I’ve been in the review business for about 13 years now, and over that time I’ve heard the requests from my audience for someone to produce a 24-105mm F2.8 full frame zoom. The 24-105mm F4 zoom has been ubiquitous, but always the F2.8 counterpart had a more constrained 24-70mm zoom range. That has lead to countless deliberations between the bigger zoom range of the 24-105mm or the larger maximum aperture of the 24-70mm zooms. But what people really want is, well, everything. Canon was the first to the table with their 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z lens, though that lens will set you back $3000 and weighs 1.3 kilos. Not an “everyman’s lens”, for sure. But while Sigma’s newest lens is a little less ambitious – the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | ART lens – the price is just half of the Canon lens at $1499 USD. Does that make the 28-105 DN the new most desirable zoom out there? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below , in the text review, or just by enjoying the photos in the galleries below.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
The top competitor to the new 28-105 DN on Sony will almost certainly be the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD. While the focal ranges are clearly not identical, both of them are traditional zoom range blurring high performance lenses. The Tamron has been my “if I only could have one lens” lens since it’s launch, and I use my copy extensively. I will draw some comparisons to the new Sigma lens, as I feel like both lenses are largely reaching for the same audience.
Sigma’s approach to keeping this lens at a reasonable size actually takes a page from the Tamron book; they’ve started at 28mm rather than 24mm. In this case, in fact, the 28mm wide end of the Sigma still trumps the 35mm wide end of the Tamron, though obviously the Tamron also happens to have an extra 45mm on the telephoto end. Which of those is more useful will probably mostly depend on your own shooting needs. That extra 20mm beyond 85mm does offer up some interesting portrait applications, allowing you a little more compression. But while Sigma is focused on portrait and landscape photographers in their marketing for the 28-105 DN, I think the most interesting market is actually event photographers (particularly wedding photographers). The Tamron 35-150mm has been my absolute go-to lens for all kinds of events because it includes the meat of both a 24-70mm and 70-200mm zoom. 35mm is very often wide enough in most venues, and being able to switch framing between wide and telephoto perspectives is incredibly useful. The Sigma allows for the same kind of approach in a slightly different way.
The Sigma 28-105 DN also adds some interesting close focus capabilities with a 0.32x magnification on the telephoto end, allowing for some “macro-ish” shots.
Keywords: Sigma 28-105mm, DG, DN, ART, Sigma 28-105 F2.8, Sigma 28-105mm, F2.8, Sigma 28-105 Review, #SIGMAEmount, #SIGMA #SIGMA28105mmF28Art, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, 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.
I’ve been in the review business for about 13 years now, and over that time I’ve heard the requests from my audience for someone to produce a 24-105mm F2.8 full frame zoom. The 24-105mm F4 zoom has been ubiquitous, but always the F2.8 counterpart had a more constrained 24-70mm zoom range. That has lead to countless deliberations between the bigger zoom range of the 24-105mm or the larger maximum aperture of the 24-70mm zooms. But what people really want is, well, everything. Canon was the first to the table with their 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z lens, though that lens will set you back $3000 and weighs 1.3 kilos. Not an “everyman’s lens”, for sure. But while Sigma’s newest lens is a little less ambitious – the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | ART lens – the price is just half of the Canon lens at $1499 USD. Does that make the 28-105 DN the new most desirable zoom out there? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below or in the text review that follows.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
The top competitor to the new 28-105 DN on Sony will almost certainly be the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD. While the focal ranges are clearly not identical, both of them are traditional zoom range blurring high performance lenses. The Tamron has been my “if I only could have one lens” lens since it’s launch, and I use my copy extensively. I will draw some comparisons to the new Sigma lens, as I feel like both lenses are largely reaching for the same audience.
Sigma’s approach to keeping this lens at a reasonable size actually takes a page from the Tamron book; they’ve started at 28mm rather than 24mm. In this case, in fact, the 28mm wide end of the Sigma still trumps the 35mm wide end of the Tamron, though obviously the Tamron also happens to have an extra 45mm on the telephoto end. Which of those is more useful will probably mostly depend on your own shooting needs. That extra 20mm beyond 85mm does offer up some interesting portrait applications, allowing you a little more compression. But while Sigma is focused on portrait and landscape photographers in their marketing for the 28-105 DN, I think the most interesting market is actually event photographers (particularly wedding photographers). The Tamron 35-150mm has been my absolute go-to lens for all kinds of events because it includes the meat of both a 24-70mm and 70-200mm zoom. 35mm is very often wide enough in most venues, and being able to switch framing between wide and telephoto perspectives is incredibly useful. The Sigma allows for the same kind of approach in a slightly different way.
The Sigma 28-105 DN also adds some interesting close focus capabilities with a 0.32x magnification on the telephoto end, allowing for some “macro-ish” shots.
So does Sigma have a hit on their hands? We’ll dive in a little further to find out.
Build and Handling
Sigma’s build standards are continually evolving, and they have been very proactive about adding new features and improvements. Many of those feature improvements have been designed around video capture, which obviously serves this new lens well. The 28-105 DN has basically all of the features currently available on modern lenses save lens-based image stabilization.
That starts with the aperture ring (something relatively new for zoom lenses, period). The aperture ring works great, giving you precise control at 1/3rd stops when in clicked mode, and gliding smoothly through the whole aperture range when declicked.
On the lower left side of the lens is the Click/Declick switch which allows you to choose between those two options.
On the right side of the lens is the iris lock. The iris lock will allow you to either lock into or out of the aperture ring. For those that want to use the aperture ring and not inadvertently switch into camera based aperture control, the lock can be engaged while you are in the aperture ring and keep you there. If you’re not an aperture ring person you can switch the lens into the A position and control it from within the camera. Engaging the iris lock while in A assures that you won’t inadvertently bump into manual aperture control.
The left side of the lens also has an AF/MF switch (always appreciated!) along with one of the two custom/function buttons.
There’s a second function button on the top of the lens for access when shooting in a vertical position.
The function of those buttons (they are redundant, not two separate functions) can be set from within the camera.
Lower down the lens barrel is a lock to prevent zoom creep. This is an externally zooming lens, though the precision in the zoom mechanism and extending barrel means that there is little chance of zoom creep unless you have something specifically rubbing on the zoom ring (like when hiking, for example). The lock will only engage at the wide (28mm) setting.
The inner barrel extends roughly 43mm when zoomed out to the 105mm position, and I’ll note that the inner barrel feels very well engineered and smooth – no wobble.
It is worth noting that Sigma lenses zoom in the opposite direction of Sony lenses (and pretty much every other brand on E-mount). It’s a little annoying, actually.
The zoom ring is the closer of the two rings, with the manual focus ring further out. The manual focus ring is well executed, with wide ribbing and good damping. It makes for a good focus emulation, though as with all mirrorless autofocusing lenses this is focus by wire. Input to the focus ring is routed through the focus motor, and there are no hard stops at minimum focus or infinity.
The overall look of the lens is very much modern Sigma, with a lot of vertical lines and a few different textures.
This flows into the lens hood, which has a lock, a rubberized section for soft touch and a ribbed section for more grip when mounting or removing. Sigma’s lens hoods are nicer than just about any other brand. A padded nylon case is also included.
While I haven’t seen a cutout diagram of the weather sealing points, I do know that Sigma touts a professional grade of weather sealing on this lens. There is a gasket at the lens mount, a water and oil repellant coating on the front element, and internal seals throughout the lens. Sigma calls this a “dust and splash resistant structure”.
The basic dimensions of the lens (in Sony E-mount, as tested) are 87.8mm (3.5″) in diameter and 159.9 (6.3″) in length. It weighs in at 990g (34.9oz) and has an 82mm front filter thread. In many ways this lens has a similar physical size to the recent 28-45mm F1.8, though that lens is an internally zooming design.
To put this in context, the Tamron 35-150mm pictured here is 89.2 x 158 mm (very similar in size) but weighs 175g more.
The Canon 24-105mm F2.8L is the behemoth, however, at 88.5 x 199 mm and weighing 310g more. Bottom line is that Sigma has done a good job of managing the size and weight of the lens, though, to be fair, it doesn’t have quite as big of zoom range as either the Canon or the Tamron, and the Canon also has image stabilization while the Tamron sports a larger maximum aperture (F2-2.8) across its zoom range.
The aperture iris is unique for a Sigma lens, in that it has has 12 blades, which helps keep the aperture iris shape circular even with the lens stopped down.
This also produces a more defined 12 bladed sunstar, as while odd bladed apertures actually produce double the sun rays (an 11-bladed aperture has a sunstar with 22 points, but a 12-bladed aperture has 12 points. I personally favor the cleaner look of these sunbursts, though Sigma reports that this is more of a one-off with this lens and they have no plans to move to aperture irises with even blade counts.
The minimum focus distance 40cm, which allows for a very useful 0.32x (1:3:1) magnification at 105mm:
At 28mm, that 40cm produces this result:
But then you can zoom into 105mm and get a very different level of magnification.
This combined with that F2.8 aperture allows for very nicely blurred backgrounds, and up close performance is quite good.
Because I review a lot of Sigma lenses, there’s a lot that is familiar here, which makes it easy to take their excellence in design for granted. Sigma is packing as many features into their top lenses as anyone out there, and that’s fantastic in a lens that is equally good for both video and stills. This is a big lens, but as we’ve seen, it is actually a bit smaller and lighter than the competition. And, at a price of $1499 USD ($2099 here in Canada), it is not exorbitantly expensive (the Tamron 35-150 VXD runs $300-400 USD more).
Autofocus and Video
This is another area where Sigma has made some key strides. Their initial offerings on Sony (and L-mount) featured STM focus motors, but Sigma has since released their more powerful, smoother HLA focus motor (High speed Linear Actuator). The HLA motor has much more torque/thrust than lenses equipped with the stepping motor, which is very important when you are talking about a lens with larger, heavier optical glass like this one. The increased thrust of the focus motor means that it is capable of moving much faster and is thus much more reactive. Real world focus changes are essentially instantaneous, making this lens capable even of keeping up with some action. I used it with success at a rodeo, and while the lighting conditions meant that I didn’t always get as fast of shutter speeds as I would like, I was able to successfully track and capture the action.
