As is so often the case with Sigma products, a lot of thought went into this lens. For example, the lens hood is divided into two, which in its shorter form fits perfectly with a full-frame sensor and, when extended, shades the reduced size of an APS-C sensor. It’s a blindingly simple idea that should be really useful.
As an f/1.4 lens, Sigma’s 85mm lens is decidedly chunky and heavy. But it is also well balanced and feels very comfortable in the hand. The manual focus ring is wide and nicely placed at the front of the lens, but its weight is a shade on the stiff side.
The AF system is fast, if not bubble-like, and uses internal focusing so there are no grip limitations when holding the lens. If required, full manual focus can be selected by sliding the AF/MF switch back with a deft movement of the left thumb.
Reversing the standard (full frame) lens hood on the lens for storage covers almost the entire length of the barrel, blocks the focusing ring and obscures the focused distance window. Of course, this isn’t ideal, but Sigma could justifiably claim that any quality-conscious user would want to mount the lens hood in a way that coverage of the barrel when stowed is largely irrelevant. All the more regrettable
the fact that the expanded form cannot be inverted at all over the lens for storage.
Technical testing has shown that this lens has been highly optimized for use between f/2.8 and f/8, where its resolution numbers comfortably exceed 0.3 cycles per pixel. The critical level of 0.25 cycles per pixel is maintained for one more f-stop on either side of the optimum range, but there’s a slight drop when the lens is wide open and even more when it’s fully closed at F16. At wide With the lens open, very slight traces of chromatic aberration could be seen that were absent at other aperture settings.
example Pictures
verdict
Overall this is a very nice lens that offers a bright viewfinder and excellent image quality, with a clever extra in the form of its dual format lens hood.
points in detail
value 9
draft 10
picture quality 9
Features 10