Sigma 85mm vs 135mm ART Comparison | Part 1

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you some visual comparisons here between
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the Sigma 85mm f1.4 art, the new Sigma 135mm f1.8 art, and then just as a visual representation
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of some other alternatives, or really another alternative, there's the Tamron 85mm f1.8
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VC lens. Also, just for the fun of it, here's a vintage 135mm, this is an f2.5 lens that I have
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and SMC Takumar. And so if you compare it, of course, visually, obviously we've come a long way
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in terms of the size of lenses. But of course, we've also come a long way optically as well
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The reason why I wanted to do some of these comparisons today is for the primary reason
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that many people who are looking for an 85 millimeter or a 135 millimeter lens
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they may be kind of cross-shopping back and forth. And so in a lot of ways, I think that perhaps the most direct competition
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to the new 135mm f1.8 art from Sigma is its own 85mm
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And so what I'm going to try to do in a couple of parts in this series
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is to give you some comparison both of the overall physical size
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but then also to give you some comparison when it comes to the overall optics
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And so in this first episode, we will quickly look at the overall build characteristics
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and comparisons there and then we'll also look at the overall resolution between the two lenses
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and then in a second part I'm going to give you both the look at the overall bokeh and rendering
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quality the difference between those two aspects of the lens design and then follow that up with
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some conclusions as to the strengths and weaknesses of each one hopefully that will help you in making
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a purchasing decision if you are cross-shopping these two lenses so in terms of the overall
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physical size as you can see these follow a pretty similar blueprint for the overall lens design and
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design philosophy they're so similar in fact that unless you were close enough to actually read
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what's mounted on the camera body you would probably need to mistake one for the other one
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physical difference is more about the lens hood and so the 85 millimeter has a pedal shaped hood
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whereas the 135 millimeter it has just a flat lens hood that has a little bit of a different
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physical design. It's also a little bit longer as you can see to help to shade a longer focal length
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and so looking at these two lenses physically there there's more similar than there is different
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although the 85 art its weight was not listed without any of the caps on my scale it comes out
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1138 grams if i put the um 135 art on my scale it comes out at 1138 grams or so exactly identical
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it's listed at 1130 but for me it weighs a little bit just a hair heavier than that that's right
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under two and a half pounds in overall weight for both of them and so in the overall length as you
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can see side by side here there is a little bit of difference in the overall length it's the
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the difference between 126 millimeters versus basically 115 millimeters. And so about a nine
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millimeter difference roughly overall. And so one is right under five inches and the other
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is a little over four and a half inches. And so there's a little bit of difference there
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There's also a little bit greater diameter of the 85 art and it is 3.73 inches around
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or right under 95 millimeters compared to 3.6 inches or 91.4 millimeters they both also take
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different filter thread sizes the 85 art is a relatively uncommon 86 millimeters whereas the 135 art is a large but more common 82 millimeter front filter thread
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Both of them have nine rounded aperture blades. We'll take a look at aperture as a part of our second episode
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And they both can focus down to pretty close to the same distance
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The 85 art focuses down to 85 centimeters, whereas the 135 art will focus down to 87.5 centimeters
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Now, while that's quite close, because of the difference in the focal length, the reproduction value is quite different between the two
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And so the 85 art has a rather poor 0.12 times magnification
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while the 135 art has a much more useful 0.20 times or a 1 to 5 reproduction ratio
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And so that's certainly useful. The 135 art is a little less complex, 13 elements in 10 groups
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The 85 art is 14 elements in 12 groups. And so a few subtle differences there in the overall design
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and so if you ask is one smaller than the other yes 135 millimeter it is technically smaller but
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not in a meaningful way it's not really going to change things one way or another in terms of
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balance or size or storage they basically come out to being pretty much the same and in fact
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if you were to mount the lens hood on both of them you'll find that they actually end up being
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almost identical in their overall length because of the slightly longer lens hood on the 135. And
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with the lens hood mounted, if you were to, I mean, other than the physical shape there, they're very
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very similar in size overall. So let's take it a step further, however, and let's look how that
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how that they compare optically, because obviously that's a huge point of consideration. And so we'll
