Sigma 40mm F1.4 ART Review Part 2 | 4K

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here to give you part two of my two-part review on the Sigma 40mm F1.4
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art lens. So if you missed the first part of this review, in that episode we took a look at the build
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the design, you know, the size of this monstrosity. We also took a look at the exceptional image
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quality from it and broke that down in some detail. And so if you are interested in either of those things, I recommend that you take a look
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at this episode and get caught up on that. Now in today's episode, we're going to dive into the autofocus performance, into the video
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performance, and then maybe give you a little bit of at least mental comparisons to some
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other options that you might be considering and which lens that you maybe should choose
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in the end. Now in the past, it would typically be about this point in a review where I'd have to
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you know, kind of counterbalance some of the positives that I had seen with the build and the
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image quality performance with, you know, a few negatives about autofocus. But it seems like Sigma
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has really managed to get those gremlins exercised when it comes to their actual autofocus design
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And it's been actually even a long time since I've heard anecdotal feedback from any of you
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about issues with the newer Sigma lenses when it comes to autofocus. So kudos to them for
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continuing to perfect their craft. Now, of course, these days I am transitioning. I'm pretty much
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past DSLRs in my own photography. I feel like at this stage, there's enough benefits to the
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mirrorless bodies that I'm pretty much wholesale invested in them. And my last DSLR is probably
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going to move out pretty soon and be replaced with yet another mirrorless body. And so I actually did
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this review almost exclusively shooting on mirrorless in a Canon EOS R or Sony with an
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a7R Mark III and an a9. And so my kind of observations are collected based on that
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And so that being said, with a number of the other more recent Sigma lenses, I have shot them also
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on my Canon 5D Mark IV, and I've just seen remarkably improved performance. In fact
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But going back, it's about a year and a half or so, is when the first time that I saw a Sigma lens being compatible with Canon's lens aberration correction
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And so, of course, that's a big plus if you're shooting on DSLRs because Sigma lenses are the first non-Canon lenses that I've ever seen to have that kind of in-camera support, which is a big deal if you're a JPEG shooter, obviously
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But beyond that, what I also saw is about that same time, I saw a marked uptick in autofocus consistency
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And so it's kind of been my running conspiracy theory that Sigma also managed to procure some access to focus algorithms at that same time because they've definitely ironed out a lot of those kinks
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And so I'm really encouraged by the direction of that. As far as the focus as the way I've actually used the lens, and that's via an adapter on the EOS R, I use the EF to RF mount with the control ring
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I vastly prefer having that control ring. I had very good performances we're about to see on the EOS R
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And then via the Sigma MC-11 adapter on the Sony bodies and also had excellent performance there
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We're going to jump and take a look at some photos together, portraits, and general purpose
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shots to see how focus performed during my review period. So between using it on the Canon EOS R
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which we did for this shot, and then the Sony A7R Mark III, I had consistently good focus results
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And so you can see here at f1.4, we've got, you know, I've got a foreground subject that I'm
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you know, kind of shooting around to give a certain look of framing. And you can see that
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we've got really tight focus on our subject. Now this shows off close focus. And in this case
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you can see we've got a very narrow depth of field. You can see excellent sharpness up close
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here, by the way, but really quality of focus, you know, down to where you can see the little
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snow crystals on there and then a nicely diffused background. Very nice color there as well
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This is the kind of shot that I taken hundreds if not thousands of you know because as I go out in the woods on my hikes come winter or you know transition between late autumn early winter there not a whole lot of subjects there to shoot And so anyway we can see once again that up here in the corner rule of thirds
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And of course, this is the huge advantage with mirrorless is that it really doesn't matter
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That would have been a really out of center focus point on a DSLR, but as far as mirrorless goes
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it really wasn't an issue. Now here is one of those situations where we've got a foreground subject
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we're shooting towards, and then lots going on in the background. And so, you know, kudos, this is on the EOS R
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good marks here for nailing where I wanted to focus and, you know, grabbing the foreground object
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rather than the background. Now, this was the one shot that I did have some difficulty focusing on
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And I'll just let you know, I've had to brighten this image considerably
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because the sky was very bright and then the leaf was dark by comparison
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Now, this is actually shot on the Sony A7R Mark III. And so I did have to coax focus a little bit to get the right end result
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I did get it in the end, but this was the one shot I could point to for my general purpose
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to where focus didn't just happen the way that I wanted it to initially
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So first of all, we'll take a look at how it did on the Canon EOS R with the adapter for shooting portraits
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And so here we're looking at eye AF. And so you can see that I would say this was probably the eye that was grabbed
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and so you can see very, very crisp focus on the eye. And so I found that IAF picked up really, really nicely
