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Sirui Aurora 85 F1.4 vs Sigma 85 F1.4 DN | Is the Value Option Enough?
Jan 3, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of the new budget Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 in a direct comparison with the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN. Which is worth your money? | This video is sponsored by Fantom Wallet. Visit https://store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 to get 20% off | Visit the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/SirVSig85
Aurora Reviews: Video Review https://tinyurl.com/Auroa85Vid | Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/Aurora85DA
Sigma Reviews: Video Review https://bit.ly/85DNDef | Text Review https://bit.ly/85DNReview
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Table of Contents:
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0:00
[Music]
0:06
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
for another one of my comparison videos
0:14
it feels like I have compared this Sigma
0:17
885mm f1.4 DN to well basically every
0:22
885mm lens that has been launched since
0:25
the point that it was released back in
0:27
2020 but it kind of remains the overall
0:30
kind of standard to me in terms of its
0:33
basic performance um it I think is is a
0:36
really great mix between being a premium
0:38
lens with a high performance but also
0:40
having having a moderately reasonable
0:43
price um you know that will fall
0:45
anywhere between you know $1,000 or a
0:48
little less up to about $1,200 whereas
0:51
obviously the top comp competition from
0:53
Sony is going to run you more in the
0:55
$2,000 range at the same time however
0:59
sir's Aurora series of fullframe lenses
1:02
has kicked off with a very well-received
1:04
uh CRI Aurora 885mm
1:07
f1.4 and very likely you've seen some
1:10
very positive reviews of this particular
1:12
lens from myself and from many other
1:14
reviewers out there now I will say that
1:17
probably the most logical comparison in
1:19
terms of price for the sirai is going to
1:22
be the samyang or roon 885mm f1.4 Series
1:27
2 lens that is just a little bit more
1:30
expensive unfortunately I don't have
1:32
that lens and I don't have access to it
1:34
whereas I do own the Sigma lens and so
1:37
while this isn't maybe the most Apples
1:39
to Apples comparison uh it's what I have
1:42
and it will show you how that it stands
1:44
up against a very wellestablished
1:46
Benchmark at this point and should I
1:48
ever get an opportunity to compare the
1:51
samyang with it in the future and I have
1:54
time I might do that as well but anyway
1:57
today you get what I have and so we're
1:59
going to dive in and look at some
2:02
comparisons in terms of similarities
2:04
we're also going to take a look at um
2:07
you know reasons to choose one lens over
2:09
the other and I'll give you a conclusion
2:11
there at the end now if you want a deep
2:13
dive into the optical performance
2:15
between the two I'll also do that at the
2:17
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ready to check
3:04
out let's start however by taking a look
3:07
at what is similar between these two
3:09
lenses obviously they share the
3:10
identical focal length and maximum
3:13
aperture value 85 mm f1.4 they have a
3:17
mostly similar feature set they both
3:20
have the option to click and declip the
3:22
aperture they both have a customizable
3:25
or function button they both have an AF
3:28
MF switch they both both have weather
3:30
ceiling they both come with a lens Hood
3:33
they both come with a padded case of
3:36
some kind and so in many ways they have
3:39
a similar feature set they have the same
3:42
rated magnification level of 0.12 times
3:45
and the same stated U minimum Focus
3:48
distance so let's talk talk first about
3:50
some reasons to choose the sigma the
3:52
lens that probably you're familiar with
3:54
at this point if you've been following
3:56
my channel now there is one feature that
3:59
is present on the Sigma that isn't
4:00
present on the Aurora lens and that is
4:03
that there is an iris lock that gives
4:05
you the option to either lock into or
4:07
out of the manual aperture range you'll
4:11
also find that in the as you if you
4:14
stick around for the Deep dive into the
4:15
comparison of optical performance this
4:17
lens is definitely higher contrast
4:19
particularly when you're talking about
4:21
larger aperture values like f1.4 F2 but
4:25
I would say overall in general it is the
4:27
higher contrast lens it is also a the
4:30
