I had the exact same dilemma. I ended up selling the GM even though I love it, as the weight and size of the Sigma are amazing over a long wedding day.
@@AOJOPhotography 100%. For wedding days, size and weight are a significant factor. To me, the 85 DG DN delivers everything the 85GM can, with the notable exception of distortion (which is terrible on the Sigma). I simply correct for distortion in post when necessary, and enjoy the permanent size/weight savings. I think an 85GM v2 is imminent within 12-18 months, but there's no guarantee Sony will choose the same sacrifices that Sigma has.
Wes, thanks so much for putting in so much personal vibe and what seems to be valuable real working experience to this comparison. I like that you share your pain as well as your passion. That seems to have been my experience with so much equipment during the years, so many woohoo moments follow by wtf is this thing doing and why moments. Gear will give and it will confuse us. The Sony 85 f1.8 has been so lovely to me for so long, and maybe the Sigma can be a better fit, maybe. Thanks again.
I used to own the 85 GM. I started to feel like it was old technology. It's slower and louder than most newer lenses. I sold it and used the money to upgrade my camera and had money left so I bought the Viltrox 85 STM II. I have to say, the Viltrox is legit and I don't miss the GM at all.
I think the 85GM is my favourite 85mm i've ever used even after shooting canon and nikon so good to see sigma's new 85mm is amazing and much lighter than before. I'd be worried that I'd sell the GM and then not get as much meaning the cost to change would be some money rather than a free swap. For now i'll stick with the GM and try and borrow my mates used 85mm sigma
I'm going for the Sigma. Although- and to its credit- I still think the 85mm 1.4 GM has a slight advantage in the OOF areas. I've sold my 85mm 1.8 (Twice) because even though it's a great lens, I just don't care for the bokeh. The Sigma seems to correct that issue with the bonus of pretty damn good AF from what I've read. I'm in...
Very timely for me Wes as I've just asked for a trade in price against my Sony 85mm 1.8. The 1.8 has been on my camera once but I don't like the purple fringing! Thanks for all the testing you do to help people like me.👍
@@cow77cow hey! I went with the sigma 85 1.4. It takes phenomenal portraits. My 2 cents are if you primarily take portraits, than get the 85, but if you want to take a wider range of landscapes and indoor sports, go with the tamron 🤙🏽
I have had the Batis 85/1.8 for some years, I like it, but when they recently had the Sigma 85/1.4 DN on a campaign I couldn't resist to pick one up. Haven't tested it enough to say much other than the obvious. Will see when I get a chance to actually shot some portraits with it if I can sell the Batis.
@@fauzanjamahat1 We have had cloudy skies and rain since end of November plus social distancing so haven't had any possibility to test it out enough yet.
Hi Wes Ricky here.. We already talked about these two.. I love the GM because of the creamy dreamy lens it is.. The Sigma I feel is very Clinical.. I love the out of focus area on the GM more and think it's more flattering for portraits. The Sigma is a great lens with nice AF That's better than the GM but is the AF worth giving up on the things I love on the GM? I still need an 85 an it is killing me that I just don't know what to do. If sony would bring out a new 85mm 1.4 GM that would be a winner for me and I would pay 600$ more since it would hold it's value better and Normally you buy a lens that lasts for a long time.. Sigma lenses like Tamron lenses often have dust problems and Sony are less prone to that.. Okay now that I wrote all this I think I will wait 6-8 months and see what sony does.. Please sony give us a fantastic 85mm 1.4 like the 135mm GM lens for less thean 1800$
So, my friend... I purchased the Sigma and just sold my GMaster. Your video makes me smile. Soooo excited about my 85mm future. Great video, Wes. What have you decided to do?
I sold GM85 and bought Sigma 85DG DN-, it's colors, sharpness wide open is miles away from Sony, it's much sharper with a lot more contrast, pop color, like edited in PS. Amazing lens. Sharpness in the center is awesome, mid area is great, corner sharpness is not that good. I cant decide between Sigma 85 and GM135,,,GM 135 is harder to use, due to focal lenght and F1.8, it requires better handling and much faster shutter speeds to have tack sharp photos. GM135 's extreme corners are almost as sharp as center , amazing piece of glass.I'm in love with both lenses, wish sigma had close focus distance like GM135.
