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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my final verdict on the new Sigma 14 to 24 millimeter F2.8 DGDN lens
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And this is with the art series designation, but this is a lens that is specifically designed for full frame mirrorless
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Specifically in this case, I'm testing it on Sony FE. It's also available for Lyca L. I have done this review on
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on both the Sony A7R Mark 3, along with the new Sony A7 R Mark 4
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And so I've been able to really test it at what is currently the limits of resolution
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when it comes to a 35 millimeter body. And so I think I've been able to get a pretty good sense
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of how it's going to perform for you. So in our first look episode
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we broke down the build and the design of this new lens, did some comparisons to the recent Tamron 17 to 28 millimeter F2.8 as well
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And of course, this is a fresh design. This is not like the 2018 Sigma E mount options
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which were essentially re-skinned versions of their existing lenses with a kind of a section here in the housing of the lens
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that both provided the different flange distance for mirrorless, but also had a built-in adapter to allow the focus system
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that was designed for Canon EF to actually function fine on Sony
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And so, you know, those lenses were a compromise. They had a compromised auto-focus system that typically worked fairly well
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You know, I've seen some variation across the various ones that I've reviewed
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But, you know, definitely not a native-like performance because the focus system wasn't designed for Sony natively
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And mirrorless focus and DSLR focus operate in different fashions. Beyond that, it was also compromise in terms of length and that you're moving to what many people perceive needs to be a smaller
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design and mirrorless does allow for some size reductions when it comes to lens design
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In this case, the lenses were actually larger because you were actually adding something to
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rather than taking something away from the existing lens design. So fortunately, this is
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a part of a crop of three lenses that have just been released by Sigma, including the 45mm
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F2.8 that I've previously reviewed, this lens. And then the next one that I'll review, which is a
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brand new 35 millimeter F1.2 prime lens, which by the way would be the, you know, the widest maximum
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matcher on an autofocus lens on the Sony platform, to my knowledge
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So this fresh design in many ways is advantageous in that it is it is somewhat smaller
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It's smaller in diameter. It's a little bit shorter than the original 14 to 24 millimeter F2.8 art lens, which I reviewed
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on Canon previously. I was a big fan of that lens. And so it's a little bit physically smaller, but it's also considerably lighter, somewhere close to 400 grams lighter
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And so it makes it a much more natural fit on a you know a Sony body And I found it you know that while it not necessarily a smaller light lens it within the range of acceptable of what works on mirrorless
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And so a good fit then. It's got a thorough weather sealing, starting with the gasket at the rear mount
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internal seals throughout, and then a coating on the front element to be moisture and oil resistant
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And so a very nice quality build. And also fairly feature rich in the sense that it not only has an AFMF switch, which I'm always happy to have
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I always emphasize that. Even on mirrorless, I prefer to have that. But also, it is one of the first non-Soney branded lenses to have an AFL auto focus hold button
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which you can actually program in the camera body to serve a variety of different functions
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And so I'm really glad to see that. Everything works well here, the zoom ring, a lot
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with the manual focus ring, all works well. So drawbacks to this particular kind of combination
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of course 14 millimeters is very wide on full frame, and F2.8 is a very wide maximum aperture for that focal length
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And so byproduct of that, your compromised tradeoff is that you have a bulbous or rounded front element
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and there is no room for traditional filters on the front. So one of the factors you can use to determine
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you know, whether you prefer this lens or the lens, the Tamron is of course focal length is a big one. I mean 14 millimeters is
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considerably wider than 17 millimeters. The other thing though is how important
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using traditional filters is to you. Of course the Tamron has a moderately
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sized six seven millimeter front filter thread. So it's easy to filter. With the
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Sigma you're either going to have to use an aftermarket front filter
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system probably with square filters or it does have a built-in gel filter
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holder in the back and it also comes with a template for creating
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properly sized gel filters. You know, there are some compromises that come with gel filters
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They're often not optically all that exceptional. And so, I mean, obviously filtering is not a highlight of this lens
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There's no easy way to do it. But, of course, the trade-off is that you have an incredibly useful focal range here
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14 millimeters to 24 millimeters gives you a lot of different options
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And covers at 14 millimeters is wide, often in many landscape situations
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but it does give you more option. for shooting interiors, for example, or in some situations, you can do a really dramatic angle of view
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Where it's, you know, more practical for landscape is really in the probably 17 to 24 millimeter zone
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And, of course, there it becomes more useful also for like environmental portraiture and things like that
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But the wider angle does give you more options for shooting interiors, for shooting some architecture
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And, you know, there are situations where you can't back up anymore. and so having this kind of focal length is extremely useful and so of course that
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makes it should make it a popular lens for certain people now in a second episode
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we took a look at the image quality and we broke that down in detail if you want
