At only four less millimeters than a 24-105, but giving you an f/2.8 aperture, is this Sigma 28-105 worthy of your attention? I would say so. And I am going to be reviewing this lens from the perspective of a wedding filmmaker and telling you whether I think it is a good choice for you to buy if you film weddings, or documentaries, or corporate or commercial videos, and you need a lens with a wide range and a lot of versatility.
Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video is not paid or sponsored by Sigma, and while they loaned me this lens so I could make this review, I will sadly be returning it to them very soon.
A Confession
I have always found 24-70mm lenses to be a little bit boring, if for no other reason than they have basically become kit lenses for full frame cameras at this point. Everyone buys one whenever they are getting a new camera. But the 24-105mm focal length is quite different in my opinion. The extra range you get, being able to zoom in a good 35mm further than 70mm, makes a huge difference, especially for wedding filmmakers, because there are so many situations where you need just a little bit of extra zoom that a lens extending to 105mm gives you.
I have found lenses like this to be much more versatile, and I have filmed multiple weddings with a Sony 24-105, throwing it on a gimbal, using it handheld, using it all day, only changing off that lens whenever I hit the one limitation that most other lenses in that focal range also hit. Specifically, the limitation of low light performance. Because yes, up until very recently, pretty much all lenses that hit these 24-105 focal lengths were at their widest aperture only an f/4, meaning that when things got too dark, like a dance floor at a wedding reception, that is whenever you had to switch lenses to something with a wider aperture.
But that all changed in late 2023, whenever Canon introduced a very impressive new RF mount lens, a 24-105 f/2.8, and showed us that f/2.8 at this focal range was possible. And now here we are with Sigma, who have given us an alternative and much more affordable option with their 28-105 f/2.8.
This Lens Is A Beefy Boi
The first thing you are going to notice about this lens is that it is definitely a very beefy boi. It is big. It weighs 990g. And is that really surprising? For Sigma to be able to make this lens f/2.8, it needs a lot of glass.
The good news is that while it is large, it still has nice weight distribution, especially zoomed out to about halfway or so, meaning as long as you are not filming a ton handheld at 105mm you should be okay. But just be aware it is going to be a hefty weight to carry around on a longer day like a wedding. That said, Sigma has also told me they tried to reduce the weight of this lens as much as possible by doing things like not using aluminum in the body but magnesium, because that is lighter and still strong.
Does The 4mm Shorter Focal Length Matter?
Weight aside, there is one other critical difference between this Sigma and its main competition, the Canon RF 24-105, and that is the four millimeters of focal length at the wide end, with this Sigma only being 28mm and not 24.
The main thing I want you to keep in mind is that the wider a lens gets, the more noticeable every extra millimeter of width is going to be. For example, a 16mm is significantly wider than a 20mm, but a 70mm is not dramatically wider than a 74mm, even though it is only a four millimeter difference in both of these examples. So I say all that to emphasize that while the jump from 24mm to 28mm is only four millimeters, this is still going to be a noticeable crop in, and if you are someone who commonly finds yourself filming at 24mm like me, and you love that focal length, also like me, sacrificing a bit of that width may be difficult for you.
The best way for you to tell if you are going to be comfortable using this Sigma is to either rent this exact lens, or, if you want an alternative, get your hands on any 16-35mm lens and set it to 24mm, then zoom it in to 28mm and play around with those two focal lengths, seeing how you feel about them and whether you could live with a bit less width. Some of you will not miss the extra width at all and I think you are going to love this 28-105, while other people are going to be really annoyed by it and are going to want that extra four millimeters they are used to.
For me, I found myself wondering if I could live without those extra four millimeters that I was used to, being a 24mm lover. And with the knowledge that I am getting 105mm on the long end as well as an f/2.8 aperture, after using this lens for a while, I think I could live with that compromise and still happily use this lens.
What About Tamron?
Side note, this bigger difference in width at wider focal lengths is also why I am not doing a big comparison between this Sigma 28-105 and something like the Tamron 35-150, because once you take another seven millimeters off the wide end of this lens, it is not much of a wide angle anymore. Which is why I think this Sigma competes more with a 24-105. I just wanted to mention that, because I am sure I would have gotten comments asking about that Tamron lens.
