Sigma vs. Sigma help

sports hunter · Mar 13, 2019

Hey there, I'm a sports photographer with a Canon 7D Mark II, and a 70-200mm, so far so good, I love this tele. But when it comes to wide angle I currently use a poor kit lens, it really is bad.
Because in my free-time I also do some portraits I wonder which of Sigmas primes would be the best.
I´m between the Sigma 20mm 1.4 Art, Sigma 24mm 1.4 Art, and the Sigma 28mm 1.4 Art.
Even though the 20mm might give me with a crop factor of 1,6 the most wide angle, I wonder, if it would look kinda "weird". On my camera that would be 32mm, sounds good, but somehow still 20mm... (like angle of view...(you know what I mean)).
Of course the lens should be really sharp, to my believe all of them are (or not?). Autofocus should definitely fast, yeah not as fast as a sport lens, but fast enough.

(Yes I know there are also lenses from Sigma for APS-C, but sooner or later I will switch to full frame, therefore it would make not much sense, to buy a prime that awesome just for APS-C)

So if you guys have any suggestions, experiences, or thoughts about my "problem", I would love to hear from you. If you have any further questions about my use cases and so on, feel free to ask.

Derrel · Mar 13, 2019

I am not sure you are on the right track with your lens acquisition plan... choosing between a 20mm,a 24mm,or a 28mm (even with all being f/1.4 primes) lens because you occasionally "do some portraits" makes little sense to me, even with a 1.6x FOV factor applied to 20,24,and 28mm lenses. ON APS-C these will all still be semi-wide to pseudo-normal lenses...and what.exactly, do you mean when you write:" Even though the 20mm might give me with a crop factor of 1,6 the most wide angle, I wonder, if it would look kinda "weird""? Corner distortion of real-world scenes? Or foreground/background apparent perspective distortion?

I would NOT buy any of these f/1.4 ART series primes for portrait or sports assignments until you are able to KNOW,from experience, what these focal lengths represent...

MAYBE use the 18-135 or 18-55 lens more? Perhaps none of this is what you wanted to be told. Sorry if that is the case.

sports hunter · Mar 13, 2019

Derrel said:
I am not sure you are on the right track with your lens acquisition plan... choosing between a 20mm,a 24mm,or a 28mm (even with all being f/1.4 primes) lens because you occasionally "do some portraits" makes little sense to me, even with a 1.6x FOV factor applied to 20,24,and 28mm lenses. ON APS-C these will all still be semi-wide to pseudo-normal lenses...and what.exactly, do you mean when you write:" Even though the 20mm might give me with a crop factor of 1,6 the most wide angle, I wonder, if it would look kinda "weird""? Corner distortion of real-world scenes? Or foreground/background apparent perspective distortion?

I would NOT buy any of these f/1.4 ART series primes for portrait or sports assignments until you are able to KNOW,from experience, what these focal lengths represent...

MAYBE use the 18-135 or 18-55 lens more? Perhaps none of this is what you wanted to be told. Sorry if that is the case.

Thanks for the answer, maybe I misstated it a little bit, in the end something between 35-50mm is fine for me. Because right now, my 70mm with crop is 112mm. (Shooting with a tele and nothing else for a year now makes kinda depressive)
In sports I just need a wider angle then 112mm, und for my free time I'm just experimenting with street and people (not that important). And because I believe the Sigma Art (20,24,28) are the best in this segment (value, quality..) I asked if there are any arguments to help me decide.
You also stated "apparent perspective distortion", I have to say I'm not that into it, but probably yes, I know that 20mm cropped to 32mm and 32mm inherently are not the same. So my question was just if the difference is noticeable at the end.

jaomul · Mar 13, 2019

Of suggest just but a 50mm f1.8 stm and a tokina 11-16f2.8. The 50 is a nice portait lens on 7d and cheap, the tokina is a nice wide-angle that can be got cheap hand and can be sold at minimal loss if you go ff

Derrel · Mar 13, 2019

30-50mm versus 20,24,or 28mm. A big difference in focal length AND angle of view and in background rendering. Have you considered switching to FF earlier, rather than later?

sports hunter · Mar 13, 2019

Derrel said:
30-50mm versus 20,24,or 28mm. A big difference in focal length AND angle of view and in background rendering. Have you considered switching to FF earlier, rather than later?

