Dustin Abbott recently released his 35 minute Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Review around launch but I didn’t have time to summarize it until now. Below is a summary of the above video:
- Sigma’s new 85mm design is significantly smaller than their previous revision
- A great reasonably priced alternative to Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM
- Designed from the ground up for E-mount
- Aperture ring at 1/3 stop detents that can be declicked
- Unique aperture lock
- The manual aperture ring can be disabled and controlled in camera
- AF/MF switch
- Focus hold button that is programable
- Features match the G Master at a much smaller size
- Old design 1213g new design is 626g and the Sony GM is 821g
- The Samyang 85mm f/1.4 is the only lighter lens at 568g
- Sigma has superior build to the Samyang
- 77mm new design vs 86mm old design
- Side by size the new design is crazy small compared to the old coming in about half as long and half the weight
- Very unique Sigma compact lens
- 85mm has 11 aperture blades now
- Nice lens hood with a rubberized area
- Can focus down to 85cm with a higher magnification than the original because the original was really an 85mm
- 15 elements in 11 groups
- Sigma has gone from the largest lenses to the smallest
- The old lens was spectacular optically but it shouldn’t have been that large
- Sigma is using stepping motors for AF and so far it works well
- Good AF speed
- Some small glitches on the preproduction firmware
- A little bit of hunting
- Very fast and very quite unlike lenses like the Sony 85m GM which has a grading sound
- Faster and smoother than the 85mm GM
- More consistent than the old 85mm Art
- The GM is the easiest to do focus pulls with followed by the new 85mm
- Sigma is right up there with the Sony options
- Pincushion distortion and vignetting had to be corrected in software to make the lens this small
- Sigma’s original lens was very well corrected, but too big
- Performance of the new and old lens are very close and sometimes you might prefer one or the other
- Compared to the Sony GM the Sigma looks very similar, but sometimes the Sigma outperforms the GM
- In the corners, the ART lenses look better but in the center, the GM looks a little better
- Compared to the 85mm Samyang the Sigma is sharper throughout the frame
- The Sigma is extremely sharp
- At f/2 the results get even better and there is additional contrast
- f/2.8 both Art lenses perform fantastic, but the old art has a slight sharpness advantage at times
- Compared to the GM lens stopped down the Sigma is a little sharper and the GM is not as bright of a lens as the Sigma so its light transmission isn’t as good
- At f/5.6 things are fantastic and at f/16 there is diffraction
- Lots of detail so even good for landscape
- Colors/contrast/details everything looks great
- Outside of the software corrected distortion this is a fantastic lens
- The original 85mm frames lose so it was probably an 84mm
- At minimum focus distance, the new 85mm is superior to Sigma’s old 85mm
- Very well controlled chromatic aberration
- Sony GM lens has some strong green fringing
- A little bit of cat eye in the corner stopping down the new 85mm
- Stopped down you can see the high aperture blade count which can get a little distorted, but they are more pleasing and round on the new lens
- Beautiful Bokeh in the background and foreground
- You’re not going to notice the distortion without straight lines in the frame and most 85mm vignette
- Sigma’s new ART lens is a superior lens
- Keeping the old price point where the old lens was at gives you a big value over Sony’s 85mm GM lens
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Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art: B&H Photo / Adorama
