One of the things that I perhaps hear most often in the chatter in my YouTube video comments or in message chats is the desire for faster zoom lenses. Yes, of course, the uninformed would always love to have a 15-400mm F1.4 full frame zoom that costs $500 and weighs 500g, despite the unfortunate reality that none of this is physically possible. More realistic, however, is the notion of an F2 zoom, so long as you keep the focal ranger fairly constrained. We saw a good example of this with the Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 zoom earlier this year, and, of course, Canon was an early leader with the release of the RF 28-70mm F2L lens, a behemoth of a lens weighing 1430g and costing over $3000. Despite these factors demand has remained high for the lens. Sony has entered the conversation with their most recent lens, the Sony FE 28-70mm F2 G Master. They have managed to do a little better than Canon with a lens that is smaller (11%), lighter (36%), and cheaper (a still expensive $2899 USD). Is this new premium zoom worth getting? You can watch the video review below, by reading my text review here, or by just enjoying the photos in the galleries below.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Lenses like this prove to be very popular with portrait and wedding photographers. Why? Because that faster maximum aperture allows you to have much better low light performance and produce shots with much shallower depth of field than what an F2.8 lens can achieve. F2 is a full stop faster than F2.8, meaning that you need half as much light with an F2 lens. You can get more “prime-like” shots with lenses like this.
There really aren’t any direct competitors to a lens like this. There are some interesting faster zooms now, like Tamron’s 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD combines a very short portion of the zoom at F2 with a killer focal range, and Sigma’s 28-105mm F2.8 DN expands the traditional range for an F2.8 standard zoom. But outside of the wider Sigma 28-45mm zoom, there’s nothing that covers the standard zoom range like this with a constant fast aperture like this.
It doesn’t hurt that the Sony 28-70 GM is optically exceptional. It’s not cheap, obviously, but I suspect that it will become a pretty big hit nonetheless, as this is the kind of lens that you could replace multiple primes with and still be very happy. Enjoy the images from this special lens below.
Keywords: 28-70mm F2 GM, Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM, 28-70 GM, GM, II, F2, 28-70mm, Canon, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
One of the things that I perhaps hear most often in the chatter in my YouTube video comments or in message chats is the desire for faster zoom lenses. Yes, of course, the uninformed would always love to have a 15-400mm F1.4 full frame zoom that costs $500 and weighs 500g, despite the unfortunate reality that none of this is physically possible. More realistic, however, is the notion of an F2 zoom, so long as you keep the focal ranger fairly constrained. We saw a good example of this with the Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 zoom earlier this year, and, of course, Canon was an early leader with the release of the RF 28-70mm F2L lens, a behemoth of a lens weighing 1430g and costing over $3000. Despite these factors demand has remained high for the lens. Sony has entered the conversation with their most recent lens, the Sony FE 28-70mm F2 G Master. They have managed to do a little better than Canon with a lens that is smaller (11%), lighter (36%), and cheaper (a still expensive $2899 USD). Is this new premium zoom worth getting? You can watch the video review below or just keep reading.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.
Lenses like this prove to be very popular with portrait and wedding photographers. Why? Because that faster maximum aperture allows you to have much better low light performance and produce shots with much shallower depth of field than what an F2.8 lens can achieve. F2 is a full stop faster than F2.8, meaning that you need half as much light with an F2 lens. You can get more “prime-like” shots with lenses like this.
There really aren’t any direct competitors to a lens like this. There are some interesting faster zooms now, like Tamron’s 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD combines a very short portion of the zoom at F2 with a killer focal range, and Sigma’s 28-105mm F2.8 DN expands the traditional range for an F2.8 standard zoom. But outside of the wider Sigma 28-45mm zoom, there’s nothing that covers the standard zoom range like this with a constant fast aperture like this.
It doesn’t hurt that the Sony 28-70 GM is optically exceptional. It’s not cheap, obviously, but I suspect that it will become a pretty big hit nonetheless, as this is the kind of lens that you could replace multiple primes with and still be very happy. Let’s take a closer look at the details.
Build and Handling
No one who really understands lens design would expect this lens to be small and light, and that’s a good thing, because it isn’t! Yes, it is both smaller and considerably lighter than the Canon equivalent, but this is a still a very good sized lens. It is 92.9mm (3 3/4″) in diameter and is 139.8mm (5 5/8″) in length. It will extend a very small additional amount (about 10mm) when zoomed to the 70mm position.
The weight is substantial at 918g (32.4oz), but that figure is actually pretty good when you remember that Sigma had a DSLR era lens in 2015 that was a 24-35mm F2 and weighed a whopping 941g. With current technology I would say that figure is pretty remarkably low for this kind of lens. The lens does look pretty robust when mounted on a camera, particularly considering that none of Sony’s camera bodies are very big.
A lens like this needs a very large front entrance pupil (a big front element), so that means that the lens will require hefty 86mm front filters, which do tend to be a little more expensive than smaller, more common filter sizes.
Sony’s GM lenses have always been feature rich, though their recent standard has added a couple of new features that are present here and were missing on the previous lens. A lot of the GM features are designed around aperture control in an attempt to make lenses useful for both photo and video capture. There is an aperture ring that gives you the option of having clicks at one third aperture stops, with full stops marked on the aperture ring.
You can also choose a declick option from a switch on the lower right side of the lens, and this will allow you to smoothly move through the aperture without any preset stops. This is most useful for doing aperture racks during video.
There is also the inclusion of an “Iris Lock” switch that will allow you to either lock into or out of the manual aperture ring. Some people prefer using the aperture ring and don’t want to mistakenly go past F16 (minimum aperture) and into the “Auto” position. This might be most common when doing aperture racks. Other people don’t particularly like using an aperture ring, and the iris lock can assure that they don’t get inadvertently bumped into the manual aperture ring.
Moving a little further up the barrel and you’ll find an AF | MF switch along with two Focus Hold/Function buttons whose function can be defined in camera. One button is on the left side of the barrel, and the other on top to allow a button to be close to hand whether shooting in landscape or portrait orientation.
The aperture iris itself has eleven rounded blades, ensuring that specular highlights remain rounded when the aperture is closed down.
Here’s a look at specular highlights with the lens stopped down to F2.8:
Eleven blades will produce a 22 bladed sunstar when stopped down, which looks fairly good to my eye.
The zoom ring is large and ribbed, with a rubberized ring. Zoom action is nicely executed, with precise zooming that doesn’t hang anywhere. What’s interesting, however, is that they’ve employed a Smooth | Tight switch that I’ve never seen outside of long telephoto zooms. This gives you two different responses for the damping of the zoom ring. Smooth will give you quicker, lighter zoom action, while tight works nicely if you want to hold a certain focal length or prevent zoom creep.
Focus happens internally, which helps the lens to function better on a gimbal as the balance remains constant. The zoom extension is also small enough that it doesn’t really change the balance point.
The manual focus ring has a linear response (focus distances will be repeatable), though I find the damping on the ring itself to be too light. There isn’t a lot of feel during manual focus, and thus it doesn’t feel like a true manual focus emulation to me. This is a consistent complaint of mine with GM lenses.
·The 28-70 GM has a thorough weather sealing including rear gasket, internal seals on all seams, buttons, and switches, and a fluorine coating on the front.
It comes with a nylon lens pouch along with a lens hood that has a lock along with a window to allow you access to rotate filters easily.
The minimum focus distance is 38cm across the zoom range, so you’ll get your highest level of magnification (0.23x) at 70mm.
This is a high enough figure to do a lot of useful things.
The body itself is a mixture of metal and engineered plastics, and has the typical GM satin finish that has very light flocking.
All in all, this is another premium GM lens that is loaded with features. It’s a big, expensive lens, but in the realm of the competition for the lens, its worth noting that Sony has worked to keep the size, weight, and price lower than the competition while offering even more features and performance.
Autofocus and Video
One of the key areas of focus for Sony at the moment is engineering their lenses to keep up with the stupendous speed of bodies like the a9III, which can rip out as much as 120FPS for stills and of course cameras that are filming at 120 and even 240FPS. Lenses like this one with extremely large, heavy elements have rarely been valued for their focus speed in the past, but Sony has unlocked a winning formula for achieving extremely fast focus speeds even in lenses like this. The solution? Not one, not two, not three, but four XD (extreme dynamic) linear motors are deployed to enable focus that is fast enough to keep up with even high speed focus situations.
Whereas a lens like this might work fine for portraits or similar speed work in the past, the 28-70 GM is well suited for much faster action than that.
I shot some bursts of Nala in the environment above, but the problem in this setting is that there really wasn’t much contrast between here and the scene (she camouflaged too well), so there are some missed shots in my action sequences here. To be fair, however, the AI in Lightroom can’t even identify a subject in these photos to create a mask, which tells you that the camera AI would have a similar issue.
On the basketball court, however, there was much better contrast, and I had no problem keeping up with players in motion.
I had excellent pinpoint accuracy is shooting narrow depth of field shots.
