p.30 #1 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
Staying with the dog theme of this thread, here's a shot of the pup from my first day with this lens. Although the 65i is very impressive, the f/2 didn't offer enough light advantage over the 24-70dgdn to justify keeping it (my wife at least didn't think so), so I returned it and ordered this at a great price.
I must say I'm pretty impressed by the performance wide open. Even better when stopped down to f/1.8.
p.30 #7 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
How's everyone liking this lens?
I've had mine since launch, but I have mixed feeling about it.
For portraits I think it's lovely. The sharpness, bokeh, lack of CA... are all nice. AF is not a problem here.
The distortion really is huge, but at least it can be corrected.
The same can't be said for the very strong vignetting. It's worse than any other 85mm lens I've ever used.
I don't mind it at larger apertures, because it's a smooth gradient to the center.
It's when you stop this lens down that it gets ugly. At F8 you still have dark corners.
Example of how a sky can look, F8:
Even the lens profile isn't able to fully correct it.
I discussed the AF in another Sigma thread, with examples.
Tracking isn't reliable at all when shooting erratic moving subjects or subjects that move towards the camera.
My ex-Sony 85/1.8 was in a completely different league when it comes to this.
It hardly ever missed a shot on my A9. With this Sigma (or any other Sigma DG DN lens) you just have to pray.
I actually miss that lens now for the times I want to use tracking, even though it has harsher rendering.
I hope Sony one day releases an updated GM with the same fast AF motors as the 50/1.2.
p.30 #8 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
I use mine almost exclusively at 1.4 for my wedding business. In portrait mode, the right side of the frame is *noticeably* darker than the rest of the image a band about 1/10 of the image estimate. In LR, the lens correction fixes it, but not totally, it is still apparent, but I can live with it.
Not sure if just my copy or if others are experiencing this.
p.30 #9 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
Still the best fast 85mm allrounder in the Sony ecosystem.
Vignetting is corrected in-camera completely I'd say, at f8 at least (even without correction, it's not too excessive imho):
As for AF, as we already discussed, the only failing is tracking + burst. I take a lot of shots of my kids and they are mostly in focus when in single-shot mode, at least comparable to my other lenses.
I wouldn't go as far as making assumptions about the whole DN line up, as for example the Bigma tracks rather well... and for non burst&tracking even 85 DN AF works very well.
I guess what I want to say is that in AF department, it's closer to a portrait lens than a sports one...
p.30 #10 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
The example I showed of the vignetting at F8 is excessive in my opinion. The LR lens profile isn't even able to fully correct it. It does seem to depend on the focus distance though, because in some photos it's clearly worse than in others shot at the exact same aperture. I'll have to test that.
I agree that the AF works well in single shot. It's very fast and mostly accurate that way. No complaints there. As a portrait lens it's excellent. For most people this will be the main use case for this lens anyway, so I do understand Sigma's compromises.
When talking about AF-C I do think all DG DN lenses are inferior to Sony lenses (the ones that have at least equally fast AF motors). That's what I'm consistently noticing in my own testing, so it's not really an assumption.
Sigma's AF-C algorithm just isn't on par with Sony's own, which isn't really strange in the end.
p.30 #11 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
Jochenb wrote:
The example I showed of the vignetting at F8 is excessive in my opinion. The LR lens profile isn't even able to fully correct it. It does seem to depend on the focus distance though, because in some photos it's clearly worse than in others shot at the exact same aperture. I'll have to test that.
Do you get uneven vignetting in that same corner with other f/1.4 lenses?
p.30 #13 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
gheller wrote:
I use mine almost exclusively at 1.4 for my wedding business. In portrait mode, the right side of the frame is *noticeably* darker than the rest of the image a band about 1/10 of the image estimate. In LR, the lens correction fixes it, but not totally, it is still apparent, but I can live with it.
Not sure if just my copy or if others are experiencing this.
g
This sounds like it's being caused by using EFCS at high shutter speeds, which you'll get at f1.4 outdoors. Try turning that off and using full mechanical shutter or silent shutter and see if it fixes what you're seeing.
p.30 #14 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
Dunno about the vignetting, I think every compact lens vignetes more compared to its regular-sized sibling.
I compared quickly 85DN to 24GM nad 135GM and as expected it vignetes less than the former and more than the latter .
On a sidenote, I always shoot with correction (+ manufacturer profile in CO) on and the only lens that still had really significant (to me) vignette left was the Bigma @f1.2 (but I think that's partly intentional).
p.30 #15 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
grahamgibson wrote:
This sounds like it's being caused by using EFCS at high shutter speeds, which you'll get at f1.4 outdoors. Try turning that off and using full mechanical shutter or silent shutter and see if it fixes what you're seeing.
Yup, from Sony: A dark horizontal bar may appear on the image or clipping may occur when you shoot at high shutter speeds with the electronic front curtain function turned on.
p.30 #16 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
I was using the A7Riii with EFCS ON by default, and always forgot to turn it Off with fast shutter speeds. Silent mode on the A7rii decreases the dynamic range and I didn't know there was no DR impact on the A7Riii (thanks FredM to make realize that in one of the threads). I always shoot silent now by default, and disable it for moving subjects. I don't always remember to do it either so sometimes the subject is deformed. Here's an example. (shot with the 35mm GM, my Sigma 85 will be delivered soon)
DSC03024_DxO by Fred, sur Flickr
F/1.4 - 1/5000 - Silent mode - the car is stretched
p.30 #17 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
grahamgibson wrote:
This sounds like it's being caused by using EFCS at high shutter speeds, which you'll get at f1.4 outdoors. Try turning that off and using full mechanical shutter or silent shutter and see if it fixes what you're seeing.
p.30 #18 · In Stock: Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art ($1,199)
We need an image thread for this lens .
Here's a recent one, where the lens did the work for me. That's my impression of 85mm at least, it either does the job for you or makes it really hard to come up with a creative shot.
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