Torrential rains and overly-gusty winds pelt San Diego this Thanksgiving Day. I mark the moment with the first photo from Sigma fp and 45mm F2.8 DG DN | C lens. The last letter refers to “Contemporary”. The kit arrived last week, but I waited to take the first shot—so that it would be memorable, which it’s not. I put the quest for the Holy photo behind me and set instead to practical matters.
The Featured Image is a nearly 100-percent crop of the companion pic. The water droplets on my home office window serve as a quick test of the fp’s autofocus capabilities and image quality—how much detail is revealed. The Fujifilm GFX 50R and Fujinon GF63mmF2.8 R WR lens, which I sold over the weekend, spoiled me with respect to IQ. The Sigma shooter satisfies so far—not that one pic is much of a measure. But, hey, miniature palm trees within the droplets encourage me.
The crop is JPEG converted from camera RAW, which for this camera, like my Leica Q, is DNG. The other image, composed as shot, is a JPEG straight from the fp. I did not enhance either; what you see is what the camera produces. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/160 sec, 45mm; 11:06 a.m. PST.
I gravely worried about IQ when reviewing hundreds of fp photos posted to Flickr, and, after pixel-peeping, being displeased by them. But then I observed something in the EXIF data: The majority of photos that weren’t crisp were captured with slow shutter speeds. Meaning: Camera shake likely was the culprit, or so I hope.
My shooting-style preference is aperture priority and auto ISO. On the Sigma fp, a minimum shutter speed can be set in the auto ISO settings, which for now I changed to 1/125 sec. When the stormy skies clear, I’ll haul out the camera and see how that works on the street. Fingers crossed.