sharper of the two it's more
4:31
consistently sharp across the frame and
4:34
I would say that that's true even when
4:36
stop down I would say it's also sharper
4:38
when it comes to its performance at
4:41
varying Focus distances I found that the
4:43
Aurora lens is De definitely optimized
4:46
for the portrait range and it's quite
4:48
good there it's not as good closeup it's
4:50
not as good at Infinity whereas the
4:53
sigma delivers a good consistent
4:55
performance at all tested Focus
4:57
distances another advantage for the um
5:01
the Sigma lens is that when it comes to
5:03
Stills at least you do have faster
5:05
autofocus it's not by any kind of large
5:07
margin but it will focus just a little
5:09
bit quicker and a little bit more
5:11
confidently they both have STM style
5:14
Focus Motors but Sigma has been doing
5:16
this a little bit longer and it shows a
5:18
little bit more in the performance the
5:20
sigma also has better up close
5:22
performance and so while they're rated
5:25
for the same Focus distance what I found
5:28
is that the sigma at close focuses
5:31
distance it actually frames a little bit
5:33
tighter and I would say that even at
5:34
medium Focus distances it frames a
5:36
little bit tighter I suspect the sigma
5:38
might be a little bit more like 86
5:40
millim for example whereas the Aurora is
5:43
probably pretty close to 85 millim so
5:45
that means that it does even though they
5:47
can focus the same minimum distance the
5:51
that extra little bit maybe of focal
5:52
length means that the magnification is a
5:54
little bit higher from the Sigma lens
5:57
and also definitely the contrast in the
6:00
detail up close favors the sigma the
6:02
Aurora as mentioned before it's kind of
6:04
optimized for a certain range and so
6:06
that's not necessarily the place where
6:07
it is particularly strong I also feel
6:10
like the sigma has a richer color the
6:13
Aurora has an interesting look and I'll
6:15
get to that when I cover some strengths
6:17
for it but I would say as far as the
6:19
overall richness of color and thus the
6:22
look of images I personally favor what
6:24
the sigma can do the sigma also has
6:26
slightly less fringing neither of these
6:28
are bad but the sigma is a little bit
6:31
better I also found in the overall
6:33
sharpness comparison that I felt like
6:35
the sigma was a little bit better
6:37
centered than what my copy of the Aurora
6:40
was the Aurora seems to be quite good on
6:42
the right side and not as good on the
6:44
left side whereas the sigma results are
6:46
very consistent across the frame and I
6:47
will note with the sigma that's after
6:49
four years of you know fairly routine
6:52
use and so it has kept it centering up
6:54
over that time so I would say that the
6:57
sigma is the winner if you're looking
6:59
for a higher contrast more deeply
7:02
saturated kind of a typical premium look
7:05
and uh you're less interested in a more
7:07
of a cinematic look which is what I
7:09
think the Aurora provides which we'll
7:10
get to now so reasons to choose the
7:13
sirai Aurora instead well the first of
7:16
all of those is price if you're just
7:17
looking at the MSRP the MSRP on the
7:20
Aurora is
7:23
$599 the sigma is
7:25
$1,199 now the current price and it's
7:28
the holiday season and so Aurora has
7:31
started or sirai started off with the
7:32
Aurora lens with kind of a early bird
7:35
discount to where you can get it $100
7:37
off at
7:38
$499 right now the sigma is also
7:40
discounted for the holidays for
7:43
$949 so $250 off and so you know there's
7:47
a big difference at Mrs MSRP and there's
7:49
a difference even when the two lenses
7:51
are on sale the weight Advantage also
7:55
favors the SI lens the uh Sigma lens is
7:58
62 25 G whereas the sirai is 540 G sirai
8:04
also has um more aperture blades it's
8:06
got 15 rounded blades compared to 11
8:09
rounded blades if you're looking to
8:11
filter share and you have the very very
8:14
common I would say most common filter
8:16
thread of 67 mm obviously all almost all
8:20
the Tamron lenses have that and a wide
8:22
variety of lenses do including some of
8:24
the GM f1.4 options and so if you're
8:27
looking for a very sharable filter that
8:30
67 mm front filter thread is on the
8:33
Aurora lens whereas the sigma is a still
8:36
common but larger 77 mm surprisingly I
8:41
actually found that it was the searide
8:43
that was able to have faster video Focus
8:46
pools both of them don't show an
8:48
absolute like first-party level of
8:51
confidence when it comes to those Focus
8:53
pools but definitely the uh the sigma's