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tracked nicely, even via the adapter. Here, you know, focuses on this young lady's eyes
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and you can see focus is just really nailed on that. Looks really fantastic
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And so I'm happier with that than what I was with the other lens that I was shooting at the moment
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other system, which you will probably see in a future review. Moving outside here
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You can see nice background, and so we've got a nice difference between the background and then
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the focus on the subject. This particular shot here is on the EOS R. This is also here on the
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EOS R, and so you can see depth of field is quite shallow here, and so at this angle, not both of
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their faces were in focus. You can see a really nice end result from that at f1.4. This is shot
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on the Sony via the Sigma MC11 adapter. And so you can see focus is nailed here at F1.4
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You can also see beautiful amounts of detail on the faces at F1.4. Another shot here. And so you
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can see IAF, we got this young lady's face. This is actually shot on the A7R Mark III, but in APS-C
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crop mode. And so you can see that even in crop mode, it looks really, really beautiful, great
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detail there and so no complaints on IAF for that. Now this is the final shot that I'll show you to
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show off focus here and so what we're looking at in this case is this is actually on the EOS R
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and I had a challenge with another camera in the distraction of this mug and trying to get the eyes
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over the top. What we can see at least on the EOS R is that it's actually grabbed more like the
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eyebrow than the eye or the lashes themselves. And so not a perfect job. And so that's the one
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portrait shot that I can point to that it didn't nail it right on. And that was in large part
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I think, because of the bright object there in the foreground with the mug. So as you can see
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for the most part, very, very good results there. And the one situation where it came to portraits
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where IAF didn't do a perfect job, I'm willing to give a little bit of latitude because I was
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shooting with another system and another native lens on that system at the same time, and it had
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a really hard time with the whole mug thing. And so the very fact that focus actually seemed to be
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good, at least on, you know, the quick visual, I thought it was okay. I discovered later that
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obviously it caught the eyebrow rather than the eye, but I'm willing to give it a pass under that
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circumstance because of a unique challenge. And I suspect if I'd been shooting on the Sony body
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that it might've been a little bit better because Sony still has the edge in IAF performance
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though Canon has come along quite well with that as well. One other thing I will observe in that is
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that I did use an ND64 filter, which of course dramatically cuts the light, I believe by six
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stops coming into the camera. And I was still able to autofocus fine, even in, you know, kind of early
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twilight dusk type conditions And so it seems like autofocus sensitivity even in low light also is quite good And so no real concerns there Now when it comes to the video AF performance as we start to talk a little bit about video performance
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there's both a pro and a con here that I'll highlight. The pro is that this not being a lens designed for mirrorless
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and even if you buy the Sony FE version, note that that is more of a conversion
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because the lens is designed around Sony's HSM or hypersonic motor. That is a focus system that really is a ring USM type designed for DSLR focus systems
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And so in these adapted situations, we're going from that kind of focus system
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and then adapting to a mirrorless-based focus system. And so the pro that comes with that is that unlike lenses designed for mirrorless
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that are focused by wire, we do have a better focus ring here. And so if you're actually going
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to do some focus, the nice thing about having a focus ring that's attached to, coupled to the
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lens elements, is it's easier to get more repeatable linear results in that you can
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you know, set a certain point if you're, you know, doing a focus pull, you can set a certain point
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and consistently focus is going to be at that point. That's not always the case with mirrorless
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In fact, in my experience, it's almost never the case. And so if I'm going to do some manual focus pulls, give me a lens like this anytime
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You know, of course, Better Yet is a actual manual focus lens that is designed with smoother yet focus
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But Sony, or excuse me, Sigma definitely gets pluses here when it comes to video performance for having a real focus ring
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And I, you know, or with a mechanical coupling. And so I appreciate that
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Now, the downside when it comes to focus is that because that focus system is not designed in a stepping fashion
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the reason why that mirrorless cameras use a stepping type motor is primarily because it provides smoother, quieter autofocus performance
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And what used to be, we used to call the closest thing to mirrorless from DSLR days is what we call live view
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And so mirrorless is really basically taking that technology and perfecting it
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And so what happens in that kind of situation is that a stepping motor for video AF, a stepping motor makes a smoother kind of in the way that the torque goes across as it's maybe not always as fast as the fastest USM, though now linear motors and Canon's nano USM, they're very, very fast
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and that's true also of Sigma's new focus motors for mirrorless. They're very fast
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However, they're a little bit smoother and quieter in operation. So as we're going to see, both adapting to Canon for video
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and then also on Sony, you're going to see that there is a little bit extra noise that comes with that
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Let's look at Canon first. So as you can see, focus pulls here are actually fairly good
