Yesterday, I had the chance to go to a special Sigma Media Pop-Up here in NYC. There, they were showing off the new and upcoming Sigma 85mm f1.2 DG lens. And this made me insanely curious about several things. With that said, I’ve got a few tidbits of information you may not have seen on the web previously.
The Sigma 85mm f1.2 DG is far and aways larger than the LUMIX 85mm f1.8 as you can see in the lead image of this article — made by me. That doesn’t sound too prepsterous, but consider the fact that Sigma has also been working on trying to downsize their lenses a bit. And this time, I’m really curious to see what they’re going to give us.
In my review of the Sigma 35mm f1.2 Art II, I felt that it was lightweight enough to do a proper photography gig with. Specifically, I was using it on a paid gig to photograph a convention. With that in mind, and the fact that the new Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art II is also surprisingly lightweight, I think we can probably assume that they’re changing things up.
Several years ago, Sigma used to do this thing where they made their lenses extra large in order to cover medium format optics in order to get better sharpness. But it resulted in the backs and arms of many photographers being broken and tons of them whining on Youtube and on social media. I’m included in that list, and I’m still traumatized by the gargantuan size. When a bunch of photo bros walked towards my way all touting Sigma lenses, it felt akin to that scene in the movie Alexander where the elephants charge into the Hoplite flanks.
Obviously I’m only kidding, sort of.
But to be real here, the prototype lens that I saw and held was surprisingly lightweight — and that’s because it was empty inside. What I’m deducing though is that Sigma is working to make this a lighterweight option than others on the market right now. The thing is, however, that the only thing that this may compete against is the Sony 85mm f1.4 G Master II. Put bluntly, that lens is one of the biggest practical jokes Sony played on their customers.
I foresee Sony acolytes sacrificing their hardly earned dollars at this lens because of Sigma’s marketing around the most polished sharpness ever.
Still, it has one competitor that’s both very good and affordable, the Viltrox 85mm f1.4. Using that lens on a paid gig yielded me images that my previous client still uses to this day. But the thing about that lens is that it’s sharp without making me feel like I need to do a lot of retouching. Sigma’s lenses on the other hand are often too sharp and I need to use things like in-camera skin smoothing.
Viltrox is also where things get really unique with the L-mount. The L mount currently doesn’t even have any 85mm f1.4 lenses except those made by Sigma. Leica’s closest lens is the 75mm f2 and 90mm f2 APO SL offerings. And if you know, you know. If you don’t know, at this point of the internet, I’d call you willfully ignorant. Viltrox is a newer member of the L-mount alliance and they’re bound to bring their 85mm f1.4 to the mount too.
Realistically though, I own the LUMIX 85mm f1.8 S and still find it to be an incredible lens. And at this point in photography, f1.2 lenses just aren’t all that special and unique. If you’re going to be looking for clinical sharpness, I predict that you should consider the Sigma. But if you want character and what’s likely to be faster autofocus performance, I predict that you may probably stick with the LUMIX. Plus the Panasonic LUMIX lens has weather resistance and is only a few hundred bucks.