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Sigma 17-40mm F1.8 DC | ART (APS-C Review) The New Cult Classic?
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Jun 13, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review into the new fast zoom from the Sigma - the Sigma 17-40mm F1.8 DC | ART for Sony E, Fuji X, Canon RF, and Leica L mounts. | This video is sponsored by Chipfancier Memory Cards. Visit https://chipfancier.com/ and use code "Dustin Abbott" for 10% off! Or visit Amazon: https://amzn.to/43Un49l | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Sigma 17-40mm F1.8 ART ($829 USD) @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/402hgcH | Adorama https://howl.link/3ie6qosnazx32 | Amazon https://amzn.to/3FPummT | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4wtmg | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/43EtLO7 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3Tj0xy4 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4l4tkCz Sigma Factory Article: https://tinyurl.com/SigmaAizu Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents:
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the new Sigma
0:14
17 to 40mm f1.8
0:18
this is a DC art lens this is the
0:22
spiritual successor to the 18 to 35mm
0:25
f1.8 that I reviewed over a decade ago
0:28
it became a cult classic that it seemed
0:31
like everybody was shooting video on for
0:33
a while adapting it to various platforms
0:36
but this is a lens that really has
0:38
improved in every way it's got a bigger
0:40
zoom ratio it's got a smaller size it's
0:43
got lower weight it's got more features
0:45
it's got way better autofocus and even
0:47
improved image quality the price has not
0:50
yet been released at this moment but I
0:52
suspect will be somewhere under $1,000
0:55
US i'll add a note in the description
0:58
when the final price has been announced
1:00
in today's world companies are keeping
1:03
that pretty close to the vest ahead of
1:04
their release date because things are
1:06
fluctuating so much but will this new 17
1:10
to 40mm f1.8 find the success of the 18
1:14
to 35mm does it deserve to have that
1:17
same degree of success well that's what
1:19
we're going to try to explore today
1:21
right after a word from our sponsor
1:23
which is Chip Fancier today's episode is
1:26
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1:30
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1:32
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2:28
that's chipfancier.com
2:30
so before we jump into the review a
2:32
quick disclosure this lens was loan to
2:34
me by Sigma however they have not had
2:37
any kind of input on my findings nor
2:39
have they seen this video before you the
2:42
public see it as always this is a
2:43
completely independent review so let's
2:46
take a look at that build and design
2:48
here this is a great looking lens by the
2:51
way I'm testing it in Sony E-mount but
2:53
it will also be available at launch on
2:56
Fuzie Xmount along with Lmount and then
2:59
a little bit later on I think around
3:00
August is what they're saying we're
3:02
going to see it in Canon RF as well
3:04
which is very interesting platform for
3:06
it focal range here is magnified by the
3:10
crop factor of these various systems so
3:12
for Sony Fuji and Lmount it's all 1.5
3:16
times crop factor and so that is an
3:17
effective focal range of 25 1.5 mm to 60
3:21
mm in full-frame equivalency very very
3:24
useful in a lot of ways things shift a
3:26
little bit further to the right on Canon
3:28
with its 1.6 times crop factor so it's
3:32
27.2 to 64 mm this is an APS-C lens so
3:37
the lens as noted it is smaller last
3:40
year I reviewed the 28 to 45mm f1.8 for
3:44
full-frame was a really big lens uh
3:47
considerably longer and bulkier than
3:49
this lens and almost twice as heavy and
3:52
so this lens is definitely benefits from
3:55
being for the smaller APS-C sensor and
3:57
so the lens is 72.9 mm in diameter 2.87
4:01
in it is 115.9
4:04
mm or 4.56 in long it is by the way an
4:09
internally focusing and internally
4:11
zooming lens and so if you're a little
4:13
put off by it being a little bit larger
4:15
remember this is a constant size and
