Sigma 16/30/56 for APS-C sensors

[Marac]

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Today I received 3 lenses from Sigma

16mm f1.4

30mm f1.4

56mm f1.4

I will be testing these on my CL over the weekend and will let you know my opinion and post a few shots, advanced warning, these will be from around where I live so.... flowers and boring stuff but it will give you an idea at least.

First signs with the 16mm is that I KNOW I'm going to enjoy this lens, the 30mm & 56mm have not been on the camera yet

Edited July 31, 2020 by Marac

[gteague]

i'm trying to get an idea of relative sizes. somewhere along the way could you post an image with the 3 lenses and the cl body? 

tks! /guy

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[Peter Wright]

I just received the three lenses on Tuesday, so on Wednesday I visited a construction site with them and my CL to see what they could do.  Inside a building is a place where light is in short supply, so the fast lenses could justify themselves.  Even so, I was shooting at ISO 800 for these.  I shot mainly at 1.4 as that is why I was getting these lenses, so here are some examples.  I found that at 1.4 all three lenses are very good.  They get sharper of course as the aperture is closed, but I would regard them as perfectly usable fully open.  See what you think.  So see any difference between the apertures I really needed to zoom on my mac 27" NEC monitor, and even then it was quite minor.  I shot some convenient stone walls at different apertures and could find no evidence of distortion (not sure if this is being corrected automatically, but in any case not evident) and only very little evidence of flare or chromatic aberration (in fact performed well compared to my Leica M lenses).

I'll try to get some other pictures up shortly.

Peter.

 

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[Peter Wright]

I forgot to add.  The shot of the two men with white helmets was shot using the 56mm and the shot of the tile cutter was shot with the 30mm.

[Peter Wright]

Here are some more.  The first two were shot using the 16mm (all at 1.4) and the third was shot using the 56mm.  I particularly wanted the 56 because there is no direct Leica version of this lens.  The nearest is the 60mm 2.8 - two stops slower.  I could use my 50 Summilux or my 75 Summicoron but then I don't have AF, and those lenses do not focus particularly close.  I added the 30mm 1.4 as that is right in my favourite range at 45mm (effective).  Again, I could use my 35 Zeiss 1.4 ZM, but again loose AF.  I have no real interest in a 16 (24 effective)mm lens, but it gets a good reputation on other mounts, and - would you believe the price - $290!  Why, by Leica standards Sigma is practically giving it away!

So far, I'm very happy with these lenses on the CL.

  

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[gteague]

the 16mm would be the only one i'm interested in as i use 24mm nearly the most of any lens other than telephotos. and even though my eyes are bad, i find the peaking so excellent on the cl that i've nailed focus on nearly every single shot with my 50 summicron and a 75 ?summilat?. i have normal covered with the af tl23 and i also have a 16-35/4 s1 l-mount af lens. but a 16/1.4 would be ideal for any inside use.

i'm going to look now, but where did you see it for $290? and does it make a large unwieldy lump on the cl?

btw, the images are very impressive.

tks, /guy

Edited July 31, 2020 by gteague

[Peter Wright]

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1 hour ago, gteague said:

i'm trying to get an idea of relative sizes. somewhere along the way could you post an image with the 3 lenses and the cl body? 

tks! /guy

Here you go.  A family group!  The 56 is about the same size as the 18-56 I included here for comparison.  The 30mm is slightly larger, and the biggest is the16mm.  I found that this lens handled best with the CL hand-grip attached.

Peter.

 

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[Peter Wright]

17 minutes ago, gteague said:

the 16mm would be the only one i'm interested in as i use 24mm nearly the most of any lens other than telephotos. and even though my eyes are bad, i find the peaking so excellent on the cl that i've nailed focus on nearly every single shot with my 50 summicron and a 75 ?summilat?. i have normal covered with the af tl23 and i also have a 16-35/4 s1 l-mount af lens. but a 16/1.4 would be ideal for any inside use.

i'm going to look now, but where did you see it for $290? and does it make a large unwieldy lump on the cl?

btw, the images are very impressive.

tks, /guy

Look on B&H.  The 16mm is $289, the 30mm is $399 and the 56 is $429.  That qualifies as a screaming bargain to me.  Especially in Leica land!!  In my case, the 16 is a lens I didn't really want, but at that price, how could I resist.  The sales tax on most of my M lenses was more than that!

Peter.

[gteague]

12 minutes ago, Peter Wright said:

Look on B&H.  The 16mm is $289, the 30mm is $399 and the 56 is $429.  That qualifies as a screaming bargain to me.  Especially in Leica land!!  In my case, the 16 is a lens I didn't really want, but at that price, how could I resist.  The sales tax on most of my M lenses was more than that!

Peter.

thanks for the image showing the relative sizes. i haven't seen the fl 50/1.4, but is the 16mm about the same size as that lens?

anyway, i have no fast af lenses in either tl or l-mount. well, i have the 23/2, but it reverts to 2.8 at close distances. so at those prices i'm going to choose one of them for the speed alone and the 30mm would be absolutely useless to me. but the 56 would be about an 85/1.4, right? now that could replace my leica /m/ 75mm if it's comparable quality. i'm going to go back and review the image you took with that lens.

many thanks! /guy

Edited July 31, 2020 by gteague

[gteague]

... .also, i'm thinking the 56/1.4 could replace me using my 50/2 (which of course is mf) on my s1. and that body dwarfs these lenses, so that's not a factor at all. 

/guy

[gteague]

23 minutes ago, Peter Wright said:

Look on B&H.  The 16mm is $289, the 30mm is $399 and the 56 is $429.  That qualifies as a screaming bargain to me.  Especially in Leica land!!  In my case, the 16 is a lens I didn't really want, but at that price, how could I resist.  The sales tax on most of my M lenses was more than that!

