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ART vs LAB vs GM | 35mm Showdown
Sep 18, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott directly compares the Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART with the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 and the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM. Which is the winner? ART Reviews: Text: | Video: GM Reviews: Text: https://bit.ly/35GMreview or Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-4XGP1jqQ LAB Reviews: Text: https://tinyurl.com/LAB35review or Video: https://tinyurl.com/LAB35vid Purchase the Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3I5ukbK | Adorama https://howl.link/kclnvplwvy8dp | Amazon https://amzn.to/4no43Eq | Camera Canada https://tidd.ly/46cXZaV | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4ngGKw4 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/41Ob74R | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/46iA4Ha Purchase the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM @ Sony USA https://howl.link/r36imc3xohw7x | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/2RA0Isf | Amazon https://amzn.to/3vRRBSF | Sony Canada https://tinyurl.com/Buy35GM | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/2y3qu | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3o48p67 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3ewthjk | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4386K4E Purchase the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE @ Viltrox https://geni.us/Dustin35Lab (use code DA3512LAB5 for 5% off) | B&H https://bhpho.to/4jm5G3w | Adorama | Amazon https://amzn.to/43Q3zR4 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3G7tbiA | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/43R6skE | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4jtb7h9 | Pergear https://tinyurl.com/BuyLAB35 Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:08
[Music] I am Dustin Abbott and I am here today to give you another one of my showdown
0:14
videos. This was a tough one. We have here the three top 35mm prime lenses on
0:20
the Sony E-mount platform, including the existing uh Sony 35mm F1.4 for G Master
0:27
lens. The Viltrox Lab 35mm F1.2 that was released earlier this year and then the
0:33
newest which is the Sigma 35mm F1.2 and this is the M2 Art series lens from
0:40
them. All of them are excellent lenses in their own right. The Sony is the
0:46
outlier in this particular comparison because it has the smaller maximum aperture of just f1.4. that does come
0:52
with some built-in advantages because the Sony is incredibly compact and lightweight. The Viltrox is the cheapest
0:59
and it's also the sharpest. The Sigma is maybe the most complete of all three.
1:05
So, which one is worth your money? Well, that's what we're here to determine. And I have shot tons of sidebyside images.
1:13
I've done tests for their autofocus and various things to try to determine which of these really is the best performing
1:19
lens. and the answer is difficult. But I'm going to do my best to parse things out and to help you to make an informed
1:25
buying decision. So before we jump in, just so you know, the Sony and the
1:30
Viltrox are my own personal copies that I happen to have for this comparison,
1:36
the Sigma was loan to me by Sigma Canada, which is Gentech, and so it will be going back to them just so you know
1:42
kind of what the the providence was on each one of these uh lenses. So let's
1:48
start by talking about what is similar and there are some surprising similarities between these three lenses.
1:53
They all have mostly the same feature set and so that includes an aperture ring or control ring. Um it the ability
2:01
to have an AFMF switch function button uh the ability to declick the aperture
2:06
and so all of them are similar in that fact. You can do aperture racking with all of them. So, they have a similar
2:12
control scheme in some ways, though the most disparate of those is going to be the Viltrox, which utilizes the LCD
2:19
screen and has a little bit different approach to things. All three of these are thoroughly weather sealed. They're
2:24
professional-grade lenses with gaskets at the lens mount, seals all throughout, and then coatings on the front element
2:31
to prevent fingerprints and moisture. Surprisingly, all of them are roughly
2:36
similar in autofocus speed. All of them have at least two focus motors and are near instant in transitions from close
2:43
to distant subjects. All of them prove to have equally consistent autofocus accuracy when shooting portraits. And in
2:50
a portrait situation, I didn't have one miss with any of them. They were all perfect in terms of locking on and
2:55
giving accurately focus results um when doing eye detection and thus portrait work. Even at their maximum apertures,
3:03
all of them have a tiniest bit of pin cushion distortion. each in each one of them I used about a minus one to correct
3:09
the tiniest amount of pin cushion distortion and so they're about equal in their optical signatures on that and so
3:15
there is a lot of things that are similar across these three lenses as far as the kind of neutral differences here
3:22
the really only thing that I would point out is that obviously one of these has an f1.4 for maximum aperture that brings
3:28
both strengths and weaknesses to the table. And I'm going to do something a little bit different in today's breakdown. There's there's unique
3:34
strengths for all of them, but there's also unique weaknesses relative to the other lenses, and I'm going to try to
3:39
highlight those as well. I'm going to start with the center lens here and talk about the Viltrox Lab lens and reasons
3:46
to choose it. The first of those and most obvious is the price. It currently has an MSRP of $999.
