from a week ago for various lenses though. tks! /guy

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1 hour ago, gteague said:

i don't see any new firmware for the fp camera or the 45/2.8 lens, there are about a dozen updates from a week ago for various lenses though. tks! /guy

Not sure about the FP, didn't know there was a battery drain issue with their own camera, so I doubt there will be one for the camera, however, I can assure you there is a ver 1.1 FW update for the 45mm C because I downloaded it myself, only to find that my lens was already running the latest FW.

 

https://www.sigma-global.com/en/download/lenses/firmware/c019_45_28/

Edited by Marac
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Just now, Marac said:

Not sure about the FP, didn't know there was a battery drain issue with their own camera, so I doubt there will be one for the camera, however, I can assure you there is a ver 1.1 FW update for the 45mm C because I downloaded it myself, only to find that my lens was already running the latest FW.

yeah, that one for the 45/2.8 has been out for at least a couple of months now. and no, the fp didn't suffer from battery drain with any lens as far as i could tell. but so far the cl is burning through juice faster than i like--i used 3 batteries yesterday in about 3-5 hours with it continually on being set up. but i suspect that out in the real world where i walk 5 minutes between shots, proper power settings and one spare battery will do just fine.

/guy

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2 minutes ago, gteague said:

yeah, that one for the 45/2.8 has been out for at least a couple of months now. and no, the fp didn't suffer from battery drain with any lens as far as i could tell. but so far the cl is burning through juice faster than i like--i used 3 batteries yesterday in about 3-5 hours with it continually on being set up. but i suspect that out in the real world where i walk 5 minutes between shots, proper power settings and one spare battery will do just fine.

/guy

the update definitely improved it, was terrible on ver 1.0, I'm waiting now for an update to the 70mm macro as that is eating batteries also, the 14-24 apparently has the ver 1.1 update on their website. 

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