8:56
look is kind of a slower more damped
8:58
look whereas the Aurora is just more
9:01
rapid it's tuned for uh for greater kind
9:04
of quickness and going back and forth
9:06
and it really kind of depends on what
9:07
your preference is going to be one
9:10
advantage right now if you happen to buy
9:12
directly from Siri is that they're
9:13
actually shipping the Aurora lens with
9:16
included two filters one of those is
9:18
kind of a standard uv/ protection filter
9:21
and then also there's a black mist
9:22
filter which can be very useful for kind
9:24
of cinematic type looks and so that can
9:26
be an extra bonus that increases the
9:28
value of the SRI Aurora lens even higher
9:33
one other area of strength which is kind
9:35
of surprising to me considering the
9:36
smaller front filter and thus smaller
9:39
diameter of the lens is the fact that
9:42
not only does this have lower Distortion
9:44
compared to the sigma definitely a
9:46
weakness for the sigma but it also has
9:48
less vignette as well and so if you're
9:51
looking for a lens that has less kind of
9:53
direct Optical flaws in these two
9:55
categories that would be the Aurora lens
9:57
I also found that the Aur delivered
10:00
rounder specular highlights when both
10:02
lenses are wide open at
10:04
f1.4 and so this is the winner if you're
10:07
looking for a lower contrast more
10:10
cinematic looking result if you're a
10:12
Sony shooter to me it the look of the
10:14
lens it's rendering kind of reminds me
10:17
of shooting in cotone where it's just
10:20
feels like slightly raised sh Shadows
10:22
not quite as deep contrast and slightly
10:25
softer looking bokeh and and so if
10:27
that's kind of the look that you really
10:29
like then I think you're going to quite
10:32
like the images that the Aurora can
10:34
produce so my conclusion is this the
10:37
sirai Aurora 885mm f1.4 it's a lot of
10:40
lens for the money and I gave it an
10:42
honorable mention in my uh recent da
10:45
Awards because I was really impressed by
10:47
how much lens you were getting here for
10:50
the amount of money and the fact that
10:51
really you can produce gorgeous images
10:53
with a fullframe 885mm f1.4 lens that
10:56
you can get right now for 500 bucks
10:59
that's pretty amazing I would say as far
11:01
as taste I personally prefer the results
11:04
I can get from the sigma I do feel that
11:06
the sigma still feels like the Better
11:08
Built lens and the sirai is nice but
11:11
there's something about it that just
11:12
feels a little bit more plasticky
11:14
compared to the Sigma lens and some of
11:16
that even comes down to the lens Hood
11:18
which feels a little bit more robust on
11:20
the Sigma lens obviously sigma's got a
11:22
formula that they have been you know
11:24
sticking with for a while and they do it
11:27
well so while I further looks from the
11:30
the sigma I think I could live with the
11:32
Siri and if I was on a tighter budget
11:34
and I had to choose between the two and
11:36
maybe affording this lens and then
11:38
another lens as well uh for the same
11:41
money I might be le you know lean
11:43
towards going that way particularly if
11:44
85 MIM is not a focal length that you
11:47
happen to reach for every day I still
11:49
think that the sigma probably strikes
11:51
the best balance between high-end
11:53
performance in price but the fact that
11:55
it cost twice as much is the sirai
11:58
obviously is going going to be a a
12:00
determining factor for a lot of people
12:03
and that is completely understandable so
12:06
at the end of the day as is often the
12:07
case with modern lenses is that there's
12:10
not necessarily an out andout obvious
12:12
winner it really is what lens suits your
12:15
needs the best and if you're still not
12:17
sure about that that well there's all
12:20
either linkage to the the full text or
12:22
video reviews of both of these lenses in
12:24
the description or you can stay tuned
12:26
with me right now and we'll look at them
12:28
head-to-head in an Optical comparison
12:30
all right we're going to start by taking
12:31
a look at vignette and Distortion now
12:33
for these series of comparisons I'm
12:34
going to keep the sigma on the left the
12:36
sirai on the right you can see that the
12:39
sigma and its long-standing weakness has
12:41
been is that it has an unusually high
12:43
amount of pin cushion Distortion for an
12:45
85mm lens and it remains I think
12:48
probably the worst that I've seen to
12:49
this point so you can see there's a
12:51
significant amount of pin cushion
12:52
Distortion it requires about in a minus