I hadn’t heard anything about that one. Is it “official”? I don’t see how it could be anything but bigger...hopefully it’s not based on their old design and is rebuilt like the 85. At longer focal lengths there’s only so much you can do to make a lens smaller, though.
Although I haven’t used the Samyang, I have looked at a lot of files and videos. The Sigma is undoubtably sharper and much faster/more reliable for AF.
Thanks for the great review! Believe it or not: I'm also undecided and currently have both lenses at home. Probably I'll sell the 85mm G-Master since the Sigma is smaller and sharper with almost as good bokeh. The only thing that really annoys me is the distortion of the Sigma and that there is no Lightroom / Capture One lens profile for it yet. But I hope this is just a question of time.
Thanks for the review - I own the Sony 85 1.8 and later bought the Samyang 1.4 ... I like it thus far so not sure I'd buy the Sigma yet. My advise for you - Sell the GM :) BTW - In the table you you displayed for the scores , I saw you gave the 135 GM auto focus a score of 8 , although you praised it in the video..... got me a little confused :)
Yeah, autofocus is a very tricky thing that I have to oversimplify in my explanations, or else spend a whole video on. I mentioned in the 135GM video that I took issue with everyone comparing that lens’ AF to EVERY lens, saying it was the best ever. Which I felt put me in the uncomfortable situation of having to do the same...when it in fact doesn’t compare favourably to a lot of lenses designed specifically for sports and fast AF. Additionally, it gets dicey with fast moving subjects that are near to the camera. BUT, when it does work, it focuses faster, snappier than any other portrait lens I’ve used. However, I found the Sigma to be more effortless and more consistent, less situation dependent, even if it doesn’t drive from far to near as quickly as the 135. Additionally, in my scoring of the Sigma, I’m only comparing it to other portrait lenses, not sport lenses, as I didn’t notice anyone else doing any such thing. There’s just too much to account for, and it’s simply not possible to make a score in a vacuum. Very tricky.
For the money, I feel the Sony 85mm f/1.8 is really hard to beat. No it’s not an f/1.4, but the difference is small. Your clients won’t know the difference. And as a wedding photographer that has to carry that lens around all day, I’ll bet your back will be able to tell the difference. Just my opinion.
If I wanted to save a buck (and some weight) on an 85, I’d sooner go with the Viltrox 85. As much as people say “your client can’t tell”, I really don’t like the look for the Sony 85 1.8. It’s very dry, swirly, bokeh breaks into footballs just barely off center, often creating a whirling pattern or just nervous background. The Viltrox, though not quite as sharp, has a Much more pleasing look to it.
Wes if you didn’t already have a 85mm lens which one would you choose now, Sony 85mm F/1.4 or Sigma 85mm F/1.4? The price is approximately the same if you buy a used Sony.
Dont sell it. I dont know the Sigma, only out of reviews. But I have a feeling, character is better on the GM :) And I also truly love the GM, so it frustrated me a lot. But the images I get out of it ... man, so dreamy, when the focus is set
I agree with you, I never shot with sigma or sony 85mm , always had batis 85 but I have used and owned sigma 24-70f2.8 and gm 24-70 and found gm 24-70 is far more superior when it comes to character and image rendering. It has some sort of 3d pop, I dont know how to explain. But these gm leses are designed beautifully where as sigma was extra sharp and the images were flat. So I returned my sigma and kept 24-70.
I’m in the same boat Wes. I have the 85GM and love it but get frustrated with the autofocus as well. Debating whether to sell it to get this Sigma. What did you end up deciding to do?!
I had GM85 as well,,, i was not happy with sharpness at F1.4 and contrast seems a bit low to me, before selling it, i got Sigma 85DG DN, man it'z crazy sharp at F1.4 comparing to GM, i never any close results with GM comparing to Sigma shots. Contrast, it's sky rocketed with Sigma. Only two negatives with sigma, huge pincussion distortion, it can be fixed without hurting resolution but it's huge without corrections applied, also sharpness at extreme corners are just mehhhh, center - mid center circle is awesome sharp where you generally put portraits eyes, out of mid-center area, sharpnes drops . Other than these two things, i wish it had close focusing distance..