4:17
there are tons of advantages to the
4:18
internal zoom process if you're going to
4:20
use it on a gimbal you have consistent
4:22
balance you have a smoother zooming
4:25
process in general and of course it's
4:27
going to very likely retain a better
4:29
degree of a better degree of weather
4:31
sealing because there's nothing moving
4:33
externally on it and so this is a it's
4:36
it's a it's not a small lens as you can
4:38
see but neither is it huge either it
4:41
weighs in at 528 grams which is about
4:44
18.6 ounces sigma says this is 30%
4:48
lighter than what the 18 to 35 mm was
4:52
and so that's a huge improvement in that
4:54
regard this is the to my knowledge it is
4:58
the first modern Sigma APS-C lens to get
5:01
the art treatment yeah there was a few
5:04
primes very very early on very first
5:07
lenses that Sony made for or excuse me
5:09
that Sigma made for Sony E-mount they
5:11
called them art for some reason they
5:12
weren't but this is the first real APS-C
5:16
Art series lens coming from Sigma in the
5:19
what they called for a DN DN for a while
5:21
or mirrorless and so most of these APS-C
5:24
lenses have fallen under the
5:25
contemporary branding and so they've got
5:27
relatively few features and you know the
5:30
lower degree of build quality in this
5:32
case however we're getting all the
5:34
features we're getting all of the
5:36
weather sealing we're just getting a
5:37
high-grade professional quality lens
5:40
here and so that starts with a aperture
5:43
ring with all the bells and whistles by
5:44
the way on Canon RF this is going to be
5:46
a control ring to match their aesthetic
5:49
and so that means it's just going to be
5:51
clickless a little bit different than
5:53
what I'm describing right here but this
5:55
will apply to all the other mounts and
5:57
so what we have is the ability to either
5:59
have clicks or dclicks and then so you
6:02
can go clicks with one/ird uh stops and
6:05
then also there is an iris lock that
6:07
will allow you to either lock into or
6:09
out of the aperture ring whatever your
6:11
preference is there is a dclick option
6:14
and so that you can smoothly rack
6:15
through all the various options that
6:17
does allow you to do aperture racking
6:19
and I could not see visible steps and so
6:22
they've done a good job of making that
6:24
again a proper simulation of a manual
6:27
fully manual aperture ring so good job
6:29
on that front Sigma i'll also note that
6:31
the manual focus ring is a great
6:34
simulation as well it has a nice weight
6:37
to it and a really great feel and so it
6:40
actually feels like you are manually
6:42
focusing even though it's focused by
6:43
wire which is the case with all
6:45
mirrorless lenses that have autofocus
6:48
and uh in this case we have also got a
6:50
few other features we have got a AFMF
6:53
switch here on the side and then we have
6:55
redundant function button so that means
6:58
that whether you're shooting in a
6:59
horizontal position or in a vertical
7:01
position you're still going to have one
7:03
of those function buttons near the hand
7:05
and as always you assign the value to
7:07
that function button from within the
7:09
camera body itself the build itself here
7:12
is really really nice uh I think that
7:14
they've their new logos and fonts just
7:18
look they're they're elegant it's that's
7:20
very they made good choices there and
7:22
this lens has a really great design
7:23
where it's got some glossier sections
7:26
that divide up the various rings and on
7:28
the back for aesthetic purposes um even
7:31
in the middle section here they've
7:32
extended what the ribs of what look like
7:34
a ring and so you have a nice
7:35
symmetrical division on the back of the
7:38
lens really great looking and great
7:40
attention to detail it does include a
7:42
very nice hood sigma's hoods are
7:44
topnotch it's got the lock it's got
7:46
rubberized sections it's it's just
7:49
high-end got some grip sections for
7:51
mounting and unmounting it it's just a
7:53
really really nicely executed package
7:55
and so I mean I give them high marks on
7:57
that well done for that inside we've got
8:00
11 aperture blades and as you can see
8:03
