The 9th Wonder
First of all, the pictures are so good that my co-workers have asked me to share the details of my new lighting setup. All I did was replace the Sony A7II kit lens with this lens and started shooting with it rather than my Canon T4i with the 17-55mm f/2.8 lens. Its nice and sharp. I usually shoot at f/2.8 or all the way up to f/16. One thing that I noticed is that the color of the image completely changes when I switch to f/16 and the distortion is completely out of hand on the edge of the frame. For this reason, Im waiting for the new Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art lens to be released. My experience with Sigma Art Lenses is that there is minimal distortion. Well see. However... One unexpected, absolute win that will make it hard for me to ever give up this lens, is the custom button. Its sped up my workflow. Cut my shooting time in half. That one extra button has allowed me to set up all the features I use so that I dont have to deal with the nightmarish menus system at all during a shoot. Ive now got all the patterns memorized so that I can change the focus type/points without looking at the camera. Since the Sigma wont have that, it may add too much time to my shoots. Another benefit is the focusing. Ive owned both the Sony A7II and the A6300 (which I sold as a favor, it is a great camera). The issue I had with both cameras and their kit lenses is that the focus was wildly inconsistent. The cameras would totally whiff many times in a row and I had to take way more pictures than needed to insure that I had a enough shots. There were pictures where literally nothing in the shot was in focus. The G Master hasnt done that yet and Ive taken 3000 - 5000 pictures with it. The lens is great. Pros: -Stunning image quality -Accurate focus -Nice out of focus areas - havent seen the bokeh balls yet, but I like the way the background melts away and the subject is isolated -Feels solid -Custom button - my favorite feature Cons -Heavy - Called one reviewer a whimp for complaining that you wouldnt be able to go fifteen minutes with this lens before your arms wearing out. Well, I lasted about six hours over the course of two days before my arms were burning. Im used to the weight now, but my arms were on fire by the end of that second day. -Distortion - At f/16 the distortion is just ridiculous on the edges of the frame. I now know to keep everything in the center and crop. The correction in Adobe Lightroom and Capture One is totally unacceptable. Compared to the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art or the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8, the distortion is absurd. -Crazy Colors - Ive literally taken shots back to back, no setting change, and seen a color shift in the image. Boggles my mind. The color shift that occurs when switching from f/2.8 to f/16 is acceptable, because I use mixed lighting all the time, so I just re-balance the color. When theres a shift without changing the settings or moving, however, I just dont understand that.