Does the Sigma 135mm F1.8 deserve the “Art” tag? As long as you have not been living under a rock by now you know that Sigma’s Art series lenses are changing the way most photographers think about 3rd party lenses. I have had the pleasure of owning and testing a few lenses in Sigma’s Art series, so in my mind, I had a rather high bar set for the 135 F1.8. Only question for me was what to do with it. I guess one would say that this is a portrait lens, and if portraiture is your main focus in photography, you may already own a 135mm lens. But I shoot everything and anything that comes my way so I wanted to take this “portrait” lens and use it exclusively for a few days to see how it stands up to a variety of different subject matter.
Build Quality
Like most of the other lenses in the Art Line, this one is built very well. Solid construction that should withstand your average punishment in the field and then some. Some nice features are the wide focus ring that is nice and smooth for all you manual focus fans out there, and a 3 position focus limiter to help target your subject. The lens has some weight to it but I never felt like it was too heavy. Overall I would have to give this lens an A+ for build quality.
Sharpness
This lens is super sharp. The Sigma 135 F1.8 can hang with just about any lens out there in this category. Since I am not a studio photographer I constantly find myself in less than desirable lighting condition, this forces me to stop down and potentially sacrifice sharpness. I was happy to see this lens very sharp all the way through the frame even stopped down to F1.8. The lens also does a great job to isolate your subject with a nice creamy “bokeh” background.
Auto Focus
Thanks to the electronic HSM, the focus was quiet, fast and accurate.
Chromatic Abberation, Vignetting and Distortion
The Sigma 135 does quite well to keep the big 3 lens problems in check. While some Chromatic aberration and vignetting are both noticeable, they are both acceptable and correctable. The 135 does and even better job with distortion, this lens is almost distortion free.
Overall, the 135 F1.8 Art is a very good lens. Sigma is on to something special with its Art series and it looks as though they will continue to roll out these great lenses. Lucky for us they are doing it at fair prices.
