Hey everyone!
I'm John Sison and today we're taking a look at the Sigma 12-24mm F4 ART series lens.
The Sigma 12-24mm is an ultra wide angle zoom lens and is primarily targeted towards landscape
and architectural photographers.
Now it comes in a variety of mounts from Canon, Nikon or Sigma but you can also use it on
the Sony E-mount cameras via the MC-11 adapter like I'm doing right here with my A7R Mark II
Now for Sony shooters, this may be a great option for you because to this date, Sony
does not offer anything wider than the 16-35mm lens and if you're looking for something that's
just a little bit wider than what Sony offers, this may be a great option for you.
Now for Canon, Nikon or Sigma shooters, in terms of autofocusing performance for example
its going to be a lot different from this camera and in fact, right off the bat I can
tell you its going to be a lot better than what you're going to see later on in the video.
Now that that's out of the way, lets just get right into it.
The lens has a nice black finish and has a solid build which keeps in line with Sigma’s
other ART series lenses.
It has rubber zoom and focus rings, a focus distance window, the ART series badge and
a switch to change from autofocus to manual focus.
You’ll notice towards the front of the lens that it gets a bit chunky.
This is because of the bulbous front element which actually sticks out quite a bit so you
can’t attach any screw on filters.
The hood of the lens can’t be removed but this is also a good thing as it offers some
sort of protection.
And when the lens is not in use, you can attach the slide on lens cap.
It has a metal mount and a rubber gasket to protect the lens from any moisture or dust
getting in.
For Sony users, you will need to use the Sigma MC-11 adapter to attach this lens onto your camera
but unfortunately, since there is no form of weather resistance on the adapter
itself, I wouldn’t really recommend using this lens in wet conditions.
Now the lens weighs approximately 1.15 kilos and that's pretty heavy but when you consider
how wide this lens actually is especially with its constant aperture, you can forgive
Sigma for making this a bit heavy.
Although, when you do compare it to the Canon 11-24mm F4, its actually a tad heavier weighing
in at 1.18 kilos and that's more than double the price of this lens in Australia.
Now I've been shooting with this lens for a while now and I don't know if its me but
I still can't get used to the focus ring being towards the front of the lens.
Now its only when I use manual focus and its not a huge issue but its more of a minor annoyance.
Speaking of the focus ring, it offered just the right amount of resistance and for me,
that was perfect.
Although the zoom ring did have a bit more resistance which isn't a big hassle.
Now because of the weight of the lens, the camera is going to be front heavy but I imagine
people who use this lens may have their camera on a tripod a lot of the time anyway.
Stabilisation is not built into the lens which is common because its not really needed for
wide angle lenses but if you’re a Sony user and have an A7 II series camera or an A6500
you have stabilisation built into the body.
The lens can focus as close as 24cm at the long end of the lens.
When zooming in and out you’ll notice the front element extend and retract.
This can in some ways suck up dust and trap it within the lens as its not completely weather
sealed.
It does have a water and oil repellent coating though which can be useful for when you’re
shooting near the ocean.
HSM otherwise known as a hypersonic motor is built into the lens making it fast to focus,
especially if you’re using this on a Canon, Nikon or Sigma camera.
Unfortunately its just not the case with the A7R Mark II and tends to struggle even more in low light situations.
Also in some instances, I wasn’t able to achieve focus at all so it resulted in me
using manual focus instead.
Just a quick note, you do have manual override if you're shooting in autofocus and need to
tweak it with manual focus which is a nice touch.
Shooting with this lens gave me some very sharp images in the centres, especially when
it came to me shooting with the lens at the wide end.
However, when shooting at the tele end the images weren’t as sharp as i hoped it would be.
In terms of chromatic aberration, I didn’t notice any but with vignetting it was apparent
at F4 so stopping down to about F8 would remedy this issue.
As for distortion, I was surprised as I thought there would be a severe amount but there really wasn’t.
Its actually one of the best wide angle zoom lenses I’ve used when it came to distortion control.
Out of focus blur was okay but nothing to brag about but as far as wide angle lenses
go, people don’t look to them for the bokeh.
Okay, so I'm using the Sigma 12-24mm lens on the Sony A7R Mark II.
Its at its widest focal length at 12mm and I'm hoping this is giving you an idea of video
quality that you can expect from the camera and the lens itself.
Now as you can see, there's a lot of room to play with.
I'm less than about 50cm away from the camera so like I said, if you're doing maybe holiday
videos or vlogging, I don't imagine people using this for vlogging because its too heavy
there's a lot of room to play with and you can capture a lot of scenic shots or groups
of people so this might be a useful tool for you if you're doing videography.
Now I am using this in continuous autofocus so you may be able to hear the autofocus motors
focus in and out only in you're in a quiet environment.
If you're in a place where there's I guess a lot of people or noise or ambient sound
around you won't hear it as much or you probably won't hear it at all.
So I hope this is giving you an idea, lets get back to the video.
The Sigma 12-24mm F4 ART lens is a lens that I think would be a valuable addition to anyone's
photography kit especially if they're looking for the flexibility of an ultra wide angle
zoom lens.
Now for Sony shooters, this is a great option, mainly because like I said earlier, Sony does
not offer anything wider than a 16-35mm lens and what's great about this if you use it
with the MC-11 adapter, you're still going to get all the autofocusing modes and functions
of a native E-mount lens.
Now as for filters, unfortunately you can't screw on any to the front mainly because the
front element sticks out quite a fair bit so you're going to need to get custom filter
holders which will in fact add some cost to your kit.
Now taking a quick look online, I couldn't really find any other than from a brand called
Nisi which I'll link into the description below.
Now in terms of autofocusing speeds with the A7R Mark II, it wasn't all that fast and in
fact struggled even more in low light situations and in some instances, I actually had to use
manual focus because the camera wouldn't lock onto anything at all which is a bit unfortunate.
Now I definitely know that you won't get this issue with Canon, Nikon or Sigma cameras but
in terms of distortion control, it held up very well and like I said earlier it looks
like one of the best ultra wide angle zoom lenses that held up very well in terms of
distortion.
So in terms of the price that you are paying, as well as the image quality at the wide end
its a lens that's well worth it.
Now if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below and if you already
own one, let me know what you think of it and remember to like this video if you found
it helpful and subscribe to my channel for more Sigma reviews and tutorials.
You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more photo updates and sample photos and
don't forget to check the description below for purchasing links and more information
about this lens.
Until then, happy shooting and thanks for watching.
Via the MC-11 adapter which ?? which I'm doing right here with the A7R Mark II.
I can tell you its going to be a lot faster than what you're going to see on this in this
video later on.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way lets get right into it, yeah.
The Sony.
No.
The Sigma 12-24mm.
*Clears throat*
Lets get right into it and I'll see you soon.
Why'd I say that.
Now that that's out of the way, lets get right into it.
Yeah.