- Over the past few months,
I've gotten more comments than usual
asking which camera lens I use to record my videos
and I don't think it's a coincidence
that that's also the same timeframe that I've been using
the Sigma 24 milliliter 1.4 Art Series lens.
So here's my review for the Sigma 24 milliliter 1.4
and why I think it's one of the best
prime lenses you can get.
This video is not sponsored in any way
but some of you might know
that I'm a high school digital media teacher
and so about a year ago I ordered one of these lenses
for my program at school and like immediately
my students and I were really blown away
by the image quality we were getting
when using the Sigma lens.
We also got the 18 to 35 which is also an amazing lens
for crop sensor cameras.
And I did a comparison video last year
of the Canon 70 to 200 and Sigma 70 to 200 2.8 lenses.
So even though I really like Canon lenses,
Sigma is one of the few third-party manufacturers
that I actually trust and so after being impressed
with this lens at work last December,
I found a holiday sale where it was available
for a pretty good price and I decided to get one for myself
and since that time last December,
it pretty much hasn't left my camera
which is the Canon 6D Mark II,
my favorite camera of all time.
I found that 24 millimeters is a really great
useful focal length.
For a long time I was stuck at 35
which I do still really love
because it just looks so visually appealing
and it is you know, for lack of a better term,
very cinematic, but for the kind of videos I make
and stuff like this where I'm framed sitting at a desk
or showing something and talking about things
or you know going outside and doing like a vlog style video,
24 millimeters is a great focal length,
it's not too fisheye but it's not too zoomed in.
When deciding whether or not
I wanted to get this lens for myself,
a good question was that I already have the Canon 24 to 105
which I really do feel is one of the best all-around
general-purpose lenses that you can get,
it just does a lot and it's super versatile.
So if this lens, 24 to 105, covers 24 millimeters,
why do I need a separate 24 millimeter lens
when it makes sense just to set this at its widest setting
and get the same results?
The difference is that this is an f/4 lens
while the Sigma has a maximum aperture of 1.4
and that makes a world of difference.
And so just for reference,
here is a side-by-side comparison
with the Canon 24 to 105 and the Sigma 24 millimeter,
both lenses at 24 millimeters.
And what you should notice right off the bat
is that the shot, the framing is pretty much the same
but the image quality is gonna change quite a bit.
Right now each lens is at f/4
which is the 24 to 105's maximum aperture.
In order to maintain this exposure,
I have to increase my ISO to 1,600
which is much higher than I would normally like to shoot
and even though the shots in terms of framing look the same,
what you'll notice is that as I adjust
the aperture on the Sigma, I can lower the ISO
which reduces noise,
I can usually shoot at about 200 ISO in this room
but you're also gonna notice the depth of field
becoming much more shallow.
My face should stay clear, I should stay in focus
and the background should get a lot blurrier.
And as I open up the Sigma lens all the way to f/1.4,
you should notice a little bit of a difference
in exposure and image quality.
I'm now at 200 ISO and the background
should be much more blurred than the Canon 24 to 105 at f/4
and that's really a look that I like to go for.
And obviously there's nothing wrong with using an f/4 lens,
they're terrific, I have several of them
but when filming indoors,
personally a look that I really like
is that very shallow depth of field at a low ISO
and having a lens with a very wide aperture
helps me to make that happen.
When I film videos in this room,
my camera is usually mounted on a tripod
that's about like three feet, three-ish feet away from me
and at f/1.4, it does a great job
of giving a nice blurry background while keeping me in focus
but f/1.4 is a really shallow depth of field
so it can actually sometimes be difficult
to keep your subject in focus especially when filming video.
But that's why I personally do prefer Canon cameras
because their Dual Pixel Autofocus is so good
and so reliable.
It's not perfect, but wow, it's really, really good
and so if I set face tracking on with my camera,
it can usually just lock onto me
and then whatever I'm doing
and as I'm moving further and away from the camera,
it can just keep me in focus
and maintain that super shallow depth of field
which I just love the look of
and it also really helps because having a wider aperture
makes it easier to shoot in lower light conditions.
And even though I do have a few video lights set up in here,
it's actually not crazy bright
but more importantly what I really like
is knowing when I take this lens and go out of the room
and into the world that I'm gonna be more able
to deal with low-light situations
which you really do encounter all the time
when you're filming outside of a controlled environment.
One of the other reasons that I chose this lens specifically
is that it has a 77-millimeter filter diameter
which means since I do have the 24 to 105
and I have the f/4 16 to 35 Canon lens,
that all of my existing filters will work on this lens.
So it's very easy to take an ND filter
and put it on this lens and put it on this lens
and I don't have to have all these different filter sizes
and things happening.
And having an ND filter is really important for this lens.
