Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Patina “is the thing that humanizes cars,” said Collier, and that’s really what it’s all about for people who think like him.—Aaron Robinson, Hagerty
Sigma’s ART lens category previously included two lenses that were designed for Micro Four-thirds mirrorless cameras: The Sigma 30mm f/2.8 DN and 19mm f/2.8 DN. Today, they can be found used from all the usual suspects including eBay and you can even pick up the 19mm f/2.8 DN from Amazon; click here.
Both of these lenses incorporate telecentric optical designs and have a linear auto focusing motor that produces accurate and, for video, quiet focusing They have metal exteriors and a simple focusing ring.
The Sigma 19mm f/2.8 DN is a relatively wide-angle lens with an angle-of-view that’s equivalent to a 38mm lens. Its minimum focusing distance is 7.9-inches with a maximum magnification is 1:7.4. The 30mm f/2.8 DN has an angle-of-view equivalent to 60mm and is useful for portraiture, documentary, travel and everyday shooting including photographing cars and trucks. The lens features a double-sided aspherical lens with a minimum focusing distance of 11.8-inches and maximum magnification is 1:8.1. Both lenses come with lens hoods and a rugged, well-made case.
How I Made this Photograph: A few years ago, I took both of these lenses on a trip to Key West, Florida to see how they handled the rigors of travel photography. I ended up shooting mostly with the 19mm f/2.8 DN, which proved to be an able traveling companion; not so much for its lens hood, which kept jumping off. Not having a hood in place only created flare in one or two of the 400 shots I made with that lens. Otherwise, the 19mm f/2.8 DN did a great job producing sharp images and I never wondered if I would have been better off with a zoom.
I made this image of a patina-beyond-belief pickup truck outside a restaurant where Mary and I had dinner one night using a Panasonic Lumix G2 that I don’t even remember owning but EXIF can’t be wrong. Can it? Exposure was 1/2500 sec at f/5 and ISO 400. I made two exposures of this scene; one was underexposed, one was overexposed. This is the underexposed image that was tweaked using Photoshop’s Curves and further enhanced with Vivenza layered with a dash of the Sunlight filter that’s part of Color Efex.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here.