This further increases the credentials of the 28-105 DN as a great choice for things like events or weddings, as even if there is some action, the autofocus can keep up.
Focus sound is basically nonexistent. The HLA motor is essentially silent even if I put my ear next to the lens. It is quiet enough that I literally looked up at the screen to make sure the lens was actually focusing.
Focus accuracy is good, too. I don’t really recall any shots during my review having been missed due to poor focus in any reasonable situation (I had a few times during the rodeo that focus grabbed the rail in front of me rather than the subject beyond, but that’s understandable).
Eye AF was excellent, delivering very accurate results whether photographing an animal…
…or a human subject.
I also saw mostly good results for video work. Autofocus pulls were very fast and confident. No hunting or settling. Focus is fast enough that you’ll probably want to slow it down in camera if you want more cinematic focus transitions. There is some focus breathing, though not extreme.
My hand test where I alternately blocked the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it went quite well, with confident adjustments to and from my face.
I also found that in real world shots that focus changes tended to be more abrupt than what I would prefer. There’s a lot of thrust in this focus motor, but it probably would have been better to detune it a bit in video mode…particularly in a lens that will probably be highly desired for video work.
On a positive note, I used the 28-105 DN for about a half dozen of my YouTube video episodes, and focus was rock solid during those episodes.
Sigma’s HLA focus motors are great, though they are slightly limited on Sony by the fact that Sony limits bursts to 15FPS with third party lenses, so this one area where the 28-105 DN is not going to be as effective as the G Master zooms in certain applications.
Image Quality Breakdown
As I noted in my intro, this is a pretty special lens optically. The optical formula is fairly complex (18 elements in 13 groups), and that includes 2 FLD elements, 2 SLD elements, and 5 aspherical elements. A look at the MTF charts for the various lenses shows that the 28-105 DN holds up well when compared with either the 24-70mm F2.8 DN ART or older DSLR era 24-105mm F4 DG HSM lens.
At it’s best, the 28-105 DN is able to produce images with a lot of detail, contrast, and pop.
That’s not to say that the lens is flawless, however, as it does exhibit a few optical weaknesses. This is a very complex undertaking, and it becomes clear where the compromises were made. We not only maintain a constant F2.8 aperture (for full frame) in this zoom, but we go from moderately wide at 28mm to moderate telephoto at 105mm. Here’s a look at the same scene at all five marked positions on the lens (28, 35, 50, 70, and 105mm):
First, some of the good. There’s not much evidence of longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) here, with clean results before and after the plane of focus. There’s basically no evidence of fringing anywhere.
I shot photos of sunlight dancing through the morning dew, and I found all of those bright specular highlights clean of any fringing.
I also saw zero issues with LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations), which shows up along the edges of the frame. All of the transitions here are very neutral.
While many people will certainly wish that this lens went as wide as 24mm, thus enabling photographers to more realistically use it for wide angle shots. The problem with going to 24mm (as Sigma has dealt with on their 24-70mm lenses) is that it is very difficult to control distortion, and those lenses have dealt with quite heavy barrel distortion at 24mm. The choice to only go as wide as 28mm should (in theory) allow for an easier optical design. Unfortunately the big zoom ratio of this lens has resulted in both a lot of distortion and a mildly complex distortion pattern.
I needed a very significant +26 to manually correct the distortion, though as you can see the correction isn’t linear. Getting the lines straight near the center results in the edges being pulled to a pincushion style distortion. Vignette is also very heavy, requiring a +90 to correct, which is just shy of maxing out the correction slider in Lightroom.
Sigma did provide me with a correction profile, and you can see that it essentially splits the difference on the distortion, leaving a bit of barrel distortion to avoid creating the pincushion distortion. It does clean up the vignette nicely.
There is unfortunately still a fairly significant amount of distortion (now pincushion style) on the telephoto end. Vignette is about a stop less (+61 to correct), and I needed a -10 to correct the distortion.
That’s enough distortion that I did notice it in some of my real world shots. If you look at the lines along the left side of this image you will see the curve due to the distortion. I saw this in a number of shots.
Again, the correction profile will take care of this, but it does show the area that had to give in the engineering compromises to make this lens happen.
So how about resolution and contrast? My formal tests are done on the 61MP Sony a7RV.
The MTF suggests that this is a very sharp lens in the center and mid-frame areas, with a typical corner drop-off at wide apertures. Is that what we see? Here’s a look at the test chart from which the crops come.
The MTF shows an accurate reflection of real world performance, as I find that, as suggested, the center looks amazing, mid-frame is very good, but the corners show a significant reduction in sharpness and contrast. Here are crops from across the frame at F2.8 and shown at a 200% magnification.
In most situations this probably won’t be a problem. Shooting at night or in a dimly lit venue it will be rare for this to affect things too much. I found that real world corners didn’t look terrible (this shot is 1/6th of a second, F2.8, ISO 3200).
This shot of fireworks at F2.8, 28mm looks nice and crisp.
The corners are somewhat better by F4, and reasonably good by F5.6, though they never quite rival the performance elsewhere in the frame.
It’s enough for real world shots to look good, however. Detail doesn’t jump off the page in a 100% crop of this shot, but you can see that it looks just fine, however.
Diffraction will set in at F11, and shots with apertures smaller than that will look noticeably softer. Here’s the difference between F11 and the minimum aperture of F22:
Moving on to 35mm finds the center performance largely the same, but I see some improvement in the midframe and the corners, though the corners remain softer by comparison.
Centering seems good in the lens, with consistent results in all four corners.
There’s more sharpness potential in the corners at 35mm, with corner performance looking quite good by F5.6.
If we move on 50mm, we find our strongest performance yet. Sharpness is noticeably higher in the midframe and corners (which look great!), and even the center looks a little better.
You can see that real world shots at 50mm show great detail and contrast.
70mm still looks good, though not as intensely good as 50mm.
At the end of the zoom range I find some give and take relative to 70mm. Some spots (midframe) look a little sharper, while the corners look a little softer and the center looks about the same. Overall I would say that sharpness and contrast are slightly lower at 105mm relative to other places in the zoom range.
Overall I found that sharpness was pretty good at 105mm for real world shots, though contrast isn’t top notch.
Here’s another example.
I did a few comparisons to the Tamron 35-150mm. Comparing the wide ends (28 vs 35mm) showed some give and take between the two lenses in terms of sharpness. The Tamron is sharper in the center and midframe, while the Sigma is very slightly sharper in the corners. At 105mm, the Tamron is a bit sharper all across the frame.
At least in the copies that I compared, I found that the Tamron had a little more capacity for further sharpening as you stopped it down as well. The comparison more strongly favors the Tamron at smaller apertures. The Tamron is also considerably more expensive, though it is impressive how well it holds up in this comparison three years after its release. After years of using the Tamron, I felt like the Sigma wasn’t quite as sharp and contrasty in real world applications.
So how about the bokeh? As with any zoom, that’s going to depend on the focal length. The telephoto end has the largest capacity for blurring out the background. You can see from this morning dew shot that bokeh looks fairly good.
There is some typical geometric deformation near the edges of the frame, and I also see some hints of “onion bokeh” there (concentric rings inside the specular highlights).
But while I found a slight bit of outlining in the specular highlights, I do feel like the some of the hard edges in this image are rendered fairly well. I have no real complaints here.
This casual portrait of me shows a little more busyness than what I would like in the textures of the trees beyond me.
I found the recent 28-45mm F1.8 zoom from Sigma to have some of the “special sauce” in the rendering, but I’m a little less impressed here.
Flare resistance, on the other hand, is excellent. I found very good resistance to veiling or ghosting, and I think the sunbursts look great!
This is an area of definite win over the Tamron, as it has a few issues with flare.
This allowed me to shoot right into the spotlights at the rodeo without concern that the images would be ruined.
Another plus is color rendition. I liked the overall look of images a lot. Skintones looked good, and other colors were rich.
Here’s another:
How about my truck at golden hour?
So while we don’t have a flawless performance here, we do have a very good optical showing. This is a very competent lens across all of its zoom range, which means that Sigma has pulled off something that really only one company has previously. And don’t forget that close focus ability, which allows you to pull off some unique images.
This ability could really expand the usefulness of the 28-105 DN as a wedding photographer’s primary lens, as you could grab detail shots of flowers, rings, and more without having to pull out a secondary macro lens. If you want to see more images, check out the image gallery for the lens here.
Conclusion
Genre busting lenses like the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | ART are rare for one simple reason: they just aren’t easy to make. There are so many constraints on the engineers, as they need to control the size, weight, and cost while also trying to engineer for optical excellence over a larger zoom range than is typical. Sigma is demonstrating their ability as a company to successfully take on exceptional challenges yet again. They were the first on Sony to do an F1.2 prime. The first to do F1.4 on a wide angle lens. The first to release a full frame F1.8 zoom. On and on the list goes, which shows just how far removed we are from the company once known for making budget alternatives to first party lenses. The 28-105 DN is yet another case in point.
Sigma’s HLA autofocus delivers excellent speed, allowing the 28-105 DN to also excel for action packed moments that lesser lenses might miss.
I can see this lens becoming a favorite for those who want a one-lens solution for events or portrait photography, allowing them to switch from wide angle to tighter framing with a twist of the zoom ring. The $1500 price tag seems a lot more reasonable when you consider that for many people it could probably replace both a 24-70 and a 70-200mm lens, particularly with the ability to switch to an APS-C crop on Sony’s higher resolution cameras. I’m not sure that it quite matches the versatility of the Tamron 35-150mm for my personal needs, but there are also several things that the Sigma does better. What a great day to be a photographer, however, when we are spoiled with one exceptional lens options upon another.