Have the Sigma 85 1.4 DG DN and tested on A7R III and A7 III ... AF is very inconsistent, especially in low light and with backlight. Can't get the eyes focused most of the time, even if the lens has already focused on the subject it never stops hunting and micro-adjusting. When stopping down to 2.8 and lower, the Autofocus becomes even more unusable in Low light and with backlight.
That’s very strange. On the a7iii I found the Af In low light to be wildly superior to the 85GM...I don’t think there are any firmware updates available for it yet...
@@WesPerry only in the shop for testing and was tending towards actually getting it if the Sigma 85 wasnt just around the corner. So I waited for the Sigma to arrive and tested it as well in the shop, didnt see any issues at the time but when I had it at home and went shooting with it, AF quickly turned out to be unreliable. But i dont see anyone else complaining so im probably just very unlucky
Might sell my Samyang for this! Gmaster refresh may compete better but for my business I need something for when I can't control the subject like kids!!!
Yeah, the Samyang is a bit hard to justify now that this exists. It’s more expensive yeah, but So much better. They really knocked this one out of the park n
I feel like the Batis is more than a little obsolete with the release of this lens. 😬 I know, there are many who swear by it, but it’s a really tough sell now!
a9. Had to be sure. ;) In all the focus comparisons I was swapping them back and forth on the a9, which was annoying but necessary. For the flare and bokeh comparisons I just had one on the a9 and one on the a7iii.
@@WesPerry thanks! I knew you’re that type of person who would make sure to test it out with all conditions/bodies available (i would too), while most people out there only test it in a perfectly lit portrait session.so far only you and dustin abbott who provides us with fast moving subject AF test with portrait lens which i really appreciate it ;)
thanks! I think it's very important to have photoshoots in 'uncontrolled circumstances' while testing things. When we RU-vidrs do nothing but RU-vid and arrange/plan our own shoots that will yield the best possible results, we essentially remove all the elements that truly create a make or break situation for photography equipment. If I don't have a professional (paid client work) shoot that I can use gear I'm testing on, I purposefully arrange shoots that I think will stress the boundaries of what the gear is actually capable of. With the shoot in the woods, the concept I gave the model was "I'm gonna shoot into the sun with a busy background and get lens flares." Thankfully she was still up for it. haha. Unfortunately the 24GM didn't fare nearly as well in that test (a lens that most have called essentially perfect). It's too easy to lose sight of why we do this!
@@WesPerry that’s exactly what i thought! And i agree with that 24mm GM.i tested it but found it didnt live up to it reputation as many has called.and i almost sold my 70-200gm for the 135mm GM since everyone said it focus faster and better.but then i saw your review and it got me rethink and decided not to.thanks for always keeping it real Wes!
You and a lot of other people 😏 But many big ticket devices/lenses got shelves due to production backups in the past two years. Nothing is happening when people expected these days.
Great review. But didn't help me at all LOL. I'm an early FE shooter so I had to make due with the 90 macro for about a year til the Batis came out. Then I ended up selling the Batis for the GM... and then I also got the Sony 1.8 to have a light weight option. Now comes the DG DN Art... and I'm stuck. The GM 85 may just be one of the last great "character" lenses. GM's have become so "perfect" that "perfection" becomes their only character. Some of my all time favorite portraits have been with the 85GM and so even though the Art seems like an obvious choice being lighter, cheaper, faster and sharper I don't know if I will get the same wow factor that I get with the GM. One of the hardest choices I've had to make. Maybe I'll just wait for the GM II. Which, who knows... might just be an 85mm f/1.2.
I would 100% recommend the Sigma 85 DN for a portrait lens. I’m not familiar enough with their 24-70 though (I rarely shoot zooms, and haven’t used that one).
If you’re talking about the old 85 art, that one doesn’t behave very well on Sony mirrorless, especially in low light. This one focuses phenomenally well.
I didn’t compare them directly, but I would say that the 135 has better flare resistance, sharper corners (not sure if it’s sharper in the middle. It would be close), and of course lets you get a little closer.
Constantly confused as to why youtubers sit down/appear in front of the camera, that they have themselves set up and turned on, and say 'oh, hey!' as if it's a surprise...