3:54
It can be had for cheaper than that by using discount codes, one of which is available in the description down below.
4:01
So, that makes it anywhere from between $400 to $600 cheaper than any of the other lenses. That price difference is
4:08
obviously going to be a really compelling factor if you're on a limited budget where you can get this for, you know, as as little as 50% um or 50% less
4:17
than, you know, the Sigma lens, for example. It also is more customizable and so it does have a little bit
4:23
different feature set than the other two. It's a little less traditional for good and bad as a part of that. So it
4:28
does have this front OLED screen and on that O LED screen you have you have a
4:34
distance scale. You see your your aperture there, but also allows you through a secondary function button
4:40
which it's the only one to have two function buttons. One of those you can actually preset to different things. You can preset it to uh instantly focusing
4:47
towards infinity uh if you're shooting astro with the lens or you can set something like AB focus and so that you
4:54
can preset positions and move instantly from one focus point to the other back and forth. And so there's a little bit
5:00
of additional customization that you can do and they have through the Viltrox app you can actually set up different
5:05
functions to that something that you cannot do with either of the other lenses. It is also the only of these
5:12
lenses to have not just two focus motors, but actually quad hyperVCM focus motors. And I did find while in real
5:19
world practicality, there's not really a difference. But if I'm doing a formal test and you know shooting the same
5:25
thing over and over, I did find that it was ever slow so slightly faster and going from point A to point B. It is a
5:31
very fast focusing lens and thus it had a little bit of just a tiny bit of edge in that. It is also very slightly the
5:39
sharpest lens and that's true in chart testing and then also it is more
5:44
obviously so sometimes when shooting three-dimensional subjects and that leads me to its final strength that I'll
5:49
point out and it has the best micro contrast and that's really where you see that extra degree of performance is that
5:56
in just rendering those really fine details there's just a little bit more pop to the textures from the lab lens
6:02
than either of the two others and that became obvious as I looked at various comparisons, which by the way we'll do
6:08
at the end of the video for those of you that want to dive into all that. When I did a blind test of I did portraits with
6:15
all of those and when I just you put no information on the screen, put them side by side and went through a series of
6:22
different ones. I asked my wife which she preferred. She actually instinctively chose the Viltrox every
6:28
time. And uh and I think that there is something to that that there's just particularly when you look in at images,
6:33
you zoom in to 100% it's like, you know, it's it's very very close, but there's something about this one that just feels
6:39
very slightly better. So what about some of its deficiencies compared to the other two lenses? Number one, as you can
6:45
probably see, it is the biggest and the heaviest and and so it's you're going to pay for some of that extra optical
6:51
engineering in there with extra bulk and weight as a part of it. It also has the lowest level of magnification of the
6:57
three. It has a 0.17 times magnification. The Sigma has a 0.19
7:03
times magnification. The Sony, however, has a 0.26 times magnification, which
7:09
gives it obviously a win in that department. The Viltrox of these three lenses is also what I would call the
7:15
glitchiest. And it just has, you know, little things because Viltrox is trying new things and they are a newer at this
7:22
point. They're not new anymore, but newer lens maker. I just find that of these three, I would say that these two
7:27
are going to arrive to you very, very stable. You're not going to be worrying about firmware very much. The Viltrox,
