Hoping for a Sigma BF followup

[Ken Ford]

I had an Q2M and enjoyed it tremendously as an alternative to the M and SL system. And the 28mm (more like an 26mm on this camera) is my favorite perspective. The mono output and other features like perspective control are just fabulous. BUT. But the AF is such shit and I ended up zoning when I needed to shoot street because it’s barely better than an 80’s Nikon. So…I have been looking for something similar in a Fujifilm maybe an T-X5 with a fast 28mm. A fixed lens would be too restrictive unless it’s priced right. The Q3 is off the table now I have the budget breaking M11M. 🙂

Your Q2M had AF?

Kidding - I seriously have never used AF in my Q2M for anything other than testing. I’ve found MF with my Q2M to be a very satisfying experience. In comparison, my new X100VI is pretty bad for MF but I’m really enjoying AF with the OVF - it’s much improved over my old X100S.

 

[Ken Ford]

Sigma pretty much has always made cameras that are different and go their own way. The BF is no different. I have the fp L so the BF is not of interest to me as it doesn't bring anything extra I would want and looses to much to me.

Used within its limits the fp L is a wonderful camera and has the best sensor out of any of my L mount cameras. I bought it to shoot square as a type of digital SWC and it is brilliant for that and I also ended up using it for much more. It lets me do things my Panasonics won't, such as override the APS-C crop which fits with square extremely well and opens up combos like the tiny Sigma 10-18mm f2.8 zoom which covers square fine. I have a used Sigma 16mm f1.4 on the way to try in square. If that covers, it will be ever so slightly wider than the SWC (just under 1 degree more vertical and horizontal) with even tighter DOF control. Equivalent to a 37mm f3.2 on 6x6.

I was fascinated about how you use the 10-18 on FF in 1:1 since square format is a huge favorite of mine. I decided I will scratch that itch with a Sigma 17/4, though.

 

[shawn]

I was fascinated about how you use the 10-18 on FF in 1:1 since square format is a huge favorite of mine. I decided I will scratch that itch with a Sigma 17/4, though.

I have both, started with the 17mm. I use the 10-18 more often than the 17mm at this point. The 10-18 covers full frame from about 12mm and up and is faster. At some point I will compare them side by side at 17mm. The 17mm is a little bit smaller and probably has less CA in full frame 3:2 and has an aperture ring that the 10-18 lacks.

Square at 10mm is *really* fun. 100 degrees by 100 degrees. 1x1 is 40 megapixels on the fp L.

MPB has a few 17mms in stock along with the 10-18 and 18-40. The 18-50 might be interesting in square too. A few EVFs too for the fp/fp L. One less than they had though. 😉

 

[shawn]

I have both, started with the 17mm. I use the 10-18 more often than the 17mm at this point. The 10-18 covers full frame from about 12mm and up and is faster. At some point I will compare them side by side at 17mm. The 17mm is a little bit smaller and probably has less CA in full frame 3:2 and has an aperture ring that the 10-18 lacks.

Just took a few test shots with the full frame 17 f4 and the APS-C 16mm f1.4 and 10-18mm f2.8. The APS-C lenses were bought for 1:1 shooting. In 1:1 it looks like the 16 and the 10-18 are both sharper than the 17mm at the same aperture up to about F8 and then they are all roughly the same. I think the 10-18 is probably sharper at 2.8 than the 17mm is at f4. 16mm is sharper in the center wide open but the edges aren't there yet.

In full frame the 16mm is eliminated as it can't cover full frame. The 10-18 can from about 12mm and up but it does have a weird artifact on the sides which I think is distortion correction going wrong when used full frame. You have to scale by about 1% to get rid of it. You can still get the same FOV as the 17mm but you need to shoot slightly wider to deal with that slight scale. In full frame the 10-18mm is sharper except for the extreme corners. The extreme corners are better on the 17mm.

I can put the DNGs up online if anyone wants to see them. I shot two scenes with all three lenses at each full stop.

EDIT: DNGs available here. They are sorted into folders by lens. If you import them into LR they should still show the 1:1 crop. You can also recrop to full frame. You can check F stop in the EXIF. For the tree shots hit Auto in Lightroom to brighten it up and better balance the raw files.