here as I run through this racking
8:04
sequence again the geometry is okay but
8:07
it's not flawless minimum focus distance
8:10
is 28 cm and that allows you to get a
8:13
nicely high right under 0.21 times
8:17
magnification
8:19
so there's lots of useful applications
8:20
for that and of course the fact that you
8:22
can get relatively close to your subject
8:24
is going to be helpful for video work as
8:26
well no built-in OS or optical
8:29
stabilization you're going to have to
8:30
rely on in camera stabilization if your
8:34
camera is so equipped those of you that
8:36
have cameras without that that could be
8:38
a little bit of a factor for you overall
8:40
however though I think Sigma's done a
8:42
great job of moving the lens upscale in
8:45
terms of the feature set here while also
8:48
managing to shrink it while at the same
8:50
time expanding the zoom range that's a
8:52
pretty great accomplishment and yeah I'm
8:54
sure they're going to be plenty of you
8:55
that complain about how big and heavy it
8:57
still is physics unfortunately you can't
9:00
beat physics sigma's done a great job of
9:02
reducing the size and weight of this
9:04
package to what I think is a very
9:06
manageable level for an F1.8 8 zoom that
9:10
covers all the way from wide at 17 mm
9:13
all the way up to 40 mm so good job on
9:16
that how about autofocus sigma really
9:20
turned a corner right under two years
9:22
ago when they launched their HLA uh
9:25
which is high-speed linear actuator new
9:27
focus motor as opposed to the older STM
9:29
focus motors this is a great focus
9:32
system it is extremely snappy as you can
9:34
see here near instantaneous back and
9:36
forth whether indoor or outdoor it is
9:39
extremely quiet even putting your ear
9:41
next to it you're going to hear next to
9:42
no sound and there was a major issue
9:45
back in the day with the 18 to 35
9:48
millimeter at least in my experience on
9:49
Canon uh when it came to autofocus
9:52
consistency all of that is long gone at
9:55
this point and this lens is very
9:57
accurate to focus does good with
9:59
tracking it does all the things you
10:01
would want it to do no problem when it
10:03
comes to stills i was able to nail nail
10:05
focus in a wide variety of conditions
10:07
and of course a faster maximum aperture
10:09
of f1.8 means that those of you that
10:10
maybe are going to shoot for weddings in
10:13
dimmer venues that helps a lot even
10:15
compared to an f/2.8 uh zoom lens
10:18
remember that f1.8 is 1 and one/ird
10:20
stops brighter and so that means you're
10:23
you're able to have you know more than
10:26
twice as fast a shutter speed because
10:28
you're letting in twice as over twice as
10:31
much light and so that's going to be
10:33
incredibly useful in those kind of
10:34
venues and all of that pays off even for
10:36
autofocus
10:38
likewise for video AF video focus pools
10:41
looked great confident no visible steps
10:44
moving back and forth without pulsing or
10:46
settling or any of those things i found
10:48
that there is actually minimal focus
10:50
breathing here and so on Sony you get no
10:53
focus breathing compensation from the
10:54
camera but frankly I don't think you
10:56
really need it much here focus breathing
10:58
is at a nice low level and so that's
11:00
great again for video work the one thing
11:02
that I wish was present that's not is
11:05
the lens is not par focal and those of
11:07
you a lot of people are going to be
11:09
intrigued this lens for video if they
11:11
would been able to make it a par focal
11:13
lens I think that that would have been
11:14
really appealing fortunately it's not
11:16
the case and so you'll see when zooming
11:18
in and out there is split seconds when
11:20
things are not in focus however it's
11:24
focus is fast enough that it adjusts
11:26
pretty quickly and so it's going to be a
11:28
minimal issue most of the time my hand
11:30
test as you can see went fine in terms
11:33
of transitions from the hand to the eye
11:35
and again fairly cinematic there i will
11:38
give one uh just kind of caveat and that
11:41
is if you're doing shots where you're
11:43
just kind of allowing the camera to
11:44
naturally pull focus from one subject to