Yeah I know that there is a big difference, is just want to start somewhere, sooner or later, maybe with FF I will have a 35mm and a 50mm (and to have then a 20, or 24,28 at 1.4 is not bad at all), for now it just should be something NOT tele. Therefore I thought about the 1.4 series, I love the bokeh at for example 150mm and 2.8, and I don't want to miss it with wider lenses. I know bokeh at 1.4 and 24mm is something different, but yeah bokeh love...
So for like photos of the rostrum, and group pictures, a wider angle + a bokeh that blurs out other people would be awesome. And I could start experimenting with it in portraits.

Derrel · Mar 14, 2019

Background defocus (background blur) with a 20,24mm,or 28mm f/1.4 lens,on APS-C, is not as significant as it is on FF...

OR with a longer lens with a physically-wider aperture.

There is a subtle difference between bokeh, depth of field,and background blur. Longer focal lengths give greater background blur.

ac12 · Mar 14, 2019

To go from 70mm on the short end of your 70-200, down to 20 is one heck of a leap.

What kit zoom do you have?
Use that lens to determine what prime focal length (FL) you want. Just tape the zoom ring at the FL and shoot it for a day or two. Then repeat for the other two FL. That should give you an idea if that FL is right for you.

There is also the 24-70/2.8 as a shorter companion zoom to your 70-200.

sports hunter · Mar 14, 2019

ac12 said:
To go from 70mm on the short end of your 70-200, down to 20 is one heck of a leap.

What kit zoom do you have?
Use that lens to determine what prime focal length (FL) you want. Just tape the zoom ring at the FL and shoot it for a day or two. Then repeat for the other two FL. That should give you an idea if that FL is right for you.

There is also the 24-70/2.8 as a shorter companion zoom to your 70-200.

ok yeah maybe I should try to figure out which focal length would be best. I just thought between 20 and 24 and 24 and 28 is not that much of a difference, so that I ask here if anybody has experiences with one of those on APS-S.
Yeah the most logic thing would be to buy a zoom lens, 2.8 is good, but its not rare that I work under awful light conditions, so a prime with 1.4 is just looking at me. Of course a prime is less flexible but that's okay for me, I can buy a 24-70 for FF later.

sports hunter · Mar 14, 2019

ac12 said:
To go from 70mm on the short end of your 70-200, down to 20 is one heck of a leap.

What kit zoom do you have?
Use that lens to determine what prime focal length (FL) you want. Just tape the zoom ring at the FL and shoot it for a day or two. Then repeat for the other two FL. That should give you an idea if that FL is right for you.

There is also the 24-70/2.8 as a shorter companion zoom to your 70-200.

I know it is a big leap, but I still would have the kit lens (18-135). I just wanted to start somewhere. I hate it to have absolutely no bokeh with this kit lens, and because of this frustration a looked into the 1.4 scene. At first I thought the 24mm will do it, done. but then I realised there are 2 others, and crop factor...

sports hunter · Mar 14, 2019

Derrel said:
Background defocus (background blur) with a 20,24mm,or 28mm f/1.4 lens,on APS-C, is not as significant as it is on FF...

OR with a longer lens with a physically-wider aperture.

There is a subtle difference between bokeh, depth of field,and background blur. Longer focal lengths give greater background blur.

yeah that's clear, I believe every of this 3 lenses would give me enough background blur, and later on attached on a FF even better, for now just which of them

Dao · Mar 15, 2019

Bokeh or not, I personally do not like the look with a wide angle lens on most of the Portraits. On my cropped sensor camera, 50mm to 85mm range is my prefer range. Longer if it is outdoor. For outdoor portraits, I like 200mm at f/5.6 than 50mm at f/1.8 for a similar frame.