7:33
there's been a few iterations of firmware already cuz there's just little things that that Viltrox is working to
7:38
clean up. They are good to do that. However, I would say it's the glitchiest lens of the three. So, how about reasons
7:44
to choose the Sony G Master lens? Now, it does have the disadvantage of having the smallest maximum aperture, but that
7:50
does pay off in it being a really light, compact package. And by the way,
7:55
relative to other 35mm f1.4 lenses, this still stands out as being exceptionally
8:01
small and light, particularly relative to its performance. So, just to give you an idea of that difference, it is 5 mm
8:08
narrower in diameter than the Sigma lens and a whopping 13 mm narrower than the
8:13
lab lens. It is also 15 mm shorter than the Sigma and 25 mm shorter than the
8:20
Viltrox lens. So, a pretty significant difference there. Having less size also means less weight in this instance. And
8:27
so, it weighs in at 524 g, which is 231 g lighter than the Sigma and 386 g
8:35
lighter than the Viltrox lens. And so, that's a huge difference. You're definitely going to feel the difference
8:40
in weight comparing these two lenses. and and so that could make a major difference for you. It also has the most
8:47
common 67 mm front filter threads and so those are going to be shared with a huge
8:52
variety of lenses. 72 mm on the Sigma which is definitely less common than 67
8:57
mm. And of course the big Vtrox is a 77mm filter thread. Also quite common.
9:03
However, you know, bigger bigger size, bigger filters, bigger cost when you go
9:08
to purchase them. It also has just some bakedin firstparty advantages. It's a
9:15
Sony lens designed for Sony cameras. And so, as a by byproduct, it comes with breathing compensation built in if your
9:22
camera supports that. You can get full burst speeds. And so, on my Alpha 1, I can shoot 30 frames per second. With the
9:29
other two, I can only shoot 15 frames per second. So, it's a bakedin advantage there. and and of course it's the most
9:35
stable lens because it has access to obvious access to to first-party uh
9:40
algorithms for focusing. And so that just means also when you move to an application like sports, I would say
9:46
that the Sony lens is going to give you the most reliable focus results for sports and give you the highest keeper
9:52
rates because it's designed to keep up with even the fastest of cameras from uh from Sony and thus you're going to be
9:59
able to just get that a little bit more keeper rates that you're going to take away from that. It also, as mentioned
10:04
already, it has the highest level of magnification and so it's really useful in getting up close to subjects and
10:10
getting unique shots that the others can't do to the same degree. You can see at this shot of my dad's SLR from the
10:16
Viltrox and then from the Sigma and then from the Sony that there is a
10:22
significant difference between all three with the Sony being the most useful there. So, how about some negatives?
10:27
Well, it is only f1.4 four. And number two, while it has the ability to have
10:35
focus breathing compensation, it also has the most native focus breathing of these three lenses. And so it's the
10:41
worst. It needs the correction the most. And when you correct it, that does come at a crop. And then of these three, it
10:47
is the Sigma that's the best, Viltrox second best, and then the Sony the third. But the Sony actually plays out
10:53
better than the Viltrox because it gets those corrections. It also has the worst low light potential and thus the least
10:59
bokeap potential. And I did see when you're comparing the f1.2 lenses to the f1.4 lens, you can see a difference.
11:06
It's not like, you know, make or break into the world kind of difference, but you can definitely see a difference.
11:12
Backgrounds a little bit less focused, DRD focused. They're a little bit busier relative to the f1.2 lenses. So, there
11:19
is some some real advantage for the f1.2 two lenses that is not shared by the Sony in this case.
