[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott back in 2013 Sigma Released their 18 to 35mm f1.8 Zoom for Absc cameras that lens became a kind of A cult classic particularly amongst Those that shot video and I've seen it Adapted to a wide variety of different Platforms when less cameras begin to Come out for the simple reason that it Was a zoom lens with a constant maximum Apture of F1.8 now as soon as Sigma started to Reveal the details about their newest Lens to me I was immediately reminded of That lens because in many ways the lens I'm reviewing today which is the sigma 28 to 45 mm f1.8 DG DN art series lens Is the world's first F1.8 full-frame zoom lens it's not just A shoty attempt at this this is a Remarkable performer as you're going to See in today's review now obviously it's Not small and it's not cheap at $1,350 but this is a lot of lens for the Money so is it worth considering well We're going to explore that together to Right after a word from our sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom wallet the minimalist modern Wallet that is now even better with the New Phantom X that is crafted from Aluminum right here in Canada it is 22% Smaller and 35% lighter while still Making it easy to access your cards and
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Inside now as noted this is a large lens The diameter is 87.8 millimet or 3.5 in which by the way Is the exact same as the recent 2470mm F2.8 uh art series Zoom but this lens is Longer than that lens it's 153.7 mm or a full 6 in in length 82 mm Fil threads up front now part of the Reason why this lens is so long is the Fact that it is an internally zooming Lens those tend to be longer because all Of the what would be happening outside Of the lens in terms of external Focus Or zooming happens inside the lens Barrel itself so you do pay a price of Having a larger lens but the trade-off For that has always been the fact that There are some real advantages uh when You have an internally zooming lens for One thing the zoom action as it is here Tends to be uh smoother better damped There is nothing that is coming in and Out and so that means that there is less Opportunities for uh particularly dust To get sucked into the interior of the Lens it means that if you're using the Lens on a gimbal or some kind of system Where you need to balance it it means it Doesn't matter where you are at in the Zoom range the balance is going to be The same with the lens there's just a Lot of positives there and certainly While I don't always love carrying Internally zooming lenses out to the
Field once I have them there I love them Because the zoom action is really quick And light it gives you a lot of control And the fact that you're dealing with a Constant length does make it a little Bit easier to use in a variety of Situations as noted this lens does have An aperture ring which has become Standard for sigma's art series or sport Zoom lenses and so this is the fully Featured aperture here there's oneir Stop clicks or detents along the way you Can switch it into automatic mode if you Don't want to use the the clicks but Then there's also an option down here on The side where you can declick that Aperture and then you can smoothly rack Through the various aperture options There there's also what's called an iris Lock so when you have that engaged if You if you're engaging it while you're In the actual aperture ring portion it Means that you're going to be able to go Throughout that aperture range and in Particular do aperture racking without Worrying about going past the F-16 point And into automatic mode which obviously Would run your shot but there's also the Option there that if you're a person That says you know what I don't like an Aperture ring I prefer to control that From within the camera no problem put it Into the automatic mode here a here on The dial and then engage that aperture
Lock and then you don't have to worry About inadvertently bumping it into the Manual aperture range and so it really Does give you a great deal of control There we have an AF MF switch here on The side and then we have two custom Function buttons now these are redundant And so they're located to where you have One on the left side for your typical Horizontal shooting but then then if You're shooting in vertical position There's one at the top that allows you To access it there inside we have 11 Aperture blades rounded blades and so it Does give you a more circular aperture Shape with that higher blade count than The older standard of nine blades and it Gives you an interesting 22p pointed Sunstar when you stop it down minimum Focus distance here is constant Throughout the zoom range it is 30 cm And you can achieve a maximum Magnification at the 45 mm end of 0.25 Times that's a 1:4 magnification ratio Which is high enough to be very useful Combine that with a fast maximum Aperture on this zoom and you're able to Get nicely blurred out backgrounds and Of course as we're going to see in the Moment the bouquet quality is one of the Really great aspects here Sigma always Includes a lens hood and then also a Lens case with their better zoom lenses And so both of those things obviously
