Sigma 60mm DN f2.8 Micro Four Thirds lens - Initial Review

Sigma 60mm f2.8 DN 'Art' lens in silver

My micro four thirds lens arsenal has been growing steadily over the last year - and I now have a total of four lenses for the E-M1. One is from Olympus - the 12-50mm EZ kit lens, two are from Panasonic (the 25mm f1.7 and the 45-200mm f4/5.6), while the final lens, and the subject of this post, is the Sigma 60mm f2.8 DN 'Art' lens.

What's missing? Not much really if I'm honest. I'm not really a macro shooter, so the 'faux' macro setting on the Oly 12-50mm is all I need (and is surprisingly good). Eventually I would like a slightly wider reach for landscapes - probably the Olympus 9-18mm f4/5.6 (yes, the 7-14mm f2.8 Pro would be lovely, but I am being realistic budget-wise). But that will have to come much further down the track. At the moment, the 12mm end of the 12-50mm will have to suffice.

But this post isn't about my 'wish' list - it's about a lens I already own. A lens I purchased very cheaply about 6 months ago on a whim. And a lens that, until very recently, I hadn't even mounted on the camera!

I say I purchased it on a 'whim', and to a certain extent that's true. It was almost literally too cheap to pass up, and the fact that I haven't even touched it in the six months since buying it might prove that I didn't really need the lens to begin with? Yet at the same time, it was also a considered purchase, given that one of the lenses missing in my kit was a fast(ish) portrait lens. In fact, when I shot a wedding last year with my Canon 40D, one of the deciding factors for not using my E-M1 was that I didn't have a dedicated portrait lens. The purchase of the Sigma 60mm f2.8 DN 'Art' lens has fixed that.

Tea Ceremony. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Sigma 60mm f2.8 DN. f2.8 @ 1/500th, ISO 400

I don't do a lot of portraiture or shoot weddings anymore (except for friends) - so investing in a dedicated, fast portrait lens is a bit of a luxury. The 'classic' lens that most Olympus users think of for portraiture on a budget is the outstanding 45mm f1.8 - a lens I've owned when I had the E-M5 MkII. It's called a 'must-have' for micro four thirds users, and having owned one I can see why. It's small, light, sharp and relatively fast at f1.8 - and can be had for very little money, even brand new. But it's a lens I also eventually ended up selling when I had the E-M5 kit, because I just never used it. I felt guilty owning it, because it was almost too good to just have sitting around in my bag not being used.

But then I get back to the dilemma of not having a portrait lens for those occasions when I do want to shoot a wedding or an event that would suit the portrait length. For me, the Sigma 60mm perfectly fills in that gap.

Calligraphy. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Sigma 60mm DN. f2.8 @ 1/2000th, ISO 400

First of all it's cheap. Cheaper even than the Olympus 45mm f1.8. And it's light - only 190 grams (although that's slightly heavier than the 45mm f1.8 at only 116 grams). The design of the lens comes in two colours - black or silver - and falls into the either love it or hate it category. It's covered in polished metal and doesn't have any ribbed or patterned surfaces for your fingers to grip onto. Some users have even suggested using a rubber band placed around the lens to give it at least some form of minimal grip.

Chinese New Year. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Sigma 60mm lens. f2.8 @ 1/2500th, ISO 400

I didn't really know what to expect when I attached it to the E-M1, because it really is unlike any other lens design I've ever used before. Mine is the silver version of the lens (I would have preferred black but the guy I purchased it from had the silver) and just looks like a tube of metal stuck to the front of the camera. I'm still trying to make my mind up whether I'm in the love it or hate it camp aesthetically. Part of me thinks it looks quite minimalist cool, and part of me thinks it's just plain odd. Practically speaking, however, I think it works just fine and I didn't have a problem with gripping the lens and using it all afternoon.

Tai Chi. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Sigma 60mm DN 'Art' lens. f2.8 @ 1/1250th, ISO 400

It is, after all, a prime lens - so there's no zooming required from the barrel. It is also an autofocus lens, so it focuses - um, automatically. The whole barrel does rotate smoothly (presumably for manual focusing), and fits snuggly in my hand in both portrait and landscape orientations. It focuses quickly, silently and accurately on the E-M1, so there's really nothing to complain about in terms of operation.

Just a side note however: when the lens is not attached to the camera it has a very audible 'rattle'. This is the case with all the Sigma DN lenses (the 19mm, 30mm and 60mm) and is due, apparently, to some floating lens elements? It's rather disconcerting, but disappears completely once the lens is attached to the camera and is in use.

