Can a lens ever be cute? Well, I think this Sigma is. It’s super-small, slender and lightweight, and looks a little beauty. And it looks pretty remarkable as well. I’ve known professional photographers who almost always shoot with prime lenses on their full-frame cameras. If they do have a zoom lens, it’s likely to be one of the best 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. It’s a classic telephoto choice that combines a versatile zoom range with a fairly fast and constant f/2.8 aperture, making it one of the best choices of wedding and event photography lenses, and more besides.

Despite their huge popularity, I’m not totally sold on 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses, as I feel that they’re often big, heavy and very expensive to buy. As with wide-angle and standard zooms, we’re seeing more ‘alternative trinity’ telephoto zooms that retain the constant f/2.8 aperture but pack it into a much more conveniently compact, lightweight and affordable package. The Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 is a case in point, and one of my personal favorites.

The thing is, we don’t all shoot with full-frame cameras. There are particular advantages to crop-sensor cameras, and the APS-C format has long been a popular choice. Lenses tend to be smaller, lighter and less expensive, but that doesn’t mean we should have to compromise on quality or versatility. With that in mind, Sigma started making a set of alternative trinity f/2.8 zooms, kicking off with the wide-angle Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 DC DN | C and standard Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C lenses, in Canon RF-S, Fujifilm X, Sony E and L-mount options.

The eagerly awaited follow-up is the Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C that I’m reviewing here. It follows suit in most of the same mount options, but not L-mount. I’m not surprised. Off the top of your head, can you think of any current APS-C format L-mount cameras? Anyway, the new Sigma tele zoom looks an absolute little gem. Let’s see if its beauty is more than just skin deep.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Specifications

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Price

Splash out on a set of conventional, full-frame trinity zooms and you’ll need deep pockets to afford them and a deep bag to put them in. The APS-C format Sigma 50-120mm is comparatively small, light and affordable at $799 / £699 / AU$1,400. It completes the set, building on the previously launched Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 DC DN | C at $729 / £649 / AU$1,178 and the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C at $659 / £479 / AU$807. If you want an even faster standard zoom, there’s also the Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 DC Art at $919 / £799 / AU$1,650.

For further context, the full-frame compatible Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG DN OS Sports costs $1,649 / £1,499 / AU$3,040, while the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 sells for around $1,099 / £999 / AU$2,449. Equivalent APS-C format telephoto zooms with a constant f/2.8 aperture are very thin on the ground, but there’s the Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR, which is about twice the price of the Sigma 50-120mm in most world regions, at $1,899 / £1,449 / AU$2,399.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Design & Handling

The Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C is so small that it comes in a pint-sized little cardboard box (with fully recyclable packing, no less). It’s so lightweight that when I picked up the box, I thought it was actually empty and they’d forgotten to put the lens in it. Talking specifics, or rather specifications, the Sigma measures 67x99mm / 2.6x3.9in and weighs 390g / 13.8oz. So it’s less than 4 inches long and weighs less than a pound. Over in the heavyweight corner of the ring, the Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR is about 7 inches long and weighs 35oz (about 2.5x as much). Remarkably for a constant f/2.8 zoom, the Sigma also has a small 55mm filter attachment thread, compared with the Fujifilm’s 72mm thread.

The Sigma packs a complex optical path into its downsized design, comprising no less than 18 elements in 13 groups. Specialist glass includes 3 SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, one top-tier FLD (‘Fluorite’ Low Dispersion) element and 4 aspherical elements, the last of these enabling further physical shrinkage as well as enhancing image quality.

Before I get too carried away about just how small this lens is, I should point out that unlike most 70-200mm full-frame lenses, the Sigma physically extends at longer zoom settings. I say ‘most’, but not all full-frame lenses of the genre have an internal zoom mechanism, the Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM being a notable exception. But while the Sigma has an extending inner barrel, the total amount of physical extension is only about an inch, as you zoom from 50mm to the longest 120mm setting. You can see how that looks in real life by comparing the images above and below.