11:26
How about reasons to choose the Sigma last of all? Well, in some situations, I felt like the Sigma had the smoothest
11:33
bokeh of them. And that was particularly true I found in foreground where there's just a little bit less jitter, a little
11:38
bit better transition. I also found that there's a little bit less real world fringing from the Sigma relative to the
11:45
other two lenses. And not that the other two are terribly bad, but definitely with the Viltrox and some with the Sony,
11:51
you are going to see a bit of fringing in some situations. Whereas the Sigma remains very, very close to neutral in
11:56
those situations. One feature that the Sigma has that the other two does not have is an iris lock. That is a useful
12:04
feature if you're a person that doesn't like aperture rings. You can lock out of it. Or if you're doing aperture racking,
12:10
for example, and you want to make sure that you don't end up in the automatic mode, it allows you to lock in in or out
12:16
of the uh the actual manual aperture ring. And that can be a really useful feature. As already discussed in the
12:22
from the negative side of the the Sony lens, this does have the lowest native focus breathing. And so if you're not,
12:29
maybe you have a camera that doesn't support focus breathing compensation and you're looking for a lens that's just
12:35
really going to do the best job in those situations, the Sigma is the winner there.
12:41
It also, I would say, of these three lenses, it is the most balanced option of the three. And what I mean by that is
12:47
that it does everything well enough that at the least it is in second place in
12:52
any of these categories. And in no way is it third place. So, it doesn't really have any huge weakness that stands out
12:58
as we're going to see in just a moment. And so, in many ways, it has the best kind of balance in its approach. It's,
13:04
you know, it's not as small as the Sony, but it's much smaller than the Vtrox. And it's just things like that to where
13:10
it's a really well executed package that shows the polish of being a second generation lens. And that leads me to my
13:18
one negative that I will say, and that is that it is the most expensive of these three lenses. And so at $1,549,
13:25
you know, that is significantly more than what the Sony is, which the Sony is
13:31
MSRP is $14.99, but because it's been out for a while, it's going to be very
13:36
often on sale. At the moment, its price is $13.99. And so obviously that's, you
13:41
know, you're talking about $150 difference at that point. In some markets around the world, I know that when a Sony lens has been out for a
13:47
while, it will be significantly cheaper than what the Sigma lens is coming out new to market. So, that could be a major
13:53
factor for you. And then obviously the Viltrox at under $1,000, it is the bargain lens here. And the Sigma is the
14:01
question is is that can I deal with a little bit of extra weight and maybe a quirk or two for $550 off? Well, for
14:08
many people, the answer to that will probably be yes. So my conclusion is is that this really was a tough comparison.
14:14
I looked at dozens of side to side photos and I had to really dive deep to find optical differences and sometimes
14:21
even having them side by side and you know analyzing them at 100% is still hard to find differences in some
14:28
situations. So I will do my best to summarize these three lenses as follows.
14:33
buy the Viltrox if your top priority is a either pure image quality and you want
14:39
the very best optically. I would say that the Viltrox is still probably represents that buy it. Also, if you're
14:46
on a tighter budget and you would like the idea of having a high-end 35mm lens,
14:51
but you don't want to spend the big bucks, the Viltrox is the best bang for
14:56
your buck optically by the Sony. if you want high performance and it is a really high
15:02
performing lens. This has been one of my absolute favorite 35mm lenses. I think for the the size that it comes in and
15:08
the performance it gives, it is an amazing lens and Sony it it still impresses me after several years of it
15:15
being out. So, buy it if you want high performance in the smallest and lightest package and you don't feel like you
15:20
really need f1.2 and not everybody does and so I think it still has a very valid
15:26
place in the market. buy the Sigma if you want what I would consider to be the best overall package and f1.2 if you
15:33
really want f1.2 and you want a stable balanced lens that is just good at
15:38
everything trustworthy I would say pick up the Sigma going to spend the most money for it but in many ways it feels
15:45
like it is very worth it. If this was on the Nikon platform and I was comparing it to the 25 or excuse me the 35mm f1.2s
15:52
2S, I would probably be saying, yeah, there's a few tiny tiny areas where the Nicor lens is better. But the Sigma at
15:59
basically half the money feels like a very compelling alternative. And it really is that lens. It's just in this
16:06
case on Sony. We don't have a first-party 35mm f1.2. If we did, I'm sure it would cost $2,200 or even more.
