ONE OF A KIND: Review of the Sigma 15mm F1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye
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- Опубліковано 19 лют 2024
- Sigma has just released a truly unique lens for astrophotography in the Sigma 15mm F1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye | Art. In this video, I review the lens and compare it to the Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN | Art, what I called the 'milky way champ' just last year.
Raw Photos and Comparisons: drive.google.com/drive/folder...
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Product Links (affiliated)
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Sigma 15mm F1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye: bhpho.to/3OLDkCH
Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN: bhpho.to/48u2e0O
Sigma fp L: bhpho.to/48xbJMY
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Video Disclosures
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Sigma America sent me the following to make this review:
Sigma 15mm F1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye Lens
Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Lens
Sigma fp L Camera
No money exchanged hands, they have no input into what I say in my review, and I will return the products once the review is posted.
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Channel Disclosures
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I am a member of the High Point Scientific, Agena Astro, eBay, ZWO, All-Star Telescopes, B&H Photo Video, Astrobin, and Amazon affiliate programs. Product links in my video descriptions are typically affiliate links, which means, at no extra cost to you, I will make a commission if you click them and purchase something. I also have working relationships with the following companies/brands to receive products to test: Sigma America, Askar, ZWO, DwarfLab, OG Star Tech, Svbony, High Point Scientific, Agena Astro, QHYCCD, WOBoyz, SmallRig, Venus Optics, Astrogear.net, Night Sky Camera, Woodland Hills Camera & Telescope, Hunt's Photo & Video. Any gear received for review and/or brand deals will be fully disclosed in the video. If you have any questions about any of this, please get in touch.
Wow that f/1.4 corner performance is insane. Thanks for the review Nico!
Thanks Alyn!
14mm/1.4 was already insane, but this new FE - phew! I did test out 14/1.4 but didnt bought it (over the current sony14/1.8) but... FE makes really think of something... auroras timelapse! :)
I just can't belive you're actually gone.
Thanks for the review. Great to see SigmaUSA reaching out to astrophotographers. Interesting to see the difference between the 15mm and 14mm.
Thanks Alan! Yes, I'm happy that Sigma has shown interest in astrophotography too. Really hoping the rumors about upcoming RF mount lenses are true :)
@@NebulaPhotos I just watched the official Sigma announcement and there was the CEO describing the 15mm as first and foremost designed for astrophotography. I’m sure the Japanese market is driving their development but it’s great to see.
Good to see you again Nico
Thanks for the review and the files Nico! Can't wait to test this bad boy
Great video Nico. Love the comparison. I’d love to give this lens a run out on the Aurora. I’d imagine it would produce fantastic Aurora time-lapses with that huge aperture and tight stars.
That lens looks like the way to go! The summer Milky Way would look fabulous. Wish Nikon would give Sigma license to manufacture the Art lenses for the Z mount.
Just get Neewer or Megadap adapter and you are good to go - Sony E mount lenses work without a problem on Nikon Z bodies with all the functions.
Love the review Nico!
Thank you Ian!
Very nice review Nico! I would never imagine that a fisheye could be as sharp. Winter milky way is pretty faint but you bring alot of details with juste one frame. I would be curious to see what you could achieve with somes frames stacked. Clear skies!
Awesome! This new lens is a must-have! I have the 14mm F1.4 version and have found out through extensive testing that the somewhat poor performance you see at the edges in this review is due to the lens elements being aligned in relation to each other for a too close distance. If you focus in the center and get an indication on your camera that the focus distance is below 10-12 meters the elements will be aligned in relation to each other as if you where shooting that distance. And as Sigma have stated the performance at closer distance have been sacrificed. I have found that this lens contracts and expand a lot due to temperature changes outside. At room temperature my scale indicates a couple of clicks beyond infinity in the center and at -25C it has shrunk so it indicates that I'm focusing at 6-10m. I have tried 2 different copies of this 14mm F1.4 lens (one borrowed from Sigma and my own personal purchased copy) and from factory they both had perfect focus on the stars (center of frame) where the elements was aligned for 6-7m at appr 0-5 degree celsius. Shimming the lens under the flange solved the problem moving critical sharpness closer to the actual infinity mark. Passing infinity will introduce the same problem, it's like the field curvature starts to bend when passing infinity, critical sharpness will be closer at the edges when infinity is passed (from a lens element standpoint i.e scale indication beyond infinity in center). This will introduce artefacts due to edges not being in focus anymore. Same thing happens when perfect focus on the stars happens at 10-12 meters on the scale, the field curvatre starts to "bend" and focus at the edges is closer than in center. Below 10-12 meters this will create these "bunnystyle" stars, the shorter distance indicated the worse it will be. Beyond infinty you will instead see more angel wings abberations. Between 10 meters and up to infinity I get perfect stars from edge to edge and the field curvature is perfectly flat! I have done extensive testing bringing it out from room temperature into cold and logging temperature, time and focusing in center, left and right side. I have lots of RAW file to support this if someone i interested. Same problem can happen if the focus plane is not flat. It's a very good lens that CAN render almost perfect stars from edge to edge, even in the extreme corners, but it is very sensitive to temperature changes and requires a perfectly flat focus plane. My copy have been shimmed for perfect plane and moving it slightly closer to actual infinity. Only solution I have found to always have it perfect is to always have dew heater strip mounted in cold conditions and active keeping the lens slightly warmer prohibiting it from shrinking fully and thus keeping critical focus above 10-12m...