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take a look in the lab and see how the resolution is between these two lenses. All right. First
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things first is we'll take a look at the overall sharpness for the lens. First, let's just take a
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look on an absolute level. And so as we look towards the center of the frame, we see nothing
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to complain about. Excellent sharpness there at f1.8. Looking towards the left side, we also see
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good sharpness overall. So that's right out to the edge of the frame. And so we see that on both
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sides, we've got a very good sharpness as we look at it. Other things to note in this kind of
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comparison is that we can see chromatic aberrations are nice and low even towards the edges of the
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frame, something that is very, very well controlled on this particular lens. One of the chief
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competitors to the 135 art is really the 85 art, and there will be a lot of people that are debating
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between these two lenses. So here's a look at the overall global rendering from both lenses. We see
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that in both cases really at wide open vignette is quite well handled on both of these. I just
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want to point out this edge of the frame. This is still really quite bright. The top area
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it's kind of in shadow, so it doesn't necessarily give a full indication. But you can tell looking
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towards the edge of the frame here that really the vignette is quite well controlled, a strength
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for both of these lenses. Now, if we look towards the center of the frame, there's a couple of
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things to note. First of all, I would say that in an absolute sense, the 85 art is a little bit
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sharper. However, you're going to find that in a real world application, I think that you're going
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to actually have a perceived better resolution from the 135 art for this reason right here
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that there is in fact some chromatic aberration that is there and you can see both purple fringing
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along with green fringing. And I know from practical experience having reviewed the 85 art
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that once you correct for that chromatic aberration, you lose a bit of the contrast and thus a bit of the apparent resolution
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And so while the 85 art, probably on a chart test, is going to seem a little bit sharper
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I think that in the real world, the 135 art is going to be your slight winner in terms of apparent look
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Similarly here, again, absolute resolution. You can tell for example here in these textures a little bit better on the 85 art a little bit maybe better definition like on the 8 here but again the chromatic aberration is going to impact that overall sharpness and so here similar thing a story on
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the right side of the image bottom line though is that both of these lenses are producing really
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stunning amounts of resolution so it's not a problem for either of them so if we stop both
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lens is down to f2 now we're going to see that really the story is changes only slightly and
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the change is really that at f2 a lot of the chromatic aberration is starting to leave the 85
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art and so here it's because it has a bit more contrast now we're going to find that the overall
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the resolution is well but again both lenses are exceptional here but i would say that there's a
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bit more resolution here in the center on the 85 millimeter lens. Moving out towards the side of
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the frame, you can see a bit of lingering chromatic aberration here, but at the same time, you can also
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see some crisper detail rendering on the 85 art. And then if we move over to the opposite side of
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the frame and we look here, we're going to see a similar type story that here we are at equal
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settings in terms of the aperture and the shutter speed but overall there's a little bit probably
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better contrast and resolution on the 85 so we'll take it one deeper here's at f2.8 uh now at f2.8
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you know maybe still a slight edge for the 85 art but both of these lenses are producing just
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stunning amounts of resolution so there's nothing to be concerned about there at f2.8 the chromatic
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aberration is basically gone on the 85 art and so it just really has a lot more has a lot of pop
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there and thus I think it looks maybe just a hair better than the 135 art but at the same time you
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know if we look overall here on the right side I would say there's an edge going to the 135 both
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these lenses I mean great resolution nothing to complain about so just for comparison sake here's
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look at both at f 2.8 a comparison with the new Tamron 70 to 200 g2 now to get similar framing
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here I've got the Tamron which has some focus breathing that's covered in another episode
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covering that I set this at 158 millimeters to give us about the same focal length so we can see
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at the center of the frame there is a slight resolution edge for the 135 art it's not major
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but I do see a little bit better contrast and a little sharper and a few key details there
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And so both lenses look good, but the 135 looks better. And so here towards the edge of the frame
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the Tamron, its strength really is that it is very consistent across the frame. And so
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I would say the situation is reversed with a little bit of an edge for the zoom lens here
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towards the left edge of the frame. If we look on the right side of the frame, however, both