16:14
And so the Sigma is expensive, but for what you're getting, you're getting a lens that is competitive with the very
16:19
best and uh for less money. And so that certainly is a compelling reason to consider it. Now, if you would like more
16:27
information, I have both text and video reviews on each one of these, which I'll link in the description down below. And
16:33
if you would like to see how I came to my conclusions and look at a lot of those optical comparisons, well, knock
16:38
yourself out. We're going to dive into it together right now. Okay. There's a lot of different comparisons that I have
16:44
done. I've selected just a few of them to highlight some of the things that we're talking about. We'll start by to
16:49
taking a look at resolution and contrast across the three lenses. Now, as much as possible, I'm going to try to put the
16:54
Sigma on the left and the Viltrox or the Sony on the right. I will let you know if I do something otherwise as we move
17:01
ahead. So, here this is on all of these are on a 61 megapixel camera and this
17:06
will be 200% magnification. You can see if you compare the two that the Viltrox is definitely higher contrast in the
17:13
center of the frame and so that additional moir false color that you're getting just because the contrast is so
17:18
high even at f1.2. So the center is definitely a win for Viltrox as is the
17:24
midframe which you can see looks really really crisp on the Viltrox at f1.2. Now, if we move out to the corners, it's
17:31
a bit of give and take here. And I would say that, you know, it's hard for me to
17:36
really choose a winner on that side. If I look over at this side, I do think that the Viltrox is showing a little bit
17:42
better contrast. If we look up into this corner, I would say Viltrox is taking the win there. So, since the Viltrox is
17:49
the winner, we're going to put it here on the left and put the GM here on the
17:55
right. And so, both of these are wide open. And so, that means F1.2 2 for the Viltrox, F1.4 for the GM. Now, in the
18:01
center of the frame, the GM is right there matching the Viltrox, maybe even exceeding it in the depth of the
18:07
contrast. Looks really exceptional. In the mid-frame, it is closer to a draw
18:13
here. And I would say the Viltrox may very slightly be a winner, but contrast
18:18
level is fantastic on the Sony lens. Looks really, really great. Now, if we move out to the corners in this zone,
18:24
there's a little bit more detail as you can see on the Viltrox. And as we pan out towards the the extreme edge, I
18:31
would say the Sony maybe gets a little bit back there. So towards the corners, there's a bit of give and take. Popping
18:36
over to the left side and there's a little bit more detail on this left side for the Viltrox lens. The upper left
18:43
corner, it's close, but there's more clarity for the Viltrox lens. It is the
18:49
clear winner in terms of wide open performance. But we'll give a rematch to the Sigma and the Viltrox and then the
18:55
Sony afterward. But starting with the two third party lenses at f2. So stop
19:00
down a bit. How are things shaking out? Well, we can see that the Sigma looks amazing, but the Viltrox, I mean, the
19:08
contrast level is just kind of popping right off the page. And so it still is the winner in the center of the frame.