Lens Image Quality
Now, this f/2.8 aperture would not matter if the image quality from this lens sucked, but I have good news. It does not suck. It is very sharp even at f/2.8, and the colors from it look contrasty and saturated. It is a very well built modern Sigma lens.
And like I have said in a lot of my previous lens reviews, it has been years since I have used a lens that was blurry or had weird issues. Modern lenses from pretty much all manufacturers are pretty darn good these days.
Autofocus Performance And A Manual Focus Quirk
Autofocus performance is great as well. It is fast and responsive and I found that it worked very well with this lens. One con I will mention, for at least the Sony mount version of this Sigma, is that when it comes to manual focus this is not a linear focus lens, meaning that if you rotate the focus ring slowly it will slowly adjust, but if you rotate it quickly it is going to adjust the focus very quickly. It is never consistent.
This is a bummer, but it is also in line with Sigma’s other new lenses like their 28-45, which I also recently reviewed. That lens focuses in a similar way. With the L mount version of this lens I believe you can change whether the lens is linear focus in the camera settings, but that is unfortunately not possible yet with the Sony version.
Modern Lens Features
Otherwise, this Sigma has a lot of the modern features you would expect, including multiple programmable buttons, an autofocus and manual focus switch, and an aperture ring that can be de-clicked.
Another feature that is normally common but surprisingly good on this lens is the zoom lock switch. Enable this switch and the lens will not accidentally extend the barrel without you meaning it to, so if you are holding it upside down you are fine. But the nice upgrade to this lock switch that I have not personally experienced before is that even with the switch locked, if you start to rotate the zoom ring, the switch will automatically unlock so you can zoom the lens in and out. This is really nice, because I have found myself forgetting to unlock my zoom lenses before and then wondering why they are not working and having to fumble around looking for the switch. This is a quicker way of doing things and it is really great.
That said, because we have been talking about the Canon 24-105 a decent amount, I do want to point out that in regards to zooming, the Canon has an internal zoom, which is fantastic for video, while the Sigma has a traditional zooming barrel that goes in and out. This is not really surprising given the cost, which we will talk about in a bit, but it is something I would keep in mind. And while the Sigma is 34mm shorter than the Canon whenever it is zoomed out, once you zoom it in it is going to be about seven millimeters longer than the Canon. It is not a massive difference, but I prefer internal zooms like Canon’s, because that can make balancing a lens on a gimbal a bit easier.
Focus Breathing Test
As far as focus breathing goes, this is something I had to test, because unfortunately Sony’s focus breathing compensation feature, which is fantastic, is not supported with third party lenses like this one. Thankfully, in my testing the focus breathing appears to be rather minimal, which means this lens is great if you oftentimes find yourself pulling focus and you do not want your framing to change.
The Competitive Price
At a price of only 1500 bucks at the time of recording this video, the Sigma 28-105 feels like it is in a good place, because it is priced only a couple hundred dollars more than f/4 lenses like the Sony 24-105, but this lens gives you an f/2.8 aperture while also literally being half the price of its biggest competitor, the Canon RF 24-105.
Do not get me wrong, that Canon lens is fantastic, but it is going to set you back an eye watering $3,000 compared to this Sigma at $1,500.
So your choice of whether you buy this Sigma or not depends on whether you want a lens with this zoom range and this wide of an aperture, because honestly, if you want those features you really only have two choices. This or the Canon. And I think Sigma makes a really compelling argument for it, considering they sell it in both E-mount and L mount. Oh, and not to mention that at the time of recording this video you cannot actually purchase an RF mount version of this Sigma, so unless you are going to change camera systems to Canon, I do not know how feasible it is for you to choose the Canon 24-105 instead.
As long as you are okay with four less millimeters on the wide end, and you have the arm strength to carry it around, I think you are going to absolutely love this Sigma 28-105. You can grab it at Amazon, B&H, or Adorama.
Speaking of things you are going to love, I think you are also going to love my wedding filmmaker gear guide. You can download the guide completely for free, and it is going to show you all of the equipment I recommend you buy to film a wedding, including all the lenses, camera gear, gimbals, and drones. Everything you need.
And if you are a wedding filmmaker, I would love to help you out more, so I have also put together a free wedding film booking workshop that is going to show you the exact steps you need to take to book your next wedding in 30 days or less.
Thanks so much for reading and have a great day!