I recently had a few minutes to quickly shoot with a very interesting new Sigma lens, the ultra-wide 8-16mm zoom. This lens is only for APS-C crop digital cameras and on my EOS-7D, which shot the test photos in the gallery, it equates to a (rounded off) 13-26mm zoom, in 35mm full-frame equivalent terms. Very very wide indeed!
Above is a link to a gallery of test images and when you click the thumbnails, you'll get a enlarged view with metadata showing as well as the option to open a much larger 3000 pixel sized image in a new window for closer examination. Please read the notes at the start of the gallery for some additional info. In short, I am impressed with the sharpness of this very wide lens. It handles well, focuses fast, has minimal barrel distortion and seems very well built. The only shortcoming I felt, was the very saturated and obvious nature of the flare spot when the sun is in the field-of-view. Something to definitely watch out for!
Clearly, one also needs to watch for serious perspective distortion if the camera isn't level or square on to your subject. Not a flaw specific to this lens of course, rather a consequence of its extraordinarily wide FOV. I am impressed enough with this lens that I am seriously considering stocking Canon and Nikon mount versions at Beau Photo...
3 comments:
"I recently had a few minutes to quickly shoot with a very interesting new Sigma lens, the ultra-wide 8-16mm zoom. This lens is only for APS-C crop digital cameras and on my EOS-7D, which shot the test photos in the gallery, it equates to a (rounded off) 13-26mm zoom, in 35mm full-frame equivalent terms. Very very wide indeed!"
Not a criticism, just a comment, but if it only shoots with APS-C sensor cameras, why even call it an 8-16mm lens? Why not call it a 13-26mm lens and be done with it... Things were a lot simpler with film! ;-)
Well, focal length is focal length. Nothing to do with the size of the device capturing the image, be it film (35mm, 6x7cm, 4x5 inch etc.) or digital, be it a P&S with a teeny sensor, an APS-C crop sensor, full frame 35mm or a medium format digital back.
In the "old film days", when shooting on a variety of differing film formats, photographers would often also mentally juggle focal length equivalencies! I used to shoot with a 35mm Nikon as well as a 4x5 Linhof, and I would mentally juggle too. Although it was easier since I only ever had two fixed lenses for the 4x5! However on my Pentax 67II, I had numerous lenses and would often mentally convert into 35mm terms, especially when talking to others who only ever shot with 35mm cameras.
I started out with a 35mm camera and shot that size film for many years before switching to larger formats, so I have always been "35mm biased". I suspect a photographer who learned his trade on 4x5 sheet film, and is now shooting 35mm digital, will convert the opposite way! The more things change, the more they stay the same... ;-)
Oh, and to be clear (sort of), on a Nikon DX APS-C camera (like a D300 for example) which has an ever so slightly larger sensor than my Canon EOS-7D, the lens would be equivalent to a 12-24mm zoom on a full-frame, so slightly wider. Sigma would then have to label the Canon version a 13-26mm and Nikon versions as 12-24mm. Hmm... that might be even more confusing!
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