In a church setting I had zero issues getting accurate focus on the speaker whether they were looking towards the camera or in profile.
And how about portraits? This is perhaps the most important application for a lens like this. At this stage I would be shocked if a GM lens didn’t work great for portraits, and of course it does.
I got flawless results across my portrait session.
As we’ll get to in the section below, this is a lens that is pretty flare prone. Even with the veiling and ghosting, however, focus was perfectly accurate.
Sony also recognizes that the modern mirrorless camera market is a hybrid one. It is just as important that lenses be able to function well in a video environment. First of all, I found that the lens isn’t completely parfocal, though its close enough that you could probably get away with it in a lot of shots (if you were locked into manual focus). If you keep autofocus on, the lens is able to make those microadjustments necessary in such a smooth way that you probably won’t notice autofocus at all. Here’s a frame from the moment where I zoom to 70mm, and it shows accurate focus on the subject.
I’ve been using the lens for my channel (secretly) over the past two weeks, and I’ve had A) perfectly stable focus results in front of the camera and B) great looking footage, with nice color balance and great detail.
My video focus pull test went excellent, with smooth, confident pulls back and forth. No pulsing, settling, or steps. I’ll also note that focus breathing is very well controlled even with focus breathing compensation turned off.
I also found that my hand test (where I alternatively block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then move it out of the way) stood out as being particularly good. Focus transitions from my hand to my face and back were very smooth, and the minimal focus breathing makes those focus changes almost undetectable. There’s nothing jarring or abrupt, but rather the subject smoothly changes. This would be a great lens for interview style shots where you move from one subject to another.
Focus breathing is well controlled for a longer focal length. I also found that real world transitions from one subject to another were well damped. They are fairly quick, but not abrupt. They have a reasonably cinematic feel to them, and the low focus breathing helps those transitions to not feel jarring.
Real world focus changes were excellent, allowing for fairly cinematic looking focus pulls that are not far off what you could achieve with a good manual pull. I’m very impressed with the overall performance of this lens in the autofocus department.
Image Quality Breakdown
Obviously designing a lens like this takes some incredible engineering to pull it off successfully. The optical design is quite complex, with 20 elements in 14 groups. That includes 3 extreme aspherical (XA) elements (the most ever in any Sony design), 3 Super ED elements, 3 aspherical elements, and 1 ED element. That’s a lot of fancy glass, but it clearly has paid off. Since I am doing this review ahead of public release, things like the MTF chart are not yet available, but I have seen one in a Sony briefing, and it looks pretty fantastic.
This is a very high resolution lens, producing highly detailed images that hold up even at high levels of magnification. I shot primarily on a 61MP a7RV body, and this was one of those lenses whose images look good when viewed full screen…and then exceptionally good when you zoom in 100%!
More importantly to me, I think Sony has done a pretty great job of correcting various aberrations while not completely eradicating the character of the lens. This is a lens that does an amazing job of resolving the fine details with great microcontrast:
But it also produces images that just look good even when you aren’t getting lost in the details!
There’s a reason why lenses like this start at 28mm rather than 24mm. 28mm is much easier to engineer, and if they went to 24mm (and F2), the lens would be A) much larger and heavier and B) much more optically compromised. Keeping things at 28mm on the wide end allowed them to keep distortion under control. Here’s a look at how the lens handles vignette and distortion at 28mm:
There’s a moderate amount of barrel distortion, requiring a +8 to correction. Vignette is actually extremely low, requiring just a +15 to correct. That’s really low for a lens like this. All it takes is a look at a lens like the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DN II to realize how low the vignette and distortion is here, but that’s at 28mm rather than 24mm, of course.
How about on the telephoto end of things?
There’s a tiny amount of pincushion distortion that is just a bit complex (-3 to correct), and again extremely low vignette (+16 to correct). The vignette figures in particular are surprisingly low for a lens like this, running several stops less than what we see on the Canon RF 28-70mm F2L.
That’s a great start.
I also found that longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) were well controlled, with minimal color fringing before or after the plane of focus.
It’s not that there is nothing there, but I found that in real world usage the lens showed solid control of aberrations, and that allows for really great microcontrast.
It’s the same thing that we saw in the dried wildflowers earlier. Just really, really impressive microcontrast.
The same was true of lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) that show up near the edges of the frame in transition zones. I see a clean transition from black to white near the edge of the frame here.
Another strong performance.
How about resolution? I’m using a 61MP Sony a7RV here and will show results at or near 200% magnification levels. Here’s a look at the test chart that the crops will come from:
And here at the F2 crops at 28mm from the center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner.
You can see very consistent sharpness from the center out to the very edge of the frame. That’s really impressive.
I found that real world images had very nice looking 3D pop shooting at 28mm F2. This will prove a very nice environmental portrait lens.
The very consistent sharpness across the frame makes it easy to compose in the corners and still get great sharpness and detail.
Such great sharpness at F2 typically means that there isn’t really much room for improvement, and I couldn’t really see a difference stopping down to F2.8. By F4 I can see a bit of improvement in contrast, but mostly in the corners.
Shooting landscapes at 28mm produces beautiful results with fine details rendered all across the frame.
As per usual, diffraction (particularly on high resolution bodies) will start to soften the image by F11. After F11, however, diffraction becomes much more noticeable, with the effects of diffraction being very obvious by the minimum aperture of F22.
At 35mm the results are highly similar save for an improvement in the corners. Here I’ll show the upper left corner, which looks noticeably better, as does the typical lower right corner that I often sample.
There are very few 35mm primes that can compete with that level of performance! Expect your 35mm images to just look great, period.
50mm, if anything, is even more consistently good. Here’s yet another area from the chart, with 35mm F2 on the left, and 50mm F2 on the right.
Here’s a real world shot at 48mm, F2. Just look at the contrast and detail on the very narrow depth of field on the needles.
And that brings us to the critical 70mm point. 70mm at F2 provides a very shallow depth of field and will certainly be a very popular portrait focal length. Does the lens drop off here?
Absolutely not.
Here are the F2 crops from across the frame.
Look at the lens’ ability to render those fine details at F2:
No, sharpness is never going to be a problem with this lens. It is one of the sharpest zooms I’ve ever tested all across the zoom range. It is flawlessly usable at F2 at any focal length; you can essentially just use aperture for controlling depth of field. You’ll never need it for additional sharpness.
Whether shooting landscapes, portraits, or art shots, you’ll find fantastic sharpness and contrast throughout.
To be frank, though, I didn’t anticipate any issues with sharpness in a modern Sony GM lens. They truly have been the Gold Masters when it comes to resolution over the past 4 years. My bigger concern was if the lens would be so overcorrected as to lose its soul. Fortunately I didn’t come away feeling like that at all. This lens has quite beautiful rendering.
I showed the 28mm framing of this scene earlier, but here’s a look at a familiar fern at 70mm, F2:
Here’s another shot that I felt was quite artful in the rendering.
This shot is a little further away, and while I do see a slight bit of “nervousness” in the transition zone, I think the 3D pop on the subject is really nice.
Specular highlights also look quite nice (shown here at F2.8).
Color rendition was nice as well, with nicely saturated colors with a neutral white balance.
The reds were really rich after a rain here.
I had an opportunity very early one morning to test for coma. Star points stay consistent across the frame, with next to no coma. Very nice performance!
It looks good at 70mm, too.
Flare resistance is the only weak link I can point to. The 28-70 GM has a surprising amount of ghosting artifacts, whether at wide apertures (F2 here):
…or at smaller apertures (F11 here):
You can see a bit fewer ghosting artifacts in this shot of autumn leaves.
You will definitely have to account for this if you want to shoot backlit portraits. It WILL be a factor.
Sony shooters have had some jealousy over the Canon RF 28-70mm F2L, but there’s no need of that anymore. They now have a lens that is superior in every way. The Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM is smaller, lighter, faster focusing, sharper, and even cheaper! This is the lens that will officially make Canon (and Nikon) shooters jealous instead.
The Sony 28-70mm F2 is expensive. It’s big and relatively heavy. But it also could legitimately be that “one lens” for a lot of people.
It has great autofocus, its loaded with features, and it has amazing, amazing image quality.
So if you’ve got the money to buy it and the muscles to carry it, say hello to your new favorite lens. I can see the Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM going on the camera bodies of certain portrait and wedding photographers and never coming off again.
Pros:
Smaller, much lighter, and cheaper than Canon RF lens
Great build quality
Thorough weather sealing
Wide range of aperture control options
Smooth | Tight switch interesting alternative to zoom lock
Keywords: 28-70mm F2 GM, Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM, 28-70 GM, GM, II, F2, 28-70mm, Canon, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
2024 has been the year that TTArtisan has embraced producing autofocus lenses, and I had many good things to say about their 35mm F1.8 (my review here) and 56mm F1.8 lenses (my review here). But those were APS-C lenses, which are slightly easier to engineer than lenses for larger sensors. But TTArtisan is back with their first full frame autofocus lens – the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2. Have they been able to successfully level up as a lens maker once again? Find out by watching my video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos below.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony E-mount lenses.
