Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Review at Photographyblog (Click here): “The Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN therefore comes highly recommended as an unobtrusive, lightweight and above all affordable performer.”
Sigma 19mm lens tested at Optyczne (Click here): “It’s a little worse than his brother’s optical focal length of 30 mm.”
The 30mm lens is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon FR (Click here), Amazon JP (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
The 19mm lens is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon FR (Click here), Amazon JP (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).
Olympus M.ZUIKO ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 Lens Review at ePhotozine (Click here): “Optically, this lens performs reasonably well, producing good sharpness across the frame, at least. Compared to other lenses compatible with the Micro Four Thirds system, it falls short of the performance of the best lenses available.”
Panasonic 14-140mm lens gets tested at DxOmark (Click here).
Japanese GF5 review at Itmedia (Click here) and Mynavi (Click here).
PEN portraits by Damian McGilliCuddy (Click here).
Pdc: “Have posted some purple fringe test shots taken with the Nokton 17.5mm received to-day.
http://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx/publish/pdcsylva/JPEGsCV17TestingPDC
#23/#32 are F0.95, #31/#40 are F16, in between are full click stops. All Lightroom processed. -2 is LR “all edges” defringe. -3 is defringe plus “Direct Positive” preset. No other adjustments applied.
Bottom line – in modest backlight, significant edge fringing at F2 and wider. LR defringe only modestly useful. Strong backlighting would increase fringing. Avoid strong backlights when shooting wide open. GH2 used for this test.” (P:S.: The lens is in Stock at Foto Hans Keuzekamp).
16 Responses
I think the nikon has a tiny edge in processing the dark and light areas (look at the stills in the end). The olympus is close also. Canon has some purple coloring at 1.4 around the edges.
Compared to the Zuiko, the Nikon has far better contrast. It has a slight edge over the Canon as well.
I have one of the more expensive Zuiko OM lenses, the 90/2 macro. It was a legendary performer at the time but unfortunately performs quite poorly on digital cameras. The Zuiko Digital 50/2 macro, however, is the finest lens I ever had.
Digital lenses have a coated rear element to eliminate problems having to do with the reflective sensor surface, and are usually designed so that the light hits the sensor in close to 90 deg. angle. This is certainly the case with the Olympus ZD lenses.
+1 the Nikon is easily the best of the three in contrast as well as sharpness.
Judging by research I’ve done while contemplating whether to get me an “artsy” manual lens with big bokeh and all, I bet the OM 50/1.2 would destroy all these at once on all accounts, but then it also probably costs more than the three together…
Thanks for the comparison video. The Olympus casts nice colors compared to the Nikon and Canon lens.
I notice an occasional lens error on startup with the 19mm 2.8. Restarts clears up the issue.
Wipe the contacts gently with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud.
The sigma 30mm is really interesting (got it 2 days ago). Autofocus is very fast, on the olympus E-PL3 it’s probably the best performing lens I have when using continuous AF in videos (while probably it’s not necessarily true on Panasonic cameras).
Bokeh is circular, but sometimes satisfying and sometimes ugly, depending on the background; probably the less contrasted and more uniform it is, the better the resulting bokeh.
So far I’m very pleased with it.
The Olympus lens is incredibly small! The 50 mm Canon looks big, but is actually quite small compared the “King of 50/1.4” – The Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM!
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_50_1p4_c16/2
@ STM
How annoying it the startup lag of the 30mm? Is it really 4 seconds with your camera?
If so I dearly hope for a firmware fix.
Yes, the startup time of the Sigma 30mm is probably its greater flaw, about 3 and something seconds. I hope it’s a fixable issue, but don’t buy it yet if you think you won’t bear it.
The little man inside has to run around to connect all the bits to the focus slides, to stop the rattle and make it work for you. Try some Red Bull that may give him some hurry up.
I use the OM regularly on my E-P2 regularly, provides very nice results and is fabulous for portraiture, giving fine shallow depth of field.
(sorry, wrong comment reply)
From dxo: “the Panasonic Lumix G-Vario 14-140mm F4-5.8 Mega OIS mounted on a micro 4/3 sensor is on par with an equivalent lens mounted on an APS-C!”
Stop being biases already. Just say that it is better than most 18-200mm, even outperforming Nikon, Canon and Sony equivalents.
DoX realy are in fairyland with the pixies. Compare the above 14-150mm review with the one they gave for the Sigma 18-200mm.
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Publications/DxOMark-Reviews/The-Sigma-18-200-mm-f-3.5-6.3-DC-OS-HSM-II-A-new-stabilized-super-zoom/Standalone-measurement-results
The overall score for the sigma is far higher yet the critical test points are worse. They comment the Pany down for light transmittion yet the sigma is worse, they comment the Pany down on distortion, yet the sigma is worse.
The Sigma 18-200 family comparison is all over the place, seems that the testers make up their own minds as they think of the weekend coming up.
I have no problem with Sigma lenses, it just happened to be the first confuse test I found.
Quick question;
I got a Panasonic GX1.
If I want a lens like this to my camera, will I then have to buy an adapter to attach it?
Thanks