Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN Art Sony E Mount 578965

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For astrophotography, all three of these lenses would do quite well, but if I had to choose one, I’d go for the sigma 24-70. Build quality Sigma sees the Art series as its flagship line, and so build quality is excellent, with a rugged, all-metal construction and comprehensive weather-sealing. Both the zoom ring and manual focus ring feel smooth with just the right amount of resistance to dampen user input. The handsome outward appearance and the feel of the 24–70 are both consistent with Sigma's other Art series offerings. I want to start by saying I think all five of these lenses are very good, and any professional could make magic with them on an assignment. In the end, it’s the shooter and not the equipment that makes great photos. The Tamron 28-70 2.8 G2 still wins the weight competition at 1.2 lbs, but the Tamron also isn’t quite the same focal length as the 24-70 2.8. You’ll lose 4mm at the wide end, but if weight and price is a greater priority, this is the lens you’ll want.

Closest focus distance is 0.34m (13in.) with a magnification of 1:3.8 at 70mm focal length and manual focus. At the wide end the new Sigma even goes down to 1:2.6 which is quite good but you have only 2cm (0.8in.) of working distance at minimum focus distance. At 70mm focal length the working distance is at least 16cm (6.3in.) which is much more usable. A magnification of 1:10 is achieved at 0.76m (2.5ft.) giving a working distance of 0.55m (1.8ft.) with lens hood attached. The Tamron is quite similar to the Sigma while the other lenses in this comparison produce their largest magnification of around 1:4 at 70mm focal length. [+] At the other end of the zoom, here’s the lens at 70mm f2.8, again from its closest focusing distance, which at this focal length is 30cm; from this distance I could reproduce 104mm across the frame. The blobs are much larger and there’s some faint concentric patterns within, but the elongation is milder, and essentially eliminated as you begin to close the aperture down. The Mark II lens can not only focus closer than its predecessor, but thanks to the floating focus group, delivers much crisper results at short distances as you’ll see in my sample images in a moment. We did note some field curvature for macro shooting, which leads to rather soft corners, but the 24–70mm F2.8 isn't an incredibly sharp lens when shooting close-up in the first place. Stopping down yields very good corner sharpness. Sony jpegs look similar though a bit worse. These are the colors we get from all RAW processors and Sony RAW files with little variation.Most 24-70mm shooters aren’t too concerned about distortion, but if you’re shooting architecture or straight lines, all 3 lenses are great, but Sony still out performs in this category. Is it worth it? Is the Lumix twice as good as the Sigma? That’s ultimately up to you to decide, but I personally don’t think it is. It’s definitely better, and I think if money were no issue I would select it over the field. But since money is always an issue, it’s hard to argue against the Sigma. Lens profile: The lens comes with a lens profile for vignette-, CA- and distortion-compensation which can be controlled from the camera. Adobe’s RAW converter (as of version 12.1) does not recognize the profile completely: vignette is compensated as it was set in camera (but you cannot switch between off and auto in post-processing) while CA-compensation is always ON, distortion compensation always OFF. The latter is a pity as the lens shows strong mustache-like distortions at the short end which are not easily corrected. [+] At the lens mount you’ll find a rubber grommet providing some dust and moisture resistance, but unlike the 24-70 2.8 Art version, this doesn’t extend to the rest of the lens, so use with caution in bad weather. This is the same approach as Sigma’s recent DG DN Contemporary prime lenses, not to mention Tamron’s 28-75.

