Sigma 20mm F/1.8 owners - is it really THAT soft @ F/1.8? *SAMPLE PICS 100% CROP*

cjm wrote in post #2179745
Who cares about post counts?

No one I expect. I just saw her 1st anniversary post and was pretty amazed by the count 6K plus in one year is more like a job.

per GerryL
I agree that a lens no good till f4 is a drag but the 17-40 is not much till 5.6 or 8 on FF at least. Wide angle seldom needs to be all that fast for me but f4 should be useable. Seems that some like the 20/1.8 strting from about 2.8 or so. Like I say it is number 3 and that places it about 18-24 months away for me. Of course soft is sometimes (though not often) useful. Often wide open and close up are together more useful as well.

Sorry if it bursts your bubble, but no fast wide angle is going to be anywhere near as sharp wide open as it will be stopped down. That's just optical reality. Except maybe the Canon L lenses like the 35mmf/1.4. The fact that Sigma can make a 20mm f/1.8 lens that is quite good and sells for less than a grand seems like a miracle to me. I grew up when 20mm lenses were f/4 or slower and pretty soft to boot.

chtgrubbs wrote in post #2185705
Sorry if it bursts your bubble, but no fast wide angle is going to be anywhere near as sharp wide open as it will be stopped down. That's just optical reality. Except maybe the Canon L lenses like the 35mmf/1.4. The fact that Sigma can make a 20mm f/1.8 lens that is quite good and sells for less than a grand seems like a miracle to me. I grew up when 20mm lenses were f/4 or slower and pretty soft to boot.

Yes 20/1.8 does seem like a bit of a technological miracle, even 20/2.8 is quite amazing. The 1.8 would be more of an aid in manual focusing since the DOF is going to be so large on such a wide angle lens. Although really you could zone focus it if you had to.

Funny you should mention the 35/1.4, that is #1 on the list of three. I don't expect it would be perfect wide open but wide open in dark places in real life situations and perfect is not always even a concern.

So how does the 24mm F/1.4 L look stopped down in daylight pics? Really soft too?