Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art vs. Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 Lens Review

[@CopyRightOC]

Great comparison. Much more through than what other people do. Thanks a lot!

[@Gamebred-Nightmare]

I'm going to use a 85mm for street photography, so personally the lightweight/slightly smaller size and cheaper price matters more to me. Plus I will be cropping most of the images when shot wide-open so for me I'm going for the Sony!

[@IddoGenuth]

Hi Jorge, maybe also take a look at our recent Samyang 85mm review - kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYnZYWSPqJt2b6c

[@exonorated5092]

Great video! Really needed this; thinking of just saving and getting the sigma because of the weather seal , sharpness and chromatic aberration.

[@IddoGenuth]

Glad we could help. We got the Sigma for ourselves as well (although for the time being, we didn't sell the Sony). As long as you understand the lens limitations - mostly - corners softness until f/4 at least and breathing - the Sigma is a fantastic option.

[@johnstone5536]

Sony have sealing

[@JoshKaufmanstuff]

5:22 78CM minimum focus for the Sigma. This is a big deal, it's actually closer than the Sony! Why would Sigma mislead people with unflattering specs? Were you able to maintain the minimum focus at the entire aperture range?

[@IddoGenuth]

Hi Josh, that is an interesting point - if I remember correctly we tested this wide open and maybe at f/1.8 as well - what makes you think that if we close it down even more we will not be able to focus?

[@JoshKaufmanstuff]

​@@IddoGenuth Just a dumb idea, if anything stopping down would increase focal range (which it doesn't . . . because I checked) So I grabbed my 30mm Sigma 1.4 and Sony 50mm 1.8 and guess what?! Sony was accurate at 45CM but Sigma states 30CM . . .but was~26MM! So . . . it seems the Sony is accurate with it's close focusing specs and Sigma has a bad habit of understating (overstating??) Unbelievable! You'd think the engineers would lend the marketing guys their meter stick at Sigma!

[@LensVid]

@@JoshKaufmanstuff Indeed strange - I have a few other Sigma lenses I will check when I have some time. You also need to consider the difference between AF close up and MF close up (some lenses can focus closer in MF mode). Maybe the marketing on Sigma is a bit more conservative? I honestly don't know - if Photokina would not have been canceled I could have asked Mr. Kazuto Yamaki about this (we interviewed him several times and he is extremely nice and very knowledgeable technically - also very honest).

[@JapYzawA]

Hi im new to photography planning to buy an 85mm lens and not sure if i'll go for sigma or the sony 1.8.. i use it for posting on facebook, instagram or maybe for printing soon.. almost all reviews show that the new sigma 85mm is sharper and my question is will the sharpness of the sigma still be better and noticeable when i post it on social media even though instagram and facebook have photo compression? Should i keep my money and save it for more expensive sigma?

[@IddoGenuth]

On social - probably you won't see much of a difference - in print - if you print fairly large - a good chance that you will.

[@photographerjonathan]

The Sigma 85 f1.4 Art is not really competing with the Sony 85 f1.8 ,,,, but maybe the Samyang 85 f1.4 is competing with it because of the price point, the Sigma Art is competing with the more expensive 85 f1.4 GM or the less expensive Samyang 85 f1.4........ personally I own the Sony 85 f1.8, and its a nice lens, I bought it shortly after buying my A7r lll when that first came out. but if the Sigma Art was out at the time I probably would've bought the Sigma. and I still might buy it down the road.

[@LensVid]

I am sure we will be testing the Samyang at some point as well (we have been testing a lot of Samyang lenses recently). As for the Sony - as we mentioned a LOT of people made a comparison to the 85mm f/1.4 GM so there was little point in repeating that and we didn't have access to one at the time. However, we do think that a comparison to the Sony 85mm f/1.8 is actually very interesting since there will be quite a few people that were going to buy the Sony and might be tempted to add the extra cost and buy the Sigma and want to know what they will be getting for about twice the cost of the Sony - this is a review for them (for those people the GM is just way too expensive).