11:47
another in the native settings it's
11:50
tuned a little aggressive and so it's a
11:52
little too abrupt in making those uh
11:54
focus changes so you might want to just
11:56
d-tune focus speed a little bit to get a
11:58
little bit more of a cinematic
11:59
transition from one subject to another
12:02
overall however autofocus is fantastic
12:05
here great job Sigma now how about the
12:08
image quality i'll give you my overview
12:10
and then if you want the deep dive that
12:12
comes at the end of the video this is an
12:14
optical design of 17 elements in 11
12:16
groups including four SLD elements and
12:19
four aspherical lenses and so you can
12:22
see here from the MTF that MTF at 17
12:25
millimeters really really great in the
12:27
center through the middle of the frame
12:30
and then a fairly steep drop off into
12:32
the corners corners according to MTF are
12:34
not nearly as sharp as what the center
12:35
and mid-frame are we can see that the
12:38
it's a little bit flatter at 40 mm not
12:41
as extremely good but certainly not as
12:43
extremely bad in the corners either so
12:45
just a little bit more of a consistent
12:47
profile if I throw up the comparison
12:49
that Sigma provided to the 18 to 35
12:52
millimeter you'll see that they have
12:53
actually a fairly similar optical
12:56
signature it's just the new lens is just
12:58
a little bit better everywhere across
13:00
the frame nice thing about this faster
13:03
maximum aperture of f1.8 in a zoom is
13:05
that it does give you more of a
13:07
full-frame f2.8 kind of look and so it's
13:10
going to give you shallower depth of
13:12
field a little bit better subject
13:13
isolation it's useful no doubt about it
13:16
now those of you that are thinking that
13:18
maybe you're going to get a full-frame
13:19
coverage out of this lens you can see
13:21
here that really it's not particularly
13:23
at 17 millimeters it's not covering the
13:25
full frame at all and uh if you zoom in
13:28
it gets better but there's still
13:30
mechanical vignette everywhere even when
13:32
shooting video yes where the corners are
13:34
cropped out so I mean you might if
13:37
you're using like a a smaller crop in
13:40
some kind of situation like a 1.2 two
13:42
times crop towards the latter part of
13:44
the end of the the zoom range you might
13:46
be able to get away with it i don't
13:47
think ever at uh 17 millimeters are you
13:50
going to be able to pull it off you're
13:51
going to have to be shooting super 35
13:54
that's really what this covers and so
13:56
don't buy this lens to use it in other
13:58
applications use it for what it's
14:00
intended for and I think you'll be much
14:01
happier uh there are some issues when it
14:04
comes to longitudinal style chromatic
14:06
aberration there's a surprising amount
14:08
of fringing uh particularly after the
14:10
plane of focus i found that too when
14:12
shooting on the SLR that I use for
14:14
testing for this you can definitely see
14:16
fringing on the shiny bits lateral
14:18
chromatic aberrations no problem it's
14:20
nice and clean there there is another
14:23
optical bugaboo that shows up when you
14:25
look at the 17 mm in when it comes to
14:27
distortion barrel distortion is quite
14:30
strong i needed a plus 22 to correct for
14:33
it which is a lot however I will kind of
14:36
give the the silver lining and that is
14:39
that there is it's it's a very kind of
14:42
linear distortion pattern and so it was
14:45
able to correct cleanly even doing it
14:47
manually and of course correction
14:48
profiles will clean that up without any
14:50
kind of problem vignette as we're going
14:52
to see is really great all throughout
14:54
the zoom range i only saw a plus 38 here
14:57
on the wide end which would typically be
14:59
the worst end when it comes to that and
15:02
uh we'll see that it just continues to
15:03
drop down even a little bit more as you
15:06
go throughout the zoom range and so that
15:08
is never a problem now about the middle
15:11
of the zoom range that distortion
15:12
pattern switches to a pin cushion style
15:14
distortion it's mild in the middle of
15:16
the zoom range but by the time you get
15:18