Pros:
Genre busting zoom range with a constant F2.8 aperture
Beautifully made
Feature rich
Thorough weather sealing
Ability to declick aperture
HLA focus motor is extremely quiet and has a lot of thrust
Excellent focus accuracy
Extremely sharp lens over most of the frame and zoom range
Keywords: Sigma 28-105mm, DG, DN, ART, Sigma 28-105 F2.8, Sigma 28-105mm, F2.8, Sigma 28-105 Review, #SIGMAEmount, #SIGMA #SIGMA28105mmF28Art, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, 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.
Sigma’s 18-35mm F1.8 that was released nearly ten years ago became a cult favorite, particularly with the video crowd. Even full frame users often used it to help mitigate crop factors and because of the flexibility of having a zoom range AND a fast maximum aperture. Sigma followed that up with a similar full frame lens – the Sigma 24-35mm F2 – but that lens never seemed to capture the same kind of attention (perhaps due to its large size and abbreviated zoom range). But Sigma is back for the mirrorless era with a unique new offering that surely hopes to recapture the success of the 18-35mm. This is a full frame lens, but Sigma has tweaked the formula to allow for a slightly larger zoom and a little brighter a maximum aperture. We now have the 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | ART lens…but does it have the magic of the 18-35mm? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below or in the text review that follows.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
Some of the key selling features of the 28-45 DN include:
World’s first F1.8 full frame zoom
Prime-like optical performance
Full range of video features
Multiple custom buttons
Aperture ring with declick and iris lock options
Internally zooming design
Thorough weather sealing.
Sigma revealed the development of this lens to me a while back, and my immediate thought when I heard the specifications was, “a full frame version of the 18-35mm!”. I saw their marketing materials about a month later, and that was exactly how they are marketing it. The numbers aren’t exact, but since the 18-35mm was an APS-C lens, if you apply a 1.5x crop factor (the most common APS-C crop factor) to that focal length, you get 27-52.5mm. So obviously the zoom range is a little more constrained on the full frame version, though definitely a bigger zoom ratio than the 24-35mm. Sigma cheated a bit on the wide end (-4mm) to allow more on the telephoto end (+10mm) and to avoid making the lens even larger. And that size factor is going to be, in my mind, the biggest potential deterrent. This is a BIG lens – over 153mm in length and weighing 950g – 33mm longer and 140g heavier than the 18-35mm. That’s not terrible in absolute terms (considering this is a full frame lens), but it does mean that this will be slightly harder lens to gimbal.
The whole “bag of primes” in one lens applies here, though I will practically point out that the Samyang 24mm F1.8 (230g), 35mm F1.8 (210g), 45mm F1.8 (162g) weigh a combined 602g. You could throw in the 75mm F1.8 (230g) and still undercut the weight of the 28-45mm by 150g! That’s not to suggest that those lenses are of the same quality as the Sigma or that having 3-4 prime lenses are as convenient for video making, but the size and weight will be probably the single greatest deterrent for some potential buyers. The better argument here is the image quality and overall performance, which is nothing short of exceptional.
Sigma has a well deserved reputation for producing sharp lenses, but every now and then they make something exceptional – something that stands out from the ordinary lenses that I review from them and is optically special. The 28-45 DN is one of those. Here’s why…
Build and Handling
Sigma’s build standards are continually evolving, and they have been very proactive about adding new features and improvements. Many of those feature improvements have been designed around video capture, which obviously serves this new lens well. The 18-35mm was well regarded, but the truth of the matter is that the only “feature” it had was an AF/MF switch. It didn’t have weather sealing (neither did the 24-35mm F2), and it didn’t have any kind of lens-based stabilization. The latter is still true, but the difference now is that almost all of the Sony full frame mirrorless cameras have camera based stabilization, as do a number of the L-mount cameras this lens is also compatible with. Outside of that, however, the 28-45 DN has basically all of the features currently available on modern lenses.
That starts with the aperture ring (something relatively new for zoom lenses, period). The aperture ring works great, giving you precise control at 1/3rd stops when in clicked mode, and gliding smoothly through the whole aperture range when declicked.
On the lower left side of the lens is the Click/Declick switch which allows you to choose between those two options.
On the right side of the lens is the iris lock. The iris lock will allow you to either lock into or out of the aperture ring. For those that want to use the aperture ring and not inadvertently switch into camera based aperture control, the lock can be engaged while you are in the aperture ring and keep you there. If you’re not an aperture ring person you can switch the lens into the A position and control it from within the camera. Engaging the iris lock while in A assures that you won’t inadvertently bump into manual aperture control.
The left side of the lens also has an AF/MF switch (always appreciated!), and in a slight redesign for Sigma, the two custom/function buttons are moved away from the AF/MF switch to a further section of the barrel that just the two of them occupy. One is on the left side for the traditional horizontal use of the camera.
There’s a second function button on the top of the lens for access when shooting in a vertical position.
The function of those buttons (they are redundant, not two separate functions) can be set from within the camera.
This is an internally zooming lens, so there is no need for a zoom lock. Internally zooming lenses tend to be larger than externally zooming lenses for obvious reasons, but there are a number of key tradeoffs for that extra size.
The lens length remains constant, making it easier to use on a gimbal (the weight balance doesn’t change)
There is no risk of zoom creep, as there is nothing external to be affected by gravity.
The zoom action is smoother and more precise
There is less risk of getting dust or moisture in the lens because nothing is going in and out.
The handling is better
The zoom ring is the closer of the two rings, with the manual focus ring further out. The manual focus ring is well executed, with wide ribbing and good damping. It makes for a good focus emulation, though as with all mirrorless autofocusing lenses this is focus by wire. Input to the focus ring is routed through the focus motor, and there are no hard stops at minimum focus or infinity.
The overall look of the lens is very much modern Sigma, with a lot of vertical lines and a few different textures.
This flows into the lens hood, which has a lock, a rubberized section for soft touch and a ribbed section for more grip when mounting or removing. Sigma’s lens hoods are nicer than just about any other brand. A padded nylon case is also included.
While I haven’t seen a cutout diagram of the weather sealing points, I do know that Sigma touts a professional grade of weather sealing on it. There is a gasket at the lens mount, a coating on the front element, and internal seals throughout the lens. The internal zoom and focus design further helps with this.
The basic dimensions of the lens are 87.8mm (3.5″) in diameter and 153.4 (6″) in length. It weighs in at 950g (33.5oz) and has an 82mm front filter thread.
The aperture iris has 11 blades, which helps keep the aperture iris shape circular even with the lens stopped down.
The minimum focus distance of the lens is 30cm (11.9″), and the maximum magnification figure is achieved at 45mm and is a very useful 0.25x (1:4).
This combined with that F1.8 aperture allows for very nicely blurred backgrounds, and up close performance is quite good, though a little softer than if you back up another foot.
Because I review a lot of Sigma lenses, there’s a lot that is familiar here, which makes it easy to take their excellence in design for granted. Sigma is packing as many features into their top lenses as anyone out there, and that’s fantastic in a lens that is equally good for both video and stills. This is a big lens, but it’s also doing something no other full frame zoom has done before, so I feel like we can make some allowances here. And, at a price of $1349 USD ($1899 here in Canada), it is not exorbitantly expensive.
Autofocus and Video
This is another area where Sigma has made some key strides. Their initial offerings on Sony (and L-mount) featured STM focus motors, but Sigma has since released their more powerful, smoother HLA focus motor (High speed Linear Actuator). The HLA motor has much more torque/thrust than lenses equipped with the stepping motor, which is very important when you are talking about a lens with larger, heavier optical glass like this one. The increased thrust of the focus motor means that it is capable of moving much faster and is thus much more reactive. Real world focus changes are essentially instantaneous, making this lens capable even of keeping up with some action.
That makes this a great option for someone wanting to shoot events or weddings, as you have some flexibility in the focal length (unlike a prime) but have the light gathering potential of a prime, allowing you to catch those critical moments.
Focus sound is basically nonexistent. The HLA motor is essentially silent even if I put my ear next to the lens. It is quiet enough that I literally looked up at the screen to make sure the lens was actually focusing.
Focus accuracy is good, too. I don’t really recall any shots during my review having been missed due to poor focus.
I also saw mostly good results for video work. Autofocus pulls were very fast and confident. No hunting or settling. Focus is fast enough that you’ll probably want to slow it down in camera if you want more cinematic focus transitions. There is some focus breathing, though not extreme. The lens is not quite parfocal, either, but I did find that I could zoom in and out with focus turned off and the results were acceptably good.
My hand test where I alternately blocked the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it went reasonably well, though there were times where focus wanted to stick on my face even when my hand blocked the view of my face. This degree of stickiness is admirable in some ways, though it wasn’t really what I was looking for.
I also found that in real world shots that focus changes tended to be more abrupt than what I would prefer. There’s a lot of thrust in this focus motor, but it probably would have been better to detune it a bit in video mode…particularly in a lens that will probably be highly desired for video work.
On a positive note, I used the 28-45 DN for several of my YouTube video episodes, and focus was rock solid during those episodes.
Sigma’s HLA focus motors are great, though they are slightly limited on Sony by the fact that Sony limits bursts to 15FPS with third party lenses, so this one area where the 28-45 DN is less competitive with Sony G-Master lenses.
Image Quality Breakdown
As I noted in my intro, this is a pretty special lens optically. The optical formula is fairly complex (18 elements in 15 groups), and that includes 5 SLD elements along with 3 aspherical elements. You know that this is a high performing lens when Sigma actually favorably compares it to two of their recent primes – the 24mm F1.4 DN | ART and the 50mm F1.4 DN | ART lenses. Now, technically, the 28-45 DN doesn’t cover either one of those focal lengths, but it does illustrate how that this zoom is sharper across a good part of the frame than either one of these prime lenses.
As I noted, however, Sigma has long been able to make sharp lenses. What stood out more to me with the 28-45 DN is that it has that special sauce where the colors, contrast, sharpness, and bokeh come together to produce a lens that makes very special images. This image was one that really stood out to me.