There really aren’t a lot of full frame 75mm options. We’ve seen some recent 75mm APS-C lenses (like the Viltrox Pro and Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2), but the primary alternative to this new TTArtisan 75mm remains the Samyang AF 75mm F1.8 that I reviewed in 2020. And while I ended up gifting my copy to a nephew, I do have the Samyang V-AF 75mm T1.9 lens that has the same optical formula on hand. One area where TTArtisan is going to fair very well in this comparison is on price, as the Samyang AF lens retails for $350 while the V-AF version is a much more expensive $650 USD. The TTArtisan lens will debut at just $178, so nearly half the price of the Samyang version. While I think there are a few areas where the Samyang has some advantage, the same is true for TTArtisan’s new 75mm F2, which is very capable of producing beautiful images on your full frame camera.
It can of course be used on APS-C cameras as well, where it will give a 112.5mm full frame equivalent framing – very nice for slightly tighter framed portraits. I found that handy in an event setting to get a little more reach.
This is also the first of TTArtisan’s autofocusing lenses to receive an aperture ring, so it is great to see them moving forward in their development towards more feature-rich lenses while also keeping an eye on pricing.
Investing in a full frame mirrorless camera (this lens will be available not only on Sony but also Nikon Z-mount) can be very expensive, so the idea of getting a solid prime lens for under $200 is very intriguing. Let’s break things down in detail…
Keywords: TTArtisan, AF, Autofocus, 75mm, F2, TTArtisan AF 75mm F2, Sony, a7RV, a7IV, a7C, Alpha 1, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Full Frame, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
2024 has been the year that TTArtisan has embraced producing autofocus lenses, and I had many good things to say about their 35mm F1.8 (my review here) and 56mm F1.8 lenses (my review here). But those were APS-C lenses, which are slightly easier to engineer than lenses for larger sensors. But TTArtisan is back with their first full frame autofocus lens – the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2. Have they been able to successfully level up as a lens maker once again? Find out by watching my video review or by reading on in the text review.
Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony E-mount lenses.
There really aren’t a lot of full frame 75mm options. We’ve seen some recent 75mm APS-C lenses (like the Viltrox Pro and Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2), but the primary alternative to this new TTArtisan 75mm remains the Samyang AF 75mm F1.8 that I reviewed in 2020. And while I ended up gifting my copy to a nephew, I do have the Samyang V-AF 75mm T1.9 lens that has the same optical formula on hand. One area where TTArtisan is going to fair very well in this comparison is on price, as the Samyang AF lens retails for $350 while the V-AF version is a much more expensive $650 USD. The TTArtisan lens will debut at just $178, so nearly half the price of the Samyang version. While I think there are a few areas where the Samyang has some advantage, the same is true for TTArtisan’s new 75mm F2, which is very capable of producing beautiful images on your full frame camera.
It can of course be used on APS-C cameras as well, where it will give a 112.5mm full frame equivalent framing – very nice for slightly tighter framed portraits. I found that handy in an event setting to get a little more reach.
This is also the first of TTArtisan’s autofocusing lenses to receive an aperture ring, so it is great to see them moving forward in their development towards more feature-rich lenses while also keeping an eye on pricing.
Investing in a full frame mirrorless camera (this lens will be available not only on Sony but also Nikon Z-mount) can be very expensive, so the idea of getting a solid prime lens for under $200 is very intriguing. Let’s break things down in detail…
Build and Handling
The TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 follows the trend that I’ve seen with their autofocusing lenses of feeling higher quality than what you might expect. The lenses have a very nice metal body with an anodized metal finish. Put simply, the lens looks and feels far more premium than the price would suggest.
That metal housing does come at the cost of weight, however, and the TTArtisan 75mm is definitely heavier than the more plasticky Samyang lens. The Samyang weighs in at a lightweight 230g, but the E-mount version of the TTArtisan lens is heavier at 328g (11.57oz). Still not heavy in an absolute sense, but obviously considerably heavier.
For some reason TTArtisan has not included external measurements in their release materials, so I’ve done my own measurements that may not perfectly align with the official measurements when released. I measure the lens at 65mm in diameter and 73mm in length (2.55 x 2.87″). That’s the same diameter as the Samyang lens but an additional 4mm in length. It is still a very compact lens that fits in the palm of my hand. Front filter threads are 62mm; not one of the most common sizes, but reasonably common.
In my opinion, this is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish that is very clean and timeless. Previous APS-C lenses have had a sculpted area between the lens mount and the focus ring, like this:
But now TTArtisan has filled that space with an aperture ring. It is the standard style aperture ring that has “clicks” or detents at one third stop intervals along with markings for all full aperture stops.
There is a space between F16 and A (Auto) while will allow you to control aperture from within the camera, though I would like a little more resistance between the F16 and A, as there’s not much more resistance than the standard aperture stops.
There are no switches on the lens barrel. This makes for a very clean looking design, but I would obviously prefer having an AF/MF switch.
At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts, though I don’t see a weather sealing gasket.
There are nine aperture blades that do a reasonable job of maintaining a circular aperture. Here’s look stopped down over 3 stops at F5.6:
The included lens cap has a new font for the TTARTISAN logo imprinted on it, and I think it looks smart and modern.
TTArtisan has finally heeded my feedback for an improvement to the lens hood design, which is a bit more traditional. The shape is slightly unique, but it is a more standard bayonet style without the “letterbox” opening at the front and can actually be reversed for storage.
The lens hood is plastic and nothing special, but it bayonets on with reasonably good precision and locks into place fine.
The manual focus ring is ribbed in metal and moves with a nice amount of damping, though I can feel a little “drag” from the focus motor when making faster adjustments. The active focus area will automatically magnify when you start to focus, and this helps visually confirm accurate focus. Focus throw feels like it is somewhere near 170° of rotation.
One final interesting design element is that the rear lens cap has a USB-C port along with electronic contacts inside and will actually allow you to do firmware updates to the lens through a computer. It’s an interesting alternative to having a USB-C port built right into the lens, though I do slightly prefer the built-in option in case you lose the rear lens cap at some point.
The minimum focus distance of the TTArtisan 75mm matches the focal length (75cm) and has a fairly low level of magnification. The Samyang can focus closer (69mm) and sports a 0.13x magnification, so while TTArtisan does not specify the magnification level, it looks to be not much higher than 0.10x.
I definitely noticed not being able to get as close to subjects as what I would like. Here’s an example of a real world minimum focus distance shot.
All told, however, there’s much more to like here than there is to dislike. The addition of the aperture ring is a nice step in the right direction, and the improved lens hood is also welcome. The lens definitely feels much more premium than the Samyang 75mm F1.8, which is a big win for a lens that costs half as much.
Autofocus and Video
TTArtisan has equipped the AF 75mm F2 with an STM (stepping motor). Autofocus noise is relatively low. There is a faint whirring sound during autofocus changes, but I could mostly only hear it in a very quiet environment or with my ear pressed close.
Autofocus accuracy was fairly good, and this shot of Ferrari (at F2) shows that the very shallow depth of field is where it is supposed to be – right on his iris.
I got good eye focus on human subjects as well when I took the lens to a church setting to take photos of the speaker.
Here’s another example of good focus on a non-trackable subject.
I tested focus speed both indoors and outdoors, and my impressions are that focus speed is averagely fast. It’s not instantaneous like the lenses equipped with the best linear motors, but neither is it slow. There is a split second pause while inertia builds and focus takes place, but the focus transition is then pretty snappy. There is no visible stepping apparent. Focus speed was a little faster outdoors in excellent light than what it was in my indoors test.
I wouldn’t use this lens for tracking fast action, but for most ordinary photography work autofocus was just fine. Modern autofocus on mirrorless – even with inexpensive lenses – is just so much better than what we got even from expensive lenses in the DSLR era.
Video AF for focus pulls was reasonably good. Focus pulls were largely smooth and fast, though I do see a visible step or two during focus pulls, and an occasionally rack in the wrong direction.
My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was fairly good. There’s good confidence going from the hand to the eye in terms of reactiveness, though there was an occasion pulse in there that was a bit distracting. There’s also enough visible focus breathing to make focus pulls feel a little more abrupt.
All in all, pretty much what I expected. The bottom line on autofocus is that it really is pretty good for A) such an inexpensive lens and B) being from a company that is just learning how to build autofocus motors. My experience with many of these companies is that they are fast learners; between firmware updates and new designs in the future, expect TTArtisan to continue to get a lot better at autofocus very quickly.
Image Quality Breakdown
TTArtisan has given us an optical design of ten elements in seven groups, which includes 4 HRI (High Refractive Index) elements and 1 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) element. The MTF chart looks better than the recent 56mm F1.8 lens, a lens that I felt actually performed fairly well in the real world.
The MTF shows a sharp, high contrast center with a moderate dip in the midframe and then a sharper decline right at the edge of the frame.
