Sigma 45mm F2.8 for Sony FE: IQ Breakdown | 4K

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here to give you a look at the image quality from the new
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Sigma 45mm f2.8, and this is a DG, which means it's for full frame, but it's also DN, which
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means that it is for mirrorless. And so this is actually a Sony FE full frame mirrorless that I'm
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looking at. There's a Leica version as well, but I'll be doing this review on a Sony A7R Mark III
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so a 42 megapixel sensor. So in my first look, which I recommend that you take a look at if you
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haven't already, we took a look at the build and the design, and there is really nothing but good
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to come out of that. This is a feature-rich lens that is a little bit of a departure in terms of
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its design and its look, and it's got, I would say that the most similar look that I could
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ascribe to this, it actually kind of reminds me of some of the cine versions of the little
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Samyang lenses in that it's got, you know, it's got a focus ring that is ribbed, but it kind of
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stands out. And it's also got an aperture ring that stands out in a similar way. It almost looks
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like it's designed to be geared in a little bit. And so kind of a classic look, but a lot of good
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things, a lot of metal in the construction. And so really, really nice and also extremely compact
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Now, as we go on today, however, and take a look at the image quality, I actually, and by the way
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I'm actually filming on a second copy of this lens right now for the simple reason that I had Sigma send me a second copy
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and so I could verify the results that I was getting because it's a somewhat un-Sigma type lens
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in terms of its performance profile. And so I wanted to make sure that I was getting accurate results
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before I reported back to you. And so I'll explain a little bit more in my summation
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at the end of the looking at the images themselves. But first of all, let's jump in
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and let's take a look at what we find, when we break down the image quality
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from the 45 millimeter F2.8. So the first thing that we can see
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is that the image on the right is actually what you will typically see
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on import into your favorite software because the Sigma does come with embedded profiles
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And so even in the raw file, it will automatically select the appropriate profile
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I had to manually deselect that profile to give us the image on the right
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or the left, I should say, that gives us a little bit more look at some of the imperfections here
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And so what you can see is that there definitely is some pin cushion distortion, which you can see curving down there
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You can also see some vignette along the edges. This is the image that you're going to see upon correction
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And you can see that you do lose a little bit of the image
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If we look here on the left, you can see that, you know, you're losing, you know, a millimeter or two of width here
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along the edge in the correction process. Now this is an advantage over the Samyang AF 45 millimeter
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F1.8 because it doesn't arrive into Lightroom in the raw form with any kind of embedded profile
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In fact, there really isn't a profile yet that I have found
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Now what you can see on the right, it's actually the same image. This is the JPEG version
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And so you can see that the JPEG does receive some correction. You can see that the vignette has been corrected somewhat
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And also in this case, there's actually not pin cushion, there's a little bit of barrel distortion
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and you can see that that's been corrected there. But the RAW file is not going to receive correction
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That being said, there's not a whole lot there that requires correction
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So if we compare those two JPEG images, now we have the JPEG out of camera
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from the Sigma and the Samyang on the right. What we're going to find is
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first of all, looking at the center, You can see that even at F1.8 versus F2.8
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that the Samyang has considerably more resolution and contrast. There's kind of a bit of a haze over the textures
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a veiling that reduces contrast, whereas the Samyang looks nice and strong
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If we move towards the edge of the frame, we find that it is similarly true there
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that the Samyang is definitely sharper at F1.8 than what the Sigma is at F2.8 in the center
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Now if we stop the Samyang down to F2.8, obviously the difference becomes even more marked
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You can see that there is tremendously more sharpness and contrast on the Samyang in the center of the frame
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and moving off towards the edge of the frame. We can see that the same is true there
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It's not as marked a difference in the corners, but there's definitely a strong difference in contrast
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in the edges of the frame. If we look up here towards this corner
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we can see that the Samyang's a little bit softer up in this corner
