Sony and Panasonic have never made an 85mm F1.2, so if you film on a Sony or a Lumix camera and wanted that look with autofocus, you were out of luck until now. The new Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG Art is gorgeous, the autofocus holds up even wide open at F1.2, it’s lighter than the Canon and the Nikon, and there is exactly one reason you might not want to buy it.
Sony Won’t Make An 85mm F1.2, So Sigma Did
Canon has one, Nikon has one, but Sony and Panasonic don’t. And this is the lens that gives you the look where someone’s eyeball is in focus, but their eyelashes aren’t.
I have personally been waiting a long time for this lens, because two years ago I reviewed Sony’s 85mm F1.4 GM II and I literally titled it “Sony’s new 85mm is stellar… I just wish it was F1.2!” Well, Sony didn’t listen, but apparently Sigma did!
I tested the Sony E-mount version, and I’m judging it from the perspective of a wedding filmmaker: is it a good choice for you to buy?
For the sake of ethics, I want you to know this review is not paid or sponsored by Sigma, but they did loan me this lens so I could make it. They had zero input on the review, and by the time you read this I will sadly have already sent it back to them.
Build Quality: Sigma At Its Best
For build quality, this lens is right up there with all of Sigma’s newer premium lenses, AKA it is excellent. You get all of the bells and whistles:
- Custom buttons
- A switch for autofocus and manual focus
- An aperture ring that can be made clickless with a switch on the side
And honestly, that’s not what you care about. It’s not what I care about either. You want to know how pretty this lens is, and whether it can give you that butterflies in your stomach feeling you only get from an F1.2 lens.
That F1.2 Bokeh Is UNREAL
So forget F2.8, forget F1.4, you want extreme levels of bokeh. Like I said, eyeball in focus, eyelashes not. I’m happy to tell you that this lens gives it to you! It feels so good to film with, and it looks amazing.
Autofocus Holds Up Wide Open
And here’s the even better news. Even at F1.2, the autofocus is still incredibly fast and accurate, which is not a given on a lens with this much glass moving around inside of it.
Lighter Than Canon And Nikon
It’s also relatively lightweight compared to the competition, at only 905 grams for both the Sony and L-mount versions. That’s a good bit less than the 1,195 grams of Canon’s RF 85mm F1.2 L USM and the 1,160 grams of the Nikon NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S.
So whenever you’re filming a ceremony handheld, your arms are still probably gonna shake, but they’re gonna thank you just a little bit.
Focus Breathing Isn’t A Dealbreaker
In short, I really have no complaints about this lens. There is a little bit of focus breathing, but it isn’t that bad.
Keep in mind that because this is a third-party lens, you can’t turn on Sony’s breathing compensation like you can with a GM lens. But in my experience, an 85mm isn’t the kind of lens you’re gonna be doing a lot of heavy rack focusing with anyways, because it’s so tight. So I wouldn’t stress about focus breathing.
The Bigger 82mm Filter Thread
The other small thing to note is that the filter thread on the front is 82mm. So if you’re like me and you live on a variable ND filter at weddings, budget for the bigger, more expensive filter size, or grab a step-up ring. If you’ve never used one, here’s how I swap ND filters faster with Xume adapters and the RevoRing.
The One Reason Not To Buy It
This one is not a con, but it is the reason I said you may not want to buy it: this is definitely a bit more of a niche lens, because it is 85mm.
This lens is fantastic for portraits and closeups of people’s faces. It gives you a very intimate feeling, and it’s amazing for filming a bride or groom solo, for example.
But you are gonna need more than just this lens in your bag. If you do not already own something wider, like a 35mm (the Sigma 35mm F1.2 II is a great match) or a 24-70, buy one of those first. As beautiful as this lens is, you’re gonna quickly discover that it’s quite tight for a lot of what you film during a wedding day. These are my favorite lenses for wedding filmmaking if you need a starting point.
So don’t let this be the first lens you purchase, unless you do portraits for a living or something like that.
The Only 85mm F1.2 For Sony And L-Mount
Here’s the biggest argument for buying this lens. If you want an 85mm F1.2 with autofocus, and you use a Sony or an L-mount camera (so Lumix, Leica or Sigma’s own cameras), the list is very short. There’s one lens on it, and it’s this one, because Sony does not make an F1.2 GM, and neither does Panasonic!
The Cheaper Alternatives: Mitakon, SongRaw, Viltrox
Okay, technically the list is a little longer than one!
- Zhongyi Mitakon makes an 85mm F1.2, but it’s manual focus only.
- SongRaw, a newer company, announced an 85mm F1.2 with autofocus last year for $1,300, and as far as I can tell it still hasn’t actually shipped. They’ve also been teasing a stripped-down version for months that’s still an 85mm F1.2 with autofocus, for about 650 bucks.
- Viltrox has confirmed they’re working on an 85mm F1.2 LAB lens too, but as of filming, they haven’t really announced anything else yet.
I’m a little skeptical of how good that cheaper SongRaw is gonna be at that price, especially compared to Sigma, who have really proven themselves over many years now that they can make lenses that are, in my opinion, on par with or better than the ones from the major camera manufacturers.
My point is, keep all this in mind. If you wanna see me try to get my hands on those lenses to review them as well, let me know in the comments on the video. But I really doubt any of them are going to match the Sigma for image quality or autofocus performance.
The Real Decision: F1.2 vs F1.4
Before you go and buy this lens, I want you to weigh it against the two F1.4 options, because for Sony filmmakers, that’s the real decision here. It isn’t Sigma versus Canon. It’s this lens versus:
- The Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II, which is $1,800 and only 642 grams
- The Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art, which is $1,200 and about 630 grams
Both of those are roughly 270 grams lighter than this lens, and the Sigma F1.4 is a lot cheaper.
Here’s the deal though: F1.4 is great, F1.2 is a feeling. If you’ve never filmed with an F1.2 lens, you’re not going to understand what I’m talking about, but let me just put it this way. The difference is more noticeable than that half a stop sounds on paper: the subject separation, the way faces just pop out of the background. It’s a look, it’s a feeling that you feel in your soul, and you either want that look or you don’t.
So if you want the lightest and most practical 85 for gimbal work and long days, get one of those F1.4s, don’t sweat it. But if you watched the footage in this video and got a little flutter in your stomach, this is the lens you should get.
So, Should You Buy The Sigma 85mm F1.2?
Sigma told me this lens is coming in at $1,600. Whenever you consider that the Canon and Nikon 85mm F1.2s are both right around 3,000 bucks, and neither of those even works on your camera, this is a really good deal for what you’re getting if you film on Sony or Panasonic.
In short, the Sigma 85mm F1.2 is incredibly well built, it’s very sharp, it has incredible autofocus, and it pairs very well with something like the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM (here’s my full Sony 50mm F1.2 GM review). If you film weddings and you already have your wider lenses covered, you’re gonna love the 85mm F1.2 and just the feeling you get from it.
You can check current pricing on the Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG Art here. And if you want to see all the equipment I recommend for filmmaking, download my free Filmmaker Gear Guide.