Wow it’s been a while since I posted.

Honestly life just caught up with me, last few years have been quite a ride, I got engaged, bought a house, got promoted, became disgruntled, switched jobs, etc.

I’m sure I’ll get to the details eventually, and I’ll try to catch up with what I can.

So, this was short day I spent with Chen and testing out the sweet, sweet bokehlicious Sigma 35mm f/1.2 ART. It wasn’t a particularly sunny day, and we started by walking around Gastown to try and see if we can get some shots.

Chen’s style today was very interesting, darker overall color scheme, and the burgundy hat to top it off. The style is honestly such a great fit for the Gastown aesthetic, especially with all the exposed brick and steampunk look.

The quality of the photos out of this 35mm is just incredible. The absolute center sharpness wide open, I was sweating a little bit considering this was the most expensive lens I’ve ever owned, and I had to sell my other two Sigma ARTs (24mm & 50mm) to really justify buying this, but all my doubts vanished once I got to use it.

The F1.2 aperture just works so well with the 35mm focal length for portraiture, I can stand relatively close to the subject and still get the field of view I want and achieving a similar depth of field to the old 50mm F1.4 ART.

I also brought this tiny little Pentax Espio 120SW with me on this trip, because it’s the “poor man’s xpan”, and I wanted to see how the framing works on an ultrawide cropped 35mm film. Honestly, I have to say I really like it. Despite the cropping being somewhat inconsistent, the novelty of having such a tiny camera produce what looks like very good wide-format exposure is super fun.

Anyway, we must move on to Lighthouse Park.

It’s a short hike, but this was when I really felt all the Covid weight I’d gained come into full effect. I was sweating bullets by the time we got to the viewpoint.

I mean I could blame the fact that this lens is 1.09kg, let that sink in for a second. 1090 grams for a camera lens, along with a body, the kit is weighing dangerously close to 2kg in hand/on neck. I get this is Sigma’s way of “not compromising anything for image quality”, but I’ll definitely have to think twice before I bring this thing on a hike again.

Finally, we have the head to head of the 120 dollars Pentax point and shoot on film vs the 4500 dollars digital kit.

Which one do you like better?

Personally, I like bokeh, so my pick is always gonna be the one with better bokeh.