12:54
11 or min-2 to correct now the Siri has
12:57
a similar problem
12:59
but not to the same degree whereas here
13:02
it's about a minus 7 to correct so a
13:04
significantly less amount likewise when
13:07
it comes to the vignette you can see
13:08
quite a concentrated amount of vignette
13:10
in the corners on the sigma's image
13:13
whereas the C is much lighter and you
13:15
can see there's a more natural
13:17
gradiation towards the center of the
13:19
frame so much less of an issue for
13:21
correction all right so we'll take a
13:23
look at detail and contrast here and so
13:26
at f1.4 200% magnific and this is on 61
13:30
megapixels a7r Mark 5 now you can see
13:33
looking in the center of the frame that
13:35
the sigma has a very clear Advantage at
13:37
f1.4 and contrast and detail there's
13:40
just a lot more information that's there
13:42
if you look at this text it's much
13:44
sharper and crisper all the textures are
13:47
the same if we pull over here towards
13:49
the mid-frame result you can see again a
13:51
significant difference there we pop down
13:54
into the corner you can see the same
13:56
here that there's a decent amount of
13:59
information there as far as sharpness
14:01
but contrast is significantly lower if
14:03
we pop up into the upper left corner of
14:05
the frame we can see a similar result
14:08
here where it's just brighter better
14:10
detail it's just a win for Sigma all
14:12
around stopping down to F2 produces
14:15
quite a similar result we can see that
14:18
the sirai is improving some but not
14:21
anywhere near the level of the sigma
14:22
just look at all of this information
14:24
that's here that's just kind of dull
14:26
looking on the sirai result likewise in
14:29
this mid-frame result I would see
14:31
there's actually a better Improvement
14:32
for the sirai here than what there was
14:35
in the center of the frame down into the
14:37
corners improving but you can just see
14:39
that there's a little bit of haze there
14:41
contrast is still lower one other thing
14:43
that's worth noting is that there seems
14:45
to be a little bit of a centering issue
14:47
here at uh bigger apertures and so over
14:50
on this area of the frame which is the
14:53
lower left side the sirai result is
14:56
quite soft whereas you can see the sigma
14:58
result is pretty consistent everywhere
15:00
we've looked now that remains true at
15:02
f2.8 so you can see there is some
15:04
improvement that is coming there and in
15:06
other places the Siri image is starting
15:08
to look quite good I would say in the
15:10
mid-frame results it is now very very
15:13
close to matching the sigma performance
15:16
out in the real world you'd never be
15:17
able to tell that difference now
15:20
interestingly by
15:22
f5.6 that uh it's not looking really
15:24
quite good here even in the lower left
15:26
corner and so that centering issue that
15:28
at least my copy has has been resolved
15:30
by that point not quite to the sigma
15:32
level but very very close and likewise
15:35
here you know looks very very similar
15:38
mid-frame very very close only in the
15:41
center does the sigma Advantage kind of
15:43
remain where you can just see there's
15:45
just still more information and more
15:46
detail there everything just pops a
15:48
little bit more now on paper these
15:51
lenses have the same minimum Focus
15:52
distance and maximum magnification in
15:54
reality that's not actually true and so
15:58
I was able to to get a higher degree of
16:00
magnification as you can see both of
16:03
them at minimum Focus distance the sigma
16:05
is obviously better than terms of
16:07
magnification but you know when it comes
16:09
to the kind of how the lenses are
16:11
optimized the sigma is consistent at any
16:14
kind of focus distance you can see that
16:16
the CRI is not and so the sigma has a
16:18
pretty huge Advantage there in the
16:20
center of the frame now what's
16:22
interesting is if you go a little bit
16:24
further away uh the the SII results
16:28
start to improve and so here yes I think
16:31
the sigma is still sharper but you can
16:33
see it's not as noticeably so it's
16:35
mostly that there's just more contrast
16:37
and some of those fine details are just
16:39
a little better resolved by the sigma
16:41
another interesting perspective is that
16:43
here at this Focus distance you can see
16:46
that the sigma is quite obviously
16:48
sharper and higher contrast it's and
16:51
everything looks just kind of a little
16:52
bit dull on the S by comparison this is
16:56
quite a back lit scene and when it you
