[Music] Foreign Abbott and I'm here today to give you my Video review of the new Sigma 100 to 400 Millimeter this is an F5 to 6.3 DG means Designed for full frame DN meaning it's Designed for mirrorless and Os meaning It has an optical stabilizer built in What's unique however is that this is The second of full-frame lenses that I Have seen and reviewed over the last Five or six weeks that is being ported Over from Sony e-mount full frame to Fuji xmount aps-c platform so it's Intriguing to see a couple of these full Frame designs being ported over to aps-c And I think that it works in part Because both of these lenses the Tamron 150 to 500 and then this Fuji 100 to 400 Millimeter both of them are relatively Compact for full frame lenses and in Fact we're going to find that when you Compare it to Fuji's own XF 100 to 400 Millimeter F 4.5 to 5.6 though it is a Little bit slower in terms of aperture It delivers an equivalent build quality It delivers better Optical performance Autofocus is a bit poor as we're going To see as a part of this but most Importantly at about right under a Thousand dollars U.S it undercuts the Fuji model by somewhere between nine Hundred and a thousand dollars making it A serious value proposal if you're
Looking for telephoto reach on your Fuji X-mount camera so is this lens worth Considering on xmount well that's what We're here to discover here today and Hopefully this review will help you to Make an informed decision we'll jump Right into it all right after a word From our sponsor today's episode is Brought to you by Ridge the wallet Redefined it's the perfect moment to go To Ridge wallet and also get in on their Hennessy sweepstakes where you could win A ridge branded Ford Bronco Velociraptor You can enter for free on the ridge Website plus you get one entry for every Dollar you spend custom Hennessy Products come with up to a thousand Entries and if you use the link Ridge.com forward slash Dustin Abbott And use the code dust and Abbott you'll Get 10 bonus entries plus 10 percent off Ridge wallets come in a variety of Premium materials take up a little more Room than a credit card have RFID block Talking technology to protect your Valuable information and come with a Lifetime warranty Ridge wallets hold up To 12 cards are fully customizable and There are a variety of matching Accessories you can get in on winning a Bronco or 75 000 in cash by visiting Ridge.com forward slash Dustin Abbott And using the code Dustin Abbott at Checkout so the first thing to note that
Obviously coming over to the aps-c Platform means that there's now a crop Factor applied to the focal length a 1.5 Times crop factor on Fuji which means That this is now the full frame Equivalent of a 150 to 600 millimeters In terms of the focal range obviously That's a really really popular Zoom Range right there because it covers so Many different telephoto opportunities And options and the equivalent of 600 Millimeters in reach I think is going to Be enough to satisfy most people in most Situations Now when it comes to the size of the Lens as mentioned in my intro this lens Is actually a little bit more Compact And lighter than what the Fuji 100 to 400 millimeter lens is that's actually Somewhat surprising considering that This was designed for the larger 35 Millimeter uh frame sensor whereas the You know the Fuji lens was actually Designed for the smaller aps-c sensor But despite that we have a lens that Weighs in at 1135 grams or 40 ounces Versus 1375 grams or 48 ounces for the Fuji Lens and in fact even if you add in the Optional tripod collar more on that in Just a moment which adds another 123 Grams this lens is still lighter than The Fuji equivalent It's also more compact it is 86
Millimeters in diameter 199.5 millimeters in length or 3.4 by 7.9 inches and that compares to 94.8 millimeters in diameter by 210.5 Millimeters in length or 3.73 inches by 8.29 inches that also gives us a smaller Filter thread 67 millimeters versus 77 Millimeters so surprisingly all Throughout this is a more compact lens Now where it doesn't quite hold up to The Fuji competition is when it comes to The aperture speed or the brightness of The lens it has a maximum aperture of F5 Instead of f 4.5 and in fact this lens Only holds F5 until 113 millimeters Where it becomes F 5.6 it holds F 5.6 Until 235 millimeters and then from There to the end of the zoom range it is A maximum aperture of f 6.3 so obviously The Fuji is a bit faster throughout Starting at F 4.5 and only getting as Small as F 5.6 on the telephoto end Though it should be noted that's not a Huge difference on the telephoto whim That's only a third of a stop of lost Brightness Now one area where this lens does not Compare well to the Fuji is the fact That the sigma is not compatible with Any kind of teleconverters on Fuji so What you're going to get is the bare Lens in terms of the focal length and Nothing more Now in many ways This lends uh the