Are welcome so as you can see this is a Professional grade Zoom it has all the Features you would expect on a top tier G Master lens or equivalent so yeah it Is big and heavy it does weigh in at 950 G right under a kilogram making it quite Heavy but at the same time I would point Out that uh Canon's 28 to 70 mm F2 Zoom Which is another unique Zoom like this It weighs in at, 1450 G so an extra 500 Gam and of course the sigma is $1350 That Canon lens is 3,000 so obviously a Value on that front as well all told This is a pretty nice package if you're Willing to set aside the size and the Weight so let's talk autofocus here the New standard for sigma's better lenses Has been their HLA Focus motor HLA Stands for high-speed linear actuator This is a high thrust high-powered Focus Motor that is basically silent in all The applications I've seen thus far Actually when I put the lens up next to My ear and I focused I actually had to Pull the camera away and check to make Sure that it was actually focusing That's how quiet it actually was as you Can see here from my indoor and outdoor Focus test Focus changes are basically Instantaneous there is no lag no Hesitation you're going to get very very Fast autofocus out of this uh this 45 mm Is not super long obviously for shooting Something like sports but I did take it
Along to a softball game and as you Would expect I had zero issues in Focusing in that kind of setting I also Saw really excellent Focus consistency In all of the various Focus environments That I did from you know some events Shooting out in nature you all the Different things that I typically do I Had very very great autofocus accuracy No issue with that now I do always have To point out that when you're talking About thirdparty lenses on Sony which I'm reviewing here right now this Lens Comes to Sony e-mount and then also to L Mount here's hoping that it comes to Z Mount in the future because what I'm About to say is not true on Nikon but Sony imposes a 15 frame per second Limitation for all third party non-sony Lenses so I you know part of the time I've used this lens on my alpha 1 which Has a maximum burst rate of 30 frames Per second but I'm capped off there at 15 frames per second using this lens now To be fair 15 frames per second is still A lot so maybe not a major limitation For you but obviously something you Always have to consider if sports or Action photography is part of what you Would like to do with a lens like this Now on the video side of things I found What I would call a little bit of a mix Bag now when it comes to the focus pool Side of things you can see that Focus
Pools are very fast very confident no Pulsing no settling there is some Focus Breathing there but it's not overly Pronounced I also found that when I was Testing for Focus to see if it was par Focal the lens isn't perfectly par focal But it's close enough that I think you Can probably pull it off and you can see Here zooming in and out that it's not Perfectly in Focus I had focused at 28 Millim so at 45 mm wasn't perfectly in Focus but not bad really where I I found A little bit of the limitations is when I did my hand test for example the lens Tended to stay a little bit stickier Than what I would like obviously I'm Trying to get it from to go from one Thing to another and sometimes even when The camera is was fully blocked with my Hand it didn't shift Focus to my hand And so I didn't love that but more Importantly I think for practical Situations is that I found that uh Focus Was kind of held on to in some Situations during Focus Transitions and Just real world video clips and then When it actually did make the focus it Was had had a lot of thrust so it Focused really fast but that feels a Little bit abrupt now I could slow down Focus a bit in camera but it doesn't Completely replace a kind of a detuning Of that Focus speed forther a little bit More of a cinematic feel and I do think
That maybe Sigma should have gone for That I've been actually filming a number Of my recent YouTube episodes with this Lens uh just kind of testing how it Works in a static environment like that And I got Flawless results I never had Any kind of moving around or hunting at All but it locked onto my eye stayed Perfectly focused on that so high marks In that regard overall I would say this Is a great autofocus performance I just Think that there's almost too much speed And thrust when it comes to the video Side of things so finally I'm going to Give you an optical breakdown here There's an optical Deep dive that will Come at the end of the video if you Would prefer that but I'll give you kind Of an overview here we have 18 elements In 15 groups five of those are sld Elements three of them are aspherical Elements Sigma as I noted actually in Their internal literature Compares this Lens favorably to their 24 and 50mm f1.4 Primes now technically this lens covers Neither of those focal links but what it Does do is it's able to actually Outperform them when you aggregate Across the frame it's able outperform Both of those lenses which is pretty Impressive since those are recent you Know high-end designs that came from Sigma themselves this is a lens that is Extremely extremely sharp and beyond