While this isn’t delivering results anywhere near as sharp as the recent 85mm F1.4 GM II lens that I reviewed from Sony, I would say that results are, in general, pretty satisfyingly sharp. Here’s a shot and crop at F2 taken on a 61MP Sony a7RV.
It’s pretty crazy to think that a few years ago there was a lot of angst over whether or not expensive lenses were going to be able to resolve Sony’s ultra high resolution 61MP sensor, and here were are with $175 lenses able to do it just fine.
We’ll dig into the details by taking a look at vignette and distortion. No significant issues here. There’s a small amount of pincushion distortion (just enough to flattering) and a minimal amount of vignette. For portraits you would probably be better off leaving this uncorrected.
A manual correction of the distortion required a -5 on the Lightroom slider and a +32 on the vignette correction slider. This is a really nice performance for a budget lens.
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations were an issue with TTArtisan’s first AF lens (the 35mm F1.8), but TTArtisan told me personally that this was an area that they had focused on improvements, and with some definite success. You can see a nice control of fringing before and after the plan of focus here.
This shot of late summer wildflowers has plenty of potential for fringing, but while we see a bit of blooming on some of the edges, there is very little color fringing.
Lateral chromatic aberrations show up near the edge of the frame in transitions from dark to light areas. You can see from the edge of my test chart that there is essentially no fringing.
So how about resolution? The 61MP sensor on my Sony a7RV represents the highest resolution currently available on any full frame camera, so this is a strong challenge for the TTArtisan 75mm. My review standard is to examine results at a 200% magnification. That is a lot to ask of any lens, much less one this inexpensive. Here’s a look at the test chart that crops throughout the review come from:
And here is a look at F2 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:
I would say that the center looks a little worse than what I would expect from the MTF while the corners look better than expected. Detail and resolution across the frame is actually pretty good, though there’s a slight lack of contrast that fits what I saw in real world shots.
While contrast isn’t quite as high as what I would like, I will say that TTArtisan has actually struck a nice balance here between having sufficient contrast and sharpness while retaining a very nice out of focus rendering. We’ll talk more about bokeh in a moment, but note in this shot that sharpness is perfectly adequate even at 61MP while the background is surprisingly smooth and soft for such an inexpensive lens.
There’s a significant improvement in overall sharpness and contrast by F2.8. I’ll show the center here, but the improvement is clear all across the frame.
By F4 the corners are starting to look quite excellent as well:
Further sharpness gains are minimal, but at landscape apertures the lens delivers great looking results. Crisp detail, nice color and contrast, and an effective focal length for a lot of medium to distant subjects.
If I zoom deep into the image and just take the crop of the small island to the left, you can see that the detail holds up very nicely; you could easily make this a separate shot.
Diffraction will always be an issue with higher resolution cameras, and you can see here that while resolution and contrast still look very good at F11, the image is definitely softer by F16:
As noted previously, I feel like the TTArtisan 75mm strikes a nice balance between sharpness and bokeh rendering. This is, frankly, some of the nicest bokeh you’re likely to get for this kind of money. The bokeh is soft in both the foreground and background. You can see that even the hard edges in the background are rendered softly.
The backgrounds can look very nice and creamy in many images:
Even moving out to a further distance to get more in the frame, I felt like this portrait shot shows a reasonably soft background.
I looked through all the various images I took as a part of the review, and I just really didn’t see any bokeh rendering that I considered ugly.
The TTArtisan 75mm could be a great addition to your kit if you’re looking for a cheap prime lens to give nice out of focus backgrounds for portraits of general purpose work. It’s one of the better value lenses I’ve seen for bokeh.
I also felt like colors looked quite good as well. Not Zeiss-like or anything, but images had a nice look and feel to them.
Here’s another image with nice, rich colors.
Flare resistance is not an area of particular strength. There are certain angles where the coatings just can’t handle the bright light, and you’ll get some blobs of light and color, like this:
You can, however, play around with composition and at least get something looks more artistic, even if it still is an optical flaw.
Things are not too bad when facing the sun or bright lights straight on, but you can more issues when the light source is near the corner of the frame. Here you have F2, then F11, then F11 again but with the sun located in the corner.
All in all, there’s not really much to really complain about on the image quality side of things. No, we don’t have GM levels of contrast and detail at F2, but I also appreciate that the lens doesn’t have that overcorrected, clinical feel. Images generally have a great “feel” to them.
I’ve noted previously that TTArtisan is learning quickly. The transition to full frame is further evidence of that. While the company continues to shoot for the budget end of the market, their lenses are increasingly more competent. This is a LOT of lens for under $180, and I really like the idea of this becoming an inexpensive prime option for those perhaps wanting to supplement a kit lens or add a slightly longer prime focal length.
I would say that autofocus is probably the area that needs the most growth, but the truth of the matter is that autofocus is generally quite on the lens. It’s not yet ready for fast action, but it is going to work pretty flawlessly for those wanting to do ordinary types of photography.
I quite like the image quality from this budget lenses. There are higher resolution, higher contrast lenses at F2, but the TTArtisan AF 75mm F2 provides a pretty stellar blend of sharpness and soft out of focus rendering. And, if you want more contrast, all it takes is stopping down to F2.8. The fact that we are getting such a high performing, full frame lens for under $200 is really pretty impressive. Want a nice little telephoto prime and have a limited budget? Look no further than the TTArtisan AF
Keywords: TTArtisan, AF, Autofocus, 75mm, F2, TTArtisan AF 75mm F2, Sony, a7RV, a7IV, a7C, Alpha 1, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Full Frame, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Earlier this year I finally took the plunge and added a Nikon body to my kit so that I could test Z-mount lenses. One of the earliest reviews I did was of the Viltrox AF 40mm F2.5 Z, an inexpensive prime lens that nicely covers the “normal” angle of view. My findings were mostly very positive, but I was interested in exploring Nikon’s own value offering at this focal length – the Nikkor Z 40mm F2. I had ordered one almost immediately, but due to some customs delays, it took a little longer than I wanted for it to arrive. Eventually it did arrive, however, and I’ve been spending the last 3-4 weeks with the lens and getting a feel for it and how it compares to the Viltrox. I will release a direct comparison video in the near future, but first I wanted to focus on the 40mm F2 directly. Is the first party lens the way to go? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below…or just keep reading.
This review of a retail-sourced copy of the lens that I purchased new myself. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
The full retail price of the Nikkor lens is $299 USD (nearly double that of the Viltrox), though it currently is available at right under $230, which is close enough in price to make things interesting. The Nikkor lens obviously has the advantage of being a first party lens and having a wider maximum aperture (F2 is 2/3rds of a stop brighter than F2.5), but surprisingly it is the Viltrox that has the build advantage, as it has a metal lens mount (the Nikkor uses plastic) and includes a lens hood.
Despite having a smaller maximum aperture, the Viltrox is a bit bigger. Nikon has done a great job of keeping the 40mm F2 compact and lightweight. The Nikkor has other strengths as well, included quite fast autofocus, nice bokeh, and even one surprise in its build.
So is this a lens that you should consider? Keep reading to find out.
Nikkor 40mm F2 Z Build and Handling
The 40mm F2 actually comes in two different versions. There is the standard version that I’m reviewing here, but then also a Special Edition that has a retro aesthetic that harkens back to a lot of classic film era Nikkor designs. This is essentially just a cosmetic upgrade, however, as the basic features and functions of the lens remain the same. The MSRP difference is only $20 between the two, with the SE version being slightly more expensive, though at the moment a discount on the normal version makes the difference between the two more notable.
The build here is very basic, with plastic everywhere up to and including the lens mount.
It is rare that I see plastic mounts from anyone these days outside of the less expensive first party lenses from Canon and Nikon. It’s a little hard to justify in a lens with an MSRP of $299 USD when I’ve reviewed a number of sub-$100 lenses with metal lens mounts, and the Viltrox 40mm F2.5 costs less than $160 and sports a metal mount.
What’s interesting is that while I cannot detect a weather sealing gasket at the lens mount, Nikon does show a cutout that demonstrates some weather resistance with several internal seals.
I included the language that Nikon uses, as it is a big ambiguous. It is both designed to prevent dust and moisture from entering the lens but is not guaranteed to be dust and drip-resistant in all situations. I would interpret that to mean, “don’t go crazy”. I haven’t hesitated to use this lens while it is raining, but I would treat it as a top of the line sports lens, either.
That’s pretty much it for features, however. There are no switches or buttons on the lens barrel.
All we have is the control ring, which by default is set up for manual focus. You can set it up in camera to perform other functions, however, like serving as an aperture ring or controlling exposure compensation.
The main object for this lens is to keep things small and lightweight. A lens like the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S-line lens is comparably large (86.5mm in length, 415g in weight), so the Nikkor 40mm F2 gives a genuinely compact alternative, at 70mm (2.8″) in diameter and just 45.5mm (1.8″) in length. It weighs in at just 170g (6oz). By comparison the Viltrox 40mm F2.5 Z is 68mm (2.7″) in diameter and right under 60mm (2.2″) in length. The Viltrox weighs 180g (6.3oz), so the Nikkor is shorter (10mm) and very slightly lighter (10g). Both lenses share a common 52mm front filter thread.
