Terribilino wrote:
> Colour, contrast, and bokeh all look great, and you say the AF is
> nearly as fast as the 85 1.8, which is also nice to hear. Any
> impressions of its AF accuracy?

Oh yeah... funny how it slipped my mind to mention *that* ;-) Well, as usual, early adopting the Sigma prime paid off. It focuses as well as any of my other lenses. Sadly, you will have to wait a month until people "discover" that it front focuses. :p

> And have you had any opportunity to
> test it out in low light? I'd love to see some low-light snapshots,
> if you can find the time, and hear how it focuses wide open.

Hopefully tomorrow I can take it to "work" and do the lens right. After all, I didn't get this to photograph flowers (the number of times, I can count on one hand).

> And what camera are you shooting with? (Sorry if you've said... was
> it the 20D?)

The 20D, yeah. (XT is backup)

> The crops of the daisies look a bit softish, and I'm
> wondering if it might not be the AF accuracy of the camera at wide
> apertures, even in good light.

Two possible things at play here. The wind was blowing and I was having a hard time timing the shots to get the flower in the DOF (my tests have REALLY not been scientific). The other thing, those 100% flower crops are totally unsharpened... they look a lot better with some USM.

It might also be that the lens is not as solid as the 30/1.4 at f1.4... I will have a better idea on that once I shoot some of my "usual suspects" tomorrow.

> My 350D sometimes lets me down, even
> in broad daylight, and even with a reliable lens like the 85 1.8.

Mine too actually. I learned that the 350 and the wider primes have a love-hate... the 85/1.8 is a bit more reliable,
http://techhouse.brown.edu/~chris/japan/pics/2008/06/jpegs/2008.06.04_KssN_9085.jpg
but at times, it does falter...

> Good work, though. Keep them coming.

Unless they ban me for posting too much, I sure plan to ;-)

--
-CW