News Sigma 20-200mm f3.5/6.3 DG

[pdk42]

These are all looking decent!

 

[pdk42]

I think I will put in a pre-order and give this lens a whirl. If it performs, it'll make a great two lens landscape combo with the 14-28.

 

[Eric l]

I'm also of this opinion, a Swiss Army knife as they say here .We were expecting the first ones in stores at the end of September, but nothing yet...

 

[Pete_W]

I think I will put in a pre-order and give this lens a whirl. If it performs, it'll make a great two lens landscape combo with the 14-28.

 

[xaviergut]

Is it a good idea to evaluate the sharpness of a lens photographing tree branches and leaves that can be moved by the wind? Just asking...

 

[pdk42]

interesting. Seems it's a bit soft in the corners at focal lengths wider than about 50mm. But it looks inconsistent. Some of his examples (in the video) seemed OK, but others terrible. I've seen this sort of thing before with wide zooms which I've usually put down to IBIS effects. Of course, the IBIS is still active (just not compensating for movement) even if the camera is mounted on a tripod.

I guess I'm going to have to get my own copy and try it, but I'm downloading his example files now - all 10GB of it!

 

[pdk42]

Is it a good idea to evaluate the sharpness of a lens photographing tree branches and leaves that can be moved by the wind? Just asking...

It looked a light wind day and shutter speeds were reasonable so I think it's probably OK (but not ideal!).

 

[Jonathan-Mac]

interesting. Seems it's a bit soft in the corners at focal lengths wider than about 50mm. But it looks inconsistent. Some of his examples (in the video) seemed OK, but others terrible. I've seen this sort of thing before with wide zooms which I've usually put down to IBIS effects. Of course, the IBIS is still doing its stuff even if the camera is mounted on a tripod.

I guess I'm going to have to get my own copy and try it, but I'm downloading his example files now - all 10GB of it!

To my knowledge, IBIS should always be turned off if the camera is mounted on a tripod. That was certainly always the recommendation in my Pentax days.

 

[pdk42]

To my knowledge, IBIS should always be turned off if the camera is mounted on a tripod. That was certainly always the recommendation in my Pentax days.

Yes, but even when it's "off", it's still electro-magnetically suspended by the IBIS mechanism.

 

[pdk42]

interesting. Seems it's a bit soft in the corners at focal lengths wider than about 50mm. But it looks inconsistent. Some of his examples (in the video) seemed OK, but others terrible. I've seen this sort of thing before with wide zooms which I've usually put down to IBIS effects. Of course, the IBIS is still active (just not compensating for movement) even if the camera is mounted on a tripod.

I guess I'm going to have to get my own copy and try it, but I'm downloading his example files now - all 10GB of it!

Well, I've taken a good look at the samples. Unfortunately they are JPEGs not raws (so they'll have in-camera sharpening applied), but c'est la vie. Applying CA correction and fringing correction they are actually not bad at all, even at 20mm. At f8 or f11, the edges are acceptable with the corners just a little behind. I think it could work for me. As Mads says though, the edge performance from 50-200 is certainly better than at the wider end. But even at 20mm, the results are far better than anything I've seen on any of the three 28-200 Lumix lenses I tried.

Compared to the Tamron 28-200, it seems very close to me. In fact, I think the Sigma deals with flare better:



Based on these samples, I'l definitely be trying one out!

 

[Pete_W]

Is it a good idea to evaluate the sharpness of a lens photographing tree branches and leaves that can be moved by the wind? Just asking...

I would avoid doing tests on a windy day. Mads is trustworthy though so I assume he's ensured the conditions were suitable.