Crossing the pond with the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art Lens.
- drwhite75
- 2 days ago
- 10 min read
Small, lightweight & easy for all day use, this lens came with me across the Colorado plains all the way to Portugal's southern coast. The lens has helped me capture abandoned buildings, our breathtaking heavens and the amazing Algarve coastline. Before we dive into the images and details, let's take a look at the design & specs of the lens.
Key Features
Full Frame | f/1.2 to f/16
Fast Wide-Angle Prime Lens
HLA-Driven High-Speed AF Motor
Rounded 11-Blade Diaphragm
Aperture Ring, Focus Mode Switch
4 Aspherical Elements, 1 SLD Element
Minimum Focusing Distance: 11.1"
Water- & Oil-Repellent Coating
Dust- & Splash-Resistant Construction
Weight - 26.5 oz
Precision Optical Design
Sigma combines four double-sided aspherical elements and one Special Low Dispersion (SLD) element to ensure clarity from wide open at f/1.2 through the rest of the aperture range while reducing the lens size.
A total of 17 elements in 13 groups, as well as an 11-blade rounded diaphragm for expressive bokeh, resist optical aberrations including color bleeding and double lines even at f/1.2.
Special effort has been taken to develop backlight resistance, minimizing potential lens flare and ghosting.
Real World Experience -
Excited to have the opportunity to use a 1.2 lens that's new and up to date. The last time I used a 1.2 lens was back in the film days and they didn't hold corner sharpness very well at all. Wouldn't even think about shooting the night sky with them in hopes of getting good images...
With a new lens on a camera with newer tech, I smiled each time I came across a scene that worked well with this lens. The main goal of my time with the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens was to shoot it at its max f stop, 1.2. In doing so I found a razor thin focal plane when the subject was close, I found great isolation of subjects at a medium distance and beautiful edge to edge sharpness when the subject was out in the distance.
My main purpose with this lens was to use it for astrophotography, shooting the night sky. I ran into more cloudy nights than I hoped for, but I also found several nights that were clear to make some images. The image above shows nice isolation of the tree as the starry sky behind falls softly out of focus. The tree was about 15ft from my camera and at 1.2 it still allowed the backgrouond to become soft, not unrecognizable.
Now, using the same F/Stop of 1.2 I foucused out on the old church which was about 100 ft away. Keeping some of the grasses in the foreground allowed them to blur out because of the shallow depth of field. Both the stars and church are sharp and the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens does a fantastic job of capturing the details of our Milky Way.
This lens has a unique way of capturing light that we can't see with our eyes. Combining the power of the 1.2 F/Stop with the newer sensors in todays cameras really enhances the shooting experience at night. This image of the old church and Milky Way was captured under a super dark night sky with no moon or additional lights. Only starlight was illuminating the scene.
I was very curious to see how well the lens would do when shooting a time-lapse of the Milky Way rising over an old windlmill. Below you will see the time-lapse as well as the single frame from the time-lapse. At 13 seconds in the time-lapse you will see a nice shooting star to the upper left of the windmill that leaves a smoke trail as it burns up in our atmosphere!
Even under the darkest skies, the lens is a breeze to focus. You can do this a couple ways.
You can find a bright stars or light way off in the distance and using auto focus and then once you have your focus confirmed, you can switch the camera to manual focus.
You can use the LCD screen and manually focus on a star until it because as small as possible. The large 1.2 f stop really lets the light come in and makes this super easy.
None of images I'm sharing took more than 10 seconds to get focused.
As someone who loves the Sigma 28mm 1.4 Art for Milky Way photography, I was looking forward to seeing the difference 7mm would make. I use my Sigma 28mm 1.4 Art lens on my Nikon D850 & the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art on my Sony A7r4 and shot the below images at the same time!
Image 1 - Nikon D850 & Sigma 28mm 1.4 Art - The Nikon is modified for astrophotography.
Image 2 - Sony A7r4 & Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art - The Sony is not modified for astrophotography
I really love how the Sigma 35mm 1.2 brings the Milky Way a little closer, allowing you to capture the entire core without cutting off any of the important parts. It also picks up a few more of the dimmer stars. As somone who came from shooting the Milky Way at 14mm & 20mm, I fell in love with the 28mm and now the 35mm. The Sigma 35mm 1.2 holds great detail throughout the entire image, making it an ideal choice for night sky photography.
With Orion being one of my favorite night sky constellations (and probably yours too) I couldn't pass up the chance to get a shot just after the sunset and the stars came out.
Driving to another location one evening I found these silos with Orion overhead.
From Wikipedia -
Sirius (the bright star on the left) is the brightest star in the night sky, located in the southern constellation of Canis Major. Its name is derived from the Greek word Σείριος (Latin script: Seirios; lit. 'glowing' or 'scorching’).
Sirius lives up to its name, specially in the super dark skies of Eastern Colorado.
Finishing off my time shooting the night sky, I made one last trip out to a place is southern Colorado that's known for it's dark skies. Even though there is a small town nearby, it's not big enough to give off any observable light at night that would impair our vision to the stars.