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They're fairly confident, not a whole lot of pulsing or settling. And you can hear some noise with an onboard mic, but it's not overwhelming
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Let's take a look at Sony now. So as you can see, there's a definite difference in the quality of video performance on Sony as
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opposed to Canon. And so you actually get a better performance in my experience on Canon
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a little bit more native-like in that focus pulls are smoother and quieter in operation
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and so it seems like there's a little less adapting that needs to take place to the Canon
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approach than to the Sony approach. But beyond that, as you can see, other than the gimbal issues
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of such a big and heavy lens, this is a beautiful lens for video in terms of the sharpness and the
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quality of the footage that you can get. It really is a beautiful lens for that. So to sum things up
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the Sigma 40mm F1 art joins what I call the unconventional trinity First of all of course you know Sigma did produce the conventional trinity either if you look at it as a 35 50 millimeter and then either 85 or
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135, you get to take your pick with that. But if you're not tied into those traditional
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focal lengths and are looking for the Sigma lenses that are a cut above, I really think that Sigma's
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28 millimeter, 40 millimeter, and 105 millimeter represent their very best optical primes in the
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art series. And if you don't, again, if you don't mind the unconventional trinity, those I believe
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represent some of Sigma's most exceptional lenses that they have produced in the art series. They're
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just a cut above in terms of the specialness of the images, the quality of the performance. They
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are just, they're very good autofocusing lenses. They are a little bit more nicely built than the
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earlier art series lenses, and they have things like weather sealing, better autofocus performance
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with more torque and more focus accuracy. And then it's as if Sigma has managed to, in their pursuit
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of optical excellence in terms of resolution and contrast, and those lenses, I feel like they've
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done a better job of producing less sterile lenses and lenses that do produce images with
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some character, some real art and beauty to them. And so I actually prefer the 28 millimeter to the
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35 millimeter. I prefer this lens, the 40 millimeter to the 50 millimeter. And I definitely
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prefer the 105 millimeter to the 85 millimeter. And the 135 millimeter art is a very good lens as
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well. But if I were putting down the money, I would still take the 105 millimeter. Now, all of
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that being said, these are also the larger and more expensive options in the, you know, the either
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wide angle to medium telephoto options. And so there's your trade-off. You're paying more for
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them and they are physically larger. However, if that's not a deal breaker for you, I believe these
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represent Sigma's most exceptional lenses. And you know what? This is definitely one of them
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Now, one final point that I will make, a lot of you have had questions now that Sigma has released
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the 35mm f1.2 that I reviewed here for Sony. If you are a Sony shooter and only a Sony shooter
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I recommend that you go with the 35mm. For one thing, it is a little bit sharper in my test in
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the corners. Of course, realize I'm having to adapt the 40mm, but you're also going to get
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probably more importantly, a better autofocus performance because that is a focus system
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that's designed specifically for Sony. Now, if you are a hybrid shooter
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and that you shoot maybe both Canon and Sony, you know, the 40 millimeter
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is probably the most attractive option because you can then use it on two different systems
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But if you are solely a Sony shooter, then yeah, I would definitely take the 35 millimeter
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I think optically they're more similar than different. And in some ways, I think the 40 millimeter
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is ever so slightly more special in terms of the micro contrast, but they're both exceptional lenses. They're both very good
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and I would choose the lens that's designed for the system that I'm shooting, and so at the end
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of the day, I think that's a great consideration. Some of the other views have asked about the
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you know, the Tamron 35 millimeter f1.4, and that's a really hard call because it's also a
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very special lens. I'm not sure that it necessarily does anything better than what the Sigma does
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Bokeh may be ever so slightly better, but that's a subjective measure. The one thing that the Tamron
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does do, and that is that it has a much lower price point. And so if that's a big deal too
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I mean, you're basically talking about the difference between $900 and $1,400 in the US
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market. That's a significant difference. And so it might be something worth considering as well
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At the end of the day, we are really spoiled for choice at this point. There are so many
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exceptional lenses out there and certainly if you don't mind the size and the heft of this baby
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the Sigma 40 millimeter f1.4 art is pretty special. I'm Dustin Abbott and if you'll look in the
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description down below you can find linkage to my full text review. There's also linkage to the image
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gallery so you can look at more photos there. Beyond that there's buying links if you'd like
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to purchase one for yourself and linkage to follow me on social media to become a patron to sign up
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for my newsletter and of course you haven't already please click that subscribe button right here on

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Sigma 40mm F1.4 ART Review Part 2 | 4K

Dustin Abbott

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Sigma 40mm F1.4 ART Review Part 2 | 4K

Dustin Abbott