One key advantage over the Viltrox can be seen from this front view. The Nikkor has a higher blade count (9) and they are curved blades, making for a more circular aperture shape even when stopped down. The aperture looks pretty good from the front view.
The Nikkor 40mm F2 would obviously be a great pairing for smaller, more compact Nikon cameras. The size is somewhat wasted on my mammoth Z8 body where the grips sticks out nearly as much as the lens.
There is no lens hood included, unfortunately. The front is actually not even designed with a bayonet for a lens hood, so any lens hood you might use would have to be screwed on via the filter threads, which is never optimal.
The Nikkor 40mm F2 is able to focus more closely than some competing lenses, allowing you to get as close as 29cm, which results in a very useful 0.17x magnification level.
Up close performance isn’t fantastic, however, with less contrast and detail that what I see at more moderate focus distances. You can see from this minimum focus distance shot and its crop that textures don’t really “pop” at F2:
All told, this is pretty bare bones lens, but it is also quite inexpensive by first party standards. The inclusion of some weather sealing is an unexpected pleasure.
The MSRP of $299 USD is higher than a budget lens like Canon’s RF 50mm F1.8, but the current buying price of the Nikkor of $227 USD closes that gap nicely and makes the Nikkor a more compelling bargain. You’re getting weather sealing for that extra $28, which feels like money well spent to me.
Autofocus and Video
The Nikkor Z 40mm F2 utilizes a stepping focus motor (STM) that is, for the most part, surprisingly fast. Focus changes happen very quickly whether indoors or outdoors, and most of the time you won’t think about autofocus at all because the job just gets done quickly and efficiently. There’s definitely more focus speed here than the inexpensive Canon lens that I just mentioned. This allowed me to be a little more reactive with what I shot and what all stayed in focus.
I was able to shoot with precision as well, grabbing small objects and focusing accurately on them.
I love 40mm for “everyday photography”, like capturing family events, as it is a focal length that works well in the typical room, allowing you enough room to capture the scene in context but with a normal, unexaggerated perspective. This is the same reason why a lot of people enjoy a lens like this for street photography. I didn’t have an opportunity to do street during my review period, but I did use it as a general purpose/walkaround lens and really love the focal length for that.
My only complaint for stills is that on a few occasions when shooting landscapes that focus would randomly jump right at capture to the very front of the frame, leaving most of the scene out of focus even when shooting at smaller apertures like F5.6:
It seemed to be random, however, as most of the time focus was fine. It also seemed to happen more at smaller apertures than at F2-F2.8.
There is a faint whirring sound if you put your ear right next to the lens barrel, but if I held the camera at chest level and racked focus here and there, I couldn’t hear anything.
Switching to video found focus pulls happening with good speed, but sometimes there was a quick micro-pulse where focus racked quickly the wrong direction (backwards) before moving forward. It seemed that speed sometimes outpaced confidence. Focus breathing felt fairly well controlled.
My “hand test” where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it was a mixed bag. I sometimes had a hard time convincing the camera/lens to focus on my hand (even what that was clearly the domination subject in frame), though sometimes it would transition fine. This test so far hasn’t seemed quite as confident on Nikon as what I typically expect on Sony or Canon.
I found real world focus changes to sometimes be a little too abrupt for my tastes. You can tame that a bit via the focus speed setting in camera, but it won’t fundamentally change the nature of the lens.
So I give good marks for focus speed, and (most of the time), accuracy. Video focus was a little hit and miss for me, but I would say that in general autofocus is pretty good for what is one of the least expensive lenses on the Nikon Z platform.
Image Quality Breakdown
The Nikkor Z 40mm F2 is an FX (full frame lens), though it can also be used on DX cameras where it will give a full frame equivalent of 60mm due to the 1.5x crop factor on DX. This is an extremely simple optical design, with just six elements in 4 groups. Two of those elements are aspherical elements. It is much less complicated than the Viltrox lens (10 elements in 6 groups). The MTF chart for the Nikkor shows a good (not great) center performance and then a consistent decline towards the corners (which frankly look a little weak).
Some of the initial reports I read of the 40mm F2 had caused me to expect a little more sharpness from the lens than I actually found. I would call what I actually found “balanced”, with a little less sharpness but slightly better bokeh than expected.
The personality of the Viltrox 40mm and the Nikkor 40mm are basically opposites. The Viltrox is definitely the sharper of the two lenses:
But the Nikkor lens clearly has the softer, smoother bokeh rendering.
It really comes down to which trait you prefer.
There is a slight amount of LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberrations), but nothing too severe.
Out in the real world I noted less color fringing and more of a basic spherical aberration that makes some of the edges of objects “bleed” a bit at wide apertures.
Lateral chromatic aberrations near the edge of the frame are essentially non-existent.
There’s no fringing issue here; just a bit of softness due to some surface aberrations.
If we move on to vignette and distortion we find a minimal amount of barrel distortion which required just a +2 to correct for. It is both minimal and linear, so it corrects fine but would also be fine uncorrected in almost every application.
You’ve probably noticed however that vignette is VERY heavy at F2. I find it to be noticeable even in the viewfinder (which is showing a corrected image), as there is an obvious difference between F2 and smaller apertures. I had to pretty much max out the vignette sliders to get the correction that you see.
You can see a pretty serious difference in the way the image is lit when I compare the same shot at F2 and then at F3.5. Both shots are with corrections on, but you can see that the corrections don’t quite make for a clean image at F2:
We’ll move on to inspecting our test chart. This test has been done on a 45MP Nikon Z8 sensor. I use a high end tripod and two second camera delay to ensure vibration doesn’t affect images. Here’s a look at the test chart that we will examine at high magnification:
If we take a look at crops (at roughly 200%) at F2 from the center, mid-frame, and lower right corner, we find that center performance is good, but the mid-frame and the corners are definitely much weaker.
In this stark reality, the lens isn’t particularly sharp. But in some ways I can understand why some people have found the lens better than this baseline performance, as real world images look better than what chart tests would suggest.
In other shots, however, the lower contrast becomes more obvious, and I don’t like images as well on a pixel level.
Things are better at distance for a few reasons. First of all, the lens seems optimized for medium to distance rather than close focus, so I think that you get better results in general when you shoot from 2 meters out. There’s also the reality that (unlike test charts), you rarely have a completely flat field of view in real world shots. It’s more likely that edge performance will be more important than corner performance. Case in point is this shot at F2, and the crops show that while contrast isn’t popping off the page, there’s plenty of apparent detail there across the frame.
The same is true here of a golf course. When I looked at a pixel level, I wasn’t blown away, but I did find the results better than expected.
Stopping down to F2.8 does improve contrast (and reduces vignette), though the amount of difference varies somewhat from spot to spot across the frame. The left hand of the frame was definitely better than the right hand on my copy. This mid-frame spot was fairly representative of the amount of improvement I saw. You can definitely see a brighter image with more contrast and detail, though not radically so.
There’s more corner improvement by F4, and it is better still by F5.6:
We noted in the image of city hall that the results were definitely usable at F2, but if we revisit a side by side comparison we can see that there’s a pretty radical improvement by F5.6. Details are MUCH more crisp.
Peak performance for consistency across the frame is found at F8, where the Nikkor Z 40mm F2 is nice and sharp all across the frame.
Expect the typical diffraction pattern on high resolution cameras where the image is a little softer by F11 and softer still at the minimum aperture of F16, though frankly I’ve seen much worse when it comes to diffraction.
As noted earlier, however, the real strength of the 40mm F2 is in the quality of its bokeh, which is nice and pleasing. This allows the lens to punch above its weight a bit, particularly if you are just looking at the images globally rather than at a pixel level.
Here’s another shot that shows a fair soft and smooth background that isn’t marred by a lot of outlining.
One final shot of a chain link fence with some blackberry vines growing on it shows that the lens handles the recurring pattern and hard edges of the chain link fence well.
Colors are also nice, with a good level of richness. The greens look rich in this shot:
And the reds look pretty rich here.
The lens doesn’t come with a hood, but fortunately flare doesn’t seem to be a big problem. There’s only a mild amount of veiling wide open, but little ghosting or blobs of color. The flare pattern becomes a little more defined with stop down to small apertures, but never too destructive.
I was never able to produce much in terms of an attractive sunstar, so don’t buy the lens for that.
I was able to get a number of images I was very happy with, so I do think the lens is capable of overcoming its limitations and being well worth using.
Overall, I would say there is far more good than bad here. The vignette is too heavy, and the lens doesn’t have exceptional contrast at wider apertures, but the overall look of images seems better than the technical limitations suggest, and I like the bokeh from it quite well. You can check out more photos by visiting the image gallery here.
