Well, with the latter, everything became clear quickly - that's what Sigma called the focusing ring. But the macro mode did not immediately succumb to understanding. This ring can be locked in the “Normal” position and then the glass behaves like a normal lens. By pressing the two latches at the same time, you can manipulate this ring, setting the magnification scale: from 1: 7 to 1: 3.5

Focal Length 39mm

The rest of the Sigma-XQ 39-80mm f / 3.5 is no different from other glasses. Although ... let me argue myself.
It is not by chance that I called it the “jack of all trades”. The thing is, in my opinion, it can be a good tool for artistic portraits on the long end. The Sigma-XQ 39-80mm f / 3.5 manifests itself in this case as a kind of soft-drawing lens. The nature of the blur in the zone hips pleasant, smooth; sharpness at the focus point is not ringing - just what is needed when shooting portraits. Moreover, what has been said refers to a completely open diaphragm. It is worth squeezing it down to f / 5.6 and the coveted sharpness here appears in the picture.

F / 3.5 aperture versus f / 5.6 aperture

At the wide end, the lens captures perspective well, and the constant f / 3.5 aperture allows you to romantically take the background into the blur area ... Moreover, when the aperture is closed down to f / 5.6, the character hips remains very poetic, gentle, positive.
I will especially dwell on the color rendition. She is gorgeous! The colors are rich, dense, clean. The only pity is that at the edges of the frame they are slightly concealed by a rather strong vignetting. Chromatic aberrations are poorly expressed.

Vignetting example

The lens is pleasant to hold in your hands: everything is adjusted one to one, the construct is felt in the hands and is perceived as reliable. All controls rotate exceptionally smoothly. Six-lobed diaphragm dull matted, switches discretely, clearly fixing at the set values. The front lens is close to the frame, therefore, despite the multi-coating, I recommend using a hood (thread diameter 62 mm)

Soft effect as the macro zooms in through the control ring

When shooting in macro mode, the soft effect is clearly manifested. Moreover, the larger the zoom, the more the lens soft.
I shot with this lens on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III using an Olympus OM adapter. Of the negative points, I will note only one - the adapter does not have a focus confirmation chip and it is sometimes difficult to focus on sharpness.
Overall impression: this is a lens for joyful, sunny, spring scenes. The Sigma-XQ 39-80mm f / 3.5 is without exaggeration an all-rounder that will help you get good shots in a wide range of subjects.

At full aperture

Aperture F / 8.0

Backlit Shooting Without Hood

Example hips

• Author: Krasnoyarsk photographer Artur Mikhanev
• Photographer, consultant, teacher, candidate of historical sciences
• http://mihanev.ru/