The zoom ring itself operates with smooth efficiency and has a nice tactile feel throughout its range. There are no stiff or jerky spots along the way and while only modest torque is required to rotate the ring, the lens doesn’t suffer at all from any zoom creep, even with the added weight of the hood being attached. Indeed, no zoom lock switch is featured in the design. There are also no switches for swapping between autofocus and manual focus modes, nor for switching the optical stabilizer on and off. In keeping with the compact design, these settings are deferred to menu options in the host camera body.

Further tech shoehorned into the lens includes an HLA (High-response Linear Actuator) autofocus motor, which is essentially a linear stepping motor by another name. It aims to deliver fast, snappy and consistently accurate autofocus for stills, along with smooth and virtually silent autofocus transitions when shooting video. As usual for this type of arrangement, the autofocus motor is also employed during manual focusing, being driven by the electronically coupled manual focus ring.

Although handling feels broadly similar to that of Sigma’s sibling 10-18mm and 18-50mm zooms, the 50-120mm lens gains a dedicated aperture control ring. It’s clearly labelled in full f/stop increments, with one-third f/stop interim marker lines. As usual, it has an A (Auto) setting just off the narrow end of the scale, next to the f/22 setting, which enables the aperture to be controlled from the host camera. This is essential for using the camera in Program and Shutter-priority shooting modes. As with AF/MF and optical stabilization, however, there are no companion switches for the aperture ring, so you don’t get a de-click option for shooting video, nor a locking switch for the Auto position.

The lens comes complete with a circular-profile hood. This has the usual bayonet fixing and can be reversed on the lens for compact stowage. It feels a high-quality item, perfectly matching the lens itself.

The hood is tailor-made and only adds about an inch to the physical length of the lens. Using the hood not only helps to fend off ghosting and flare when shooting into the light, but also offers physical protection for the front glass element against any knocks and scrapes.

Build quality feels very good throughout. The construction feels robust despite its lightweight design, and features multiple weather-seals including a rubber gasket around the metal mounting plate.

A nice finishing touch is that the lens is not only supplied with front and back caps and a hood, but also with a neat drawstring pouch. It’s rather a featherweight compared with the padded soft cases that Sigma often supplies, but more in keeping with the relatively small and lightweight nature of this lens.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Performance

As advertised, the autofocus system proved rapid and consistently accurate in my tests. The lens is capable of a tight depth of field, especially when shooting wide-open at f/2.8 at short object distances or towards the long end of the zoom range. This makes consistently accurate autofocus all the more important. I also found that the autofocus system was well able to track fairly fast-moving objects.

An excellent hit rate is assured, not only by the autofocus system, but also by the optical stabilizer. I tested the lens with a Sony A6000 body that has no IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilizer) and that holds true for most APS-C format Canon EOS R system cameras, most back-catalog Sony Alpha cameras and some Fujifilm X system cameras. The Sigma’s optical stabilizer is definitely worth having, even if your camera does feature IBIS. Optical stabilizers tend to perform better than IBIS at telephoto focal lengths and this one’s worth from 6.5 stops to 4.5 stops as you stretch through the zoom range from 50mm to 120mm.

The ‘effective’ 75-180mm zoom range in full-frame terms isn’t quite a match for the 70-200mm of conventional ‘trinity’ telephoto zooms, but it’s not far off. The Canon RF-S mount actually comes a little closer at maximum telephoto reach, equating to 80-192mm in full-frame terms, thanks to Canon’s 1.6x rather than 1.5x APS-C crop factor. Using the Sony E-mount version, I didn’t notice any real difference at the short end of the zoom range, and if you desperately need that extra bit of reach at the long end, a little creative cropping can often suffice. Either way, the images above and below demonstrate the overall zoom range, taken of the same subject from the same position at focal lengths of 50mm and 120mm respectively.