Conclusion
Lenses like the Nikkor Z 40mm F2 are very valuable additions to a brand’s roster of lenses. They provide nice optical upgrades to less competent zooms for either DX or FX cameras. They are an affordable way to add a first lens after investing in an expensive new camera. They are light enough to bring along to provide an additional perspective. I’ve seen a number of people who state that this lens and the 28mm F2.8 are their favorite Z-mount lenses.
The Nikkor Z 40mm F2 has a lot of strengths and only a few weaknesses. Autofocus is fast and mostly accurate. There’s some weather sealing. Colors are nice, the bokeh is pretty, and the detail is excellent when the lens is stopped down a bit. I’m not crazy about the plastic lens mount, but its not a deal-breaker, nor is the rather featureless design; this is a lens that currently only costs $230, after all. The vignette is strong and the lens isn’t as sharp at wide apertures as I’d hoped, but yet it produced plenty of images that I really liked despite those things.
The Viltrox 40mm F2.5 does exist as a valid alternative, particularly if sharpness is of paramount importance to you, but I suspect that the Nikkor 40mm F2 will continue to sell just fine…as it should. I do think it makes more sense at the current price than at $300, and we’ll see if Nikon agrees over the long haul. I bought the lens that I’ve tested, and I’ll certainly get some good use out of it moving ahead.
Pros:
Compact and lightweight
Great price to performance ratio for a first party lens
Weather sealed
Higher aperture blade count than Viltrox
Autofocus is fairly snappy
Good magnification
Bokeh is nice
Real world images look good
Consistent sharpness across the frame when stopped down
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Earlier this year I finally took the plunge and added a Nikon body to my kit so that I could test Z-mount lenses. One of the earliest reviews I did was of the Viltrox AF 40mm F2.5 Z, an inexpensive prime lens that nicely covers the “normal” angle of view. My findings were mostly very positive, but I was interested in exploring Nikon’s own value offering at this focal length – the Nikkor Z 40mm F2. I had ordered one almost immediately, but due to some customs delays, it took a little longer than I wanted for it to arrive. Eventually it did arrive, however, and I’ve been spending the last 3-4 weeks with the lens and getting a feel for it and how it compares to the Viltrox. I will release a direct comparison video in the near future, but first I wanted to focus on the 40mm F2 directly. Is the first party lens the way to go? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below, reading my text review here, and just enjoying the photos in the galleries below.
This review of a retail-sourced copy of the lens that I purchased new myself. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own.*The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.
The full retail price of the Nikkor lens is $299 USD (nearly double that of the Viltrox), though it currently is available at right under $230, which is close enough in price to make things interesting. The Nikkor lens obviously has the advantage of being a first party lens and having a wider maximum aperture (F2 is 2/3rds of a stop brighter than F2.5), but surprisingly it is the Viltrox that has the build advantage, as it has a metal lens mount (the Nikkor uses plastic) and includes a lens hood.
Despite having a smaller maximum aperture, the Viltrox is a bit bigger. Nikon has done a great job of keeping the 40mm F2 compact and lightweight. The Nikkor has other strengths as well, included quite fast autofocus, nice bokeh, and even some weather sealing…and it can make some nice photos as well!
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Over the past three years Sigma has easily been the most prolific lens developer on Sony FE and Leica L. We went from no full frame options from Sigma on Sony’s mirrorless platform three years ago to 30+ lenses today. And, while I tend to look at these lenses from a Sony slant (I don’t cover Leica L-mount), I do recognize that often these iSeries lenses (a lineup of compact prime lenses that debuted in late 2019) are designed even more with Leica cameras in mind. Compact lenses are even more desirable on compact cameras, and while Sony does have the compact a7C full frame camera, there are a variety of L-mount supporting compact cameras, including some from Sigma itself. The newest lens to join the growing ranks of the compact iSeries lenses is the Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN, which we will refer to as the i50 for brevity in this review, with a 17mm F4 lens also being announced at the same time. If you’re interested in other focal lengths, here is the growing list of iSeries compact prime lenses all hyperlinked to my review of them.
I’ve noted that Sigma’s marketing language for the iSeries is typical marketing word salad (impressive words without much grounding in reality), but the premise for the series is sound. Sigma has recognized that there are multiple segments within the mirrorless market, and those segments have different priorities. One group wants maximum performance in aperture and optics, and these are served by Sigma’s larger ART series (like the recent 50mm F1.4 DN ART), but there is a secondary market who bought into the mirrorless vision of smaller and lighter while retaining the performance. This second group is the target audience for the iSeries. The iSeries lenses are beautiful crafted, very tactile, but are also much smaller and lighter than other premium lenses. I’m a fan of the premise, myself, and have liked most of the iSeries lenses quite a bit.
I recently released my review of Sony’s newest 50mm lens, the 50mm F1.4 G Master, and one of the comments I heard often from my audience was that many of them were less interested in an F1.4 lens (when Sony already has an amazing 50mm F1.2 lens), and what they really wanted was a better quality 50mm F1.8 lens (perhaps in the G series). Sony already has a very compact 50mm F2.5 G lens (which I reviewed here), but people wanted something a little faster than that. Sigma is happy to jump into that void, as the i50 has the superior build quality, quality optics, and compact size that people said they are looking for.
The main threat to the i50 on the Sony side is that Sony 50mm F2.5 G lens, as the Sony is a really solid little lens with a great build, excellent autofocus, good up close performance, and very strong optics. It’s also 25mm shorter and about half the weight of the new Sigma lens…and the price point is pretty much identical. The main Sigma advantage is that it sports a 2/3rds stop brighter aperture (F2 vs F2.5), and it could be argued that the build is even nicer. There are fewer alternatives in L mount, however, where this lens will be even more welcome.
So should the new Sigma jump onto your wish list for a new 50mm lens? I’ll explore the strengths and weaknesses of the lens in this review. So now you have a choice: watch the video review below or read on to get the full picture.
Thanks to Gentec (Sigma’s Canadian Distributor) for sending me a pre-release review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
Sigma i50 Build and Handling
I’ve been a fan of the iSeries design philosophy. I love the all-metal construction, attention to detail, and beautiful handling. Sigma has very intentionally crafted another lens that is both aesthetically and functionally pleasing. As noted, this is another nicely compact lens, with a 70mm (2.8″) diameter and a 58mm front filter thread (in metal). The lens is 70mm (2.8″) in length and weighs 345g (12.2 oz). Here’s a look at how it fits in between a “plastic fantastic” (Canon RF 50mm F1.8) and the smallest 50mm F1.4 lens on the Sony platform – the Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II. You can see that the lens is definitely the “medium” option of the three.
Sigma released an excellent 50mm F1.4 DN ART lens about six weeks before this 50mm F2, and the two lenses really give you a significant choice in terms of lens size. The i50 is 37% shorter (about 40mm) and weighs nearly 50% less (235g). That clear separation in size was (for many) what some of my audience was looking for from Sony. Here’s a visual comparison between the two lenses (the chart from Sigma, but the image of the i5o is supplied by me into the scale that Sigma provided).
A quick word on filter size. Thus far the series has utilized three different standards for filter sizes, including 55mm, 58mm, and 62mm. The 58mm filter dimensions of this lens is shared only with the 35mm F2, so I’m left wondering if Sigma might not have been better off to adopt a common standard throughout this series. The range of filter sizes only differs by 7mm, so it seems like they could have engineered for a common filter size fairly easily. It’s also a reasonable debate as to whether it is better to have a common filter standard (at the cost of some lenses being bigger than what they would otherwise need to be) or better to let each lens follow its own most logical design path at the cost of varying filter sizes. Clearly Sigma has chosen the latter route.
Sigma has chosen to position the i-Series lenses under the Global Vision division of “Contemporary”. Typically the lenses branded Contemporary carry Sigma’s lowest level of build, with Sport lenses given the most robust build while Art lenses land in the middle. The build of the i-Series, however, is arguably nicer than that of the ART series, and cosmetically every bit as nice as the Sport lenses (though the Sport lenses receive a much higher degree of weather sealing). The positioning of the iSeries lenses into the Contemporary lineup may have more to do with optical design, however, as I’ve had internal discussions with Sigma employees and it seems the idea is that ART lenses should be well-corrected optically without needing a lot of software or profile corrections while Contemporary lenses may require some electronic correction to achieve optimal performance. Frankly I have not found that to be a hard and fast rule, however. Some ART series lenses still need a fair bit of correction and some Contemporary lenses need little, so I think it comes down to the unique engineering of each lens.
In many ways these i-Series lenses remind me of two things: 1) classic lenses like the SMC Takumar lenses (which I own about 5 of), and part of why I love them is their beautiful timeless construction that is all metal and glass – and – 2) cine lenses where the aperture and focus rings are raised rather than flush with the barrel and have wider, deeper ribs that accommodate gearing (something that cinematographers often do but stills photographers almost never do). We’ve got a similar design element in the i-Series.
The Sigma i50 is made all of metal alloys, up to and including the lens hood. The lens hood itself is a beautifully crafted piece with a great tactile feel to the metal and ribbing, and it has an added practical value that there is plenty of grip friction due to the ribbing that makes it easy to remove. The lens hood itself is fairly deep. I appreciate that the hood doesn’t looked “tacked on”, however, and to me the lens looks completed with the lens hood in place because the design language of the lens carries on into the lens hood. There’s a nice “flow” to the design.