wondering after spending close to 3 grand on full frame body who would think to spend another 2 grands for having such a lens.. this is insanely crayzee.....i would not call photography an hobby anymore its display of rich peoples GAS fest. At the other end of the zoom, at the Tamron was occasionally more contrasty, creating a sharper appearance to the image overall, but resolution differences were negligible. In some parts of the frame, particularly at f/2.8, the Tamron appeared to produce marginally better resolution, but it was a difference only visible when pixel-peeping at 100% magnification. Matthew Gore | Light And Matter At the 70mm end of the zoom, the Sigma 24-70 and Tamron 28-75 produce nearly identical image quality, though the Tamron sometimes appears slightly better to me. Ok, now for my landscape, portrait and bokeh tests, and again all were taken on an Alpha 1 body with the default settings for Lens Compensation: so Shading and Chromatic Aberration correction set to Auto, but for this lens, Distortion Compensation set to off. Zooming in to the 70mm position the story is pretty similar, with a great level of detail in the center but rather softer corners when shooting wide-open. Again, stopping down to F5.6 helps throughout the image. That said, the improvement in the center is less dramatic at telephoto and the improvement in the corners is more noticeable than it was at wide-angle. I know there is a reason we did not see that that often and Olympus did not release a new f/2.0 standard zoom because the old one was already really big.

Next here’s the view at 50mm, roughly mid-way through the range, and with the aperture wide-open to f2.8.

AF-operation of the new Sigma is inaudible from the outside or if you record video with the built-in microphone. And as you pull focus, you’ll notice no focus breathing at all: the image simply keeps its magnification at closer focusing distances. This should make videographers happy. maybe people who used to Canon/Fujifilm colors too much, personally i, after years with experience on Canon/Nikon/Sony full-frames cameras (never used Fijifilm though) would say: yes Canon DOES have SPECIFIC COLORS at daylight photography when WB is warm. and, notice, i didn't said GOOD colors, i said SPECIFIC. when you used to it - you probably would fin a way to get same colors on other system, cause such specific color is specific in wofkflow and need specific approach, so when you get other colors from other camera - it would be hard to used to it. ARE THIS COLORS GOOD? they are warmy comfy and could be really good for wedding / some commercial shootings. why i ain't consider them GOOD? With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/2.8, there is some light fall-off in the corners at both ends of the zoom range. Stopping-down to f/5.6 virtually eliminates this. It’s close, but I think that the Lumix 24-70mm has the best overall sharpness here, with Sigma not too far behind it. Just as important as optical quality is the focus performance: especially for candid portraiture. And here the FE 135mm GM is industry leading: focus is lightning fast thanks in part to its four XD ('extreme dynamic') linear induction motors. These motors are far faster than the previous piezoelectric design of Sony's 'Direct Drive SSM' system, and are capable of moving larger, heavier elements."As these examples shows the lens is is a little susceptible to flare when shooting directly into the sun, even with the supplied lens hood fitted, but overall it is well controlled thanks to the lens' Super Multi-Layer Coating. Filter-thread: 82mm just like the others except for the Tamron which uses cheaper 67mm filters. [0]

Like all of its nearest E-mount and L-mount rivals, Sigma's 24–70mm F2.8 eschews optical image stabilization in favor of in-body IS. It also opts for the same 82mm filter threads as used by all of its direct competition. A hydrophobic and oleophobic coating on the front lens element helps to resist rain drops and accidental smudges. Unfortunately, despite the dramatic number of points the appearance of the sunstars is quite diffuse. If you are a landscape photographer looking for sharp, clean and dramatic sunstars you may want to look elsewhere. Longitudinal / lateral chromatic aberration (fringing) Taking a close look in the middle reveals plenty of fine details even with the aperture wide-open, and closing the aperture makes little difference to the quality.It's what you often get from those who see photography as a competitive team sport, rather than an individual artistic endeavor. If you want light and high quality without breaking the bank, you have enough choice with our Sony equipment. Yeah, yeah...I know...the horrors of diffraction beyond f5.6. Some of us are crazy and still use f8 now and then. With the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN ART and Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN ART, Sigma is now competing with Sony ’ s native lenses, offering smaller and lighter options. But when shooting wide-open with the Sigma 24–70mm, the shape of the cat's eye effect is rather unusual and quite different to that we've seen in other lenses. There's a quite noticeable shift in angle as if the shaded side of the bokeh has been further flattened, and it makes the bokeh even more distracting than it would be in a lens exhibiting regular cat's eye.