I found that levels of sharpness and clarity to be excellent, both throughout the entire zoom range and across the whole image frame. Color rendition is also beautiful. I was less enamored that the aperture ring rotates with clearly audible click steps. That can be problematic when shooting video, as there’s no de-click option for the aperture ring. Naturally, due to the telephoto nature of the lens, you’ll need to stop down to medium apertures to gain sufficient depth of field, when shooting 3-dimensional objects that are fairly close by. At least, you will if you want most or all of them to look sharp, as demonstrated in the bicycle image below.

For this kind of lens, there’s another facet of performance comes to the fore, and that’s the quality of bokeh. It can be a struggle for APS-C format lenses to deliver a tight depth of field, as this is more dependent on the ‘actual’ rather than ‘effective’ focal length. Again though, the Sigma impresses with attractively soft and smooth bokeh in defocused areas, along with a natural looking roll-off between focused and defocused elements in a composition. The aperture diaphragm is particularly well-rounded, being based on 11 blades, which helps to maintain the quality of bokeh when stopping down.

Axial/longitudinal chromatic aberration (also referred to as ‘bokeh fringing’) is also well controlled around high-contrast transitions just in front of or behind the plane of focus. All of these facets are demonstrated in my test shot below, taken of a phrenology head at a focal length of 92mm, wide-open at f/2.8.

There’s fairly good control over distortion which is well within the boundaries of automatic in-camera correction, and there’s virtually no color fringing to be seen even with in-camera correction disabled. The lens also does well to maintain clarity and contrast while minimizing ghosting and flare, when shooting against the light. For the following image, I was shooting towards the sun, with lots of light coming in from the sky as well as bouncing off the sea. The lens maintains good contrast while keeping ghosting and flare very much at bay.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Sample Images

The following gallery comprises images taken on a sunny morning at Weston-Super-Mare, a popular tourist destination on the boundary of the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel in South West England. The first few shots in the gallery were taken in pairs, captured of the same scene from the same position, but at both extremities of the zoom range. This gives you an idea of the total zoom range on offer. I also shot a variety of other images, using various focal lengths and aperture settings, including the widest aperture of f/2.8 to show the quality of bokeh with the minimum depth of field.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Center-sharpness is very good wide-open at f/2.8, becoming excellent with just a single f/stop reduction to f/4, throughout the entire zoom range. Extreme edge-sharpness doesn’t look too great based on short-range shooting of our lab charts, but at more typical focus distances, it proved impressive in our real-world tests, as you can see in my sample images.

Fringing:

Both lateral and axial chromatic aberrations are entirely negligible. You’d hard pressed to see any color fringing anywhere in the image frame, even with automatic in-camera correction disabled. That holds true throughout the entire zoom and aperture ranges.

Distortion:

There’s a little pincushion distortion at 50mm, a little more at 70mm, and it can become fairly noticeable towards the long end of the zoom range. However, the Sigma relies much less on automatic in-camera correction for distortion, compared with many modern lenses for mirrorless cameras, especially those designed with compactness in mind. With auto correction applied, distortion becomes a non-issue.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Verdict

I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with ‘proper’ trinity telephoto zoom lenses. I love their versatility and usefulness for anything and everything from daily shooting to action, sports, wildlife and portraiture, and especially for weddings and events. But I hate that they’re typically big, heavy and very expensive to buy. The Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C for APS-C format Canon, Fujifilm and Sony cameras gives me all of the good stuff, but miniaturized into an amazingly compact and lightweight package that’s also much more affordable to buy.

That ‘good stuff’ includes an effective 75-180mm zoom range (80-192mm for Canon), complete with fast, virtually silent and consistently accurate autofocus and effective optical image stabilization. Image quality is top-drawer, combining superb sharpness, clarity, contrast and color rendition with smooth and dreamy bokeh.

I like that the lens includes a dedicated aperture control ring, but I feel it’s a bit of a shame there’s no click/de-click switch, nor switches for auto/manual focusing modes and stabilization on/off. However, I’m happy to forego these in the pursuit of downsizing, and it also keeps the control layout relatively simple and straightforward. Ultimately, this Sigma makes a compelling case for using a crop-sensor camera instead of a full-frame body. It’s a proper pocket rocket!