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And finally, let's look down in the lower left, and here the Samyang has an edge once again Now fortunately the Samyang takes a big leap forward at F4 compared to F2 Now we back to looking at a raw file here You can see that it night and day from F2 to F4
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That's good news for sure. And if we look down into the corner of the frame
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even the corners are sharpening up here at F4. On down to F5.6, we see that the corners
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are nice and crisp now, and so that we have good solid resolution
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and contrast across the frame. If we check back in with the Samyang, we find that it too is impressively sharp in the center of the frame
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I can't really call a winner between those two. There might be the mildest edge for the Samyang, but without seeing them side by side, I don't think you would see a difference
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And looking in terms of the edge performance, it's pretty much similar
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Again, maybe the slightest edge for Samyang, but nothing significant, you know, for all intents and purposes
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They are roughly equal in the corners now. Now minimum aperture is f22 and so looking center of the frame on both these lenses we see that
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diffraction has softened both of them up somewhat. Samyang has survived a little bit better at f22
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and looking off into the corners you know there's not a whole lot of difference in the corners
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neither looks great at f22. Now because I was a little unsure of the results that I was getting
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from the Sigma at f2.8. I actually had Sigma send me a second copy and so I could compare the two
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and so however what I found is that the results were not remarkably different between the two
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and so you can see left copy and right copy. The right maybe looks a little bit sharper
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and looking off into the corner you know maybe the slightest bit but it's that's just pretty
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much typical copies, you know, variation. It does look a little bit better here on the right. And so
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anyway, that just gives you an idea. There is a little bit of sample variation, but for the most
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part, they are more similar than different. So after doing some research to try to figure out
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what's going on here, I discovered that even the lens designers attest to the fact that the lens
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is not particularly sharp up close. And so if we look at the image here on the left, you can see
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that here near minimum focus distance it really is quite soft, very low contrast and that it's
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kind of optimized for the bokeh rendering and not so much for sharpness. So we've got same shutter
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speed, same aperture. Now if we look over here on the right side and this is at you know a distance
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of more like 10 to 12 feet we can see that we've got a much sharper looking result here and so
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It's a unique lens. It doesn't have any floating elements. And so byproduct is that although it can focus down quite closely
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it's actually not very sharp up close, and you need to be out a little ways before it sharpens up
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We'll explore that a little bit more here. And so shooting now indoors in easily controlled lighting for consistency's sake
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So what we're going to find is, first of all, the tripod is set up at the same distance
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and both of these lenses are basically the same length. And so what you're seeing here is that at least at close focus distances, there is a variance in the actual focal length
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And we're going to find that that's true also compared to a zoom set near 45 millimeters
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And so byproduct is that either there's some focus breathing taking place with the Sigma or it's a little bit shy of the actual stated focal length
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But again, looking at with both lenses wide open here compared to the Samyang, you can see that number one, the Samyang definitely closes in much closer
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And we're going to see that Samyang is closer to the actual focal length when compared to the zoom lens
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You can see there's a huge difference in the amount of contrast and clarity of the Samyang, even though it's at f1.8
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So if you're going to shoot up close, you really need to stop the lens down because again
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there's a massive difference between f2.8 and f4. So this is Sigma on both sides and you can see
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that the f4 result is night and day. And so if you're looking for priority of sharpness, you need
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to go f4. Now the downside of course, to this approach is, is that the stated priority in the
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lens design is smooth bokeh rendering. So if you stop it down, obviously you lose some of the
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creaminess of the bokeh. And so there's more contrast that enters into the out of focus area
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and it's just not as soft and creamy. And so it is a little bit of an optical challenge here
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because you lose some of the benefit of the lens when you stop it down to gain another benefit
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So with both lenses stopped down to f4 here, we can see that the Sigma is every bit as sharp as what the Samyang is
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and arguably even a hair sharper. However looking at the defocus region I think you would be hard pressed to say that the Sigma is any softer than what the Samyang is on the right So I got the popular Tamron 28 f2 zoom lens so I wanted to see how