On its face it is a simple image. I was at a gender reveal party for our niece and wanted to capture the gift bag that my wife had put together for the baby. It’s literally just a picture of a fuzzy tote sitting on a table in a restaurant – not glamorous at all – but when I looked at the image I was surprised by how great it looked. That’s the magic of a very good lens; it makes everything look just a little more special. I’ve seen that with a few Sigma lenses along the way. Their 28mm F1.4 ART and 40mm F1.4 ART lenses were like that, and, while their 85mm F1.4 DN does have a few flaws, I instinctively just like the images that it makes.
Sigma’s recent 24-70mm F2.8 DN II zoom had a few more longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) than what I expected, but that’s not the case here. There’s basically no evidence of fringing anywhere.
I shot photos of sunlight dancing through the morning dew, and I found all of those bright specular highlights clean of any fringing.
I also saw zero issues with LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations), which shows up along the edges of the frame. All of the transitions here are very neutral.
Sigma wisely chose to narrow the focal range to 28mm, which is much easier to engineer for than attempting to go as wide as 24mm. That means that there is much less distortion here than on, say, the 24-70mm F2.8 II, and what distortion is there is more linear and easily correctable.
I used a simple +8 to correct the distortion and a +45 to correct less than two stops of vignette in the corners.
At 45mm the distortion has inverted to a pincushion style distortion that requires just slightly more correction (-9) but again corrects in a nicely linear fashion. Vignette is very slightly heavier at a +60 to correct, so a full two stops.
That’s nothing significant, so, while the lens is big and the aperture is wide, Sigma has managed to slay some of the common dragons that affect zoom lenses.
So how about resolution and contrast? My formal tests are done on the 61MP Sony a7RV.
The MTF suggests that this is a very sharp lens in the center and mid-frame areas, with a typical corner drop-off at wide apertures. Is that what we see? Here’s a look at the test chart from which the crops come.
The MTF spoke truly, as when I examine results I see impeccable results in the center and mid-frame at 28mm, F1.8, with the corners looking obviously softer.
Other than the extreme corners, there is plenty of resolution here to produce very crisp real world results even at F1.8 (and on a high resolution camera!)
The very mild stopdown to F2 does produce a bit more sharpness and contrast, though the effect is felt more in the areas already stronger than in the corners.
The corners start to really sharpen by F4, and now sharpness is impeccable across the frame.
This lens is great at 28mm, whether shooting shallow depth of field shots at F1.8:
Or landscape style shots (here at F2.8):
The lens is sharp enough that it can handle a bit of diffraction at F11, but the image is softer at F16 (though still not bad).
Moving on to 35mm shows an even stronger performance everywhere I look in the frame. Better detail, better contrast. Look at how much crisper this midframe shot at F1.8 looks (35mm result on the right).
The corners are still the weakest spot in the frame, but they are good enough that it isn’t really a factor. Landscape images at 35mm simply “pop”!
40mm is very slightly less contrasty than 35mm (more similar to 28mm), though it is still exceptionally good. Here’s a look at another point in the frame, where you can see slightly less contrast in the 40mm result (on the right).
Remember that this is relative, however. This is still a very sharp lens at 40mm…even at F1.8:
The very important 45mm end of the zoom range shows perhaps our second best performance of the four marked positions on the zoom range. I think 35mm is still a little better across most of the frame, but 45mm is close, and is actually the best of the four positions in the corners.
The lens that I tested showed a good degree of centering, with equal performances in all four corners.
Stop down to F2.8 and the lens is absolutely brilliant across the frame. You can see a ridiculous level of contrast in the midframe.
Landscapes are beautiful. Great color and contrast, fantastic detail.
Shooting at 45mm is also going to give you the most dramatic combination of sharpness and bokeh. This is a lens capable of a very nice ratio between sharpness and softness.
In general I think the bokeh is very nice. There’s a very nice falloff from the plane of focus to defocus, and images just look great to my eye.
Even if I choose a subject a little further away, the look of the bokeh is still quite nice.
Flare resistance also seems very solid. This morning shot has the sun right out of frame, and you can see that contrast has held up well.
In this shot the sun is right out of the frame on the right, but you can see there is no glaring into the frame.
Shooting right into the sun works fine as well.
The bottom line is that is a pretty exceptional lens optically. Images just look great to me regardless of the setting I’ve used the lens in. I think people photos look great!
General purpose shots look great:
And up close photos look great as well.
The Sigma 28-45 DN is big and heavy, yes, but it is also optically special. Not only has Sigma done something no one has ever done before in creating a full frame F1.8 zoom; they have done it well! If you want to see more images, check out the image gallery for the lens here.
Conclusion
Every now and then a company surprises you. You would think the surprise here is seeing Sigma do a full frame F1.8 zoom, but frankly I’m not overly surprised by that. We are reaching a place of such saturation on Sony E-mount that it seems like many of the companies are starting to experiment with more extreme designs. They essentially have to release more unique lenses because all of the standard lenses already exist. The Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | ART is now the most extreme zoom lens on Sony opr L-mount due to the constant F1.8 focal length, though one could argue that Canon’s 28-70mm F2L still qualifies as more extreme due to have a much larger zoom range and an only slightly smaller maximum aperture. But let’s not forget that the Canon weighs 500g more and costs well over twice as much ($3000).
But what really surprised me is how good optically the 28-45 DN was. It’s undeniably a Sigma, but an extra special Sigma. I’ve had a few of those moments in my 10+ years of covering Sigma lenses where I pleasantly surprised by my expectations being exceeded. It’s like suddenly discovering a Zeiss lens where I expected a standard Sigma offering. If Zeiss made an Otus zoom, it feels like it would be a lot like this…and that’s a very high compliment.
The size and weight of this lens means that it won’t be for everyone, and maybe it won’t achieve the cult status of the 18-35mm, but I can say with complete confidence that this is a MUCH better lens than the 18-35mm was. I can also appreciate the fact that the market is much more competitive, too, so Sigma will have a harder time standing out from the crowd.
But if you choose to spend the $1350 USD to purchase the Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 DN, know that you are getting an amazing lens for the money. It is a beautifully made, feature rich, has a high end focus system, is incredibly sharp, and has really gorgeous bokeh and rendering. Oh, and it is the world’s first F1.8 full frame zoom, so it has that going for it too.
Pros:
The first of its kind – a full frame F1.8 zoom
Beautifully made
Feature rich
Internal zoom and focus makes for great handling
Thorough weather sealing
Ability to declick aperture
HLA focus motor is extremely quiet and has a lot of thrust
Keywords: Sigma 28-45mm, DG, DN, ART, Sigma 28-45 F1.8, Sigma 28-45, F1.8, Sigma 28-45 Review, #SIGMAEmount, #SIGMA #SIGMA2845mmF18Art, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, 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.
Sigma’s 18-35mm F1.8 that was released nearly ten years ago became a cult favorite, particularly with the video crowd. Even full frame users often used it to help mitigate crop factors and because of the flexibility of having a zoom range AND a fast maximum aperture. Sigma followed that up with a similar full frame lens – the Sigma 24-35mm F2 – but that lens never seemed to capture the same kind of attention (perhaps due to its large size and abbreviated zoom range). But Sigma is back for the mirrorless era with a unique new offering that surely hopes to recapture the success of the 18-35mm. This is a full frame lens, but Sigma has tweaked the formula to allow for a slightly larger zoom and a little brighter a maximum aperture. We now have the 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | ART lens…but does it have the magic of the 18-35mm? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below or in my text review here…or just enjoy the photo gallery.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
Some of the key selling features of the 28-45 DN include:
World’s first F1.8 full frame zoom
Prime-like optical performance
Full range of video features
Multiple custom buttons
Aperture ring with declick and iris lock options
Internally zooming design
Thorough weather sealing.
Sigma revealed the development of this lens to me a while back, and my immediate thought when I heard the specifications was, “a full frame version of the 18-35mm!”. I saw their marketing materials about a month later, and that was exactly how they are marketing it. The numbers aren’t exact, but since the 18-35mm was an APS-C lens, if you apply a 1.5x crop factor (the most common APS-C crop factor) to that focal length, you get 27-52.5mm. So obviously the zoom range is a little more constrained on the full frame version, though definitely a bigger zoom ratio than the 24-35mm. Sigma cheated a bit on the wide end (-4mm) to allow more on the telephoto end (+10mm) and to avoid making the lens even larger. And that size factor is going to be, in my mind, the biggest potential deterrent. This is a BIG lens – over 153mm in length and weighing 950g – 33mm longer and 140g heavier than the 18-35mm. That’s not terrible in absolute terms (considering this is a full frame lens), but it does mean that this will be slightly harder lens to gimbal.
The whole “bag of primes” in one lens applies here, though I will practically point out that the Samyang 24mm F1.8 (230g), 35mm F1.8 (210g), 45mm F1.8 (162g) weigh a combined 602g. You could throw in the 75mm F1.8 (230g) and still undercut the weight of the 28-45mm by 150g! That’s not to suggest that those lenses are of the same quality as the Sigma or that having 3-4 prime lenses are as convenient for video making, but the size and weight will be probably the single greatest deterrent for some potential buyers. The better argument here is the image quality and overall performance, which is nothing short of exceptional.
Sigma has a well deserved reputation for producing sharp lenses, but every now and then they make something exceptional – something that stands out from the ordinary lenses that I review from them and is optically special. The 28-45 DN is one of those. Here’s why…
Keywords: Sigma 28-45mm, DG, DN, ART, Sigma 28-45 F1.8, Sigma 28-45, F1.8, Sigma 28-45 Review, #SIGMAEmount, #SIGMA #SIGMA2845mmF18Art, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, 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.