Peter.

just checked b&h. the 30mm is the $289 and the 16mm is the $399. but you're absolutely right--a screaming bargain for l-mount although these are the first apc lenses i've seen in this mount that weren't leica tl. 

also, i just realized i misspoke in a later post. the 56mm would also be 85mm on my s1 as it 'detects' whether a lens is apc or ff and adjusts accordingly. thus my sigma 70mm macro ff is 105mm on the cl, but 70mm on the s1. 

otoh, an 85/1.4 has long been one of my favorite lenses although i rarely was able to afford better than a 1.8. 

i'm ordering the 56/1.4. when i've wanted a compact lens for my s1 i've been using the 50 summicron. the 56 would be a compact lens on the s1. i used to have the sigma 45/2.8 and it was very compact, but it wasn't very impressive optically. 

/guy

Edited July 31, 2020 by gteague

[Peter Wright]

28 minutes ago, gteague said:

just checked b&h. the 30mm is the $289 and the 16mm is the $399. but you're absolutely right--a screaming bargain for l-mount although these are the first apc lenses i've seen in this mount that weren't leica tl. 

also, i just realized i misspoke in a later post. the 56mm would also be 85mm on my s1 as it 'detects' whether a lens is apc or ff and adjusts accordingly. thus my sigma 70mm macro ff is 105mm on the cl, but 70mm on the s1. 

otoh, an 85/1.4 has long been one of my favorite lenses although i rarely was able to afford better than a 1.8. 

i'm ordering the 56/1.4. when i've wanted a compact lens for my s1 i've been using the 50 summicron. the 56 would be a compact lens on the s1. i used to have the sigma 45/2.8 and it was very compact, but it wasn't very impressive optically. 

/guy

You are correct.  I took a look at my invoice and I had reversed the two prices in my head, but it didn't matter much to me as I was getting all three 😊.  It takes me a while to really get to know a lens, but so far these are really promising.

Peter.

 

[Marac]

3 hours ago, gteague said:

i'm trying to get an idea of relative sizes. somewhere along the way could you post an image with the 3 lenses and the cl body? 

tks! /guy

Certainly.

 

 

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[FrozenInTime]

The 16mm focal length looks most interesting, but dampening my enthusiasm is that it may only work on the CL and that it is larger than the 35/1.4.

Wonder if they function through generic compatibility on the T ... TL2. ?

[Marac]

The 16mm is a real gem, not had a chance to fully test it but it can focus very close and I like that with a wide fast lens, makes for some interesting shots.

Thank you Peter for your input, I think they make a nice '3 lens kit' for the CL, T, TL or TL2. I took some snaps around my home today all at f1.4 and no editing.

 

 

 

 

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[Peter Wright]

Hi Marac, Interesting that most people seem to find the 16 as the most compelling of the set.  I have never found a need for a wide that was also fast up to now.  My wide lenses in my M system are a 15mm Voigtlander and a 21mm Leica SEM.  Neither is remotely 'fast'.  So I will have a bit of discovery to do.  You mentioned the close focus, and that is something that I found quite striking as well.  Certainly some different effects are possible.  Another feature I noticed is how easy it is to instantly override the AF by turning the very big focus grip, at which point the CL helps out with its focus peaking.  I can see this being very handy.

For myself, I believe the 30mm will get the most use (I tend to do most of my work in the "boring" range of between 35mm and 50mm (full frame or full frame equivalent), and the 56 will get some time as well.  The 16? - I have to wait and see.

I think there is a good chance that lenses like these will encourage more people to consider the CL as a useful and well supported camera. So not all bad for Leica.

 

[gteague]

i ordered the 56 from amazon because unlike at b&h i pay no shipping there. they say next thursday. btw, for me at least, my 1-2 day prime subscription is getting me 8 day delivery for the last 5 months, not 2 days. you'd think amazon would rebate me something for that, but i doubt it. 

indeed the 16 is tasty and i could use the speed for inside, but i already have a 16-35/4 and both the cl and the s1 will yield good quality images at nosebleed iso's, so the extra stops would only help with dof. 

/guy

Edited August 1, 2020 by gteague

[AdHox]

The 30/1.4 has been attached to my CL for the last week, but I still haven’t had the opportunity to test it - we’re still getting a few hundred new cases and a few deaths each day so there is little chance that we’ll be able to get out with our cameras for a while yet. If anything, some of our sovcits seem determined to extend our lockdown.

Until we get through this phase, I’ll just have to enjoy the lens vicariously through other folks’ experience.

In E-mount it’s the 16/1.4 that gets the most love, but maybe that’s because that user base is more interested in vlogging.

[Peter M.]

TL+30mm 1.4

Yesterday arrived, silent AF and very good sharpness.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[Peter Wright]

11 hours ago, gteague said:

i ordered the 56 from amazon because unlike at b&h i pay no shipping there. they say next thursday. btw, for me at least, my 1-2 day prime subscription is getting me 8 day delivery for the last 5 months, not 2 days. you'd think amazon would rebate me something for that, but i doubt it. 

indeed the 16 is tasty and i could use the speed for inside, but i already have a 16-35/4 and both the cl and the s1 will yield good quality images at nosebleed iso's, so the extra stops would only help with dof. 

/guy

I am surprised you pay shipping from b&h.  I am in Canada, and they ship here for free as long as the order is over $99 even if the order has to come in separate shipments due to availability.  (It isn't hard to get over $99 🙂).  I find b&h much faster than Amazon prime - almost always arrives in 2 days, even in these covid times.  I don't know how they do it.