to uh to 40 millimeters it's a little
15:20
bit more strong and obvious and so I
15:22
needed a minus 11 to correct for the pin
15:24
cushion distortion i will say again it's
15:27
all the distortion that I manually
15:28
corrected was all nicely linear i could
15:30
do it manually without a problem and as
15:32
noted vignette is great throughout the
15:34
zoom range and lowest by 40 millimeters
15:38
now when it comes to resolution I will
15:40
give one caveat and that is that I'm
15:42
testing on Sony which means 26
15:44
megapixels is the maximum resolution
15:46
available if you're shooting on Fuji you
15:49
can expect if you're shooting on the
15:50
Fuji 40 megapixel sensor I should say
15:53
expect all of these results to look a
15:55
little bit softer there that's a very
15:57
very demanding uh sensor and so very
16:00
often zoom lenses like this most lenses
16:02
are going to look a little bit softer
16:03
there when you're looking at them
16:05
crossplatform but this is a strong lens
16:08
as we're going to see for the most part
16:10
so what I found even looking at 200%
16:12
magnification that in the center of the
16:14
frame as the MTF suggests center and
16:17
mid-frame look excellent no problems
16:19
good contrast good detail and then
16:21
you'll see that the corners definitely
16:23
look softer as the MTF suggest as you
16:27
stop the lens down contrast will start
16:29
to improve you know a little bit in the
16:32
center and the mid-frame but the corners
16:34
don't really sharpen up until f5.6 they
16:37
never reached the level of the center of
16:38
the frame but they get I think
16:40
acceptably good out in real world shots
16:42
at 100% magnification i was happy with
16:44
images except for maybe the final like
16:47
two to three percentage in the extreme
16:49
corners which frankly unless you're
16:51
critically looking at those like I am
16:53
for a test i don't think that most
16:55
people will notice so I don't consider
16:56
that to be a big deal and of course if
16:59
you're shooting video not going to be a
17:00
big deal at all because those ports
17:02
parts of the frame aren't on that 169
17:05
crop and so don't worry about that there
17:09
is going to be the typical issues with
17:10
defraction after f8 so f11 a little bit
17:14
softer f-16 a little softer still all of
17:16
that's expected it's part of you know
17:19
the optic op the physics of optics I
17:21
should say as I moved on throughout the
17:23
zoom range I found that at 24 millimeter
17:26
and then at 34 35 millimeter two points
17:28
that I tested that the resolution was
17:31
very similar similar profile to what I
17:34
saw at 17 mm just a little bit better in
17:37
the corners not great but better overall
17:39
and they sharpened up a little bit
17:41
faster in the corners uh obviously
17:43
you're also dealing with less distortion
17:45
and so that becomes less of an issue in
17:47
correcting for those corners 40 mm is
17:50
really kind of following a similar
17:51
pattern where the center of the frame
17:53
looks good mid-frame looks good corners
17:56
are softer but not as soft and so
17:58
remember MTF shows it's just not as as
18:01
it's not as high a performance in the
18:03
center or mid-frame not as low
18:05
performance in the corners and that's
18:06
really the way that it it wore out in a
18:08
real world shot however I again I felt
18:11
like my real world images looked great
18:13
uh good pop good detail to them overall
18:16
I found like the images really looked
18:18
good i wouldn't say in my opinion
18:20
they're quite as magical as what I found
18:22
the 28 to 45 millimeter f1.8 from Sigma
18:25
i thought that was a really top-notch
18:27
lens but again it's working with a
18:28
bigger sensor so maybe a little bit more
18:30
magic you know that's already baked into
18:32
the cake uh here on APS-C I didn't find
18:35
it quite as exotic because it's not as
18:37
shallow a depth of field however I found
18:39
that images looked really really good
18:41
the one again caveat I'll give to that
18:44
is that up close at 40 millimeters
18:46
detail and contrast isn't off the charts
18:48
however if I stop down a bit here this
18:50
shot is at f2.8 and it looks pretty
18:52