19:14
As we look here at contrast, I mean, that contrast looks fabulous on both lenses. And so I would say here in the
19:20
mid-frame, I think clarity-wise, there's a very slight edge for the Viltrox. You can see here in this um bunk to Canada
19:27
uh you can see here that it's a little bit crisper looking there. But uh down here in the corners uh corners are
19:34
looking really awesome for both of them. You I wouldn't call really much of a winner on the lower right side. Here on
19:41
the left side I think that the U Vtrox gives a little bit of a win there. If
19:46
you look at the hair just the contrast is really fantastic for the Viltrox
19:51
there. And up in the corner, there's no question. Definitely the Viltrox is stronger up here in the upper left
19:57
corner. So once again, since the Viltrox took the overall win there, we'll put it up against the GM now also at f2. So in
20:05
the center of the frame, both lenses look fantastic, but clearly the from the degree of moir we're seeing there, it
20:11
lets you know that the contrast level for the Viltrox is just higher still. And so it's really doing a great job
20:17
though. Both lenses, I mean, all three lenses look amazing. This is splitting hairs really. The mid-frame here, I
20:23
think actually the Sony takes a bit of a win there. It's looking really really crisp uh in that mid-frame zone down
20:30
into the corners. It's um again, it's it's it's a little more complicated in
20:35
the corners. There is some give and take in the different things that I see. Contrast levels are really good for the
20:41
Sony in the corner. However, the raw detail looks maybe a little bit crisper for the uh the Viltrox lens over here on
20:49
the left side. Kind of a similar pattern. Uh I would say that the Viltrox shows a little bit more contrast and
20:55
clarity like in the hair. And then just this overall pattern of the ink droplets stands out a little bit better there.
21:02
And to the upper left corner, we can see that both of them look good, but the Viltrox looks better. So overall, in
21:08
terms of raw sharpness, Viltrox is the winner. Now, if we go out into a and
21:13
take a three-dimensional subject here, we can see that if we punch in, and this
21:19
is still at 200% magnification, so it's an almost unfair amount of magnification. However, it allows you to
21:26
really get in here and look tight. And you can see that while both of them are giving really amazing levels of detail,
21:32
that micro contrast does favor the Viltrox. You can just see more definition in those textures. There's
21:38
not even a hint of any kind of like spherical haze on the surface of the textures, whereas there is a tiny tiny
21:44
bit on the Sigma. Now, if we look beyond that here at f1.2, looking at the
21:49
overall rendering from the image, I find that with the the Sigma and the Viltrox,
21:55
it there is some give and take kind of depending on what I'm shooting. In this particular instance, I feel like if I
22:00
look at this zone, the Viltrox feels a little bit smoother in the out of focus rendering. it's just a little bit
22:06
softer, a little bit creamier looking. However, you can look at other places and that's maybe less true. I do also
22:13
notice that for whatever reason, probably just a slight variance between the two when it comes to maybe the focal
22:20
length, it feels like the these out of focus um highlights here, bokeh
22:26
highlights are just a little bit bigger and maybe just a tiny bit softer from the Viltrox lens. And so in this
22:32
particular instance, I would say that the Viltrox manages to win both on micro contrast, but then also in the overall
22:38
rendering from the image itself. So once again, if we go back now and we compare with the Sony, which the Sony does have
22:46
the disadvantage in this particular comparison of being f1.4. Now, if we look towards that micro
22:52
contrast here in the center of the frame, you can definitely tell a win for the Viltrox. And again, it's a really
22:58
high level of magnification, but you can see that just that micro contrast on a threedimensional subject, there's no
23:03
question that the Viltrox is the winner. And in this case, the GM is not as good as what the Sigma was. So then, of
23:10
course, that bigger advantage comes with the overall rendering where the F1.2 lens, you can just see if we look at the
23:16
Sony lens here on the right, everything is just a little bit more in focus, thus just a little bit more edges to catch
23:22
your eye, whereas the F1.2 two image looks softer and creamier and just a
23:28
little bit more visually pleasing. Let's take a look at another micro contrast example here. Again, f1.2 and at 200%
23:35
magnification. You can see that while the Sigma is good, the Viltrox is clearly better. Now, there is an area
23:42
where Sigma is going to wins in these comparisons, and that is that you can see around some of this that there's
23:48
very little fringing, whereas you will see a bit of green fringing on the Viltrox lens that does show up later on.