I made a whole video about how ND filters
can help save your footage
and really give you some cool options
that you don't have otherwise.
One of my favorite things to do with this lens
is to put an ND filter on it and then go film outside
at a really shallow depth of field.
So I live in the California desert
where it's bright and hot most of the time
so being able to go outside in the middle of the day
and film with the shutter speed of 50
at an aperture of 1.4 is amazing.
You can get this super shallow depth of field
and really pull your subject from the background
even in the brightest conditions.
I honestly don't have any real negative criticism
about this lens, I think it's fantastic.
The price seems a little bit high,
it usually retails for about $800
although sometimes like I mentioned earlier,
you can get it on sale depending on the time of year
but that's a really good investment for a lens
that you can keep for years and years
and you know I've had mine for several months now
and it works great, I've taken it all over the place
but I've also had the one at work which is stood up to use
and well use from high school students for over a year.
So whenever I have gear that can hold up to that
and still work great then I know
that it's a really high quality piece of equipment
that's worth your time.
Teaching a high school digital media program
was like the perfect way to test which gear is good
and which gear is not good,
another reason why I do like Canon cameras.
One feature that I would love for this lens to have
is image stabilization but even though it doesn't,
24 millimeters is a pretty wide focal length
and so it's easy to keep it stable
if you're using like a telephoto lens or a really long lens,
then everything just gets super shaky
but this is a pretty wide lens
and so it's not too hard to keep stable
and fortunately since Sigma does make this lens
for Canon, Nikon, and Sony,
some cameras actually have in-body image stabilization
like a lot of the Sony's do
and so if you get the Sony version of this lens
then you do end up with some stabilization.
So it is possible to kind of have the best of both worlds
and I also know that if it were stabilized,
it would probably raise the price
and that might make it way too unaffordable for some people.
The one issue that I did have with this lens right away
was that it was front focusing
and luckily since I'd done a bit of research
and I had actually been looking at it for a while,
I knew that this was a problem and Sigma lenses
seemed to have an issue where they front or back focus,
so if I locked on here,
it might actually be here that was clear and in focus,
and that can obviously be a little bit tough.
And so while the lens looked great out of the box,
it didn't seem super sharp because it was front focusing
so the stuff I was trying to focus on
wasn't actually coming out clearly.
Luckily, the version that I got
just came with the Sigma Dock
which is a really awesome tool.
It's a little USB dock that you connect to your computer
and then you just connect the lens to the dock
and you can go into a Sigma app and fine-tune the lens
to your specific camera, your specific preferences,
there's a ton of different settings that you can adjust.
And since I've done that,
the image quality for both photos and videos
has just been phenomenal, like the clarity,
the sharpness, the colors, this lens is magic,
I absolutely love it.
And like I said, this video is not sponsored in any way,
I don't always make videos
for every single piece of gear I own,
just every once in a while you come across something
that is an amazing tool and this specifically
since I've started using this lens,
the amount of comments that I've gotten
asking what lens, what camera,
have just like whoosh, gone through the roof.
Well I mean like okay instead of none,
it's like four but it's more than it used to be
and to really attribute that to how great this lens looks
and how wonderful it is.
So I know that this wasn't the most scientific review,
I didn't have my color and my focus charts
but to be honest there are people
who do that so much better than I could
that there's no reason for me to even do it
and more importantly I'm not so much interested
in how a focus chart or a color chart looks on a lens,
I'm interested in what it's like
to put that lens on your camera
and actually use it to make stuff
and I love using this lens to make stuff.
So I highly recommend it, I'm gonna continue using it,
I'm very interested to see how it holds up
compared to a Canon L Series lens,
I have no reason to think
that this isn't going to hold up just as well
and I'll definitely let you know
if there's anything interesting that I find
or pros and cons that emerge along the way.
If you're looking to get this lens,
even though it seems expensive at $800,
it's really a good price for a high-quality lens
that's gonna last for a very long time.
I would however recommend waiting until you either
find it on sale or find it as part of a kit
that comes with the Sigma Dock.
On its own I think this dock retails for about $70
and I wouldn't want to pay $70 separately
on top of a really expensive lens
so if you're worried at all about front focusing
or back focusing, keep an eye out for a deal
that includes this because I think
that that's going to make your life a lot easier
and give you some really good peace of mind
when you buy this lens.
But as I mentioned at the very start of this video,
I'm a big fan of Canon original products,
Canon cameras, Canon lenses,
and so it's very rare that I will go outside of that world
and Sigma and this lens are one of the few things
that I really do enjoy and I just, they're great tools
and so if you're looking for one,
I think you'll love it too.
Let me know if you have any questions,
thanks so much for watching, I hope that this was helpful
and I'll see you in the next video.
(upbeat music)