Design here is very very similar to what I saw when I reviewed it years ago back In 2020 on on Sony what has changed is a Little bit of changes to the actual bank Of switches and button here and so Rather than an AF MF switch we have an AFL and an AF switch and so that's going To tie into the function of the button And so because there isn't an equivalent Focus hold button compatibility on Fuji On Sony you have the ability to go into The camera body and apply basically any Number of different values to that Button and so you can make it do a whole Lot of things Fuji doesn't have that Option in their bodies and so we Actually have quite limited performance With that button that basically if You're in the AFL mode it allows you to Change a couple of functions for the Autofocus namely you can either lock Autofocus at a certain point or you can Click it again to resume Active Auto Focusing again Probably not going to be too terribly Useful for too many people so Unfortunately we've lost a little bit of Functionality there however the rest of It stays the same like the on the Sony Version we have a three position A focus limiter to help in different Focus situations and down at the bottom We have a three position switch for the Optical stabilizer now good news on the
Optical stabilizer in that the optical Stabilizer is now rated for five rather Than four stops so they've managed to Get a little bit more out of that that's Obviously going to be a positive thing And I did have positive results able to Get very slow handheld results one Seventh of a second shooting at 100 Millimeters and down at 1 13th of a Second or so shooting at 400 millimeters And getting stable results that's very Very useful obviously so I'm thankful For that I actually prefer the design And the feel of these switches to those That are found on Fuji however what I Don't like so much is the fact that just In a practical way this Bank of switches Is raised so much and when I found when I was walking carrying the lens on a Strap that I noticed that at some points Autofocus was limited and I looked and In fact there have just been some Rubbing that change the focus limiter Switch position to the just close Focus Range and so on a practical level you do Need to watch out for that you can Inadvertently bump that which is Obviously a negative there Now there is no aperture ring however I Will point out that one element of the Design here is that we do have the Option there is a lock here which I need To unlock see the ability to do a Typical twist design you also have the
Ability to do a push pull by just Grabbing on to the lens hood and so it Is designed purposely to do both of Those things and so something worth Considering there now it does not Include the tripod collar in the area Where the tripod call will go it Actually comes with a rubberized sleeve That just says you know 100 to 400 Millimeter on there and so it is 130 Dollar option to get the tripod collar For the lens which obviously is a factor To consider when you compare the price Difference between the two Another area of potential weakness here For some buyers is the fact that on all Of the Contemporary branded lenses which This falls under that category the Weather ceiling is limited to a gasket At the actual lens mount there are no Internal seals here so this lens is not As professional grade in terms of the Weather sealing as what the Fuji lens is I will point out however that in terms Of the actual overall build quality in Terms of the materials and the feel and The operation I would actually slightly Prefer the sigma it feels more modern And the materials feel just as good and So I actually prefer the overall Handling and the Aesthetics of this lens Versus the Fuji lens and that comes down To the lens Hood itself which just feels Slightly better than the one that we
Found on Fuji one other area of Advantage versus the Fuji is the minimum Focus distance is closer here it's at 1.6 meters which no that's not super Close but with a long focal length at 400 millimeters it's still allows you to Get a quite High 0.24 times Magnification which best the 0.19 times Magnification that you're going to get On Fuji so a win for Sigma there so a Little bit of a mixed bag some give and Some take but certainly some positives To point to for the Sigma lens here when It comes to the build quality Now I'm most ambiguous when it comes to The overall uh autofocus performance Here this lens continues to have the Stepping motor that we found in the Sony E-mount version so they elected to not You know design around the new HLA Focus Motor that we've seen for example in the Newest Sigma 60 to 600 millimeter on Sony that HLA motor is much faster it's Just a High-powered acquired or Focus motor That is definitely a step up and so We're working with a little bit older Technology here And as a byproduct the stepping motor It's a bit of a mixed bag when it comes To autofocus and so as we can see from These sequences that I was able to Successfully track birds in flight Without a whole lot of issue for the