That it has a little bit of that special Sauce that I only occasionally see from Sigma and more on that in just a moment Now when it comes to the technical side Of things I saw basically no la itudinal Chromatic aberration I also s saw no Lateral chromatic aberration near the Edge of the frame so fringing is very Very well controlled with this lens I Also found that this is a much better Lens when it comes to the Distortion Side of things than the recent 24 to 70 Mm f2.8 Mark I zoom lens that I tested From Sigma on the wide end which of Course isn't quite as wide uh but on the Wide end there is a little bit of barrel Distortion I needed a plus eight to Cor Cor but it was very linear and I could Very naturally correct it even without Using the correction profile there was a Plus 45 of vignette in the corners which Is really not bad for an f1.8 zoom on The wide end that's about a stop and a Half or so so not bad at all on the Telephoto end uh the Distortion pattern Inverts to a pin cushion style Distortion just a hair more there's a Minus 9 to correct but very linear no Real issue there a little bit more Vignette I needed a plus 60 to correct On the telephoto end but again that's About two stops really not all that bad When it comes to the sharpness and the Contrast this lens is amazingly good
Throughout the zoom range in the middle And the mid-frame it's as sharp as Probably you could ever want at f1.8 and From there on the corners as the MTF Suggests are not as sharp and so I found That the corners sharpened up at 28 mm They sharpened up by about F4 giving Really great detail all across the frame Even on 61 megapixel camera that I Tested it on there is some defraction That starts to set in by f11 and a Little bit more by F16 but this lens is So sharp that I actually found that it Still looked pretty good even with the Effects of defraction going even on my A7 R5 and it's 61 megapixels 35 mm is The next Mark place on the zoom range And the lens is probably at its peak at 35 mm just EX itly sharp all across the Frame even at f1.8 uh 35 mm is just Fantastic and moving on to 40 mm there's A mild regression from 35 mm But the Lens is still really really sharp and Then at 45 mm it ticks up a little bit And I would say that it is second only To the 35 mm position in sharpness and Contrast at 45 mm and there it is Actually really consistent all across The frame even the corners are Sharp Even at F1.8 Beyond sharpness however I found That this lens had really beautiful Bouquet and just overall rendering from The lens there was something about the
Images that I just really liked and There's been about three or four Occasions where out of the dozens of Sigma lenses that I reviewed I'm Surprised by just how extra special it Is it's like all of a sudden I find a Zeiss lens that's got Sigma branding on It and this is one of those lenses the Bokeh is just really really nice and and It's in a variety of situations whether It's just ordinary shots like this one Of just a gift on a table um people Shots you know nature shots it just Really looks Fantastic I also found that the flare Resistance was good from the lens it Handled also the you know when there's The sun right out of the frame just a Really strong performance there and I Would say that this is definitely one of Sigma's optical standouts and that was True whether I was shooting stills or I Was shooting video in conclusion this is I believe one of sigma's best zooms ever At this point and if you're looking at It technically from a comparison to the 18 to 35 mm lens this is a much better Lens than what that lens was in terms of The feature set the autofocus system and Then the optical performance that lens Was well loved for a lot of reasons but This is a better lens period it is Featur it is well-made it has great op Autofocus it has incredible Optics it is