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it compared. So note that it's set at 44mm, it's set on the exact same tripod, and as you can see
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it frames much tighter than what the Sigma does. And so again, you know, that variance in focal
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length and or focus breathing. We can also see at f2.8 that the Tamron kind of blows the Sigma away
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in terms of the resolution and contrast there up close, close focus performance. Now looking at the
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out of focus area, I do think that the Tamron, or excuse me, the Sigma is a little bit softer in
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this area here when you compare the two. And so it does live up to its, you know, its purpose
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at wide open apertures. So with both lenses at f4, you know, they're both pretty much equally sharp
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You know, the Tamron is obviously really, really good for a zoom lens. And so it's super sharp here
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Looking at the defocused area again, you know, once the lens is stopped down so much, it kind
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of loses some of that advantage in terms of the softness of the bokeh. And so, you know
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it's kind of a catch 22. So if we move things out a little bit, this is now at a six foot focus
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difference. So, you know, right under two meters. Now we can see that once you start to get away
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from that close focus area, sharpness definitely picks up. And so now what we have got is pretty
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much parity between the two in terms of the sharpness. And so here is where the Sigma does
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have some advantage because you can definitely see that the bokeh here does look softer and less
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busy than what it does on the Tamron. And so that's really the true advantage is not at minimum
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focus for close focus work. The advantage here is more when you're shooting at medium to further
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distances because you get the advantage of the softer bokeh rendering, but you also get some
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sharpness on your subject. Now, if we compare the Samyang here and take a look at how it performs
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Samyang actually looks a little bit better here at f2.8, and so it's a little bit crisper
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a little bit better contrast here. However, let's look at the bokeh rendering, and it's not as busy
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is what the zoom lens was, but I still think that the Sigma delivers the softer performance there
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in the out-of-focus region. Looking at this here, it's less of an advantage for Sigma here. This is
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you know, at a little bit different focus distances, a little bit softer maybe on the Samyang. One other
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thing to note is that the framing is now pretty close to being equal, and so maybe it is a little
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bit more of a case of focus breathing when it comes to the up-close focus performance. So let's
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take a look at one more example here with the difference between the contrast and resolution
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and then the bokeh. So you can see here at f2.8, as we've come to expect at close focus distances
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there's no doubt which has the better contrast and resolution. Looking at the defocused area
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I would say I think the Sigma is a little bit smoother looking. However, it's not vastly
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different than that of the Samyang. And here's the other thing to consider. With the Samyang
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you have the option of opening the aperture up to F1.8. And so as you can see, now the Samyang
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I would argue, has the softer blur in the background. And even at F1.8, it does retain
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an advantage in sharpness and contrast over that of the Sigma. So here's a look at two copies
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the two different copies of the Sigma 45 millimeter. And so looking at a close focus result here
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not a whole lot of difference. They both handle it pretty much the same. Looking at the defocused area here
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it also looks about the same. And so a performance being fairly consistent
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between these two copies. Now, if we throw the Samyang into the mix, you can see the Samyang, you know
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has a little bit more contrast here on our subjects here. And then looking at the defocused area
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The, definitely this circle is a little bit smoother and less busy than what the Samyang is
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And so, you know, that's again, that's the selling point for the Sigma. So there's definitely right and wrong ways to use this lens
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Or I should say at the very least, it depends on this lens is for certain people with certain priorities
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And so I like to shoot a lot of this kind of shot, you know, at a fairly close focus distance to throw out a background
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That's kind of the advantage to shooting with a prime to me. And so it's not great for this kind of shot because it isn't particularly sharp
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And so it does have nice bokeh rendering. But if you prioritize having both sharpness and then also nice bokeh, it doesn't quite give you that mix
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However, if your shooting style shoots a little bit further out, you can see here that we got really nice looking resolution and contrast at f2 along with a nice bokeh background you background You not going to get as much background blur but maybe you like you know shooting images that look a little bit
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more like this and you shoot from, you know, medium to further out distance. It might be a
