Admiring Light
Menu
  • Home
  • Review Index
  • Shop Talk
  • Technique and Vision
  • Opinion
  • Portfolio
  • Site Index
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
Menu

Review: Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art (Sony E Mount)

Posted on November 11, 2018December 21, 2018 by Jordan Steele

Contents

  • 1Construction and Handling
  • 2Autofocus
  • 3Image Quality
  • 4Conclusion
  • 5Image Samples

Image Quality

Sigma’s art series has been known for excellent image quality, and I have to say, the 135mm f/1.8 Art is among the finest lenses I’ve had the opportunity to use.

Sharpness

I’ll cut to the chase: the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 is an absolutely blisteringly sharp lens, starting right at f/1.8.  Sharpness at f/1.8 is exceptional over the entire frame, with just a touch less detail towards the edges and corners, but even here it’s still very sharp.  Stopping down a bit shows only minimal improvement, but that’s because it’s hard to get much sharper than it is wide open. This may be the sharpest overall lens I’ve ever used, for any camera system. You absolutely do not need to consider sharpness at all when choosing an aperture.  Pick the aperture for the depth of field you require and shoot away, knowing that the images will be pin sharp. The image below was shot at f/1.8.  Click here for a 100% crop of the focus area.

Diva – Sony A7 III with Sigma 135mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8

Bokeh

Often, lenses that are extremely sharp suffer from less than perfect bokeh, but Sigma managed to avoid that pitfall here.  Bokeh from the 135mm f/1.8 is smooth and creamy, with even specular highlights and a lovely character. Up close, you’ll obliterate backgrounds into nothingness, but even at moderate distances, the Sigma 135mm produces very nice background blur.  Due to the extreme aperture, there is some minor mechanical vignetting that causes some elongation of the specular highlights as you get towards the edges, but I don’t generally mind that. Combined with the excellent sharpness, subjects tend to pop rather substantially with this lens.

Scout – Sony A7 III with Sigma 135mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8, 1/160s, ISO 250

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration

The Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art shows solid contrast straight from f/1.8 through the focus range.  It’s not an in-your face high microcontrast rendering, just nice even contrast that works well for everything from portraits to landscapes.  Color is perhaps a touch biased to the warm side, which is fairly typical for Sigma lenses.  Surprisingly, the lens has very low chromatic aberrations, with essentially no field relevant chromatic aberration, both laterally and axially. There may be just a touch of longitudinal chromatic aberration visible in just the right circumstances, but in day-to-day shooting, I can’t say I ever really came across it.  An excellent performance here.

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting

Telephoto prime lenses rarely have any issues with distortion, and the same is true here.  There is a touch of pincushion distortion that is barely visible when shooting extremely straight line subjects, but unless you’re shooting graph paper, I don’t think you’d ever notice it.  The lens has very minor vignetting that again won’t really be noticed in almost any situation.  Even against bright light, the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 does very nicely, with just some contrast loss, but without any major ghosting.

In all, it’s a truly spectacular optic.  Of all the lenses I’ve reviewed, only a handful are even close to as good optically as the Sigma 135mm. It’s simply stunning.

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples

Pages: 1 2 3

6 thoughts on “Review: Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art (Sony E Mount)”

  1. Pingback: Sony Tidbits...(Matt Granger giving away a free A7rIII) - sonyalpharumors sonyalpharumors
  2. Pingback: ???135mm F1.8 DG HSM?????????????????????? | ?????????????
  3. Pingback: ????135mm F1.8 DG HSM?
  4. Pingback: ???? ??135mm f/1.8?E?????
  5. Gabriel says:
    March 12, 2019 at 9:02 am

    Been coming to your site for a while and was pretty surprised to see you were a fan of the mech keyboards too!
    Only just joined the mass drop for the next round of Canvas

    Reply
    1. Jordan Steele says:
      March 12, 2019 at 9:06 am

      It’s a great keyset. I’m excited for the delivery of my Holy Pandas.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow Me:

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on Instagram

Most Popular Posts

  • "Full Frame Equivalence" and Why It Doesn't Matter (286)
  • Fuji X-Pro 2 vs. Sony A7 II: Noise Comparison (70)
  • Fuji 56mm f/1.2 vs. Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 Nocticron (63)
  • Review: Metabones Speed Booster (Canon FD to Fuji X) (56)
  • Review: Olympus OM-D E-M5 (48)

Recent Comments

  • Harry on Review: Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD
  • Jordan Steele on Review: Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD
  • Harry on Review: Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD
  • Harry on Review: Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
  • Jordan Steele on Review: Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Archives

©2021 Admiring Light | Theme by SuperbThemes
We use cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You may consent to the use of cookies or opt out. Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.