The lens market has perhaps never been more competitive than it is right now, with literally hundreds of lenses available for Sony’s E-mount. At the beginning of 2020 Sigma launched the 24-70mm F2.8 DN | ART lens (my review here), a full featured, high performing fast standard zoom that went head to head with Sony’s 24-70mm F2.8 G Master (my review here). I think the Sigma was very nicely competitive with the 24-70mm GM, but the problem is that the market doesn’t freeze. Sony released a MK II version of their GM lens (my review here), and it was vastly improved. Smaller, lighter, more feature rich, and with vastly improved autofocus along with a stronger optical performance. It’s also $2300 USD, so it definitely sets the upper limit for performance and price. Tamron improved their 28-75mm F2.8 lens with a new G2 version, and it too was vastly improved (my review here). It remains an incredible value at $900 USD (currently just $700 on sale at the time of this review). So Sigma has returned with a new and improved lens themselves – the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | ART. The Sigma is priced higher than the Tamron but much lower than the Sony at $1200 USD. For many people this will be the “Goldilocks” option…just right. But just how much is this “new and improved” lens actually improved? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below or in the text review that follows.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
In their press release Sigma is touting improved optics, faster AF speed, more features, and a more compact size. Some of those key new features include:
An aperture ring
An additional custom/function button
Aperture delick function
Aperture iris lock
New flush mounted switches
I brought in a copy of the first generation lens to test those claims. Some improvements are more pronounced than others. The size difference, for example, is very subtle. You need to have the lenses side by side to see that the new lens is slightly slimmer and shorter.
While those physical differences appear subtle, it does add up. The new lens weighs 100g less (the Sony E-mount version weighs 735g). That doesn’t quite match the weight loss for the new G Master II lens as that lens has trimmed to just 695g. In the first generation, the G Master was the heavier lens (886g) while the Sigma was slightly lighter (835g). That has obviously reversed here despite the weight loss program Sigma has put its new lens through. This is a competitive market!
But let’s not forget that the Sony GM II lens is a whopping $1100 more than the new Sigma, so I suspect that many photographers will be willing to carry both the extra 40g along with the extra weight of all that leftover money in their pockets! And, as we can see above, the Sigma 24-70 DN II is capable of producing some lovely images. We’ll dive deeply into the performance and new features together.
Build and Handling
Sigma’s build standards are continually evolving, and they have been very proactive about adding new features and improvements. We’ve noted that the physical size isn’t radically different between the MK II and older lens, but the new features definitely change the the way that the real estate is distributed. From the front you see how the additional ring (aperture ring) means at the two other rings need to be a bit smaller.
You can also see from this angle how that the switches were previously on a raise bank on the side of the lens and now have been implemented directly into the lens barrel, making that section of the lens much slimmer.
Rotating the lens to the side shows a different appearance. Near the lens mount you’ll see the ribs of the aperture ring along with the iris lock that is now part of the design. The iris lock will allow you to either lock into or out of the aperture ring. For those that want to use the aperture ring and not inadvertently switch into camera based aperture control, the lock can be engaged while you are in the aperture ring and keep you there. If you’re not an aperture ring person you can switch the lens into the A position and control it from within the camera. Engaging the iris lock while in A assures that you won’t inadvertently bump into manual aperture control.
The new design gives more equal size to the two other rings (zoom and manual focus) while adding a third ribbed section in between them for grip and aesthetics. This visually balances the rings from this angle. There is a glossy section of barrel in between each of these rings. The zoom ring is very slightly raised from the lens barrel, and the zoom ring is tapers out wider to give it a different feel when reaching for it without looking. The diameter of the two lenses is identical (87.8mm/3.5″), but that’s only because the widest point continues to be the very front of the lens to accommodate the rather large 82mm front filter threads.
The diameter of the two lenses looks identical from this angle, but we can see that practically almost all of the touch surfaces on the lens are functionally slimmer.
The left side of the lens looks different as well. You can more prominently see the flush mounted AF/MF switch along with the function button. Removing that raised section eliminates unnecessary bulk from the lens. The click/declick switch is integrated on this side as well. I appreciate how nicely the aperture ring is implemented. It neither adds bulk to the lens nor takes away from sculpting of the lens barrel.
The bottom of the lens features the zoom lock switch. This switch has a different shape, which is wider and shorter. The lens will only lock at the 24mm position, and, unlike some, if you put a lot of pressure on it, the lock will release so that it never actually stops you from getting your shot.
The aperture ring works great, giving you precise control at 1/3rd stops when in clicked mode, and gliding smoothly through the whole aperture range when declicked.
There’s also an additional function button on the top of the lens to allow you to have one easily to hand when shooting in a vertical position.
While I haven’t seen a cutout diagram of the weather sealing points, I do know that Sigma has more thoroughly weather sealed this new lens. It was a complaint of some users that the previous model got dust into it after a while of use, and Sigma has worked to address that here.
The basic dimensions of the lens are 87.8mm (3.5″) in diameter and 122.2mm (4.8″) in length. We’ve already seen that overall length is not much more than a millimeter shorter than the previously lens. The 24-70 DN II weighs in at 735g (25.9oz).
As always, Sigma includes the lens hood and a padded case. The lens hood has a different designation but looks identical to the old hood and is functionally the same. I could use the old hood on the new lens and vice versa.
I prefer the feel of the new manual focus ring. Though slimmer, it has more weight/feel to it and makes for a better manual focus experience.
The zoom action remains precise, smooth, and well damped, with a roughly equal inner barrel extension length to the previous lens.
The aperture iris has added a few blades, moving from 9 blades to 11 blades in the newest version. This helps keep the aperture iris shape circular even with the lens stopped down.
Sigma has further improved the minimum focus distance on the lens on both the wide and telephoto ends of the zoom. On the wide end the MFD has been shortened from 18cm to 17cm, though since this is a fairly long lens, this actually falls inside the range of the lens hood. This is how close I could get to my test chart on the wide end:
Obviously the practical applications for getting this close to your subject are pretty slim, but if you don’t mind getting right on top of your subject (and can get enough light there), you can achieve a 0.37x magnification level, which is higher than the 0.34x magnification previously available.
You can also shoot closer on the telephoto end, where the MFD has been reduced from 38cm to 34cm. The magnification level is a lower 0.25x, though that has grown from the 0.22x achievable with the older lens and is much easier to achieve in real world conditions.
You’ll note that even on the telephoto end the plane of focus isn’t particularly flat, so up close this is a lens that works better on isolating individual subjects than by trying to photograph something flat.
There’s a lot to like here, as Sigma has really upped their game once again to match what Sony is doing with the G-Master series. They’ve managed to fit more features and functionality into a very slightly smaller but more noticeably lighter lens…and done it without increasing the price, which is a huge bonus.
Autofocus and Video
This is another area where Sigma has made some key strides. Their initial offerings on Sony (and L-mount) featured STM focus motors, but Sigma has since released their more powerful, smoother HLA focus motor (High speed Linear Actuator). The HLA motor has much more torque/thrust, resulting in 3x faster maximum drive speed. That doesn’t quite mean 3x faster autofocus, but rather that the focus motor is capable of moving much faster and is thus much more reactive. Real world focus changes are essentially instantaneous. Now, to be fair, I didn’t really have an issue with focus speed for ordinary photography with the older lens, either, and in my basic focus tests I didn’t see a big difference.
Where this new lens will shine, however, is in the situations where faster reactiveness is needed, so as action shots or those situations where you don’t have much time to set up a shot and just need to shoot quickly. The shot above is from late in a burst of shots of Nala where she has gotten close to the camera and I’m actually having to pan laterally to keep her in frame.
Throughout a burst of 70 shots I saw pretty much flawless focus results.
Focus sound is basically nonexistent. You can hear some faint clicking and whirring during focus with the older lens, but the new HLA motor is essentially silent even if I put my ear next to the lens.
Focus accuracy is good, too. I don’t really recall any shots during my review having been missed due to poor focus.
I also saw excellent results for video work. Autofocus pulls were fast, smooth, and well damped. No hunting or settling, and in the middle of the range where I did my test (about 35mm) I saw very little focus breathing.
My hand test also went well, with smooth and confident transitions from my hand to my eye and back as I alternately blocked the camera’s view of my face and then removed it. The minimal focus breathing helps those transitions to look smooth and not disruptive.
I used the 24-70 DN II for several of my YouTube video episodes, and focus was rock solid during those episodes.
I had no problems with focus, period. This is definitely an area of improvement that will help the lens stay more competitive with Sony’s GM lens. The primary disadvantage at this point is the fact that Sony limits bursts to 15FPS with third party lenses, so the GM does have the advantage when using Sony’s sports cameras.
Image Quality Breakdown
There is less change on the optical end. The optical design is basically the same as before (19 elements in 15 groups), though Sigma notes that a few of those aspherical elements are now thinner and thus overall corrections are improved. Think of this more as an optimization of an existing optical design rather than a new optical design. The MTF chart shows improvement particularly on the sagittal plane (solid line) with a more noticeable improvement on the telephoto end.
The truth of the matter is that I found the optical performance of the older lens pretty good even when testing on a 61MP body, though obviously any improvements are welcome.
On paper that MTF chart looks pretty similar to the excellent optical performance from the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 lens, which is to say, pretty much good enough for anyone.
Sigma emphasized the control of aberrations in their press release, so I was surprised to see a bit more longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) than what I expected.
I saw a bit of that blue/green fringing in this shot.
I saw less of an issue with LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations), which shows up along the edges of the frame. You can see that everything is nice and neutral in these branches near the edge of the frame.
I don’t really see appreciable difference when it comes to amount of vignette and distortion on the new lens. There’s still a fairly strong amount of barrel distortion that has the same basic nonlinear pattern.
On either lens the nature of the distortion doesn’t really lend itself to manual correction very well because it isn’t a linear distortion. Correcting the lines in the center of frame result in inverting the outer edge lines into a pincushion style distortion.
I had to use a +24 to achieve this correction, but I’m not sure it’s an improvement…unless you were cropping the outer portion of the image. The correction profile is the way to go, obviously, as it tailors the correction to the unique distortion pattern of this lens.
