Sigma 20mm 1.8

S

SGM

Active member
I have read mixed reviews...for $629 I do have my questions and concerns. Has anyone used this for FF Canon Mark IV shooting?

I'm filming my feature and need a nice, sharp non-noisy 20mm and 1.8 is really nice.
 
I use one on my MKIII. It's a little soft wide open but starts to get sharp @ f/2.8. I bought mine second hand for around $400. I had a 21mm Leica and a 20mm nikon ai and I like the Sigma more.
 
squig said:
I use one on my MKIII. It's a little soft wide open but starts to get sharp @ f/2.8. I bought mine second hand for around $400. I had a 21mm Leica and a 20mm nikon ai and I like the Sigma more.
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How is your Mark III with aliasing? My Mark IV gets it pretty damn bad on water, and sharp focused shots of land, etc. I'm trying to find a way to work around that. It happens mostly on 60fps footage.

I'm thinking of buying a Mark III. Have you tried the Mark IV? Which do you feel is more superior?
 
SGM said:
How is your Mark III with aliasing? My Mark IV gets it pretty damn bad on water, and sharp focused shots of land, etc. I'm trying to find a way to work around that. It happens mostly on 60fps footage.

I'm thinking of buying a Mark III. Have you tried the Mark IV? Which do you feel is more superior?
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No aliasing/moire as far as I can see. Also, don't bother about those people saying it's soft and rubbish. I hooked mark3 footage to an 80'' LCD yesterday and it looked gorgeous. Sharp, clean, free of artifacts.
I've shot a bit of 720 footage for a film I made : https://vimeo.com/55763834
As far as 720 goes, I would say it's definitely softer than 1080, but free from any visible moire/aliasing.

The markiii will be a significant upgrade from the 1DMkIV (well, for video, at least) as the mark3 is essentially a '2nd gen' canon (5d3, 1DX). It will significantly improve noise performance, moire/aliasing and audio features.
 
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go to a local dealer so you can try out several copies and ensure you get a good one.

i've been using the 28 1.8 and love it
 
SGM said:
How is your Mark III with aliasing? My Mark IV gets it pretty damn bad on water, and sharp focused shots of land, etc. I'm trying to find a way to work around that. It happens mostly on 60fps footage.

I'm thinking of buying a Mark III. Have you tried the Mark IV? Which do you feel is more superior?
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What aliasing?

I haven't used a MKIV but as far as I know it has about the same amount of aliasing as the MKII, and the MKII aliasing used to drive me crazy. The MKIII is the only aliasing free DSLR on the market period.
 
Donald Ong said:
No aliasing/moire as far as I can see. Also, don't bother about those people saying it's soft and rubbish. I hooked mark3 footage to an 80'' LCD yesterday and it looked gorgeous. Sharp, clean, free of artifacts.
The markiii will be a significant upgrade from the 1DMkIV (well, for video, at least) as the mark3 is essentially a '2nd gen' canon (5d3, 1DX). It will significantly improve noise performance, moire/aliasing and audio features.
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Agreed.
I use other Sigma's, not this one, (28mm), and like them alot.
 
When I was doing all of My research the Sigma 28mm was noted as being the best out of the 20,24. On a FF camera the 28mm is actually pretty wide and more than enough. On the flip side of things I shot a Car Wash piece for a school project using a Tokina 11-16mm and Loved the way it looked. 14mm and up no vignetting, but man I love the wide look the FF cameras do.

In a perfect world I need to add a Mark III to my GH3 camera..... $3k though is a lot when I can invest in more lenses, software or save up a little more for the BMCC, Regardless great to have many options. If the Mark III drops to 2k, I will be buying one for High iso video and Stills features on the camera side.
 
It is soft wide open , but it gets sharp at about 2.8. I use it with my gh2 and Nikon d600. Never had a vignetting problem. I love that lens, for the price you can get it, I think it's a good lens. you may want to look into Rokinon 24mm also, great lens and not much more expensive.=Donald Ong;1986254905]I heard it's massively soft at 1.8 and vignettes like hell....true?[/QUOTE]
 
If you want a sharp @ f/1.8 20mm lens you can get one for upwards of $5,000. The Leica 19mm and Zeiss 18mm are better lenses for between $1200 and $2000+ but they're fastest aperture is f/2.8. For the money I'm satisfied with the Sigma @ f/2.8+. The bokeh is possibly even better than the German lenses but I haven't personally tested them in those focal lengths. The only thing I don't like about it is the short focus throw but it's not really a drama at that focal length.

I've successfully de-clicked the aperture on mine too.
 
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