fantastic i would say bokeh quality is
18:55
in general it is nice it looks good
18:57
flare resistance seemed to be fine
18:59
overall this lens it delivered really
19:02
really well outside of some distortion
19:04
and then also of course some fringing in
19:07
certain situations so my conclusion is
19:10
this this is a very strong lens with
19:13
only a few flaws and I think that none
19:15
of those flaws are going to be deal
19:17
breakers for most people again some
19:19
people may complain over the size and
19:21
the weight but I mean this is reality
19:23
all things considered they've actually
19:24
done a great job in maintaining what
19:28
you've got here is extremely extremely
19:30
useful it should be a very compelling
19:32
lens for those who do wedding
19:34
videography as well for that matter it's
19:37
a lens that's got a lot going for it and
19:40
you know obviously depending on the
19:42
price the price going to make it
19:43
slightly more or slightly less
19:44
compelling depending on where it
19:46
actually lands but I suspect that this
19:48
lens is going to be a serious disruptor
19:50
on probably all the platforms that it
19:52
lands on because this is doing something
19:55
that no one else is doing and Sigma in
19:58
their pretty unique style is really
20:01
pulling it off really well this is a
20:03
elegantlooking lens and it is a pretty
20:05
elegant performing lens as well now if
20:08
you want a deeper dive into the
20:10
performance here you can either check
20:11
out my text review which is linked in
20:13
the description down below you can also
20:15
check out the image gallery that is
20:16
linked there and now if you want a
20:18
deeper look at the optics let's dive
20:20
into that together so we'll start by
20:22
taking a quick look at this zoom range
20:24
here and so here you can see the
20:26
difference between the framing of the
20:28
same scene at 17 mm versus 40 mm
20:32
obviously a good amount of versatility
20:33
there sometimes you get these big
20:35
aperture zooms and the zoom range is
20:37
really limited that's really not the
20:38
case here you've got enough to make
20:41
meaningful differences in not only the
20:43
framing you can do in a scene but even
20:45
the kind of images that you can shoot
20:47
one of our bigger optical bugaboos here
20:49
is the barrel distortion at 17 mm
20:52
however as you can see here even with a
20:54
manual correction and by the way Sigma
20:56
gets great correction profiles and so
20:58
I'm just kind of showing you worst case
21:00
scenario but even if I manually correct
21:02
it you can see that it corrects in a
21:04
very linear fashion no obvious uh
21:07
mustache style distortion pattern there
21:10
and so that's great and you can see the
21:11
vignette is really really low and so
21:13
I've dialed in a plus 22 to correct for
21:16
the barrel distortion and a a plus 34 to
21:19
correct for the vignette which is really
21:21
low for a lens like this with such a
21:23
large maximum aperture now fairly
21:24
quickly that distortion inverts to a pin
21:27
cushion style distortion you can see now
21:29
instead of bulging out it's sucking in
21:31
here in the middle again it remains very
21:34
very linear so very easy to correct
21:36
often pin cushion distortion is easier
21:38
to correct than barrel anyway but no
21:40
problems here nice and linear uh also
21:42
good news is that vignette is staying
21:44
really really low and so now it's it's
21:46
even lower even less to correct in the
21:48
20s and so um about a stop which is is
21:52
great once again now by 40 mm the pin
21:54
cushion distortion is a little bit more
21:56
pronounced as you can see but as you can
21:58
also see it's still linear and easier to
22:00
correct this is now a minus 11 to get
22:02
this result here but now we're down to
22:04
just like a plus 23 to correct for the
22:06
vignette which is fantastic frankly I
22:09
was a little surprised by the amount of
22:11
fringing I saw even through the
22:12
viewfinder when I was running this test
22:14
and you can see it's a pretty prominent
22:16
kind of a teal color and so it
22:18
definitely shows up and I did see it as
22:21
you can see here on this uh shot that I
22:24