Vignette is also quite heavy here, requiring a +76 to correct, which, incidentally, is identical to what I needed to use to correct the older lens. It is worth noting that if this is an area that concerns you, both the GM II and the Tamron 28-75mm G2 both have much lower amounts of distortion and vignette (though the Tamron isn’t as wide, obviously), and what distortion they do have is more linear in nature.
That distortion changes to some pincushion distortion in the middle of the zoom range and through the telephoto end, but both the distortion and vignette are much lighter and easier to correct…as is typical for zooms like this.
I would have liked to see some progress on this front, but as the image above shows, real world results aren’t bad.
So how about resolution and contrast?
It’s important to remember that this is more of an optimized optical design rather than a fresh one, so one shouldn’t expect the improvements to be huge…and they aren’t.
The MTF shows a roughly 4% improvement in the center of the frame at 24mm, but I don’t really see it even at a 200% magnification side by side with the first gen lens.
The MTF suggests we should see more noticeable improvement in the corners at 24mm. And while contrast and detail still aren’t fantastic there wide open, we can see some improvement to the detail in the lines of the building near the far corner.
I went back and took a look at the 24mm side of the Sony 24-70 GM II, and found that the Sigma looks a hair better in the center of the frame while the GM lens was a bit better in the mid-frame and the corners. Here’s a look at the mid-frame:
The award for the strongest corner performance goes to the Tamron 28-75mm G2, though, as always, this must come with a caveat because 28mm is nowhere near as wide as 24mm and is easier to engineer for. Tamron’s approach was to design an easier zoom range and make it smaller, cheaper, and optically superior. In this case that produces a win.
For many photographers, however, not going to 24mm in the zoom range might mean having to purchase an additional lens for wide angle photography, so slightly softer corners might be worth it.
But do those corners sharpen up?
At 24mm the mid-frame looks fantastic by F4, though the corners still have a ways to go.
Peak corner results don’t arrive until F8, and so that should be your preferred aperture if you are shooting landscapes or other scenes where you want everything in focus and detail all the way out to the corners.
After F8 diffraction will start to set in on high resolution bodies. F11 still looks good, but by the minimum aperture of F22 the image looks quite soft due to the effects of diffraction.
I was happy with real world landscape shots at F5.6 and F8. Detail across the frame looks great (even on 61MP), and I noted when shooting the same scene with a less expensive wide angle prime lens that the Sigma handled the intense midday light and colors better. There’s solid optical glass here.
Moving on to 35mm I found that wide open resolution was more similar than different. There was some give and take at various points in the frame, but I would say that image quality was very slightly better at 35mm. You will be dealing with less vignette and distortion, and that does allow slightly better midframe and corner performance. I felt like real world results at 35mm were a bit stronger, with great contrast and detail even at the edges of the frame.
The sharpness profile is a little different at 50mm. It is noticeably softer compared to the 35mm in the center of the frame but a bit stronger in the mid-frame and corners.
Again, for some perspective, however, you can see that even at F2.8 (on 61MP) that a real world landscape shoot looks pretty great throughout the frame.
Finally, on to 70mm. The MTF suggests that we should see a roughly even center performance, with some improvement in the mid-frame and corners (though mostly on the sagittal axis). Unfortunately I felt like my review copy wasn’t completely centered at 70mm, and so my findings (which I repeated 3x to be sure they were correct) showed a stronger performance on the left side of the frame than than right.
The center of the frame performance looks mostly like a wash between the two lenses (as suggested), with a roughly equal mid-frame performance on the right side of the frame but a stronger showing for the new lens on the left side of the frame (as you can see below).
The winner in the corners really depends on which side of the image you look at, which does suggest with a properly centered copy of the lens you should get marginally better corner performance than the first generation lens.
There’s a noticeable improvement in contrast and resolution at F4, and even the right side looks fantastic in the midframe.
The right side corner still isn’t looking great, but the left side does look stronger.
By F5.6 the corners (at least on the left side) are looking great. Here’s a look at the upper left extreme corner at F4 (left) and F5.6 (right).
By F8 even the weakest point in the frame is looking pretty good.
If we take a look at a real world image at F5.6 and look at the crops (about 140% magnification), we can see that left side (second image) does look sharper than the right side (third image), but both look just fine.
My review process is hypercritical because, for the most part, modern lenses are typically all quite good, and it takes careful examination to establish what is exceptional and what is not.
If we take a look at another real world shot of Nala on the move (70mm, F2.8), you can see from the detail crop that real world result is pretty great (note the little hair coming off her on the left side in the crop).
Bottom line: there is some give and take between the 24-70 DN II, 24-70 GM II, and 28-75 G2 optically, but the truth of the matter is that they are all exceptionally good lenses.
I do think a standout area for the Sigma is actually in the bokeh, which I find nicer than many standard zooms. You can see from the shot we’ve just looked at that the overall bokeh is nice and soft, and looks even better in the tighter crop.
Here at a medium distance I feel like the bokeh falls off nicely, and there is good contrast punch to the subject.
This shot of a chain link fence up close shows the ability to strongly blur a background when you get close at 70mm:
And if you should be able to get close to a subject at 24mm and still get some light on it, you can strongly blur out a background due to the macro-ish capabilities of the lens.
Flare resistance is a key area of strength here. I was basically unable to coax any flare or ghosting out of the lens on either end of the zoom range. The 22-pointed sunstar at 24mm in particular is quite nice, as well.
I haven’t had a chance to test coma this time around (astro conditions during my time with the lens have been poor), but I’ll show my results from the previous generation, and results should be improved as Sigma touts a reduction of sagittal coma in the MK II lens.
Standard zooms like this one are popular among wedding and portrait photographers due to the flexibility of the zoom range and the relatively large maximum aperture (for a zoom) allows for professional looking results. The Sigma 24-70 DN II has a nice combination of sharpness and bokeh, making for a very nice portrait zoom.
The optics are not improved as much as I expected, but things made more sense when I saw that we really aren’t working with a new optical formula. The truth of the matter is that the older lens was already very good optically, so even marginal improvements are enough to keep it competitive in this class. If you want to see more images, check out the image gallery for the lens here.
Conclusion
The Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | ART is a nice evolution of Sigma’s extremely important standard zoom for Sony E and L-mount shooters. It’s not a radically changed lens, but it does stay competitive with Sony’s G-Master line by following the trend of becoming lighter, faster focusing, and more feature rich. It also retains a core Sigma strength by offering up a lens that gives you at least 90% of the GM’s overall performance while costing essentially 50% of the price. That’s been a wining formula for Sigma for a long time, and they have a well established reputation for beautifully filling that middle tier of lenses where performance is high but the price is more attainable.
Sigma’s new HLA focus motors are great, and it makes this lens highly responsive to real world focus changes. The host of new features make this a better hybrid lens for video capture, and I was impressed by the video focus results as well.
My conclusion is that if you are in the market for a new standard zoom, then the Sigma 24-70 DN II is an intriguing proposition. It’s reasonably priced, covers the important zoom range, and has all the performance that a person could want. The Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 is a very attractive alternative if you feel like you can live without going as wide as 24mm, as it is possibly even optically better and costs even less (though it isn’t quite as feature rich as the Sigma). The Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM II remains the top choice if you need absolute performance and are willing to pay to get it. But for many people people I think the Sigma will be the “just right” option in between.
If you own the first generation Sigma 24-70mm DN, however, I think the decision is a bit murkier. There are definitely some key upgrades, but the new lens isn’t really much better optically, and its not like the autofocus (and even features) on the older lens were bad. It’s true that at retail the new lens is only $100 more, but the reality of selling the lens you have used means that the cost of upgrade will be much higher than that. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether the upgrades here are necessary for you and worth the extra money. What’s clear, however, is that Sigma is determined to stay competitive in the current lens market, and that makes us all winners because we have so many great lenses to choose from.
Keywords: Sigma 24-70mm, DG, DN, ART, II, Sigma 24-70 II, 24-70mm II, #SIGMAEmount, #SIGMA, #SIGMA2470mmF28IIArt, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, 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.
The lens market has perhaps never been more competitive than it is right now, with literally hundreds of lenses available for Sony’s E-mount. At the beginning of 2020 Sigma launched the 24-70mm F2.8 DN | ART lens (my review here), a full featured, high performing fast standard zoom that went head to head with Sony’s 24-70mm F2.8 G Master (my review here). I think the Sigma was very nicely competitive with the 24-70mm GM, but the problem is that the market doesn’t freeze. Sony released a MK II version of their GM lens (my review here), and it was vastly improved. Smaller, lighter, more feature rich, and with vastly improved autofocus along with a stronger optical performance. It’s also $2300 USD, so it definitely sets the upper limit for performance and price. Tamron improved their 28-75mm F2.8 lens with a new G2 version, and it too was vastly improved (my review here). It remains an incredible value at $900 USD (currently just $700 on sale at the time of this review). So Sigma has returned with a new and improved lens themselves – the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II | ART. The Sigma is priced higher than the Tamron but much lower than the Sony at $1200 USD. For many people this will be the “Goldilocks” option…just right. But just how much is this “new and improved” lens actually improved? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below or my text review here…or just enjoy the photos.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
In their press release Sigma is touting improved optics, faster AF speed, more features, and a more compact size. Some of those key new features include:
An aperture ring
An additional custom/function button
Aperture delick function
Aperture iris lock
New flush mounted switches
I brought in a copy of the first generation lens to test those claims. Some improvements are more pronounced than others. The size difference, for example, is very subtle. You need to have the lenses side by side to see that the new lens is slightly slimmer and shorter.
While those physical differences appear subtle, it does add up. The new lens weighs 100g less (the Sony E-mount version weighs 735g). That doesn’t quite match the weight loss for the new G Master II lens as that lens has trimmed to just 695g. In the first generation, the G Master was the heavier lens (886g) while the Sigma was slightly lighter (835g). That has obviously reversed here despite the weight loss program Sigma has put its new lens through. This is a competitive market!