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these lenses are very very close and if anything I would say there's a very slight edge for the 135
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Okay just for the fun of it we'll do one more comparison. This is against the Tamron 85 f1.8
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VC. They have the same maximum aperture so I thought it'd be interesting to compare them
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Here in the center of the frame resolution wise we are basically pretty much equal. However there
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is a bit more chromatic aberration. It's not much but there's a bit more on the Tamron
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compared to the Sigma here. And so as a result, I slightly favor the look from the 135 art
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Now towards the edge of the frame, you're going to see here that the Tamron is more impacted by
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vignette. It vignettes more heavily than what the Sigma does. Resolution wise, I definitely give an
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edge to the 135 art there on the left side. Looking over at the right side, I'm going to say
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it's a similar result from both lenses, but you know, if anything, there is the slightest of edges
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going to the Sigma in that it has just a little bit more definition here, a little bit more
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three-dimensional rendering in that area. And of course, a little bit less chromatic
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aberration right there at that point Pretty close overall but 135 has definitely got a bit of an advantage all right another comparison i wanted to quickly look at is just in terms of the overall light
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transmission so uh we already the the tamron 85 f1.8 has been tested and found to have a light
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transmission of f2 and or a t2 in terms of the the light transmission i would say that while i
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I expect the 135 f1.8 to have a rating of T2 because they are introducing a cinema version of the lens
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that has a T2, T-stop rating of two. And so I expect it's gonna be rated the same
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However, I do think that the light transmission is a hair better from the new Sigma Art lens
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compared to the Tamron 85 VC. So anyway, just another metric to take a quick look at
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Now, if we look at some real world sharpness results here, f1.8 and you know my kitty here in good light as you can see I mean just a fantastic amount of
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resolution there at our plane of focus and real world this is I mean that's fabulous look at all
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of those fine hairs that are rendered there and that's right out towards the edge of the frame
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a very very very strong result and so resolution is fantastic from this lens here is another
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portrait type image and so this just gives you an idea. You can see very clear definition there at
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the eyes there and so there's just a crop looking at that and as much resolution as any of your
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subjects are going to want. Another example here and so you can see overall rendering no processing
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here on that particular shot and here is a crop of the eye and in this case we are looking at an
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f 2.8 aperture value here and so you can see you know f 1.8 at 135 millimeters for head and shoulders is really
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it's it's too shallow that you can have an application for full-length body
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portraits environmentally but you're going to want to stop down in a studio type setting
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but you can see plenty of resolution for that. So you can see from our tests that
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both of these are extremely sharp lenses lenses that hold up well against other competition and it's only really when
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compared to each other that we see a little bit of a subtle difference. And so I would say in an
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absolute sense, in a chart lab type testing scenario, the 85R is probably going to come
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across as being ever so slightly sharper than the 135 millimeter. That being said, the 135
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millimeter exhibits less chromatic aberration. And in my experience says that when you correct
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for the chromatic aberration in real world shooting situations with the 85R, you lose a bit
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contrast enough so that the tamron although it's not as sharp as the 85 art it actually comes out
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to being about equal and with a bit more contrast because it has lower chromatic aberration good
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news for the 135 art is that your real world resolution is going to be excellent as we can see
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from looking at these real world shots that there is a great deal of sharpness there and so i would
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say you can eliminate resolution as a buying choice both of these lenses are going to be as
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sharp as you would ever need them to be and they are able to handle really the high highest in
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resolution dslr bodies that are available right now and so and when it comes to the basic optical
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performance both of them are excellent overall so in our next episode we'll take a look at the
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overall bokeh and rendering performance and see which one of these stacks up as being the better
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portrait option for you if that's what you're looking for. I'm Dustin Abbott. If you'll take
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a look in the description down below, you can find linkage to the ongoing image gallery. I'll also
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throw a link there to my full reviews of the 85 art if you missed those. And of course, there'll
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be some buying links for both of these lenses if you would like to shop for yourself. Thanks as
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always for your support. And if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button

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Sigma 85mm vs 135mm ART Comparison | Part 1

Dustin Abbott