also do of a real world example of the
22:26
SLR and on these shiny bits you can
22:28
definitely see that fringing is present
22:30
so just note that if you're shooting at
22:32
f1.8 date with shiny objects
22:34
particularly if it's a really shallow
22:36
depth of field up close like this you're
22:38
going to see that and also you can see a
22:40
little bit of that fringing around
22:42
specular highlights maybe less of a big
22:44
deal there lateral style chromatic
22:46
aberrations on the other hand are
22:48
basically perfectly neutral and so no
22:50
problem with that at all now when it
22:52
comes to resolution and contrast we are
22:54
looking here at 200% level of
22:56
magnification 26 megapixels on Sony you
22:59
can see that center of the frame looks
23:01
great good detail good contrast you know
23:03
good you know delineation of the various
23:06
textures there mid-frame is also looking
23:09
really solid the MTF suggests this that
23:11
we're going to see consistent results uh
23:14
through the mid-frame and then it starts
23:15
to drop which is what we see about here
23:17
you can see sharpness is strong by this
23:19
corner but by here as we reach towards
23:21
the corners it's starting to drop and as
23:23
we get down here to the corner you can
23:25
see it's it's not terrible but you can
23:27
see it's not really clearly defined the
23:30
contrast is a little bit lower taking a
23:32
look in the upper left corner you can
23:34
see a similar pattern i would argue
23:36
maybe this one looks a tiny bit better
23:38
but it's basically the similar end
23:40
result if we take that into a real world
23:42
application you can see at 100%
23:44
magnification in the center and the
23:46
mid-frame detail and contrast look
23:48
fantastic great but if we pan over here
23:51
to the edge you can see that it's just
23:54
getting progressively mushier starting
23:56
at about this point right here you can
23:58
see that it's starting to drop at f1.8
24:01
and so that just kind of following the
24:03
same pattern we saw on the test chart
24:05
stopping on down to f5.6 we can see that
24:08
center of the frame looks good and now
24:10
as we pan towards the edge it is looking
24:12
much closer and so less of a drop off to
24:15
the corner or the edge by f5.6 and then
24:18
f8 we're not looking any better in the
24:21
center of the frame but as we look at
24:23
other places like the midframe
24:24
particularly at f5.6 6 looking sharper
24:27
up here into the corner now looking you
24:29
know pretty consistently good at f8 you
24:32
can see we're just starting to turn the
24:34
corner when it comes to defraction a
24:36
little softer that pattern continues on
24:38
with f11 looking softer still and then
24:41
f16 you can see starting to lose
24:43
contrast and some of the fine details
24:45
due to defraction now at uh 24 mm you
24:49
can see at f1.8 detail is looking good
24:51
in the center of the frame you can see
24:52
contrast kicking up by f2.8 8 we can see
24:56
that the midframe is good at f1.8 but
24:59
it's getting excellent by f2.8 and if we
25:02
look up here in the corner very
25:04
interestingly we can see that while the
25:06
you know that last few percentage points
25:08
is softer here here even at f1.8 it's
25:11
looking quite good and by f2.8 it's
25:14
looking excellent you can see that that
25:16
stretching over this direction that this
25:18
emblem for example has better contrast
25:20
and delineation compared to the f1.8
25:24
it's just really that last little bit
25:26
that is softer by comparison and frankly
25:29
that's probably not going to be too big
25:30
of a deal for most people for example
25:32
here at f5.6 we can see that center and
25:36
mid-frame look great but as we come down
25:38
here towards the corner it's looking
25:40
good all the way until just this little
25:42
bit right here and frankly it's unlikely
25:45
that too many people are going to be
25:46
looking at that zone and you can see all
25:48
the edge stuff towards the center of the
25:51
the frame it all looks fantastic so I I
25:54
think that at 24 millm people are going
25:55
to be pretty delighted with the optical
25:57
performance when I was doing comparisons
25:59