This scene was one I knew I wanted to shoot correctly for the best possible image quality. With the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art I had a couple options. I could have shot it at 6400 for 4 seconds or 3200 8 seconds. Knowing I had a max time of 14 seconds before the stars started to move during the exposure I felt I was very safe at 8 seconds at a lower ISO.
Often times I'll tell people to shoot at the higher ISO and shorther exposure time because the stacking will cancel out any additional noise. Having a 1.2 lens really gives some flexibilty that 2.8 or F/4 lenses dont offer when it comes to keeping your shutter speed fast.
This was the final image I made at night with the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens. Everything you see here was all captured in camera, no filters. The soft diffused stars are from the cloud cover near the horizon. The highly detailed stars are from the precice focus the lens offers. The light and dark "veins" of the Milky Way are so beautiful to admire.
Without a doubt this lens will continue to find itself under the dark, starry skies wherever my travels take me.
Before we take off for Portugal - Let's take a look
Before I left for Portugal I joined the local "Lone Tree Photoclub" for a photowalk around downtown Denver. I knew the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens would be fun to use. What I didn't realize, or should I say, think about was the bright sun with a F stop of 1.2. Even at my lowest ISO of 50 I had to use my max shutter speed of 1/8000th second to keep all the highlights in check. I know there are some newer cameras that have faster shutter speeds. I know the Nikon Z8 has a max shutter speed of 1/32000th second and a lower ISO of 32 as well. The combo would work much better for a lens of this caliber. This image was taken more towards later afternoon. Had it been in the middle of the day, the images night not have fared as well at F/1.2.
On our way back to our cars we met this colorful lady who was more than willing to pose for us as we gathered around took her portrait. Being about 7ft from her, I focused on face and let the hands and lap fall off into a soft blur. I'd love to find some models to shoot with this lens and really see the amazing images it can do with it's razor thin focal plane at F/1.2
Let's go to Portugal -
Portugal is filled with steps and stairs leading to various destinations. While we did a lot of walking up and down stairs, this image really has nothing to do with that. This is a hike we did over a canyon but the sole purpose of this image is to show you the edge to edge, corner to corner sharpness of the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art. Sometimes images of daily life, not astrophotography, are better to showcase the true sharpness and details this lens achieves at F/1.2.
Imagine if the images are this sharp at F/1.2, how sharp they would be when the lens is stopped down a bit and you're closer to your subject...
This amazing location was close to our hotel so it was one I visited severl times. Super late evening, just before dark while the colors hung on a little longer. I was able to get the details of the water as the color reflected from the sky. The jagged rocks were perfect for showcasing the amazing sharpness and details the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens can capture.
I couldn't help myself when I saw all these snails on the rocks by one of the lighthouses we visited. Being super careful not to lay on any of them, I got down super low with the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens and used the snail to showcase the super thin focal plane. I manually focused this image to make sure the focus was on the center point of the snail shell. I can see this thin focal plane being used for all kinds of subjects that anyone shoots.
Portugal is known for a few different products and pottery is one of them. This storefront or pottery making place was along one of the roads we traveled near Villa Do Bipso. The pottery on the exterior was so intriquing that I had to stop and take a few images. The Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art really did a fantastic job even at 1.2 (top image) getting all the dishes in beautiful focus.
If you're looking for something a bit more creative with the 1.2 F stop, you can always toss on a 72mm ND filter and shoot wide open. This gives you the long exposure water with a tilt shift like feel to the image. Focusing on the top of the closest sea stack, this provided sharp details from the point of focus all the way to the home on the hill.
Walking through some of the old towns, I was looking for small scenes with lots of detail.
The Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art does an incredible job of capturing the details & textures of most any scene. This green door caught my eye instantly and without anyone else around I knew I had time to shoot it properly. The lens doesn't have OS so I relied on the image stabilization in the camera to capture this image at 1/30th second without a tripod.
Who could travel to Portugal without trying some of their coffee. After walking around one of the towns we decided to find a small coffee shop and relax for a while. We enjoyed outside seating and were able to people watch as cars tried to navigate the small streets that people were walking on. After a few sips of my coffee I noticed the rings on the inside of the cup and thought it would make a neat photo. I didn't spend more than a min or so snapping pictures. I enjoyed the way this one came out. Using the 1.2 F/stop and focusing on the backside of the cup.
Having this lens with me was a great way to expand how I normally shoot and help me to think a little more outside the box. I can't post all the images from my travels with this lens but I hope these show you some of the cool things this lens can do.
The Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG II Art lens was fantastic to shoot with!
Images were tack sharp where intended
Beautiful Bokeh when shooting wide open
Easy to travel with even though it's a F/1.2
Light enough to carry all day
Fun, creative options for shooting wide open
Edge to edge / Corner to corner sharpness
Great for Astro or Travel photography
Manual or auto aperture ring - shoot how you wish.
Thinking about how I used the lens, how do you think you could incorporate this lens into your style of shooting?
Keep an eye on my social media channels to see more images as time allows
If you have this lens, I'd love to see some of the images you're getting with it.
Thanks,
Darren
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