Fan Dance. Olympus OM-D E-M1 and 60mm Sigma DN lens. f2.8 @ 1/1250th, ISO 400

All of the images from this post were taken with the Sigma 60mm DN 'Art' lens at f2.8 - it's widest aperture, and all are tack sharp. Wide open this lens is a fantastic performer and can be used at f2.8 without any concerns over sharpness. Many will argue that f2.8 isn't actually that 'fast', especially when you factor in the smaller sensor size. The effective depth of field is equivalent to f5.6 on a full frame sensor, and about f4 with APS-C.

Of course sensor size is only part of the depth-of-field equation. Just look at the earlier Chinese New Year image to see the bokeh that you can achieve with this lens at f2.8 when you have decent subject to background separation. Would I prefer the lens to be f1.8 or faster? Of course. But f2.8 at 60mm (120mm equivalent for full frame) is a lot faster than any other lens I've got in that focal range, and the extra depth of field gained from the micro four thirds sensor helps with the excellent sharpness you can achieve at f2.8.

Fan Dance 2. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Sigma 60mm DN lens. f2.8 @ 1/1000th, ISO 400

The photos in this post were taken at the Chinese New Year Celebrations held at the Polytech where I work. It was the ideal event to use the short telephoto for candid portraits, and it performed flawlessly. Using face-detection autofocus the images were tack sharp every time, and the lens locked on quickly, quietly and precisely. Colours from the lens are true to life and edit beautifully in Lightroom. In the Tea Ceremony photo there was some obvious chromatic aberration (purple fringing) around the white cups, but these cleaned up nicely in post. None of the other images exhibited this, so I don't think it's a flaw in the lens as such - but it will be something to watch out for in areas of strong highlight contrast.

If you come across this lens and are considering getting a mid-telephoto prime for your micro four thirds system, I would say 'go for it'. Yes, the design may be a little 'funky', and the f2.8 aperture might not be the fastest kid on the block, but the IQ and sharpness from this lens is fantastic, all for an insanely cheap price. Sigma have been making some amazing lenses over the last few years, and this just happens to be one of them.

Dual Monitor Home Office setup

My dual monitor station at work

I've always thought of a dual monitor setup as a bit of an unnecessary luxury. Throughout my design and photography career I've mostly used iMacs - with the biggest monitor size I could afford. A few years ago I had a guy try to sell me a second monitor for the iMac I was using at the time. He extolled to me the virtues of a dual monitor setup, and why I should buy his Apple monitor off him (for a horrendous price at the time). But I really got the sense that he was just trying to sell me something he didn't want, so I wasn't sold (both literally and figuratively) on a second monitor for my iMac.

Well, that was then, and this - as they say - is now. Since I started working in my present job, I've used a dual monitor PC (Windows) setup. And I have to say that I love it! Why, oh why, did it take me so long to discover the virtues of a dual monitor working environment?

My 'small' 1320 x 900mm working space

Of course when I come home, I revert back to a single monitor work station. Not the end of the world, but I definitely miss the dual monitor setup at work. So, over the Christmas holiday period, I decided to do something about it.

My son Joshua built his own gaming PC over the holidays, and wanted a computer desk to set it up on in his bedroom. The desk I was using in my 'office' (a small sun-room attached to the side of our house) was perfect for his requirements, so I said he could have it if he helped me install a purpose-built desk in my office that could accommodate two monitors.

Phase one in a dual monitor workspace, however, was getting another monitor! Fortunately I had a birthday (my 50th) just prior to Christmas. So I let it be known to the family that I'd like a new monitor to use with my exisiting Asus 20". Joshua and I had a look on-line at what was available in my price range and size, and in the end we opted for an AOC 21.5" i2280SW. At 1920x1080px it has a higher resolution than my Asus (at 1600x900px), but the Asus is a chunkier monitor, so when you place them side by side the difference in minimal and the screens themselves line-up almost perfectly. Eventually I'd like to get a second, identical AOC. But this will do in the meantime.

The 'bracing' in place for the desk top

With a second monitor purchased, all I needed now was to design the desk, purchase the wood, and have it cut to size. I opted for 18mm MDF board, and has able to get it cut to size by a work colleague in the carpentry department of the Polytech.

The design was simple - just a 1320x750mm board with a hole in the center for the computer cords, and a beveled front edge. Some bracing to hold it all in place - and with the left over boards from the sheet of MDF I designed a cube to hold the laser printer and hard drives. Easy.

