On Thursday 11/7 Focus Camera, Sony, Sigma, and Profoto jointly sponsored an event in Brooklyn. There were multiple shooting stations with models, all lit with Profoto gear. You got five shots, manual mode, specified ISO, aperture (f/4.0) and shutter speed. Most attendees had drunk deeply of the Sony Kool Aid while I was there with my M5 and the Sigma 56mm f/1.4, and I had no interest in shooting at f/4.0. I wanted to see what this little puppy could do at 1.4.
So I put a Godox controller in the hotshoe, a Ving 860 Mk. II in a Flash Disc knock off and snuck around the edges of the shooting stations. Shooting in Program and Auto ISO the camera decided (due to the very weak ambient) on 1.4 at 1/60 (as Canons do in those situations) and that was fine with me. The ISO varied from 320 to 800. Since the lens had arrived only two days earlier this was my first chance to do some meaningful shooting with it. I had done some tests earlier in the day with a newspaper page, and the M5/Sigma combo was not markedly worse than a 5D III/EF 85/1.4 setup.
All the usual caveats, not sufficiently scientific, blah, blah, blah... I love it! I have been using an adapted EF 50/1.8 as my portrait lens for the M5, and this Sigma is sharper, faster, and smaller. What is not to like? A lot of my paid work is done with the 5DSR and the 2.8 trinity and a batch of Sigma Arts, most of them f/1.4s. For my own fun and games shooting I have used SLs, the three kit zooms, a pre Art Sigma 30/1.4, and an EF 50/1.8. If needed I could always dig into my EF arsenal. Now I use the M5, EF-M 11-18, 18-55, and 55-200, EF-M 22 and 32, and now the Sigma 56/1.4. This outfit is way smaller and lighter than the SL/EF-S combo. I lose 1mm at the short end and 50mm at the long end as well as a 1/3 of a stop here and there. Well worth it to me!
Some overall thoughts about the M system. It allows high quality in a compact package. I was very pleased when Canon introduced the 32/1.4, it is a very ambitious design (14 elements, 2 more than the Zeiss Otus 55/1.4!) and very successful. I had hoped for an EF-M 53/1.4, but I guess that might be a long wait. A small 85mm fitting the form factor would be great and I think it could be smaller than the EF 85/1.8. An 85mm has the FOV of a 136mm on FF. 84/1.4 would not quite fit the form factor, but a 1.7 seems quite doable. And remember, a lot of us (all right, some of us) started with a 135/2.8 in our early kits. At the Photo Plus Expo this year Viltrox showed a (non working) 23/1.4 for the M system. With 11 elements it looks ambitious, and it is a tad big, but if it tests out good it might replace the EF-M 22/2. The Sigma 16/1.4 is quite large and it doesn't fit with my view of the M as small and light.
Enough of the mindless chatter. You wanted photos? Here they are!
