It may be that Sigma is after me and is determined to keep me away from their lenses ...
Even though I made myself a promise, not to get another Sigma lens, I fell for the initial reports from the likes of Dustin Abbott, about AF improvements and I picked up the 135/1.8 yesterday.
I initially tried it around the house, prior to run it through Focal. Some decently in focus, others totally off. I have seen similar from other lenses in the past. When AFMA is off, AF may be inconsistent. So, today, I gave it a run through Focal. And what a depressing experience that was. On all runs the red dots were all over the place. On the 5DIV I got a +12 on run 1, +8 on run 2, -2 on run 3 and unable to determine on run 4. I then switched to the 5DSR and got a +12 on run 1, +2 on run 2 ... and then I gave up.
I then took it on the 5DSR outside, to test some more. I just chose a value of 7 (in between 12 and 2) and used various focusing points. The results, unfortunately, was very inconsistent. I shot the same targets several times, most of them on a tripod, I repeated manually turning the lens out of focus, not by much and always towards minimum focus distance. The result was front focus on one, back focus on the next. I also used the LensAlign setup and got the same result.
Needless to say, this just confirms my previous experiences with the 35/1.4 and 50/1.4 Art lenses, of which I went through several copies of each. I´ll take it back to the shop next week and I´ll ask them to do the AFMA for me. Fingers crossed, they can prove that I have done something wrong. I have my doubts though, considering all the AFMA runs I have been through over the years, with a significant number of cameras and Canon lenses.
So to those of you who bought this lens. Have you run it through FoCal? Have you tested for focus consistency? If you have a magic trick, please tell me.
Even though I made myself a promise, not to get another Sigma lens, I fell for the initial reports from the likes of Dustin Abbott, about AF improvements and I picked up the 135/1.8 yesterday.
I initially tried it around the house, prior to run it through Focal. Some decently in focus, others totally off. I have seen similar from other lenses in the past. When AFMA is off, AF may be inconsistent. So, today, I gave it a run through Focal. And what a depressing experience that was. On all runs the red dots were all over the place. On the 5DIV I got a +12 on run 1, +8 on run 2, -2 on run 3 and unable to determine on run 4. I then switched to the 5DSR and got a +12 on run 1, +2 on run 2 ... and then I gave up.
I then took it on the 5DSR outside, to test some more. I just chose a value of 7 (in between 12 and 2) and used various focusing points. The results, unfortunately, was very inconsistent. I shot the same targets several times, most of them on a tripod, I repeated manually turning the lens out of focus, not by much and always towards minimum focus distance. The result was front focus on one, back focus on the next. I also used the LensAlign setup and got the same result.
Needless to say, this just confirms my previous experiences with the 35/1.4 and 50/1.4 Art lenses, of which I went through several copies of each. I´ll take it back to the shop next week and I´ll ask them to do the AFMA for me. Fingers crossed, they can prove that I have done something wrong. I have my doubts though, considering all the AFMA runs I have been through over the years, with a significant number of cameras and Canon lenses.
So to those of you who bought this lens. Have you run it through FoCal? Have you tested for focus consistency? If you have a magic trick, please tell me.