If someone is interested there are 2 example shots here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ysrfbbinxg99dgj0xx2cz/h?rlkey=yrskhd4cv3b3s881ji6s0dwx6&dl=0
Bortle 5 area so some light pollution dimming fainter stars, but you get the idea :)
In the shimmed shot you can see almost perfect stars even at the extreme corners. -13C, focus scale indicating 44m. f/1.4. 8 sec, outside in the cold for 30 min (from room temperature), no heater strip on. Shimming under lens flange is 20 microns on the left side and 60 microns on the right side (to correct some swing on the horizontal focus plane).
In the unshimmed shot you can clearly see these bunnystyle stars, especially on the right side (uncorrected focus plane swing making it slighty worse on right side). Same lens, f/1.4 8 sec, but here the focus scale indicated 4m, -20C, outside in the cold for 45 min (from room temperature), no heater strip on.
Wow impressive deep dive
Great analysis! I was surprised with the corner stars compared to my last test of the 14mm lens 8 months ago. One thing that confuses me though, the two lenses here were treated in the exact same manner:
1. Over 1 hour cool down to ambient temperature. 15mm was tested first, 14mm was tested second
2. Dew heater band on high around the focus ring
3. Same Sigma fp-L camera body
4. Both focused looking at center and off-center and trying for the best position (unfortunately I didn’t note down what it was in meters, but I will remember to do that from now on)
If it’s either a temperature issue or a focal plane not being perfectly flat issue, why would the 15mm outperform the 14mm? Perhaps the dew heater was not on the 14mm long enough or should have been on from the start?
@@NebulaPhotos There can be a couple of different reasons for the different results.
1. The focal plane issue can exist both in camera and in the lens (usually in the flange and we're talking microns that makes huge difference). If the "bunny stars" are identical on both left and right side there's probably not much problem with focal plane. If it is more prominent on one side, there is most likely a focal plane issue involved. The side with most prominent "bunny stars" has it's focus closer (as this problem increases as focus is closer). The side with less problem has it's focus slightly more towards the infinity end and is therefore better. So the focal plane issue can be different even with the same camera used.
2. The general shimming can be slightly different so the 15mm is generally more towards infinity on the meter than the 14mm is, thus the 14mm will show more problems all other factors being the same.
3. My guess is that the fisheye has less problem with this as it does not have to rectify distorsion as the 14mm has to do. But if that is true remains to be seen. I will buy this as soon as I have sold one of my kidneys to finance it :)
@@NebulaPhotos I just saw in the RAW files you provided that the distance to subject is embedded in the EXIF and it is 4.4 meters for the 14mm. So there is the explanation for the "bunny stars". My experience from getting these bunny stars look exactly the same at around 4 meters, and they disappear completely rendering the stars round when distance to subject is 10-12 meters or more. The distance to subject in the 15mm fisheye is 8.3 meters... The 15mm might show slightly better results if being shimmed a bit towards infinity (20 microns would probably be enough), but it does not seem to be as sensitive to this as the 14mm is. It seems that the lenses tends to be under shimmed from factory since both copies I have tested was at 6-7 meters already at +5C. Maybe Sigma should send them to Sweden for wintertesting like they do with cars to sort out potential problems arising in cold conditions.... I dont know what the temperature was in your case, but my copies have been in the range 3-4 meters at -20C. Seems warmer in your case indicating that this specific copy is even more under shimmed underneath the flange.