23:53
But in terms of being able to deliver that micro contrast of giving great contrast on very small textures, it's
24:01
able to resolve those a little bit better than what the Sigma does. Now, in this image here, I would say that
24:07
looking at bokeh rendering, I do kind of just visually favor the Viltrox. Overall, both of them are exhibiting, as
24:13
you can see, some fairly strong vignette that is uncorrected here at the moment. And so, that does detract from the image
24:19
a bit. When you look over here at kind of just the basic geometry between the two, they really don't look a lot
24:25
different other than the fact that I would say that these shapes are maybe just a little bit rounder on the Viltrox
24:32
as opposed to the Sigma. So, if we sh throw the GM lens into the mix here on
24:37
the right, one thing that you will notice is that there's a pretty obvious difference in the shutter speed versus
24:43
so 125th of a second for the GM at f1.4 four and then 1/200th of a second for
24:49
the Viltrox. And so there's also this underlying advantage when it comes to the, you know, just basic amount of
24:56
light gathering potential of the F1.2 lens. And in this particular case, it's pretty clear that the Viltrox has the
25:01
edge and micro contrast in a really obvious way over the GM. And we saw that
25:07
on our previous comparison as well. It's just not able to give the same level of pop to textures as what the Viltrox is.
25:14
And then of course here in this case, all of those specular highlights are going to be obviously bigger and softer
25:20
on the Viltrox. And you can see looking at the even down in this zone here that it's just just softer and more kind of
25:28
uniform. There's a little bit more disruption in the Sony, a little more variation because it's not as defocused.
25:35
So so far the Viltrox seems to be cleaning up. However, we're going to get to some spaces where it doesn't able to
25:43
succeed quite on the same level. So when it comes to minimum focus distance, you can see that its maximum magnification
25:48
level is significantly lower than what the Sigma's in is. And so that means as
25:53
you can see here in this case, the specular highlights for the Sigma are much bigger and softer than what they
26:00
are from the Viltrox lens. What's more, if we take a look in at a like a a high
26:06
magnification level, we can see that while the Viltrox is great at that micro contrast, as we've already seen, it's
26:13
not as great at controlling fringing. And as we look towards these areas here, you can see that green fringing that is
26:19
marring some of the textures, whereas the Sigma does a really great job of controlling that. And so in this area,
26:25
there's two places where the Sigma takes a win over the Viltrox lens. So in this
26:30
case, we'll eliminate the Viltrox lens and throw the GM in. Now, one area of advantage for the GM lens becomes
26:37
obvious. It has the highest level of magnification, and that is by a pretty good margin. In this case, 0.26 versus
26:43
0.19 versus 0.17 for the Viltrox. When we
26:48
take a look at the fringing situation, it's a little bit closer a comparison
26:53
here. We can see that as we look towards these defocused areas, the GM has a very
27:01
very slight green tinge there. Whereas the uh Sigma lens is really really
27:06
neutral and so it's very very well corrected. And in this case, the largest specular highlights do come from the the
27:13
Sony lens because of the higher magnification, but you can see it is not by much of a margin. It's actually quite
27:19
close and the difference is made up from the Sigma lens because of having that faster maximum aperture and so um you
27:26
know some give and take here but a definite win for the Sony when it comes to magnification. Now this next
27:31
comparison it becomes a a little bit surprising considering the fact that the Viltrox does have worse fringing because
27:38
in many ways often it's fringing that reduces the amount of contrast that a a
27:44
lens is able to produce. And so here what we have is a different kind of situation where you have really bright
27:50
um shiny surfaces that are almost on the verge of blowing out. And you see if you look in these textures that the Viltrox
27:58
is got some purple fringing showing up in those really high contrast areas. You would think that that would actually
28:04
reduce the overall contrast, micro contrast, but as you can see, the opposite is actually true here where the
28:10
Viltrox continues to be the winner when it comes to the just the degree of contrast and thus the information you're
28:17
able to get off of like the the weave of that pillow cover there. Also, in this
28:22
case, we have got, you know, harsh light and harsh shadows. And you can just see the different ways that the two lenses
28:28
handle that. So, an interesting comparison there. Now, if we throw the Sony into this this situation, you can
28:34
see that it it is a little bit closer. It's not quite as good as the Viltrox in terms of contrast. It is a little bit
28:40
better, but you can see in this situation, it's got equal levels of that, if not more, of that purple
28:45
fringing and that really high contrast zone. And so, in this case, definitely the Sigma continues to win for
28:51
controlling all of that. You can also see just the overall general contrast. I would say in this case the variance
28:58
between the lights and the shadows are uh better on the Vtrox than what they
29:03
are on the Sony lens. So it's not just a matter of the micro contrast, but the general contrast does slightly favor the
29:10
Viltrox lens. Now I've pointed out a situation or two where I felt like the Viltrox had a win in terms of the
29:17
overall contrast. So at close focus distances and where backgrounds are more strongly defocused, I think the Viltrox
29:22
takes a win. However, here when you're a little bit further away, I don't know that that advantage continues. In many
29:29
ways, I think it's kind of hard to parse out a winner between these two. Look at
29:34
the foreground level of blur. It looks nice from both lenses. And if you look towards the background, you know, with
29:41
these various layers of defocus, they really are more similar than different.
