I just bought this lens and let me tell you it is one of the sharpest lenses I own or have used. Hands down! Even wide open it’s the sharpest of all my lenses at their best aperture. Nothing scientific here, just purely pixel peeping and I still can’t believe how sharp this lens is.
For past clients’ product shots I have been using my Sigma 24-70 2.8 Macro (not a true macro). I also used this lens for the majority of macro and still life shots in my portfolio. Although I was happy with the results with some additional photoshop work, I also knew that one day I would get a dedicated macro lens. I had some extra Amex Reward points and decided to use it for a Henry’s gift card. Voila!
The minute I got home from purchasing this lens I shot everything around the house to test for sharpness and overall responsiveness of the focusing. My poor Simone was the main subject of this day’s experiments and I don’t think she will ever look into a lens again. I was extremely impressed with the focusing and could only blame my own hand movements for any shots that I missed although they were few and far between. When shooting within a couple of centimetres with this macro lens and using a very shallow depth of field, absolute precision is required. Anyway, until the next update with this lens here’s a close up image of Simone’s nose.
Soundtrack to today’s testing included Danger Mouse’s album Dark Night of The Soul.