Alternatives

The Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS | Contemporary is finally coming to Nikon Z mount. Digital Camera World reviewer Matthew Richards said this APS-C all-in-one zoom lens ticked all the right boxes for a ‘superzoom’ when he reviewed the Canon RF version back in 2025. But, as is often the case, a Z-mount variant has taken a while to come into fruition.

That all changes today. APS-C Nikon photographers can take advantage of the world’s first mirrorless lens with an approximate zoom ratio of 18.8x, delivering a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 24-450mm. From wide-angle to super-telephoto, this ‘one-and-done’ lens will cover everything from landscapes to wildlife.

It also boasts a maximum magnification ratio of 1:2 at 70mm for frame-filling close-ups, while Sigma’s High-Response Linear Actuator motor is designed to produce “exceptionally fast, smooth and accurate autofocus”. A boon for a super-telephoto lens like this is optical image stabilization, providing up to 6 stops of stabilization at the wide end and 4.5 stops at the telephoto end.

There’s also a rubber gasket around the mount to provide some weather sealing, which Sigma rates as dust- and splash-resistant with a water-repellent coating. According to Sigma, communication speed optimization and the lens’s AF drive have been specifically designed for the Z mount.

The lens is also designed to minimize flare and ghosting, as well as focus breathing. It comprises 20 elements in 14 groups, including 1x 'F' Low Dispersion, 4x Special Low Dispersion, and 4x aspherical elements. The aperture is controlled via a 9-bladed diaphragm, with a max aperture of f/22-45, while the filter sports a 67mm thread.

This lens brings the total of Sigma lenses available for Nikon Z mount to four, with the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN | C, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN | C and Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN | C also available. The Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS | Contemporary will have an RRP of $769 / £599 and is set to launch on November 5.

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Bright telephotos tend to be heavy optics, but Sigma’s newest lens is a 50-120mm with an f/2.8 aperture that’s less than 10 cm / 4 inches long. The Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS Contemporary is a bright, compact zoom built for APS-C cameras, debuting in Sony E, Fujifilm X, and Canon RF mounts.

The October 08 launch completes Sigma’s Contemporary “holy trinity” series alongside the 10-18mm f/2.8 and 18-50mm f/2.8. But Sigma says that even all three lenses in a camera bag together still weigh less than 1kg / 2.2 pounds.

The new 50-120mm acts as a 75-180mm lens in full-frame equivalent, trading the more standard 70-200mm range for a design that’s built to match the compact design of APS-C bodies. The lens weighs in at 390g / .85 lbs.

Sigma says that the new lens raises the standard for APS-C constant zooms. The lens uses a high-response Linear Actuator autofocus motor, alongside Sigma’s latest stabilization tech that brings 6.5 stops of stabilization at 50mm and 4.5 stops at 120mm.

The lens is an external-style zoom, which means the length of the lens changes based on focal length. But the company says that the lens was built to minimize focus breathing for video shooters.

Like the other two lenses in the trinity, the 50-120mm skips out on the focus mode switch and stabilization switch for a more minimalist design. The design still manages to fit in weather-sealing and an oil-repellent coating at the front.

Part of the allure of the APS-C format is the more compact body designs – but those smaller cameras tend to feel unbalanced with larger lenses mounted on the front. While there are plenty of first-party and third-party full-frame 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses built for full frame that will work on APS-C, there are relatively few made specifically for the more compact sensor format.

Fujifilm has the XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR, but that lens is more than twice as heavy and nearly twice the cost. Sony has the 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS and the 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS, but neither lens has a constant f/2.8 aperture. Canon’s closest APS-C lens is the RF 75-300mm f/4-5.6.

The new Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 is notably missing a mount: the Nikon Z. While the new APS-C zoom doesn’t include Nikon’s mirrorless bodies, today Sigma also announced that the existing Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS Contemporary will be arriving for the Z Mount in November.

Perhaps the most appealing part of the new Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 could be the price. The 50-120mm lens is set to retail for $799 / £699 – which converts roughly to AU$1,326 / CA$1,317.