Sigma has adopted the inclusion of an aperture ring on many of their DN series lenses (DN indicates that the lenses is designed specifically for mirrorless, while DG designates that the lens is designed for full frame cameras). It works just like Sony G Master lenses where one has the option of selecting A (Automatic) and controlling aperture from within the camera like most lenses, but then one can also manually select aperture in one-third stop detents. There is a nice extra bit of friction between the A position and the manual section which will help avoid any inadvertent bumping between the two choices. The aperture ring (like everything on the lens) is beautifully engineered, and has very precise, definite movement and feel for each of the detents. Some people question the necessity of an aperture ring (particularly one that cannot be declicked for video aperture racking), but I can say for myself that I personally strongly prefer to have an aperture ring even for stills. I find it helps me to be more intentional about the use of aperture and plan in advance for what aperture will best suit my shot.
Another solid addition is the AF/MF switch on the side of the barrel. This is something that many mirrorless lenses lack, but I still find an actual physical switch the quickest and easiest way to move between autofocus and manual focus. The F2 lenses like this one have the AF/MF switch mounted transversely, which fits better in the space allotted on these compact lenses. A subtle positive touch here is that the paint exposed when in AF is white, while the exposed paint when in MF mode is black. It’s a quick visual clue. Sigma’s ART series DN lenses include a focus hold button as well, but that’s not a feature we’ve seen on the iSeries lenses.
There is also a manual focus ring. The focus ring, like the aperture ring, is a “by-wire” system, meaning that input on either the focus ring or the aperture ring is electronically communicated rather than through a direct mechanical coupling. This means that input on the focus ring or the aperture ring will not create any physical changes unless the lens is attached to a camera and powered on. The focus ring has a nice feel to it, and Sigma has done a good job emulating traditional manual focus. It is worth noting that Sigma has released a firmware update for its L-mount lenses that enables the user to have control over whether the focus ring operates in a linear or non-linear fashion.
Like most of the iSeries lenses, Sigma is leveraging the all-metal construction to give consumers an option when it comes to the front lens cap. There is a traditional pinch-style plastic lens cap included, but the lens also ships with a magnetic cap that pops easily into place. I find that it works better if you are using the lens without the hood, as reaching in to remove it with the hood fixed is quite difficult. I’ll confess that for me, personally, the magnetic caps have proved more gimmick than revolutionary, and I just use the traditional pinch cap. Your mileage may vary, of course. I know that some people love the magnetic caps.
The lens does have a weather sealing gasket, though there are no other internal seals in the lens. There is no image stabilization (though almost no prime lenses do, so I don’t exactly look for it). You’ll have to rely on IBIS if your camera is so equipped.
The aperture iris has nine rounded aperture blades, and this helps keep the aperture shape fairly circular when stopped down. There is some “cat-eye” shape near the edges of the frame, though a stop down to F2.8 produces round specular highlights across the frame. I’ll throw in the F4 result for good measure.
Minimum focus distance here is 45cm or 17.8″, which is pretty standard fare for a 50mm lens. That limits the amount of magnification to a ratio of 1:6.9, or 0.14x. The Sony 50mm F2.5 G can focus as closely as 31cm and gives a more robust 0.21x. Here’s what MFD from the Sigma looks like:
Magnification isn’t particularly high, but the up close results are pretty good. Contrast is strong and the plane of focus is surprisingly pretty flat.
Still, the amount of magnification here is slightly below average for a 50mm lens, so that if that is a priority for you, the Sony 50mm F2.5G might be a better option.
That minor misstep aside, I remain a fan of the iSeries design formula, and the i50 is no exception. It feels beautiful in the hands, and both the aperture and manual focus rings move nicely. I really value compact lenses that are also well-made and high performing, as they tend to be the lenses that I reach for most often for practical reasons.
Sigma 50mm F2 DN Autofocus
Sigma has unveiled a new focus system (HLA) on their bigger lenses that has helped speed up autofocus in those lenses with bigger, heavier elements, but they are sticking with their tried and true formula on the iSeries lenses. These smaller, lighter elements on the iSeries lenses don’t really need the higher power of the HLM focus motor, so Sigma continues to utilize a stepping focus motor (STM) that makes fast, quiet focus changes. I have no problem with this decision, as focus is snappy and quiet. The Sony 50mm F2.5 G employs dual linear motors, though frankly I’m not sure many people would be able to detect a difference in focus speed between the two lenses Even large focus changes on the i50 are near instantaneous and without pulsing or settling. Focus accuracy is also very good.
I found that Eye AF worked well whether tracking a human subject:
…or animal subject.
The tracking remained sticky on the eye on either my Sony Alpha 1 or a7IV. I also had good focus accuracy with inanimate subjects as well:
When I did my “Nala tracking” test where I try to track her moving towards the camera, I got a mixed bag result. The first part of the sequence was backfocused, though once focus swung forward to the right spot it did stay there until the end. Not quite as effective as either the recent ART lens or the Sony 50mm F1.4 GM that I recently tested.
During my focus pull test I heard no focus noise despite working in a near silent environment. I also saw a good result when doing my hand test (where I block the lens from viewing my face and then remove it to see how confidently focus returns to the eye), though I will note that there was a mildly visible step in the focus transition there (focus seems to very briefly pause about halfway through the focus pull from my hand to my face). I saw a smoother result during a test where I walked up towards the camera, as that was a longer, slower focus adjustment and I saw no visible steps there.
The stepping was exaggerated in one of those tests by some obvious focus breathing , which leads me to a side discussion for potential Sony E-mount. Sony has a few areas related to focus where they put a thumb on the scale to give some advantage to Sony lenses. One of those is that Sony has a focus breathing compensation/correction in some Sony cameras that (at the cost of a minor crop) can largely eliminate focus breathing. But you’ve probably guessed what is coming: this correction is only available for first party Sony lenses. I’ve also noted that while the focus of the i50 is nice and snappy, the burst rate on Sony’s sports cameras will be limited to 15FPS rather then the potential 20/30FPS that Sony’s sports bodies can achieve with a Sony lens.
For many people neither of these things will be a major issue. The burst rate only affects either those that own an a9/a9II or an Alpha 1 camera at the moment, and it’s not like 15FPS is slow! It’s also worth noting that none of these restrictions will apply to L mount customers, as Sigma is part of the L mount “cooperative”, and so this is (technically) a first party lens there.
In short, the focus system is excellent, and most of the limitations are those artificially imposed by Sony. Those for whom video is a priority might want to consider the Sony 50mm F2.5 G for two reasons, however. The first is that the Sony does allow for declicking the aperture (a video-centric feature) and also that the Sony lens will be compatible with the focus breathing compensation if that happens to be a concern. Those that want to use their 50mm to track high speed action might want to go with the one of the bigger, more expensive 50mm F1.4 options from either Sigma or Sony, as these seem to be a little more robust for tracking action. The Sony would be the best choice as it will also deliver the maximum frame rate on sports cameras. For most people in most situations, however, the Sigma 50mm F2 DN will serve their autofocus needs very well.
Sigma i50 Image Quality Breakdown
Sigma has done a pretty remarkable job as a third party lensmaker in that people expect a new Sigma release to automatically be a very high performing lens optically. That’s certainly true here, as this smaller lens is actually very competitive with the high end Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN ART that was just released. According the respective MTF charts, the 50mm F2 is actually about 10% sharper in the center of the frame, is a hair sharper in the midframe, but is considerably weaker (roughly 20%) in the corners. Here’s a Sigma-provided comparison chart (50mm F2 on the right):
So, for most of the area that matters in many types of photography, the i50 is going to be a very strong performer…and that’s what I find in real world results:
We’ll break down what I actually found in a mix of real world and chart tests.
There is some longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) visible at a pixel level, but nothing extreme. You’ll likely mostly see it as a bit of green fringing on bokeh highlights.
I saw little evidence of lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) along the edge of the frame in either my chart tests or any real world images:
Sigma lenses enjoy good profile corrections on either Sony or Leica platforms, but we’ll look past the corrections to the optics of the lens itself. Here’s a look at my vignette and distortion chart, with the uncorrected result on the left and a manually corrected result on the right.
There’s a very minor amount of barrel distortion (corrected with a +1) and a moderate amount of vignette (I corrected it with a +51). That’s about two stops of vignette in the corners, though if left uncorrected that vignette does penetrate quite deeply into the frame, giving images a certain look that is a little “heavy”. You can see that the if I use Sigma’s correction profile (on the right), the image looks much brighter as a result.
The correction profile does a nice, clean job of cleaning up the tiny bit of distortion and the vignette, so I don’t see any issues there.
We’ll move on to testing sharpness. All of the tests and photos shown in this review are done on the 50MP Sony Alpha 1, which is Sony’s second-highest resolution full frame mirrorless camera at the time of this review. Here’s a look at the test chart we’re using for the tests.