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the nitty gritty on that and how it kind of directly compares to the Tamron also how it holds up on the 61 megapixels of the Sony A7R Mark 4 Take a look at that video because it breaks things down in detail
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But a quick synopsis is that when comparing those two lenses, the Tamron is slightly sharper and with a little more contrast
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acuity in the center of the frame, slightly better light transmission there
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The Sigma is better at the edges of the frame. It basically all tested focal links and so it has a more even sharp
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profile across the frame. It has a little bit less distortion as well. And I did notice some
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you know, some pronounced barrel distortion at 14 millimeters at very close focus distances. However
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when shooting like city, um, architecture, I had no issue with curves in my lines. It's
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you might see a little bit of it in shooting interiors, however, depending on the application. And so
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of course, you're going to need to do some correction. Unfortunately, there is a slight mustache pattern
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to that, but it corrects fairly well. And so a little bit of variation there. The Sigma is a little bit
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warmer and its color temperature, its tone, and the Tameron is a little bit cooler by comparison
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But what I did note is that the Sigma delivered really rich images for me. I felt like the color was
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actually really good in a lot of applications. Contrast is good. There's a lot of detail there
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And also it combines with good flare resistance. And one area where
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Where the Sigma is a real standout is when it comes to the coma performance
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And it's a great astro lens. In fact, so far on Sony, I would say this is probably the best lens that I have tested for Astro so far
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because it has very, very little instances of coma. I don't find the vignette to be all that heavy even at 14 millimeters compared to a lot of wide-angle options
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And so it's actually a really strong performer for that. And so if you're looking for a great astro lens, this should jump
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really to the top of your list. And so a great performance for that
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Now when it comes to the autofocus performance, the autofocus is, of course, designed purposely for Sigma
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and it shows here. It's very, very smooth in operation. And as we're going to see from doing focus pools here
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it makes almost no sound in operation. Let's take a look at that. So as you can see, focus pools are very smooth and it is basically silent, even using the onboard microphone
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So really strong performance when it comes to that. I found that my auto focus performance was good
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I had the ability to use IAF well, and so no problems with that
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I also found that it's kind of a common thing on mirrorless bodies that sometimes
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with wide angle lenses at smaller apertures. It can do either a little bit of pulsing
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The Tamron did a little bit of that in one specific instance. The Sigma did not in that situation
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So really good autofocus performance all around In fact this is going to be a very very nice video lens because it gives you a lot of framing options And so between the combination of the full sensor readout of 14 millimeters and then also
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shooting at Super 35, you've got a lot of different framing options
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And so this is going to be very useful. I also noted that the combination of about 750 grams for the lens and about 650 grams for
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you know, a lot of like the A7R bodies, for example. means that you're well underneath the threshold for a lot of motorized gimbals
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And so it's going to be an easy lens to use on a gimbal as well. And as you can see from this video footage, it delivers really, really good-looking footage
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And so I think it's a great option for that. So at the end of the day, to sum things up, this is a lens that comes to market at a fairly high price point
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It's $1,39.9.US. And so if you can compare that to the Canon E
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EF version, you know, or an icon version of the original art series lens
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It originally, I believe, was 1299. It's currently 1199 U.S. So you've got about a $200 premium over those lenses
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And so it is, you know, it's, it's pricey when compared to that
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And certainly the Tamron at $899 provides a stronger value option if you're on a
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limited budget. At the same time, however, if you're looking at the Sony options, particularly the 16 to 35
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millimeter F2.8 GM lens. I think not only is the Sigma a more attractive focal length for a lot of
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things, I would rather have the wider aspect of that. There's few lenses that cover 14 millimeters
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There's a lot of lenses that cover between 25 and 36 millimeters. And so I would take that trade off
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any day of the week. Also, of course, price-wise, the Sigma is undercutting the GM lens by nearly
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$1,000. And so it provides a really strong value when it comes in
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that, good weather sealing, good build quality. I think it's going to be a very attractive
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option for those that are cross-shopping it with the GM lens. So at the end of the day, I think
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it is a very welcome addition to the Sony FE catalog and one I think that should get a lot
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of consideration if your needs actually go to needing the wide of focal range. Not everyone needs
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14 millimeters, and if you don't need it, the Tamron 17 to 28 is a nice alternative. If you do
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however though the Sigma is does a great job at covering that so take a long look at it I'm
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Dustin Abbott if you look in the description down below you can see a linkage to my full written
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review which gives you lots of details and information there's also linkage to the image gallery
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I have tons of photos because I shot with this in a variety of different situations you'll enjoy
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looking at those and getting a sense of how you like images for yourself beyond that there's
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also buying links if you'd like to purchase one along with the typical links to follow me on
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social media to become a patron to sign it for my newsletter and if you haven't
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already please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube thanks for watching have a great day
