GEAR MINI TESTS
A pair of full-frame Sigma lenses for mirrorless cameras, an affordable cinema tripod head, a Sony super-telephoto and more are put to the test
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
SIGMA 50MM F/1.2 DG DN ART £1299/$1399 sigmauk.com
There was a time when every camera came with a very fast 50mm prime lens on the front. These give a natural field of view, the fast aperture is great for low-light work and shallow depth-of- field, they can be relatively cheap and are often light and compact. If you are a Sony E-mount user, there is a wide choice of 50mm lenses at a lot of price points from a huge list of independent lens brands, as well as Sony’s own and partner brand Zeiss. If you want something a bit more special like a superfast 50mm prime that is designed for smooth bokeh and has fast AF to keep up with the latest phase detection systems, your choice is much more limited. They are bigger, more complex, heavier and a lot more expensive. Sony’s 50mm f/1.2 G Master is the best-known example and costs £2099/$1898. It weighs 778g/1.7lb and has 14 elements in ten groups with an 11-bladed iris. If that’s a bit too spicy
for you, then a similar Sony 50mm f/1.4 G Master model is also available at a more reasonable £1299/$1298, though you may be left with the sense you short-changed yourself by going for the lesser option. Sigma also looked at Sony’s f/1.2 wonder lens and decided to better it in as many ways as it could, undercutting the price so that it’s closer to the f/1.4 model. Enter the Sigma 50mm f/1.2 DG DN Art lens at £1299/$1399, which is designed to better the G Master in every way – certainly in terms of spec. In terms of minimum focusing distance, filter size and length, both lenses are identical. But the newer Sigma lens is marginally lighter at 745g/1.6lb, a tad thinner, has 13 instead of 11 aperture blades and a more complex optical construction with more elements in more groups. However, Sony tweaks its cameras’ firmware to cripple all third-party
HEFTY FIFTY The fast new Sigma lens is not the most compact prime (right); colours are bright but natural (below)
lenses so they can’t shoot stills at the super-high frame rates possible with the A1 or A9 series of cameras. If that’s your thing, you might have to go for the Sony. If not – and for filmmaking it’s a non-issue of course – then the Sigma spec wins out. The build quality is excellent, with the reduction in weight coming from slightly smaller lens elements rather than sacrificing the all-metal body. It has a solid brass bayonet mount, a decent petal-style lens hood, an aperture ring that’s de-clickable and lockable and an AFL button that can be customised. For Sony users, it is compatible with all the Alpha series’ clever AF systems. The lens also comes in L-Mount, which adds support for altering the focus ring setting for linear or non-linear, and allows use of the
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