If we look closely wide open at F2 (crops are at roughly 170%), we find that the lens produces extremely strong center and mid-frame performance with very high contrast and sharpness, and the dropoff to the corners is less than what I expected from the MTF chart.
That’s a nice, strong performance. I went to check how this compared with the 50mm F1.4 DN ART lens, as Sigma had touted the performance of this smaller lens relative to the bigger ART series lens. Here’s where the MTF charts don’t tell the whole story, however, as they are comparing wide open performances (F1.4 vs F2). The apples to apples comparison is at F2, however, and we find there that the by F2 the ART series lens has closed the gap in the center (about equal), the mid-frame slightly favors the ART lens, while the corners are a clear win for the bigger lens.
The two lenses are very close other than in the corners, so that’s a win for the smaller, less expensive iSeries lens. This is an extremely sharp lens that has most of its sharpness available at wide open. You can see that this wide open, F2 shot of our city hall building is already very sharp.
In fact, if I compare the F2 result with an F5.6 result, I can only see a very minor improvement in contrast at F5.6. The F2 shot is nearly as sharp.
In fact, there is little difference between F2 and F2.8, though I see an uptick in contrast at F4 in certain points in the frame.
Resolution seems to peak somewhere between F5.6 and F8 in the corners, though you’ll see slightly sharper center results at wider apertures than that. Sharpness is never going to be an issue with this lens. You can see in this quick, casual portrait at F2 that there is tons of sharpness even on a 50MP camera:
Minimum aperture is F22, though by that point diffraction has softened the image quite a bit.
Obviously this is a very sharp optic. While it is considerably more expensive than the typical “plastic fantastic” (50mm F1.8), it is also in a much higher class optically. This lens is much like the Zeiss Loxia series – a reminder that small doesn’t necessarily mean “cheap” in either price or performance.
Bokeh is a subjective measure, obviously, but it here that the F2 lens faces its biggest challenge relative to the F1.4 big brother. Depth of field is just much smaller at F1.4, meaning the the backgrounds will be more blurred/softer. The slightly lower maximum magnification figure of the iSeries lens will also limit how much you can blur out the background. The quality of the bokeh looks fairly decent when compared to the ART series lens, however:
This orchid shots shows good subject isolation and a nicely blurred background at closer focus distances.
If I step back a foot or two in this shot of a fancy purse you can see that the room beyond it is fairly nicely blurred, though perhaps with a little more outlining than what I would like. That’s not unusual for a lens that has such high contrast and a relatively small maximum aperture.
My son and his fiancée helped me with this next test that shows first foreground, then background blur. For good measure I’ve also demonstrated how he looked with the maximum defocus the lens could produce at this distance.
Bottom line: I wouldn’t call the bokeh quality anything amazing or magical here, but at the same time it looks fairly good, too. I think that most photographers will be content with the quality of the bokeh they get from the lens.
I found flare resistance to be exceptionally good, with no noticeable veiling or ghosting. There’s no blobs of color, loss of contrast, etc… The final shot shows the look of the sunstar you can get at smaller apertures:
I saw a night with a decently clear sky and good star presence, so I grabbed a few shots to test coma. I found that star points were nice and crisp, and, while I can see a bit of deformation and growing of “wings” along the edges of the frame, this is a pretty good performance overall.
In short, there really isn’t a lot to complain about optically here. Colors and contrast were rich, and images had good “bite” to them, particularly if you are looking for sharp, high contrast images.
You can check out even more photos by visiting the lens image gallery here. This is a very strong lens optically and one that has few flaws. It’s a solid choice if you want something smaller and lighter yet high performing.
Conclusion
I was intrigued that Sigma seems to have read the market’s mind, as my Sigma contact let me know about the incoming Sigma 50mm F2 DN C roughly at the same time that many in my audience were wishing for a high performing compact 50mm lens somewhere around F1.8. This is pretty much the lens they requested, with a high grade of build, good autofocus, and excellent optics. Here’s hoping that the market is as receptive to the i50 as those early comments seem to suggest.
The iSeries always delights me with the tactile feedback of the designs. They feel exquisitely well made, with unique textures and design language that speaks of a company that really does love to produce beautiful lenses. This 50mm F2 backs up those good looks with nice optics as well.
As is often the case with iSeries lenses, the final question is one of value. These lenses face a bit of a perception battle, as they are very often priced higher than competing lenses with similar specs on paper. In this case, the Sony 50mm F2.5 G must be considered, as while the Sigma enjoys a 2/3rds stop brighter maximum aperture, the Sony is smaller, lighter, cheaper ($598 vs $639 USD) while also having a few other advantages (dual linear motors, maximum magnification, focus hold button and delickable aperture). There are just so many options on Sony at this point, including the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN at just $200 more. The Leica L market is much more sparse, however, and the Sigma presents as more of a bargain in that space. There’s no question that the Sigma 50mm F2 DN is a very nice little lens that should check a lot of boxes for the right potential owner.
Pros:
Beautifully crafted lens with a lot of loving touches
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sigma 50mm F2 DN, Sigma 50 2, Sigma 50mm 2 DN, Sigma 50mm, Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN, DG, DN, iSeries, Contemporary, 50mm, F2, f/2, Review, Sony 50mm GM, Sony 50mm F1.2 GM, Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II, Leica L, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #letthelightin, DA, #SIGMA, #SIGMA50mmF2Contemporary, #SIGMAContemporary, #SIGMAContemporaryPrime, #SIGMADGDN, #Iseries, #SIGMAIseries
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Over the past three years Sigma has easily been the most prolific lens developer on Sony FE and Leica L. We went from no full frame options from Sigma on Sony’s mirrorless platform three years ago to 30+ lenses today. And, while I tend to look at these lenses from a Sony slant (I don’t cover Leica L-mount), I do recognize that often these iSeries lenses (a lineup of compact prime lenses that debuted in late 2019) are designed even more with Leica cameras in mind. Compact lenses are even more desirable on compact cameras, and while Sony does have the compact a7C full frame camera, there are a variety of L-mount supporting compact cameras, including some from Sigma itself. The newest lens to join the growing ranks of the compact iSeries lenses is the Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN, which we will refer to as the i50 for brevity in this review, with a 17mm F4 lens also being announced at the same time. If you’re interested in other focal lengths, here is the growing list of iSeries compact prime lenses all hyperlinked to my review of them.
I’ve noted that Sigma’s marketing language for the iSeries is typical marketing word salad (impressive words without much grounding in reality), but the premise for the series is sound. Sigma has recognized that there are multiple segments within the mirrorless market, and those segments have different priorities. One group wants maximum performance in aperture and optics, and these are served by Sigma’s larger ART series (like the recent 50mm F1.4 DN ART), but there is a secondary market who bought into the mirrorless vision of smaller and lighter while retaining the performance. This second group is the target audience for the iSeries. The iSeries lenses are beautiful crafted, very tactile, but are also much smaller and lighter than other premium lenses. I’m a fan of the premise, myself, and have liked most of the iSeries lenses quite a bit.
I recently released my review of Sony’s newest 50mm lens, the 50mm F1.4 G Master, and one of the comments I heard often from my audience was that many of them were less interested in an F1.4 lens (when Sony already has an amazing 50mm F1.2 lens), and what they really wanted was a better quality 50mm F1.8 lens (perhaps in the G series). Sony already has a very compact 50mm F2.5 G lens (which I reviewed here), but people wanted something a little faster than that. Sigma is happy to jump into that void, as the i50 has the superior build quality, quality optics, and compact size that people said they are looking for.
The main threat to the i50 on the Sony side is that Sony 50mm F2.5 G lens, as the Sony is a really solid little lens with a great build, excellent autofocus, good up close performance, and very strong optics. It’s also 25mm shorter and about half the weight of the new Sigma lens…and the price point is pretty much identical. The main Sigma advantage is that it sports a 2/3rds stop brighter aperture (F2 vs F2.5), and it could be argued that the build is even nicer. There are fewer alternatives in L mount, however, where this lens will be even more welcome.
So should the new Sigma jump onto your wish list for a new 50mm lens? I’ll explore the strengths and weaknesses of the lens in this review. So now you have a choice: watch the video review below or read the text review to get the full picture.
Thanks to Gentec (Sigma’s Canadian Distributor) for sending me a pre-release review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.
Receive a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!
Keywords: Sigma 50mm F2 DN, Sigma 50 2, Sigma 50mm 2 DN, Sigma 50mm, Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN, DG, DN, iSeries, Contemporary, 50mm, F2, f/2, Review, Sony 50mm GM, Sony 50mm F1.2 GM, Samyang AF 50mm F1.4 II, Leica L, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, sony a7III, sony a7RIV, a9II, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1 let the light in, #letthelightin, DA, #SIGMA, #SIGMA50mmF2Contemporary, #SIGMAContemporary, #SIGMAContemporaryPrime, #SIGMADGDN, #Iseries, #SIGMAIseries
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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