[@holdmyown32]

I think they know that, but there are a lot of people interested in this comparison.

[@IddoGenuth]

@@holdmyown32 I agree - and there are plenty of other reviews they can watch.

[@julienlesueur1396]

What about color rendition ? The Sony 85mm 1.8 is a bit on the yellowish side, typically Sony colors. How does this Sigma compare ?

[@LensVid]

This is not an aspect we test separately. I can tell you that most modern quality lenses are fairly neutral when it comes to color in our expirience. I am not saying that there are no differences, I am saying that these are too small for us to really visually differentiate and probably easy to change in post for all intents and purposes. The only exception in all of the 10 years of testings we did is maybe the Anthy 35mm which is now a collector's item since the manufacturer (from Japan) passed away in 2020. lensvid.com/gear/yasuhara-anthy-35mm-f1-8-lens-review/ If you want to see the Sigma 85mm vs. 85mm Sony colors for yourself - look in our review on lensvid and check our test chart - it has colors. If you really want I can temporarily even share the RAW files (the link is below the video).

[@julienlesueur1396]

@@LensVid Thank you for your reply. I understand your point but I've noticed that there are some huge differences in color rendition between lenses. For example the Sony 35mm 1.8 has a major yellow tint, whereas the Sigma 35mm DG DN F2 has some magenta tint. Sony 24-105 F4 is pretty neutral... Zeiss Batis lenses look much colder than Loxias... anyway thank you for your help I will check pictures of this lens on Flickr.

[@ramik8451]

I own both now, and I can tell you, that there is huge difference between the two, Sigma killed it in this one

[@IddoGenuth]

I agree there are visible differences although this doesn't mean that the Sony 85mm is a bad lens (and as we showed - the corners are not very sharp with both until f/4-f/5.6 at least).

[@ramik8451]

Sony is a good lens, but the sharpness and image quality are really amazing in the Sigma

[@LensVid]

@@ramik8451 Agree - but people need to consider the corner sharpness of both these lenses (for portraits it is less important).

[@ramik8451]

Comparing to all other advantages, this lens is a clear winner by far

[@LensVid]

@@ramik8451 I tend to agree and it is reflected in the review but you do need to consider the difference in price between the two - the Sigma is significantly more expensive and not everybody can afford it and for the price, the Sony is certainly not bad.

[@andy.photoandfilm]

Thanks for the review. I'll be saving to upgrade my Sony 1.8 to the sigma and thanks to your video i know that its indeed an upgrade.. the CA are really terrible in your comparison, luckily i haven't noticed them as much but they're definetely there if i start looking for them >.

[@IddoGenuth]

Our copy of the Sony 85mm has a LOT of CA but it is otherwise a very good lens. I was personally very surprised by the sharpness results of both lenses. With the Sigma if you keep your subject to the center you can get away with a pretty wide open aperture but the corners are not amazing on both lenses even when you close down quite a bit so keep this in mind.

[@andy.photoandfilm]

@@IddoGenuth thanks! i'll definetely will do a comparison of both!

[@CamperIV]

Why is everyone comparing it to the 85 1.8 from Sony when it clearly should be compared to the 85mm 1.4 GM from Sony.

[@frankfeng2701]

Samyang 85 1.4 is much closer in price to compare against.

[@LensVid]

Yeah, we might test it at some point in the future as well.

[@vladimirivanov6353]

Good review...

[@vladimirivanov6353]

I have both...and Sigma is fantastic....much better!

[@IddoGenuth]

We also kept our Sony but got the Sigma as well - we use it for all our intro/outro videos - its a great lens and the AF is almost at Sony level (which is not the case with all Sigma lenses sadly).

[@karlkhan7486]

SLD = Special Low Dispersion - NOT Special Low DEPRESSION

[@IddoGenuth]

Right - corrected, thanks Karl! (edit: I actually think it was right in the article and maybe I just pronounced it wrong in the voice-over).