29:46
I do feel in this case the superior contrast of the Viltrox lens actually
29:51
produces a slightly less creamy background. And so in this kind of shot, if I were to just instinctively choose a
29:58
winner, I would actually choose the Sigma's defocus a little bit over that of the Viltrox. So in this case, I'll
30:04
put the GM up against the uh the Sigma lens. And if we look here, you can tell
30:09
if you look at this area of the background, the F1 one.2 lens is going to win every time over the F1.4 four
30:15
lens. I actually think that the bokeh quality from the the Sony lens is nice and I've always thought that, but I do
30:22
think that the Sigma is a very slight winner here. Thus, it is the overall winner in this particular kind of
30:28
scenario. So, finally, what about portraits? And so, if we try to recreate similar type settings again and again,
30:35
what I find is a couple of things. First of all, when it comes to the sheer amount of detail, both of these f1.2
30:43
lenses, even at f1.2, two are fabulous. The Viltrox um in in just a lot of
30:48
head-to-head comparisons, I've got dozens of these that I've looked at very often. That little bit of extra micro
30:54
contrast I do feel produces a little bit more pop around eyes than what the Sigma
31:00
does, but you probably wouldn't notice that unless you had them side by side. In this particular scenario, I felt like
31:07
the there was just a little bit more busyness for the Viltrox in this transition zone right here. I see I've
31:13
also got a cat that's going underneath my leg at that point. But you can see here that the Sigma comes across as just
31:19
a little bit softer there. And then as I looked at this, it's very very close, but I felt like the softness from the
31:26
Sigma was a little bit better than what the Viltrox lens uh looked like. Looking
31:31
at them as a whole. However, as I mentioned, when I did a lot of blind test, my wife basically every time chose
31:38
the Viltrox lens, and I think it has a lot to do with just the optical glass. I think the richness of the color is maybe
31:44
very slightly better from the Viltrox lens. So, if we throw the GM lens there
31:49
instead, again, this is f1 uh 2 versus f1.4, we can see that I would say in
31:56
this case, I actually feel like again around the eyes, I like the GM just a little bit better than what I do the
32:03
Sigma lens. And so, in terms of contrast on uh portrait subjects, I would say I favor the other two lenses over the
32:10
Sigma. However, very clearly here, you've got almost like a soap bubble effect from the GM lens, whereas you
32:17
have a much in my at least in my mind, a much more pleasing defocus background from the Sigma. So, I actually like all
32:23
three of these as portrait lenses, but there is some give and take in terms of their strengths. And as you can see,
32:29
that's pretty true of these lenses generally. They're exceptionally good. However, there are areas of strength and
32:34
weakness for each one. So, thanks for sticking around until the very end. And I hope that this deep dive into these
32:40
three lenses has helped you to determine which one is the most intriguing for you. As always, thanks for watching.
32:47
Have a great day and let the light in. [Music]
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