For many years, Sigma has had an 85mm f1.4 lens for DSLRs that has been very tough to beat. Sony, Canon and Nikon all have great options–but when you consider the affordability of Sigma’s lens combined with just how well it performs, it’s hard to justify anything else. For years, we haven’t had very many third party options to compare to with the exception of the Zeiss Otus and Rokinon. For what it’s worth, the Zeiss Otus 85mm f1.4 has dominated when it comes to image quality–at least when shooting wide open. To be fair, it’s also very costly.
But with the new Zeiss Milvus 85mm f1.4 released, we wanted to see how it compares to Sigma’s. We were rather surprised.