Most part you will find that there is Some pulsing back and forth on occasion Some drop frames in there I will also Note that in some sequences that if I Didn't start off with a focus lock it's Like I was never able to acquire Focus Lock in the middle of the burst which Makes it a little bit harder to be Reactive for example if you're trying to Grab something and you want to start Taking photos and then get you know to Allow Focus to lock on so you're not Missing out on the action I had Sequences of dozens of shots where it Just never autofocus properly at all So a little bit of a negative on that Front so for tracking birds in Flight it Was a mixed bag I'm going to say that my Keeper rate was somewhere between 60 and 70 percent and so not bad but not Exceptional and certainly not at the Levels that we see on other platforms I Would say about as good as I'm going to See as the high 80s on Fuji with any of The telephoto options that I've used and So there's definitely it's not as good As the first party lenses though even The first party lenses on Fuji are still Not quite as good as what I'm seeing on Sony or Canon Now where the lens was really Frustrating is when it came to my Typical just walking around and looking For subjects there were some simple
Shots like one of just this nicely Illuminated Leaf where it just refused I Never could coerce auto focus to Autofocus on the leaf even trying to Find an alternate subject at about the Same distance it just didn't work so Ended up having to manually focus to get This shot And and so getting a couple of shots Like that it was probably at least five Minutes to get the two shots and so you Know that's one thing if it's a static Subject that's not moving but I ran into A similar issue where I was trying to Catch a nicely framed dragonfly sitting On on top of a pine bow And by the time I finally got auto focus Where I wanted it once again having to Just go through venerious conniptions to Try to get it there well you can see From the shop there's no dragonfly there Even though the dragonfly was patient For a while it left and then so I was Left with a shot of the bare pine Needles instead you know and then a few Minutes later I shot a sequence where I Was focused on butterflies and it did Quite good and then a few minutes after That I tried to get a shot of a pileated Woodpecker that I saw through and at First I got this absolutely no focus at All and it's not until I moved around And kind of you know massaged all the Folks that I was able to get this shot
Here and so it was frustrating in those Kinds of situations so for Stills in Some settings it was fine in other Settings it was frustrating now when it Came to the video front after what I Experienced on stills I expected things To be worse than what they actually were My actual video Focus pulls were Actually okay fairly reactive in terms Of going back back and forth you will Notice there are some obvious steps this Is a stepping motor and I find on Fuji Stepping Motors tend to step more Obviously and that certainly was the Case here I did find that my hand test Where I go from focus on my hand to the Eye that that actually worked quite well And no issues to complain about there And for the most part for just handheld Video work it did quite good though as You can see in the shot of some flowers At one point Focus started off fine was Holding fine it shifted forward it Didn't really shift back and so it's a Little bit frustrating on that front in Terms of the footage as we're going to See in a moment this lens is optically Really sound and so the footage looked Good even if I was shooting at 8K on my Xh2 I was able to get good looking footage With great detail and so that part is Certainly very very positive so Autofocus is definitely a mixed bag and
That's something to bear in mind uh Moving ahead now when it comes to the Image quality I have no such Reservations because in fact as we're Going to see there are some core Advantages that come from having a full Frame lens on aps-c some of the typical Optical flaws are either mitigated or Eliminated as a part of that move a lens Has to be really sharp however to handle The much higher pixel density on an Aps-c sensor and that's never been more True than the 40 megapixels on my xh2 or Similar camera bodies it's a harder Challenge for sharpness but as we're Going to see for the most part the sigma Is up to the challenge let's dive in Let's look at it in detail so let's Start by revisiting that focal range Here so on the left side we have what it Looks like framing at 100 millimeters or 150 millimeter equivalent on full frame And on the right side we have the 400 Millimeter or the equivalent of 600 Millimeters on full frame so obviously a Really useful focal range there with a Lot of different applications now one of The core advantages of using a full Frame lens on a aps-c or crop sensor Camera is shown right here and that you Can see that there is next to no Distortion here and vignette is really Really low manual Corrections are really Minimal on both just a minus two for the
