Gear Reminiscing: Revisiting A Porsche Car Show & The SIGMA 105mm f/1.4 Art.

Gear Reminiscing: Revisiting A Porsche Car Show & The SIGMA 105mm f/1.4 Art.

There is a lens I adore…

So… How would $429 off a Sony Mount SIGMA 105mm f/1.4 “Bokeh Master” sound to you…

…but I rarely use it. Why do I like it?

I am glad I imagined that you asked.

It is nearly magical in the art of image-making.

Necessary? Heck no.

But my goodness, it makes a wonderful image.

I also nerd out about the gaping maw of glass out front.

So… if it is so great, why do I rarely use it? Easy.

It is a bus of a thing.

That is it.

An odd thing that.

I noticed an extreme bokeh lens to camera sensor size ratio inversion.

What am I on about?

Camera quackery that goes a little like this.

Let’s back up to Micro Four Thirds.

I can get great bokeh with that relatively small sensor,…

…but a relatively large 75mm f/1.8 lens out front.

Revisiting Old Gear: Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 75mm f/1.8

So. Small camera, big lens.

But at a full-frame equivalent of 150mm, you put yourself at megaphone distance for anything but headshots.

Give me a larger sensor like full frame, and similar bokeh is available with a similarly sized lens at a lower price. Case in point, the far better than it has any business being Viltrox EVO 85mm f/2.

My “issue”, if you can call it that?

Bitten by the bug that is medium format,…

…I want more on full-frame.

More light. More subject isolation.

Enter the bus, aka the SIGMA 105mm f/1.4 Art above.

On to the Porsches. From an epic car show last year.

Thoughts.

Fortunately, I saved hundreds by waiting for a discontinued SIGMA SA mount variant to be put on clearance, and after more than a year my patience paid off. Even after the purchase of the FA to SA MC11 AF adapter. Nice.

I need to take this lens out more often.

Happy capturing.