Sigma 14mm F3.5

[!Karen]

This lens is in FD mount.
I have yet to shoot my first roll of film with it but I got to take a look at some prints the previous owner made with it and looks promising.
Rediculously wide!

HUGE front element. A smaller diameter than the Arsat but much rounder.
One might think it is a fisheye but it is a rectilinear lens.

The outside of the lens isn't in very good condition. I believe it got the 'zen' finish. It is sticky here and there and the white letters/numbers have flaked of at some places. I have cleaned the front caps and the sticky 'coat' came of great however I am a bit reluctant to persue the cleaning on the body of the lens as I fear the tekst might come off even further. Glass is in pristine condition. At the mount of the lens you can insert filters.

Just like the Arsat I cannot find much info on this lens. I can find some f2.8 AF versions but nothing on a MF f3.5 so once again if anyone can provide me with more info (history, perfomance, ...) on this lens that would be great.

[OPAL]

A friend of mine bought one with NIKON mount for its D800 for a "very friendly" price in a good condition! Distortions are acceptable but visible, and the corners are not very sharp and the brillance does not meet todays standard anymore! For amateur use maybe acceptable!

[hinnerker]

This 14mm and another Sigma Lens, the 18-35mm/3.5-4.5 are easily to convert to Canon EOS EF Mount.

Use Google translate to read this threads... first the 18-35mm to read and see, how this is was simply done

http://www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=15332

And after reading, you can do it in nearly the same way with the 14mm/3.5...

http://www.digicamclub.de/showthread.php?t=15394

The quality is good, also on a fullframe cam.. most of the times you will use this lens not wide open... so its a good piece of glas @f8!

Cheers
Henry

[WolverineX]

http://omexperience.wordpress.com/lenses/sigma-14mm-f3-5/

[OPAL]

[martinsmith99]

[stevemark]

There are obviously two different versions of the Sigma 3.5/14mm with clearly different optical computations:



Both lenses shown here have the Minolta A bayonet.

The lens on the left is the older version 1, also available as an MF lens, introduced probably around 1990. Its focal length is shorter than version 2.
The one on the right is newer version 2 (my sample was originally bought in 1998). It is larger and has a visibly longer focal length than the earlier version 1.

EDIT Version 1 is from 1991, version 2 from 1993, and the f2.8 version came 1998 (see https://sigma-romandie.ch/liste-historique-gamme-optique)

I have two samples of version 2, and one sample of version 1.

Interestingly, no one seems to care about differentiating between these two versions when writing about the Sigma 3.5/14mm. Everybody, however, seems to agree that the Sigma 3.5/14mm is very susceptible to backlight and flare, and that it's basically useless on digital cameras. Interestingly some users claim that it was quite good on film.

If we look into one of my lenses we can spot the reason for this behaviour. At least one innner glass surface is full of small (oil?) droplets:



This is probably the worst pollution I have ever seen inside a lens. The two other samples are not exactly as bad, but there's enough haze and smaller droplets to make all three lenses useless.

I figured that cleaning those lenses and restoring them to their original performance would be fun, and so I started dismantling the worst sample (a version 2). Details will follow in a separate thread in the repair forum!

S

[BrianSVP]

Oil haze is exceptionally common in Sigma primes of that generation, also affecting most examples the 28mm Mini Wide and the 24mm Super Wide. The glue on them can unfortunately be really stubborn, too - good luck with your repair!

[stevemark]

That's how far I got - now I'm stuck:

http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic,p,1581461.html#1581461

The oil drops are inside the front element (NOT near the aperture as I had assumed), and I haven't found a way to dismantle the huge front element ... Any suggestions?

S