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good choice for you there. If you stop the lens down to landscape type apertures, there's no worries
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It's got lots of resolution, contrast looks fine. It's not record breaking, but you know, it's going
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to deliver really good looking images. No problem there. Here's another example here. Colors look
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good to me. Contrast looks good. And you can see in the plane of focus, very, very crisp delineation
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of details. Everything is holding up quite well. Finally, let's look at a couple of portrait type
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shots. And so you can see here, shooting at portrait distances, there's enough detail there
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The background is, you know, nicely defocused. It doesn't have anything near what we just saw with the Otis in the same kind of setting
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but at the same time, it delivers good-looking results. One last result
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This is actually at f4, and so you can see if we look at the subject, we've got a nice
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detail there. Not mind-blowing detail, but if your priority is good-looking skin tones and you don't need
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as much resolution as what some lenses provide, then everything looks good there
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The fall off looks good on the image, color rendition, everything looks pretty solid here
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So as you can see, this lens certainly has a very unique design philosophy and a very unique profile
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And so if you're looking at an f2.8 prime lens and looking at it primarily from the perspective of being able to get a sharper result than what you can with a zoom
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as we saw when we compared it to the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, that's simply not the case
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I don't think that there's any way to split it to say that this is the sharper lens of the two. It's not
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Where the advantage comes in, of course, is that this is a lens that is optimized more for the bokeh rendering
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In fact, it's kind of the polar opposite of my typical look at a Sigma type lens
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Sigma lenses, for the most part, are optimized towards very high, you know, sharpness resolution profiles at wide apertures
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and you know if there's anything that's left out sometimes it feels like the rendering is kind of
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the afterthought. It's like the opposite in this case. It's skewed all the way towards the other
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perspective that at wide apertures this lens is not particularly sharp and it's more prioritized
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for producing soft bokeh rendering. In fact in many ways I'm most reminded out of you know I've
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reviewed lots of lenses many dozens of lenses over the years and and so the lens I'm actually
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most reminded of is when I reviewed the classic Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4 in that that lens is not
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particularly sharp wide open. You get sharp when stopped down, much like this lens, but its priority
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more is a really nice soft bokeh rendering. And so in many ways, this lens has more of a classic
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lens and even not just, you know, Zeiss classic, but I'm talking about classic in terms of film era
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lenses and that it's kind of optimized in the same sort of ways. So at the end of the day
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of course, this is not going to be a lens for everyone. If your priority is, you know
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you're buying a prime lens to be able to get really, really crisp results at wide apertures
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or particularly if you like to get close to subjects and throw backgrounds out
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as I explained that I like to do, this is not a lens for you. However, if your shooting priorities
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are a little bit different, it might work just fine for you. At the end of the day
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it's going to come down to what kind of shooter you are and what you're shooting priorities
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what you value in images. And so of course it is a little bit complicated when you consider that
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the Samyang runs a couple hundred dollars cheaper and no matter how you slice it, it is the sharper
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lens of the two. So stay tuned for my final episode where I'll wrap everything up and we'll
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take a look at a few other things as a part of that. I'll give you a little bit more look at some images not shown here. We'll also take a look at video performance, take a look at
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auto-focus performance, and kind of wrap everything up and maybe give you a little bit more
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recommendation about who the lens is for and who it is not for. In the meantime, however
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you can look at the description down below. Take a look at the image gallery, this link there. I find
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often looking at images from a lens kind of gives you a sense of whether or not you like the
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rendering from it, and so that's certainly worth doing. You also have options there to purchase one
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if you would like to get one for yourself, and of course, there are the typical links to follow me
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on social media to become a patron and get advanced screenings of upcoming content before
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anybody else. Also, you can sign up for my newsletter and make sure you stay up on all
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the action. And of course, if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day

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Sigma 45mm F2.8 for Sony FE: IQ Breakdown | 4K

Dustin Abbott