Distortion and a plus 23 for vignette Which is not even quite one full stop And so what's happening here is that the Worst of the Distortion and the worst of The vignette is being cropped off by the Crop sensor and so as a byproduct we Actually see much better results on both Of those fronts as what we did on full Frame the same is true at about 200 Millimeters we have ever so slightly More pincushion Distortion as you can See here but vignette stays about the Same very negligible and so the Correction on the right shows you that Just dialing in I think now A minus 3 Gets us fully corrected as far as that And the the vignette is about the same Moving on to 400 millimeters is not much Different just a tiny bit more vignette And about the same amount of pincushion Distortion as we saw at 200 millimeters So -3 to correct and still under a plus 30 to correct the vignette so not a big Deal at all you could go without Correcting any of this and never notice The difference this lens also holds up When it comes to longitudinal chromatic Aberrations you can see that as we Transition towards defocus here there's A very very slight amount of fringing But for the most part everything is Quite neutral and you can see the Contrast is holding up nicely even with So many pixels there that show off any
Kind of flaw any kind of you know Fringing of any kind there's just not a Whole lot to see there likewise if we Look towards the edge of the frame on This landscape shot we can see that out Near the edge of the frame there's Nothing really to get vexed about Everything still looks really really Nice there in this shot so no lateral Chromatic chromatic aberrations nothing Real world is going to be an issue there Either so so far a really great start so Obviously this is a much more difficult Torture test than the last time that I Reviewed this lens I reviewed it on a 42 Megapixel Sony a7r Mark III this 40 Megapixel Fuji sensor on my xh2 is the Equivalent of over 90 megapixels on full Frame so much much more demanding and I'm showing you at 200 percent which Really would seem unfair except for you Know what it's really doing quite a good Job here in the center of the frame Sharpness and contrast looks great at 100 millimeters wide open at F5 mid Frame looks if anything better still and Even right down into the corners we are Very very crisp now once again one thing That does help here is the fact that the Extreme corners of the actual lens Performance are cropped off leaving you In a sweeter spot in terms of Performance on this crop sensor so That's one advantage it does have now
Where things get really interesting is If I compare it 100 millimeter with the Fuji lens on the right and if we go into That same 200 magnification we find that The sigma is clearly sharper and has Better contrast in the center of the Frame that Advantage only grows in the Mid frame and if we look towards the Corners much like the mid frame it is Clear that the sigma has much better Contrast and is delivering better detail Fascinating so because the sigma is so Good wide open obviously there's not Going to be a huge amount of gains to be Had here in the middle of the frame I Would say the result is very slightly Better at F 5.6 just a little bit better Contrast and a little better D better Detail in the mid frame you know it's If they weren't side by side I don't Know that you would see any difference And frankly even side by side I find it Hard to see much of a difference and Right down into the corners they look Pretty much the same in my eye just very Very slightly more contrasted at 5.6 now Because diffraction comes so early on These very high resolution bodies what You're going to find is that after F 5.6 You're going to start to see diminishing Returns so there has to be a lot of lens Sharpness Improvement to offset Diffraction and frankly that's not Really the case here we there's nothing
Better at F 8 on the right if anything I Would say it's a little bit less Contrasty though as you can see it's not By much it looks mostly the same but if There's going to be any Edge I would Give you know just a slight Edge an area Like here if you compare the two Contrast is just a little bit better at F 5.6 and if we were to move on Throughout the aperture range towards The minimum aperture of F22 you're going To find the diffraction just every stop Is taking away more and more of that Contrast so you're better to shoot at f8 And under if at all possible to keep From diffraction robbing away image Sharpness if you're shooting on the high Resolution bodies now if you can compare 100 millimeters to 200 millimeters we Find that so far the results are really Largely the same and if we compare the Two I think there is very very slightly More contrast at 100 millimeters but the Results are very very close that is to Say they're just really really fantastic At both of these focal lengths not a Whole lot to complain about here at all It just looks excellent minimum aperture Or maximum aperture I should say is f 5.6 starting to close down pretty Quickly there from F5 and so that is one Area where the Fuji lens does have an Advantage but essentially that is the Only place where the Fuji has the