A world's first lens that is actually Really really well executed now I mean Obviously it's not a huge Zoom range it Is big and heavy but this is a lens that I think if you can put up with the size And the weight and can afford the price Tag of $1,350 it's a lens that I think you will Probably really really love using now if You want more information you can check Out my text review that is linked in the Description down below there's an image Gallery and buying links there as well Or stay tuned with me right now as we Dive more deeply into the optical [Music] Performance so let's start by taking a Look at vignette and Distortion here at 28 mm you can see that there is Barrel Distortion but it is mild and also it is Linear here's a manual correction using A plus eight and you can see that Everything is really nice and straight So no issues there uh plus 45 to correct For the vignette so again for a Full-frame zoom with an f1.8 aperture That's not bad at all as you move Throughout the zoom range you start to Invert to a pin cushion style Distortion You can see once again here it is a Little bit more pronounced than the Barrel Distortion but just very mildly So I needed a minus 9 to correct for it And again you can see very linear very
Clean correction there's a plus 60 to Correct for the vignette in the corner Corner so a little bit heavier but about Two stops again not bad at all Longitudinal chromatic aberration are Very well controlled you can see how Neutral everything is before and after The plane of focus that carries out into Real world situations where you can see That even in this high contrast area There is just no fringing to see as we Move towards defocus also in this shot With a lot of specular highlights you Can see if we zoom into where the you Know that's the highest contrast areas Where the sun's coming around the uh Blades of grass and you can see there's Just no fringing to see there so there Is a little bit of the lemon shape you Know to the specular highlights towards The edge of the frame but you stop down A bit and that will go away so no big Issue there likewise lateral chromatic Aberration are very well controlled if You look at all of the transition areas From black to white here along the edge You can just see it is very very clean No fringing to see there so this tells Us we're probably in for a really strong Optical performance when it comes to Sharpness and contrast now again this is 200% magnification that I'll show you The results at and it's testing on a 61 Megapixel Sony A7
R5 so you can see in the center of the Frame here at 200% that contrast and Detail look fantastic likewise in the Midf frame looks really excellent as we Pan on down contrast and detail looks Good it looks good also on both both Sides of the frame looks excellent here Looks excellent over here as well uh so We can see good centering thus far we Can see that it's a little bit softer as You get towards the edge not bad I mean Still quite good uh this side you can See the same thing as we get towards That extreme corner it is softening Towards the very edge but again it's It's a consistent level it doesn't look Bad and we get a consistent performance Across the Four Corners now if we do the Very mild stop down to F2 we can see That there is ever so slightly more Contrast there in the center of the Frame uh in the mid-frame it does look Higher contrast there and I would say That's the biggest gain down in the Corner I don't really see much uh Happening there and so the impact is Greater in the mid-frame really above All else we can see that from F2 to f2.8 There's only a Mild improvement in the Corners but a slightly more significant One at F4 and if I switch over here Where we're not quite as deep down into The corner you can see that it looks Really excellent pop up here and you can
See it starting to look quite good it's Really only off in this upper last Degree that there's any softness Remaining but overall we're looking Really sharp across the frame here at F4 So that excellent sharpness continues Through f11 where there's a little bit Of softening due to defraction but you Can see that f11 still looks pretty Fantastic so I'm not too concerned about That F-16 is softer but not so soft that It's unusable so this lens is so sharp That even defraction can't quite keep it Down now as I noted earlier there's Actually a pretty Market Improvement at 35 mm even though the bar was already Pretty high you can see that 35 mm is Really considerably sharper and we can See that you can see that at different Point in the frame this basically looks Like the stop down version of 28 mm even At f1. 8 I really found it stood out in This Zone here you can just see if you Compare the two how much finer the Detail and the contrast is in this Zone Looks really excellent we can take a Look over here just see how all of those Little dots of the the pigment that go Into making up the bill how much they Just pop off the page compared to uh the 28 mm metric and so it's a really really Strong Improvement at 35 mm you stop Down to f2.8 and you're getting into Pretty epic level s of sharpness and