I don't consider myself a 'handy man' so I kept the design as simple as possible. It really is just a board that everything sits on top of. I didn't need draws or any other fancy compartments. I just needed enough space for two monitors, keyboard, mouse and graphics tablet. Something that would maximise the available space (wall-to-wall) and give me enough working distance for comfortable viewing.

My new Dual Monitor Office space at home.

I'm thrilled with the final result, and now have my own dual monitor setup at home. My new AOC 21.5" is my main monitor on the left - where I do all the designing and Photoshop/Lightroom editing. The Asus monitor on the right is for any other documents I need open to support what I'm doing with the design and editing process. This can be anything from a full size image in Lightroom (see the first image of this blog), to a word document, web page or emails. Windows can be dragged from one monitor to the other at will, and re-size automatically according to each screens optimal resolution.

If you are a photographer, designer, or heavy multi-tasker on your computer - and you've never experienced a dual monitor setup - than I would strongly suggest you try it for yourself somehow. Find someone who has a dual monitor setup and get them to show you how it works (it's very easy). I can almost guarantee that once you try a dual monitor workstation, you'll never want to go back to working on a single monitor system again.

50 Best Nat Geo Photos Exhibition

Exhibition Advertising at Canterbury Museum, Christchurch NZ

Living as I do in a small rural town, I don't get out much. I certainly don't get to as many international exhibitions as I would like. We do, however, go to Christchurch a few times a year to see family, and this will occasionally coincide with an exhibition or show worth seeing.

Such was the case on our last visit in early February 2018, when National Geographic's "50 Greatest Photographs" just happened to be on at the Canterbury Museum. I couldn't possibly pass up the chance to see some of my favourite images 'in the flesh'. We only had an hour before heading back to the West Coast, but I was not going to miss the opportunity to see 50 of National Geographic's most iconic images.

Steve McCurry's "Afghan Girl"

Of course the most famous of them all is Steve McCurry's "Afghan Girl" which took pride of place at the entrance to the exhibition. It's such a simple, yet iconic portrait and it was amazing to see it printed large (about 1.5m tall) and back-lit in the darkened gallery space.

The one feature that everyone mentions in relation to the portrait are her piercing eyes. These were made even more piercing with the use of back-lighting. They practically glowed, and are so incredibly sharp (as they should be).

Steve McCurry and National Geographic are inextricably linked through this portrait - it's his modern 'Mona Lisa' - the image he will forever be known for. But, just like DaVinci, Steve McCurry has a larger body of work just as exceptional as the Afghan Girl portrait. Fortunately, other images of his were also represented in the exhibition (three in total if I counted correctly), making him the most represented National geographic photographer in the exhibition. Another of his images also happened to be my favourite in the entire show...

Steve McCurry - "Burning Oil Fields"

McCurry described his image "Burning Oil Fields" as like being in hell. Camels and other animals escaped across the Kuwait Desert through oil fields that had been set alight by retreating Iraquis - poisoning the land and the air. It's another powerful image, but for such different reasons from the "Afghan Girl" portrait.

Nick Nichols - "Jane Goodall and Jou Jou the Chimpanzee"

Another iconic image (in a room full of them), was Nick Nichols' photo of Jane Goodall's tender interaction with Jou Jou the Chimpanzee. As you can see in the shot above, many of the photos had the sequence of images taken down the side so you could get an understanding of the photographer's working of the scene that lead to the 'one' great image. The 'decisive moment' as Henri Cartier-Bresson described it. These sequences, together with the story behind the image in the photographer's own words, gave fantastic context to all the photos in the exhibition and helped bring them to life. Yes, images can, and should, be able to speak for themselves. But some background information can also be important, especially with the National Geographic's photojournalistic style where the one image itself is often part of a larger story.

Visitors to the exhibition - Canterbury Museum.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, we only had an hour to go around the whole exhibition. That wasn't really enough time to take it all in  - I could have spent three hours reading the captions, watching the videos and soaking the images in. We were there mid-afternoon on a school day, and there were still a lot of people enjoying the exhibition. I suspect because of the subject matter and the strong brand that National Geographic has, this has been an incredibly successful show that has toured all over the world. It also helps that it was free entry - although I certainly would have paid to see the exhibition.

Mitsuaki Iwago - "Brutal Fight"

The exhibition runs until February 25th 2018 at the Canterbury Museum, and is well worth a look if you are a lover of images, stories, photojournalism or photography. Basically this exhibition has something for everyone! And it's free entry! So what are you waiting for people. Go. Now...