Sample shots from Sigma 19mm F2.8 on Sony NEX-7
It has been very difficult to find a decent performing wide angles lens for the NEX-7. You can use an adapter and go with a big wide lens but that isn’t ideal if you want a compact solution. The rangefinder lenses have almost all shown magenta shift on the corners on the NEX-7 such as the Voigtlander 15mm and 12mm. Even the Sony 16mm F2.8 shows magenta shift and smearing at infinity in bigger apertures.
This is why it’s delightful when Sigma comes along out of nowhere with the lens equivalent of a double barrel shotgun. The Sigma 19mm and Sigma 30mm F2.8 lenses are both excellent lenses that are compact and high performing. What they give up on aperture speed they make up for in image quality.
The Sigma 19mm does show some CA but it’s very manageable and easily mostly removed with the auto chromatic aberration correction tool in Lightroom 4. It’s strength seems to be close up performance but it also does well at infinity. The colors are magnificent. At $200, this is a must buy lens especially right now with the shortage of good E-Mount lenses.
Here are some samples on the nex7, No saturation or vibrance added, except for 1 where it’s obvious.
The color separation and just fine detail close up is easily that of a $600 lens.
Click Below for Many More Sample Images
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Sony NEX-7 and ZA24 F1.8 Zeiss Samples
There is a lot of money tied up for me in this combination. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it.
I know there’s also a lot of interest in this combo as well so I thought I would share my experiences.
From reviews on sites and forums, it seems to me that people are thinking that the lens is optimized for close range use and lacks for landscapes.
I’m inclined to agree.
On this first day of shooting, I notice quite A lot of purple fringing and chromatic abberation wide open even in the center if there are bright highlight edges with a strong contrasting background. When Stopped down to F5+, center CA improves a lot but the corners remain somewhat softer and CA never goes away completely.
From my initial impressions though, this lens has the Zeiss look. Think of it as a weaker smaller autofocus Zeiss 35mm F2 Zx. The wide open center rendering is remarkably similar, high contrast with high saturation. Actual resolution is above average but not spectacular. That improves when stopping down but the contrast is really rather exceptional.
AF is fast enough but not ZA 24-70 SSM fast. I’m still a little confused on how NEX does autofocusing, should read the manual. It seems to sometimes to go huge screen box and sometimes small boxes…?
Center sharpness and contrast is good even wide open. It only improves slightly when stopping down. Objects have high saturation and have a dimensionality to them.
Files out of the camera feel like they need very little post besides fixing the CA if you had branches against a white sky.
I can’t wait to shoot it more. Tomorrow is the New York Public Library.
Click Below for Many More Sample Images
Pics OF the NEX-7 with Red Artist and Artisan Strap
Already but a ClearTouch Crystal screen protector on it. May go GGS, not sure yet if I want to do that.
This is ironically mounted with the Contax G 28mm F2.8 lens which I probably will not be able to use with this camera anyway because of the corner issues. Will find out for sure Saturday. 
The camera feels very solid but just like the 5N and even my A850, suffers from memory card/battery door flimsiness. I really wish it was weather/rain proof and Sony would release a weatherproof 40 or 50mm F1.4 lens.