But let’s not forget that the Sony GM II lens is a whopping $1100 more than the new Sigma, so I suspect that many photographers will be willing to carry both the extra 40g along with the extra weight of all that leftover money in their pockets! And, as we can see above, the Sigma 24-70 DN II is capable of producing some lovely images. We’ll dive deeply into the performance and new features together.
Keywords: Sigma 24-70mm, DG, DN, ART, II, Sigma 24-70 II, 24-70mm II, #SIGMAEmount, #SIGMA, #SIGMA2470mmF28IIArt, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, 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.
A little over a year ago Sigma released their 50mm F1.4 DN ART lens, one that I was very happy to see from them. I gave it a very positive review here. But they weren’t done – just five or six weeks later they released the 50mm F2 DN lens, which I reviewed here. Flash forward to March of 2024, and we have a THIRD full frame Sigma 50mm release…all in less than a year. This is the premium option, however, in the form of the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DG DN| ART, coming to go head to head with Sony’s own 50mm F1.2 G Master lens. Sony’s 50mm F1.2 GM is amazing, but it also retails for $2000, leaving Sigma a lot of room to operate at the much lower price point of $1399 USD ($1899 CDN). But is the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN worth considering over either the Sony 50mm F1.2 (or excellent F1.4 G Master) lenses, or even Sigma’s own 50mm F1.4 DN? Explore that idea with me in either my video review below or by reading my text review here.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
One of Sigma’s first dedicated full frame DN (mirrorless) designs was their 35mm F1.2 DG DN | ART. I reviewed that lens 5 1/2 years ago, and, while it was optically amazing, it was also HUGE. It was over 136mm long (5.4″) and weighed a whopping 1090g (38.4oz). Many reviewers felt about like I did about it; they loved the images they could with it, but weren’t sure that they were willing to deal with the size and weight. I ended up buying the wonderful (and compact) Sony 35mm F1.4 GM when it came out instead.
But Sigma has really learned to prioritize cutting down the size where necessary on mirrorless, and the new 50mm F1.2 DN is much more moderate in size. It is 81mm in diameter (with a 72mm front filter thread size) and 110.8mm in length (3.2 x 4.4″). It weighs a much more moderate 740g (26.1oz). These measurements are for the Sony E-mount version (which I’m testing here), but the L mount specs are similar. That makes this lens much more similar to the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN (78.2 x 109.5mm | 670g) than the mammoth 35mm F1.2 DN, which is 28mm longer and 345g heavier. It is very similar in size to the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 G Master, which is 87 x 108 mm and weighs 778g. That means the Sigma is just slightly longer but a fair bit narrower and actually weighs 38g less. Kudos to keeping this beast reasonably sized. I don’t have the 50mm F1.2 GM on hand, but I do own the 50mm F1.4 GM, which you can see is smaller but not dramatically so.
The Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN brings all of Sigma’s latest technologies and features together to produce a GM fighter, and the lens is (as expected) incredibly sharp as well…even at F1.2
Keywords: Sigma 50mm F1.2, Sigma 50mm DN, 50mm, F1.2, f/1.2, #SIGMA, #SIGMA50mmF12Art, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, Full Frame, Review, G Master, GM, 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.
A little over a year ago Sigma released their 50mm F1.4 DN ART lens, one that I was very happy to see from them. I gave it a very positive review here. But they weren’t done – just five or six weeks later they released the 50mm F2 DN lens, which I reviewed here. Flash forward to March of 2024, and we have a THIRD full frame Sigma 50mm release…all in less than a year. This is the premium option, however, in the form of the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DG DN| ART, coming to go head to head with Sony’s own 50mm F1.2 G Master lens. Sony’s 50mm F1.2 GM is amazing, but it also retails for $2000, leaving Sigma a lot of room to operate at the much lower price point of $1399 USD ($1899 CDN). But is the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN worth considering over either the Sony 50mm F1.2 (or excellent F1.4 G Master) lenses, or even Sigma’s own 50mm F1.4 DN? Explore that idea with me in either my video review below or by reading on.
Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) 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.
One of Sigma’s first dedicated full frame DN (mirrorless) designs was their 35mm F1.2 DG DN | ART. I reviewed that lens 5 1/2 years ago, and, while it was optically amazing, it was also HUGE. It was over 136mm long (5.4″) and weighed a whopping 1090g (38.4oz). Many reviewers felt about like I did about it; they loved the images they could with it, but weren’t sure that they were willing to deal with the size and weight. I ended up buying the wonderful (and compact) Sony 35mm F1.4 GM when it came out instead.
But Sigma has really learned to prioritize cutting down the size where necessary on mirrorless, and the new 50mm F1.2 DN is much more moderate in size. It is 81mm in diameter (with a 72mm front filter thread size) and 110.8mm in length (3.2 x 4.4″). It weighs a much more moderate 740g (26.1oz). These measurements are for the Sony E-mount version (which I’m testing here), but the L mount specs are similar. That makes this lens much more similar to the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN (78.2 x 109.5mm | 670g) than the mammoth 35mm F1.2 DN, which is 28mm longer and 345g heavier. It is very similar in size to the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 G Master, which is 87 x 108 mm and weighs 778g. That means the Sigma is just slightly longer but a fair bit narrower and actually weighs 38g less. Kudos to keeping this beast reasonably sized. I don’t have the 50mm F1.2 GM on hand, but I do own the 50mm F1.4 GM, which you can see is smaller but not dramatically so.
The Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN brings all of Sigma’s latest technologies and features together to produce a GM fighter, and the lens is (as expected) incredibly sharp as well…even at F1.2
Let’s take a deeper dive into everything together.
Build and Handling
Sigma divides its lenses into three different categories: Contemporary, Art, and Sport. The Contemporary lineup gets the lowest level of build and weather sealing, while the lines are a little more blurred with the Art and Sport lenses. This ART lens is very nice built, and has a “Dust and Splash resistant structure” in the form of a gasket at the lens mount, internal seals, and a water and oil repellant coating on the front element.
As per usual with the ART series, Sigma provides a nice padded nylon case along with a quality lens hood. The lens hood has different textures to it along with a locking mechanism. Sigma does go the extra mile in the presentation of their lenses, and they are proud that their products continue to be fully assembled in Japan.
The 50mm F1.2 DN has Sigma’s unique approach to aperture, which includes several features. This includes an aperture ring with the option of using the “clicked” version (with one-third stop detents) or, with the flip of a switch, a fully declicked version that will allow for aperture racking for video. One unique Sigma feature is an aperture lock switch, which you can engage either in the manual aperture portion (this will keep you from inadvertently sliding into “A” [Auto] position, particularly important if doing aperture racks), or you can engage it when you are Auto aperture mode to make you that you don’t inadvertently bump the ring and change the aperture without noticing. Sony has since copied this feature, which they call “Iris lock”.
This really gives users the best of all worlds, as for those who don’t like an aperture ring, you can use the lock and just control the aperture from within the camera (or allow the camera to control aperture) without being concerned about an inadvertent bump of the ring. You can use the manual aperture ring with clicks (my personal preference), or declick it if preferred (typically for video work, to allow for aperture racking).
The aperture iris itself features an extremely high 13 blade count, which makes for an extremely circular shape as the lens is stopped down.
When stopped down, this also makes for an interesting (if a bit busy) 26 bladed sunstar/sunburst effect.
The 50mm F1.4 DN also sports an AF/MF switch and a custom/focus hold button which you can program to various functions in the camera, though it should be noted that the G Master 50mm lenses both sport dual custom buttons.
The manual focus ring is nice and wide, deeply ribbed, and is really nicely damped. The action feels heavier than the GM lenses, but more precise, too. The high power of the focus motor means that there is no latency when you manually focus (mirrorless lenses operate on a “focus by wire” arrangement rather than a direct mechanical coupling to the focus elements). Manual focus action is very nice and feels pretty close to the real thing. If you are using the Leica L version of the lens and the USB dock, you can tweak the behavior of the focus ring between linear focus and non-linear focus.
The build quality feels very nice here, roughly on par with the much more expensive G Master. It’s a great mix of nice materials, including some metal alloys and engineered plastics, and Sigma has long been good at using different textures as a means of keeping their lenses from being “boring” even though there are essentially no accent colors in use here.
The minimum focus distance is 40cm (15.8″), which is 5cm (2″) closer than the 50mm F1.4 DN, which results in a 0.16x magnification figure, just slightly lower than the GM’s 0.17x magnification figure. Up close performance is very strong, with good contrast and detail even at F1.2.
This opens up the possibility of some nice shallow depth of field shots with beautifully blurred backgrounds.
I’m perfectly happy with the build and feature set of this new 50mm F1.2 DN lens. The size and weight are tolerable, and Sigma has delivered a feature set that is pretty comparable to the G Master lens but at a much lower price point. That’s almost certainly going to be a winning combination.
Autofocus and Video
Last year Sigma debuted their new HLA (High-response Linear Actuator) focus motor, which is a definite improvement over the stepping motors Sigma has used in the past on their mirrorless lenses. This is a high powered linear motor which is more powerful and has the necessary torque for rapid focus changes even with the heavy glass elements in a large aperture lens like this. Sigma has employed two HLA focus motors in the 50mm F1.2 DN – one for each of the focusing groups in the optical design. And you can definitely feel the speed, as there is little hesitation when making focus changes and instead focus is essentially where you need it be near instantaneously.
Autofocus speed is definitely nice and snappy, with near instant transitions from one focus point to another whether indoors or out of doors, aided indoors by that big F1.2 aperture. Focus is quiet and smooth. Now, to be fair, Sony packs a whopping 4! XD linear motors into their 50mm F1.2 GM, so when push comes to shove, that lens is still going to be the lens of choice if you happen to shoot sports, particularly since Sony limits the burst speed of their top sports cameras with non-Sony lenses. Maximum burst speed with this Sigma on my Alpha 1 is 15FPS, whereas I can get 30FPS with my GM lens. Frankly, however, that probably isn’t going to be major factor with many photographers, as people rarely use a 50mm F1.2 for sports!