16:58
know comes to specular highlights
17:00
they're more similar than different
17:02
though what I will note is you can see
17:03
this almost like a planetary body type
17:06
effect kind of like swirls that will
17:09
take place sometimes in the bokeh on the
17:11
Siri that whereas the sigma is just more
17:14
neutral in its effect now if we back up
17:17
a little bit further and here again
17:19
there's bright sun coming through the
17:20
frame so both of them are kind of
17:22
handling that flare pretty similarly but
17:25
if we look here yes the sigma still is
17:28
slightly sharper and higher contrast but
17:30
you can see now that we're more into
17:32
that optimized zone for the S it's kind
17:34
of optimized for portraits basically and
17:37
you can see that the contrast and detail
17:39
is much more similar in performance you
17:41
can also see in the tiny places where
17:43
there might be a little bit of fringing
17:45
really the two lenses are more similar
17:47
than different there's just not a
17:49
significant difference between the two
17:51
that's true also here and you can see
17:53
that both lenses towards the edge of the
17:54
frame at f1.4 will start to get that
17:57
kind of lemon or cat ey type shape but
17:59
what you can see is that on the CRI it's
18:02
a little less pronounced yes it's
18:03
starting to get squeezed but it's not as
18:06
significant um it's still a little bit
18:08
rounder than what we're going to see on
18:09
the Sigma lens but interestingly here
18:12
while the sigma has the higher contrast
18:14
which has been the case if we look at
18:16
the actual fringing between the two
18:18
lenses there's really not any kind of
18:21
difference they both have almost The
18:22
Identical amount of fringing there so no
18:24
real Advantage between the two lenses
18:27
now on a couple of other here we're
18:29
going to look and allow you to kind of
18:31
evaluate the defocused background so if
18:33
we punch in on the actual subject here
18:36
you can see that there is some win for
18:38
the sigma the textures just stand out a
18:40
little bit more off the page you know
18:42
it's it's basically what we would expect
18:44
there from what we've seen looking at
18:46
the overall quality of the background
18:48
blur it's really there's there's
18:51
obviously not anything that's truly
18:52
noticeable between the two I do slightly
18:55
favor the warmer look of the sigma image
18:58
and we'll come back to that color
19:00
difference in just a moment here's a
19:02
little bit more complicated to scene and
19:04
looking at this I do think that the S
19:07
has ever so slightly a little bit softer
19:10
of background and you can see if you're
19:12
looking through this Zone on the sigma
19:14
image you can definitely see a little
19:15
bit more of the edges whereas it just
19:17
feels a little bit softer here and
19:20
definitely there is a difference in the
19:22
color look this there's definitely a
19:23
shift towards magenta I would say on the
19:27
SI image whereas on the sigma image it's
19:30
probably tending towards a little bit
19:32
you warmer type colors that's really
19:34
noticeable in this comparison here where
19:37
you can see how much warmer the sigma's
19:39
image looks compared to the Siri's image
19:42
which is a little bit cooler uh just
19:44
kind of a different color palette now
19:46
here's something interesting if I apply
19:48
the same color balance that natively
19:51
comes for the sigma to this and so this
19:54
is the white balance and then also the
19:56
the tent of the image you can see that
19:58
still they don't produce quite the same
20:00
there's probably a little bit more
20:01
greens here in the sigma's result
20:03
whereas there's a little bit more
20:04
Magenta in the result from the Siri
20:07
obviously a different an optical glass
20:10
now if I go the other direction and I
20:12
apply the white balance of the Native
20:14
Siri image here on the right to the
20:16
sigma we can once again see again
20:19
there's probably a little bit more
20:20
greens and a little bit more magentas in
20:23
the result here and so the two lenses
20:26
have different Optical glass which is
20:28
superior is really going to come down to
20:29
your own personal taste so thanks for
20:31
sticking around to the very end of the
20:33
video and hopefully the Deep dive into
20:35
the Optics is help you to decide which
20:38
one of these lenses is best for you as
20:40
always thanks for watching have a great
20:42
day and let the light in
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