New Sigma 30mm f1.4 Art

wonder if it'll change, or if it's just to be compatible with the USB dock

http://www.sigmaphoto.​com/news/sigma-30mm-f14-dc-hsm

looks like they at least added another aperture blade, and made the MFD a lot closer...1:6.8

The press release shows it is compatible with the upcoming USB dock.

Now I know why I got such a great deal on the "old" 30mm 1.4 last month ... closeout price. It will be interesting to see if the new lens offers any real optical benefits. The one thing I noticed so far is that the new lens has nine rounded blades vs. 8 non-rounded in the old model.

edit: and nevermind

This is a APS-C lense so its for crops.

Regardless, I might pick up the 35mm just because I plan on upgrading to FF one day

One is for "crop" sensor cameras, the other for FF. ^

You only have one choice if you shoot full-frame... Two if you shoot crop.

Darn it. I was realy hoping the next art lens would be 50mm. The current 30/1.4 IMO has much less flaws than the current 50/1.4 and they already have the 35/1.4 art. Not the priority order I would have choosen for the next art lens.

I would think the price on this would need to be significantly lower than the 35/1.4 art. I mean why would anyone pay the same amount as the 35/1.4 for a lens that couldn't be used on full frame.

It looks like it is a completely new design - which is exciting: the old one had 7 Elements in 7 Groups, the new one has 8 elements in 9 groups (I just don't get how number of groups can be larger than the number of elements? Probably a typo - it should be the other way around). In the new one "Optimized power distribution minimizes field curvature thereby preventing a loss of image quality at the edges of photographs." I am excited if it's indeed the case - the original model had terrible resolution at the edge, which was the main reason I never considered it. Just look at their MTF chart:

http://www.sigmaphoto.​com/shop/30mm-f14-ex-dc-hsm-sigma

(for the old model): the green lines (MTF at 30 lp/mm) go to the dismal 0.1 contrast level at the edge, with the barely acceptable being 0.2, and good being 0.5.

So let's hope the new lens is much better, on par with their new 35mm lens, with an affordable price.

I also noticed they announced three more art lenses today (all three are for mirrorless cameras): 30mm f2.8, 19mm f2.8, 60mm f2.8.

Yahoo - I found the new 30mm f1.4 Art lens MTF - and it is dramatically better than the old model:

http://www.sigma-global.com …uct/art/a_30_14​/data.html

Just compare these two:

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I wish I had realized how bad the original 30 f1.4 was all these years. I shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I do . . .

dnauer wrote in post #15548723
I wish I had realized how bad the original 30 f1.4 was all these years. I shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I do . . .

It's never too late to stop enjoying something.

"Enjoying" and "producing professional quality photos" are not quite the same thing...

pulsar123 wrote in post #15548749
"Enjoying" and "producing professional quality photos" are not quite the same thing...

So the current Sigma 30 f1.4 cannot produce "professional quality photos"? I've seen some posted by professional photographers in both the lens sample section and in the "photo sharing" section that were incredible. I've taken some knock out photos with this lens personally that have been used in calendars and in magazines. This analysis seems pretty harsh. But you probably are more knowledgeable on this matter.

Of course you can produce professional quality photos with the old 30mm, but the poor resolution at the edge severely limits your choices: e.g., never put the focus point in the outer 1/3 of the frame (this limits your compositional choices for portraits), avoid taking tight group portraits - because even closed down the edge resolution is not great; don't use for architecture/landscape​/abstract, where good center to edge resolution is very important; and so on.


Here is page with lots of details about the new lens:

http://sigma-global.com …art/a_30_14/fea​tures.html

And you can see that the new lens has a completely new optical design:

pulsar123 wrote in post #15548565
the new one has 8 elements in 9 groups (I just don't get how number of groups can be larger than the number of elements? Probably a typo - it should be the other way around).

The 9th group is Sigma's magic pixie dust, not an element per se.

What does seem weird looking at the 2 lens diagrams posted above this reply, is that they seem to have left out all the fancy glass in the new one, with just 1 aspherical element, no ELD or SLD.

I think that diagram simply doesn't show any special glass. But you may be right - they might have opted for 2 more cheaper glass elements, as it produced better IQ.

The new lens has a full-time mf override - was it the case for the original model as well?

pulsar123 wrote in post #15549754
The new lens has a full-time mf override - was it the case for the original model as well?

The original also had FTM and proper HSM, none of that micro HSM nonsense.