So, if I got it correctly, you unscrewed the outermost metal ring at the rear of the lens, put shims beneath and screwed it back again?
I had a lens with a tilt in the focal plane which I fixed with shims but my method was much more crude :)
I just put pieces of duct tape on top of that metal ring, which comes in contact with the camera mount. Mounting has become quite tighter now but at least the focal plane is almost perfect.
Amazing, can't wait to try this!
Those corners are really impressive!
This video made me want to dig out my Olympus 8mm/f1.8 fisheye lense for m43. I know I know, noise and sensorsize... but then again: why not give it a try, especially with an easy consumer mount like the Benro Polaris.
Heee Nico, great to see you👍👍👍
Thank you for everything you do!
I absolutely *have* to have this lens, it looks incredible.
Been using Samyang 8mm and the 12mm F2.8 Fisheye's for well over a year and have used the 12mm for night sky captures on occasion ..
Thanks for the review and do you think it will be easy to stack multiple images?
Insane lens! It's literally perfect (besides the price). Can't wait what people will do with it.
Wow! That is crazy good. The 14mm 1.4 was impressive enought, but this could be an amazing lens for timelapses!
Hah hah and actually know a super fish eye (4mm-ish) lens that can do miracles here at a dirt cheap price but because I love Sigma too, I keep my mouth shut in this comment!
love all you do Nico and really glad to see a clip of yours any day or night.
Thanks for the great content, all the time. Well done as ever.
Sigma makes great lenses! I use my 18-35mm 1.8 for my astro shots!
Love your videos
Looks great, I just got an Olympus 8mm Fisheye Pro, which gives a similar field of view on the m43 system. It isn't quite this sharp as this, and there's a bit of CA, but a bit of processing can fix it. I am looking forward to using this at Cherry Springs and getting the BIG milky way picture. :)
Exactly my setup and thought. 👍 this lens is about as good as a FE can get. Hidden gem.
Excellent review for Astro
Could I link to your review for the Astro part ? I am reviewing same lens but more for architectural purpose and being in a big city I don’t have any Astro possibility
Exceptional 😊
Absolutely crazy lens! And kinda sad again to miss out on it as a canon shooter. But I wouldn't have had the money anyway, so who am I kidding? Especially while already owing the EF 8-15mm Fisheye which at least has zoom and still gives great results with the R5.
Thanks for the review its nice to see the lens manufactures making new stuff that pushes the limit. While it looks like a great lens I will probably not be getting one since it does not really fit either my nature or astrophotography. Maybe as I start to do more astro that will change.
Very interesting lens. Sadly, no plan for an RF-mount version to pair with my Ra...
is the fpL worth the extra cost, or can you get decent astro photos with just the fp? Any technical advantages of the fp over the fpL?
I wish you did say "no". I really want this lens now. Great review!! I do see a difference in Orion as the belt seems more angled from the sword.
What do you think on using a guide scope with a canon full frame to take astrophotos?
Depends on the guide scope, most are pretty low quality that won't take good astrophotos due to poor star quality and lack of sharpness. A lot of guidescopes are achromatic doublets. Sky-watcher makes a 'guide scope' that is the exception to this called the 'Evoguide 50 ED' that actually uses extra low dispersion glass in the design and can be paired with a flattener to actually make it into an imaging system.
I have a canon nifty 50 and the purple fringing around stars is very bad,how do I remove it from my images please ?
What else can you use it for? Iv seen mountain bikers using fish eye for wide angle action shots. I doubt they will make and sell them in the thousands.
I know you're crazy busy. I have 3 Sigma Art primes, 20, 35, 50. I'd like to use them with my zwo asi533mc pro. Any ideas where I could get collars, or mounting rings? There doesn't seem to be an easy solution. I know they're all different. DSLR users like me are missing out on these new lenses.
Thanks, nice review, brilliant. Just waiting until Sigma makes the lens for the Nikon Z. If I've understood correctly, Nikon is the brake. They don't yet have the Sigma 14mm/f1.4 for Nikon... It would be nice to know the estimated waiting time for both lenses, I've asked Sigma Europe, they suggested that it depends on cooperation with Nikon. Could you add a comment to Sigma? I expect there are several people wondering the same thing.