at 35 mm I found the end results to just
26:02
be very very comparable um it's
26:05
following a very similar kind of pattern
26:07
all across the frame and so you can see
26:08
it looks great here and just a little
26:10
bit softer right there into that corner
26:12
here's a real world example at f2.2 so
26:15
just stop down a tiny bit you can see
26:17
how nice and crisp all the detail and
26:19
textures are and then a really nicely
26:22
soft looking background and here's the
26:24
advantage of having that larger maximum
26:26
aperture compared to an f/2.8 zoom now
26:29
at 40 millimeters we can see that
26:30
contrast is a little bit lower at uh
26:33
f1.8 it's bouncing back strongly by f2.8
26:38
we can see that contrast is similar but
26:40
you can also see that the detail is is
26:43
good uh in a little bit more consistent
26:45
fashion and so it's not as soft like in
26:47
this zone for example little more of a
26:50
consistent profile though you can also
26:51
see it doesn't sharpen up quite as much
26:53
as maybe it did in the middle of the
26:55
zoom range but if we look at a scene
26:57
from both ends of the equation so at
26:59
f5.6 this is at 17 mm you can see in the
27:03
middle of the frame detail is looking
27:04
great and here I think that looking at a
27:07
real world image everyone's going to be
27:09
satisfied with that no problem there
27:11
jumping into 40 mm you can see once
27:14
again in the center of the frame also
27:15
f5.6 detail and contrast looks awesome
27:18
and you can see right off here to the
27:20
edges of the frame looking really good
27:23
this is enough sharpness and contrast I
27:25
think for most everyone in most all
27:27
situations so we can see that while we
27:29
have a high level of magnification we
27:31
can also see that up close performance
27:33
at f1.8 is not great it's not
27:35
particularly sharp and detailed and
27:37
there's definitely some fringing issues
27:38
that are impacting it and so in this
27:40
shot for example I'm not really blown
27:42
away by the uplo performance and the
27:44
amount of detail that's there you can
27:45
see little hints of that teal fringing
27:47
showing up however if I stop down a bit
27:49
here at f2.5 you can see the contrast
27:52
and detail is looking a lot better and
27:55
then this image at f2.8 I think it looks
27:57
pretty fantastic that image is really
28:00
popping in terms of detail and colors
28:02
that are coming off of it and so stop
28:04
down a bit if you're wanting to shoot up
28:06
close if you want to improve close-up
28:08
performance now at its best I think the
28:10
bokeh looks really nice and soft and so
28:12
here's a great example again if you're
28:14
up close allows you to really strongly
28:16
blur out a background i think this image
28:18
looks really nice not too many hard
28:21
edges um and so all of that's looking
28:23
nice and clean moving back a bit I felt
28:26
like this image retained a nice softness
28:28
of background but also a nice I think
28:31
three-dimensional quality of the
28:33
branches being shot here also here I
28:36
think here we've got some transition
28:38
zone stuff handled quite nicely and
28:40
again a nice kind of threedimensional
28:42
pop to this that allows that to be a
28:45
different kind of image that would be
28:46
hard to shoot with an f/2.8 zoom we've
28:48
already looked at flare resistance a bit
28:50
and here you can see in the shots that I
28:52
like to do with the morning light coming
28:54
across the top of the grass you can see
28:56
that it's holding up nicely there and so
28:59
the image is doesn't have any kind of
29:01
weird ghosting artifacts or anything
29:03
spoiling it and so overall you know
29:05
other than the fringing and some of the
29:07
barrel distortion it's really doing
29:09
quite good so as you can see Sigma has
29:12
done it once again they've managed to
29:13
give us the biggest zoom range we've
29:15
ever seen with an f/1.8 maximum aperture
29:19
and they've managed to pull it off to
29:21
where this lens is really quite strong
29:23
optically in just about all areas and so
29:26
that's pretty impressive as always
29:28
thanks for watching have a great day and
29:31
let the light in
29:32
[Music]