What the lens definitely provided was precision focus. I shot this hanging piece of bark on a tree, and you can see just how precise focus is here.
The most common application of a lens like this will be portrait and fine art work, and the AF system works beautifully for that. Look how perfect the focus on Nala’s iris is even at F1.2:
I was able to nail focus easily even at F1.2 on very narrow subjects, like this nail sticking out of some old barn board.
I shot a portrait session with the lens and had an effortless time tracking the eye of my subject. I got consistently good focus results, though, as always, you may need to stop the lens down to get enough depth of field to have more than a sliver of your subject in focus.
The upside to this is that you can shoot full length portraits and still have some separation from the background.
Video focus pulls are smooth and fast, with no hesitation, pulsing, or settling. I also saw smooth, confident focus transitions when I put my hand in front of the lens and then allowed focus to transition back to my eyes. Sigma has worked at reducing focus breathing in the 50mm F1.2 DN, and it shows in a stronger performance than what I saw on the 50mm F1.4 DN.
Sigma has given this lens their best autofocus technology, which makes it a very strong choice that can hold up to basically all types of photography.
Image Quality Breakdown
Sigma has done a pretty remarkable job as a third party lensmaker in that people expect a new Sigma release (particularly an ART prime release) to automatically be a very high performing lens. Their 50mm F1.4 DN proved an extremely sharp lens, as was their 50mm F2 DN lens, but you can see here than over most of the frame the 50mm F1.2 is sharper still.
The optical design is 17 elements in 12 groups, with 4 of those being aspherical elements. As is usual with Sigma designs, there is very high correction of aberrations, so the sharpness and contrast wide open is very strong.
We’ll break down the performance by first taking a look at distortion and vignette.
Distortion is quite well controlled here, and vignette isn’t severe. While there is a correction profile available, I like to do manual correction so that I can see what the actual optical performance is. I used a minor -4 to correct just a bit of pincushion distortion and a +65 (a little over two stops) to correct for the vignette.
This is definitely an area of strength relative to the 50mm F1.4, which required a -8 to correct for distortion (significantly more) and a +84 to correct for the vignette (more like 3 stops).
That’s an impressive win for the 50mm F1.2 DN, as it isn’t hardly any bigger, has a brighter maximum aperture, and yet manages to cut down on both these things.
It’s also better in controlling real world longitudinal chromatic aberrations. The 50mm F1.4 DN did pretty well in my controlled tests, but there were a number of real world shots where I was surprised at how much fringing I saw, as this is something that Sigma typically controls very well. They are back to their winning ways here, though. I was consistently impressed in real world scenarios where I would expect fringing and find very little…even at F1.2:
I also see very little lateral chromatic aberrations near the corners:
So far all is well. So how about sharpness? All of the tests and photos shown in this review are done on the 61MP Sony a7RV, the highest resolution point currently available for a full frame/35mm sensor. Here’s a look at the test chart we’re using for the tests.
We’ll start by taking a look at crops from across the frame at F1.2 (center, mid-frame, lower right corner):
We can see that not only is there impressive sharpness in the center of the frame, but also a nicely even sharpness profile all across the frame.
To put this into perspective, let’s take a look at the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN at 200% magnification in the center and extreme corner at F1.2:
Here’s the Sony 50mm F1.2 GM at the same (the Sony was tested on the Alpha 1, which is 50MP, so the “magnification” looks a little lower.
Comparing these side by side, I would say that the Sigma has the edge in the center while the GM is better in the corners.
Here’s the Sigma 50mm F1.4 DN (also tested on the Alpha 1):
As the MTF comparison earlier shows, the F1.2 lens is better in the center and midframe while the F1.4 lens is a little better in the corners. I think that most portrait photographers would prefer the sharpness profile of the F1.2 lens, as its best performance relative the competition comes in the rule of thirds zone.
Finally, the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM:
This is the most apples to apples comparison, as the 50mm F1.4 GM was also tested on the higher resolution point. The F1.4 GM is the sharpest of any of these lenses in center of the frame (and mid-frame), though the Sigma 50mm F1.2 is better in the corners. This remains true if I stop the Sigma down to F1.4 to match the maximum aperture of the GM.
Bottom line: the Sigma 50mm F1.2 GM is competitive with the very sharpest of 50mm lenses available. There’s plenty of sharpness here to even shoot landscape distant images at F1.2, though you’ll probably need either a camera with an extremely fast shutter speed (like the electronic shutter on my Alpha 1 here – 1/10,000th second) or some kind of filter to reduce light.
Stopping down to F1.4 produces little change, but I see a bigger jump at F1.8:
Corners take this kind of leap at F2, where they start to look impressive, though it is at F2.8 that they achieve a sharpness many lenses never achieve in the center of the frame:
Performs peaks at F5.6, with a mild regression at F8 due to the beginning effects of diffraction. That softness will increase at F11 and then peak at F16, which looks softer than any other aperture value due to diffraction.
So no surprises here. Sigma excels at producing very sharp, well corrected lenses, and that’s what we find here. Where I was more interested in seeing what Sigma could do was in the bokeh department. My typical experience with Sigma lenses is that they tend to err on the side of corrections rather than having a few imperfections that lead to more “magical” rendering. I felt like the 50mm F1.2 GM was rather exceptional in this regard, as it is both very sharp but also has very beautiful, creamy bokeh. I love the overall package of the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM (I own one), but I do feel the bokeh/rendering from the F1.2 GM is top notch.
As expected, the Sigma does a very, very good, but not exceptional job in the rendering department.
Bright specular highlights are fairly clean, with no concentric circles (AKA “onion bokeh”):
Close results with slightly busier backgrounds are soft, though expect a little more outlining than on the GM lens.
Up close with clean backgrounds will look pretty creamy, like this shot of the sweet new Zhiyun Molus XC60:
Medium distance shots will show a bit more of those edges, but also show good subject separation and contrast.
On the day that I was able to set up a quick portrait shoot the light was fairly harsh, so I don’t want to draw too many bokeh conclusions. I loved the sharpness on my model (fantastic!), but I did find the backgrounds weren’t quit as soft as what I would like.
While I didn’t have the F1.2 GM lens on hand (the more obvious comparison), I did have the Sony 50mm F1.4 GM, and it is actually more similar in price. Comparing the bokeh side by side from these two lenses, I would say that the Sigma F1.2 lens offers slightly softer bokeh:
I was actually surprised by this comparison, however, as after shooting with the Sony for a year, I would say I actually prefer the Sony’s rendering (color + bokeh) in real world use. But bokeh is subjective, and I suspect that most people will be happy with what the Sigma provides.
In general I found the colors from the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN very nice:
Flare resistance is also solid. Wide open there is little in terms of ghosting artifacts or veiling, though you’ll see a mild flare pattern when the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures (F11 examples shown here).
In short, there are no real optical flaws here. While I would argue that the Sony 50mm F1.2 G Master has a little nicer rendering, that is more of a gut impression and would be hard to demonstrate. The fact that this Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN has all the features, a similar optical performance, and great autofocus – all for $600 less – is going to make this a very compelling lens for the photographers who want that extra little bit that F1.2 provides but don’t want to spend $2000 to get it.
The Sigma 50mm F1.2 DG DN | ART is a great accomplishment for Sigma, as they have managed to give us all of the strengths of their optically excellent 35mm F1.2 DN while managing to keep the size and weight done. The fact that the lens has outstanding autofocus is just another feather in its cap. This is the kind of lens that gives Sony E and Leica L a real advantage over platforms like Canon RF and Nikon Z (at least for now). The Canon RF 50mm F1.2L is a beautiful lens, but it also costs $2300 and is bigger and heavier than the Sigma. The Nikon Z 50mm F1.2 S retails for $2100 but is bigger and heavier still (it weighs nearly 1100g and is 150mm long!). Sigma has always done an admirable job of filling this role, providing mostly similar alternatives to the premium first party lenses at a much lower price point. The fact that Sony has this as an option and Canon/Nikon do not remains a core advantage for Sony in the mirrorless wars.
I found the smaller packaging of the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM when it was released more appealing than Sigma’s larger 50mm F1.4 DN, but they’ve done a great job of eliminating that as an advantage relative to the slightly larger Sony 50mm F1.2. In some ways the 50mm F1.4 GM will be a more direct competitor to the Sigma as it runs $1299 USD, just $100 less than the Sigma 50mm F1.2 DN’s price tag of $1399 USD. Both lenses are very appealing, but I think some will look at the advantages of that F1.2 aperture and choose the Sigma. The list of defects on the Sigma is extremely low, but I would (subjectively) say that I slightly prefer the rendering/bokeh of the 50mm F1.4 GM and even more the 50mm F1.2 GM.
Sigma has been a prodigious lens producer on Sony and L-mount, and they now have a 50mm lens for every need. Want a smaller, lighter option? You’ve got the 50mm F2 DN. Want a premium yet affordable option? There’s the 50mm F1.4 DN at just $849 USD. Want the fastest autofocus option at 50mm for those shallow depth of field portraits and special low light situations? Now we have the 50mm F1.2 DN at $1399 USD. Talk about being spoiled for choice!
Pros:
Extremely well built lens
Thorough weather sealing
A long list of a features
Includes lens case
Slightly lighter than the GM lens
Dual HLA motors make for snappy, silent autofocus
Good focus accuracy for portrait work
Good video AF performance
Fairly low focus breathing
Competitive sharpness with the very best 50mm lenses from F1.2 on
Keywords: Sigma 50mm F1.2, Sigma 50mm DN, 50mm, F1.2, f/1.2, #SIGMA, #SIGMA50mmF12Art, #SIGMAArt, #SIGMADGDN, Full Frame, Review, G Master, GM, 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
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