Hello Hello
Have you used the 15fisheye for a long time?
only on the sky or do you also make night landscapes with it? (for example 50% ground / 50% sky) Because using a fisheye for landscape has other constraints that the 14 does not have.
I ask because I am very interested in this sigma and I already have a Sony 14F1.8
(I use Google translate sorry)
I have a Canon camera with an RF mount, and a bunch of lenses. I have Canon's 100-500mm, the 2x extender that works with it, and the stand alone 800mm.
My question relates to magnification. How do I compare what my lenses can do to what a telescope can do? Downsides of the lenses are the apertures. The 800mm is F11, and the 2X 100mm-500mm is F11.
So, is a 600mm lens the same as a 600mm telescope? What are the apertures of the telescopes? Etc
Thanks! This sigma lens is super cool, great vid!
600mm f.l. is the same whether it's a telescope or a lens. The only difference is telescopes are usually advertised with their 'clear aperture' rather than their focal length. You can see the field of view with your different lenses on different objects using this visualization tool: www.blackwaterskies.co.uk/imaging-toolbox/ And here's a short video tutorial I made on it: ua-cam.com/video/gRd3_rszpKI/v-deo.htmlsi=z1qV3gkSaV2qmP5_&t=235
2k is nuts
It's STRIKING to see how the distortion correction of the 14mm could be UNFAVORABLE. Kinda makes me want to buy, but I'm strill on a 6D...
Finally. The lens that I never ever going to afford.😀
This lens is incredible for astro!! Now when are they going to make one for Canon!??!?!
How do you reach focus? Does the camera do that for you?
I did it manually looking at the stars in different parts of the field and trying to make them as small as possible in live view with a digital zoom feature to aid
I recently bought a samyang 14mm 2.8 lense and got frustrated as at 2.8 all stars are super weird and stretched, and to make them sharp had to close aperture up to 4.0- 5.0 😥
You should have gotten the Samyang XP 14mm 2.4, which is superb for astro
Well and all I can say, with only 30 more days to go and officially getting into Spring equinox (Tue, Mar 19, 2024, 8:06 PM PT)and Persian New year (Nowruz), all I can say: " _Enjoy Orion as much as You can_ ".🌌
14:13 the star is Bellatrix (Gamma Orionis).
The price is too high for me, but incredible results !
Very interesting lens, thanks for the review! I will say the 14mm here looks like a bad copy, or maybe not quite optimal focus? Mine looks a LOT better wide open at f1.4 in the corners than your samples even at f4 here. I'd say my 14mm star shape is perhaps a tiny bit better/rounder than the 15mm, but star sizes outwards of midframe on the 15mm are definitely tighter at f1.4, and the brighter ones standing out with the others all really tight gives a lovely look. Interesting indeed.
Yes. The bunny head shaped stars should not be expected on a rectilinear lens. The optics may be pinched or there is some other defect. There is no way to tell from a single sample of each lens whether the flaw is rare or due to a manufacturing issue for most or all instances of this lens.
I thought the same, the 14mm here looks much worse than the 14mm he used in its dedicated review.
I have the 14mm and my 1.4 stars are as deformed as those in the video ..... its still a magnificent lens though with such specific considerations from Sigma for night-sky lovers !!
@@christopherdean2576 do you centre focus? Or focus towards corner to give a better average sharpness? Nico himself posted far, far better samples from the 14mm f1.4 in his original test of it than he has in this video here. It's either a different copy of the lens, or misfocused for the test here.
@@timwhite1111 I experimented with centre and corner focusing …. ended up with the same results …. I think I am being too critical but I expected it to be noticeably better for Astro than the Sony 1.8 but it isn’t ….. the Sony is more portable and far easier to focus …… but it doesn’t have all the Astro-specific niceties of the Sigma !! 🤔✨👍
The vids coming!
I have the Sigma f/2.8 fisheye that Nico didn't like. I'm thinking my copy is better than the one he tested, but maybe I'm wrong. This new sigma looks fantastic. I'd been considering the 14mm f/1.4 wide angle for awhile...hoping to pick one up used for less, but I swear, this fisheye is even better.
It was a rented copy - so always possible it got knocked around too much before making it to me. This new fisheye blows all the previous competition away. So good! If they make a circular fisheye this good, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
@@NebulaPhotos I'm not a fan of the circular fisheye look. The distorted viewpoint is a bit much for me. I was out shooting the Milky Way last night with my 15mm adapted Sigma and I've just checked the corners. As someone who likes to take pictures of birds during the day, I was so very happy to see the spectacular star birds out last night!!! 😂 Yes, the corner stars were all triplets (Bright blue astigmatism wings with bright red coma tails with the color variation demonstrating chromatic aberration and constituting the trifecta ...real birds would be so jealous!) Whatever, my lens copy has sharper birds in the corners than the one you tested. So, there is that.