Advantage at this point you could get a Maximum aperture of F5 on the Fuji but I'm going to compare it at 5.6 for Fairness here but you can see that Looking in the center of the frame the Sigma is more contrasty than what the Fuji lens is we move towards the mid Frame obvious Advantage for the sigma And if we move down towards the corner It's going to be as you would expect the Sigma is the better with better contrast So at 300 millimeters we can see that Image quality is similar it's just a Little bit softer than what we've seen Stopping down to f8 very very mild Contrast Advantage let's look over here At the mid frame not as crisp as what We've been seeing and you know virtually About the same between F 6.3 which is Our maximum aperture now and f8 going Down towards the corner Corners are Still looking quite good again it's that Advantage of the crop sensor but you can See there's not a lot of extra to be had There at f8 now at 400 millimeters the Sigma is delivering its weakest Performance but to put that in Perspective there is the much more Expensive Fuji lens right next to it and So you can see that the sigma is clearly The sharper lens in the center of the Frame the mid frame very clear leave the Better lens and right down into the Corner yeah as we're coming to see it is
Definitely the stronger lens and so it Is sharper than the 100 to 400 Millimeter now we can see here that the 150 to 600 millimeter actually has an Aperture disadvantage whereas maximum Apture is f 6.3 at 400 millimeters for The sigma it is actually slower still on The 150 to 600 which is the primary Weakness of that lens I will also know What we can see comparing these side by Side is that the sigma is clearly the Stronger lens in the center of the frame If we pan over towards the mid frame it Is the stronger lens there and right Down into the corner the same kind of Result as we've been seeing in that the Sigma has better contrast and also has Better detail if we compare them side by Side so for a little bit of real world Results here's 40 millimeters F 6.3 this Is a 100 magnification again 40 Megapixels you can see that the detail Is good A little bit of nervousness There in the bouquets we transition in That in that transition zone as we get Towards the complete defocus everything Is much smoother obviously burden flight Shot here and so even for capturing Action you can see that when we have a Well focused result as we've got here That detail is looking good likewise Here we can see a really nice crisp high Contrast result and if we zoom in detail Is looking really really fantastic lots
Of room for cropping and a shot like That Also here this is again four and a Millimeters F 6.3 you can see good Detail on this butterfly or moth Whatever it is and and so again really Good results there the sigma also boasts A good maximum magnification as we have Already noted and as you can see here Taking a little bit closer look we can See that the detail is holding up quite Well and a contrast is is quite good and So you have the ability to get quite a About of detail here at close Focus Distances now if you have the Opportunity to be fairly close to the Subject and shooting at 400 millimeters Just the sheer amount of compression From the lens guarantees that you're Going to have a really nicely blurred Out background so the ability to get Nice detail on a subject and a Beautifully blurred out background even Shooting in the mid-range I've always Found that this lens has fairly decent Bokeh quality and as you can see here Nice detail on the subject the area That's in focus and then the transition Towards the defocus is really not bad I've previously examined the flare Resistance going back in the Sony Version it's very unlikely that you're Going to have a lot of sun in the frame Here but I found the flare resistance to
Be about average nothing major in One Direction or the other so in conclusion This lens even with its flaws is an Intriguing alternative to the Fuji Options in that while it is a little bit Worse in some areas like autofocus it's Actually better in some other areas it The Fuji options are nineteen hundred Dollars for the 100 to 400 2 000 for the 150 to 600 millimeters and as we've seen There is an optical Advantage for the Sigma over both of those lenses and when It comes to the 150 to 600 at Comparative focal lengths it actually Even has an aperture Advantage there Autofocus is obviously still a work in Progress it is my hope that some Firmware updates will help to improve Both the lens and hopefully the camera As well that we see steadily improved Auto Focus moving ahead So if you can afford to miss a few shots Your work is not so critical that you Know maybe instead of getting 10 shots And a burst all perfectly focused or Nine shots you can afford to get seven Shots in that burst that are perfectly Focused and if that's the case or you Know you're not in critical situations Where you can spend a little more time The sigma is a great opportunity to save A big chunk of money relative to the Fuji options and frankly there aren't a Lot of options on Fuji for telephoto so
This is a very welcome Edition warts and All I'm Dustin Abbott and if you look in The description down below you can find Linkage to my full text review also to My image gallery there if you want to Look at some photos there are buying Links there some of which for the new X-mount version are still being Populated so just be patient with that You can also follow myself for Craig on Social media you can get channel Merchandise you can become a patron Please like And subscribe if you haven't Already thanks for watching have a great Day and let the light in [Music] Thank you