Contrast it looks really really amazing Now at 40 mm there's a very very mild Regression when it comes to the Sharpness as you can see the center Looks still looks really fantastic but Contrast if you're looking carefully Isn't quite as high and you can see here That there's just more pop and just a Little bit softening of the look of the Textures at 40 mm versus 35 mm we look Over here be you can see how that all Those individual dots are clearly find They're just a little less so if you Look at the 40 mm edge of things though At the same time 40 mm still looks Pretty great you stop down a bit at 40 Mm here at f2.8 and we see we're right Back to that just fantastic pop of Contrast that we saw previously now at 45 mm the end of the range you can see There is a little bit of an improvement There in the center of the frame in the Mid-frame it is a very slight Improvement not as noticeable but here In the corners we can see that it is More noticeable there that the corners Definitely look better at 45 mm than What they do at 40 mm uh here in this Mid-frame Zone you can just see there's A more contrast more detail not quite as High as what we saw at 35 mm but I think Second only to that so what I love at 45 Mm is just a gorgeous blend of sharpness And then softness and so we can see
Where the plan of focus is it's Beautifully sharp but then it just falls Off to a really creamy really nice Bouquet even here at f1.8 when it comes To shooting Landscapes you can see it's Just brilliantly sharp there in the Center of the frame and really right off To the edge it's a little bit softer but It looks still really really great and As I mentioned earlier I just feel like This lens has the special sauce where It's able to take ordinary photos like This this is just of a tote bag in a Restaurant it was a gender reveal party And this was the the gift that my wife Gift kind of basket my wife put together So I was just taking it to document the Moment and then I looked at the photo And it's like man that is a great Looking picture and that really is a Tribute to this ly's uh you know Ordinary shots of you know just these Family moments you can see that the Detail and the overall look of the Images is just really great here's Another one from my daughter's birthday And just taking a picture of the the Homemade ice cream cake you can just see How the image just shines and that's What I think is really special from this Lens it's also obviously beautiful for Any kind of landscape type work you know It's able to produce really fantastic Detail but then it's got great color and
Contrast just really strong now up close At our minimum Focus distance you can See a decent amount of magnification 0.25 times that's a 1:4 magnification Ratio and so I think it's a little bit Softer up close but you can see it's the Plane of focus isn't perfectly flat but Where you're really in Focus the detail Looks really crisp and so if you are you Know focusing in real world shots I mean Uh there's it's not macro levels of Contrast there though it looks good but If you look at the image as a whole Really really nice likewise here you can Just see that the fallof is really Beautiful from this lens here's another One here I like shooting along chain Link fences because it's a repeating Pattern with hard edges that you know Kind of separates the men's from the men From the boys so to speak and in this Case you can see that while there's just A little bit of um you might call it Jitteriness there it is very very mild And actually this shot overall looks Really nice this one I think just looks Beautiful I mean I really feel like this Image is able to create a surprisingly Creamy defocus area that is amazing for A zoom and actually great even for a 45mm f1.8 lens another shot here this at 40 mm so even if this is the place where The lens is the softest at 40 mm you can See that that is relative it looks
Amazingly sharp and the bokeh is really Beautiful colors are great even here With the bokeh if we get a lot in the Transition zone as we do in this shop Because I'm a little further away from The subject the background's not as so The ratio from you know the camera to The subject to the background is not Great you can see it's really not bad at All even with all of these specular Repeating highlights it looks just fine And of course course great sharpness on Our plane of focus there excellent all Around finally when it comes to flare Resistance here bright sun and the the Frame coming through these leaves you Can see there's very little in terms of Ghosting or flare artifacts and this Shot um where the sun is just right out Of the frame you can see that it's held Up just fine contrast and detail all Look excellent this is the lens that Really doesn't have much when it comes To Optical flaws so hopefully this Deeper dive into the op iCal performance Has helped you to get a better sense of The overall feel and quality of this Lens and can help you to make a more Informed buying decision as always Thanks for watching have a great day and Let the light in [Music]