For the performance and price, this sounds like the Takahashi of fisheyes.
Since getting into astrophotography UK skies are not very cooperative and permanently cloudy 😢 no fish 👀 can correct this sadly 😔
Ok you got me, whtf is a diagonal fisheye, I'm watching
It’s for mirrorless bodies…might be the thing that pushes me to get a mirrorless body. I’m assuming they will have adapters to astrocameras though…and the extra backspace from the mirrorless configuration would allow the use of filters. Would need electronic focus attachment somewhere though.🎉
If this is for mirrorless bodies, you won't have extra backfocus - on the contrary, since in mirrorless bodies the sensor is *closer* to the back of the lens, a lens dedicated to mirrorless will have significantly *less* backfocus and will be much harder or even impossible to attach to dedicated astro-cameras even without filters.
For 2k, stars better be round end to end at f1.4. Why don't they just add a flattner in the lens like pevtzals?
There are many elements in a lens like this to get a flat field. It is MUCH easier design to get a flat field with a telescope where it only has to focus at infinity at a long focal length. Telescopes have been delivering round stars edge to edge for a long time because they have a much easier task. For a fisheye lens to do so is unheard of before now. That is why I find it so impressive. But yes for that kind performance you definitely pay for it.
I would love to see this lens against the 16mm 1.8 price at $550
I share that love for fish-eye with you. Guess has to do with being greedy of wanting it all ore more! But if you say No to Sigma, they can send it to me for a phantom test!
Does anyone have experience with the Sigma fp L camera? Does this camera "eat stars" like SONY cameras?
It does not. Both the fp and fp-L seem to have very light raw processsing that doesn’t eat stars or turn them green
@@NebulaPhotos Thank you. Have you thought about making a test for a camera that "eats stars". It can be interesting.
@@kLJiga I have thought about it, but haven't pursued it yet. There is a lot of good information out there like Mark Shelley's site: www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/camera_summary.html
the stars sharpness just blows my mind but to release this again for sony and L mount only after releasing the 14mm just seems kinda stupid.
have you ever tried one of this lenses with a tracker??🤔
This time I tested on a telescope mount because it was convenient, but yes when I first reviewed the 14mm f/1.4 it was on a star adventurer tracker and that worked well.
Small fast wide and Fast moderately heavy super telephoto... If you can Fuji. Lead the way.
Well, far too expensive for me. I will not exchange my Samyang 8mm F2.8 UMC Fish-eye II for the Sigma one : I got it for 200 euros/dollars, it is excellent in the center and good in corners wide open (2,8) and uses a stereographic projection (less distorsions than the classical equidistant one). But it exists and some people can afford it, which is great !
Dare to produce it even if it is not gonna be sold a lot. That is weird manufaturer haha.
Reported. Reason? "this video promotes behavior that is dangerous to my wallet!"
$2k is WAY too much. I hope Sigma doesn’t go this route with their ART series. They have the best lenses for the best prices. If they overcharge like their competition, I feel like they’re not going to be special anymore. This should be MAX $1300.
But what competition is there for this lens? It is all very well that they undercut the price of the competition for more normal lenses, but for niche lenses like this they need to charge higher because of the smaller sales volumes.
@@Bayonet1809 a 15mm? Exactly? Nothing. But there are 14mm, 12mm, 10mm, 10.5mm. This lens isn’t niche, by any stretch. A LOT photographers have fisheye/wide primes like this and all those other lenses aren’t nearly this much. We need to get rid of the mentality that we just have to eat what these big manufacturers dish out. I LOVE the Sigma ART series, but this price range isn’t in the same vein as the rest of their class. They can absolutely deliver their supreme quality without the dumb Canon prices.
@@harper222I am surprised that you think that an f/1.4 fisheye is not unique.
@@Bayonet1809 Only slightly. That slightness is not enough to only be available for rich photographers. Those who don’t like to be ripped off by these ridiculous prices will probably just have to wait to buy it second hand in a decade or so. I’m still waiting for the D4 to drop to a not-stupid price. 🙄