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At just 14 years old, wildlife photographer Camilo Sanabria Grajales became Audubon Photography Awards' first youth prize winner from South America, Camilo Sanabria Grajales. Now, his image showcasing a Ruby-topaz Hummingbird has received an Honorable Mention in the 2026 competition. The highlighted image is a colorful split-second capture, shot at 1/2500 sec. "I searched for the Ruby-topaz Hummingbird for years," says Camilo.

Camilo explains to Audubon magazine that there were several attempts at photographing the species, including one where he had to deal with an allergic reaction, as well as trips to Uva National Park in Colombia where he had no luck seeing the bird. "But then it came, my big day. I was invited to a site that was full of flowers in Buga and was in for a surprise: more than ten hummingbirds, both male and female."

Since the birds were fluttering around Camilo so quickly, it was a challenge to capture their beauty in sharp focus. He says, "Then one approached me. I focused on it just in time. As it was about to dart away, I got this unique photo that captures its sun-drenched colors."

Honorable Mention: Youth

Contest: Chile and Colombia
Species: Ruby-topaz Hummingbird
Location: Guadalajara de Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Gear: Canon EOS Rebel T7 (2000D) + Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM | C
Exposure: 1/2500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 3200

Judge’s Take (Jaír F. Coll)
"The photographer captures the dynamic flight of this hummingbird and integrates it into a harmonious dreamlike setting where the flower’s orange hues play off those of the bird.

"The bird’s subtle expression, as if absorbed in its surroundings, conveys a sense of peace, immersing the viewer in a natural trance where time seems to stand still."

The Audubon Photography Awards
The Audubon Photography Awards is a competition celebrating photographers who use their skills to highlight the beauty, challenges and threats facing birds across Chile, Colombia, Canada and the United States. You can explore all 2026 winning images here.

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A "remarkably compact yet well-built" zoom lens is the No.1 best-selling lens in Japan right now, according to major retailer Kitamura. Interestingly, the most popular optics are from third-party manufacturers.

The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C for E-mount sits at the top of the chart, followed by another Sigma optic for E-mount: the 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | C. Close behind is the Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS – an affordable telephoto zoom, available for $848 / £799.

Since I started reporting on sales charts in Japan years ago, I have never seen more than three optics sharing the same position. However, in Kitamura's latest August 2026 sales chart, five lenses from Fujifilm, Sony, Canon and Tamron are tied at No.9.

Kitamura's best-selling lenses, August 2026

1. Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C (E-mount)
2. Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | C (E-mount)
3. Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS
4. Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S
5. Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM
6. Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS | Sports (E-mount)
7. Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM
8. Sigma 20-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DG | C (E-mount)
9=. Fujifilm XC 13-33mm f/3.5-6.3 OIS
9=. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II
9=. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II
9=. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
9=. Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 (E-mount)

No.1 lens: Sigma's "remarkably compact yet well-built" zoom

In our review, we found that the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C is "remarkably compact yet well-built". At just approx. 290g, it punches well above its weight. It delivers impressive image quality, features weather-resistant construction, and comes with a budget-friendly price tag.

5 lenses come ninth – from Fuji to Canon, Sony and Tamron

Five lenses are tied at No.9 in Kitamura's best-selling chart for August 2026. From Fujifilm to Canon and Sony to Tamron, the five optics cover a broad range of focal lengths and uses.

Fujifilm's XC 13-33mm f/3.5-6.3 OIS launched in 2025 as the smallest and lightest zoom lens in the Fujifilm X-mount lineup, adding just 125g to the camera bag.

The Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II is a light workhorse, while Canon's EF 50mm f/1.8 STM remains a compelling value option that delivers impressive image quality. Lastly, the Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 is an all-in-one superzoom.

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Known as "probably the best 70-200mm zoom in the world. Ever.", the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S is the top-ranked product in the zoom lens category on the Japanese marketplace Minna Camera during the first half of 2026. The telephoto lens is now discontinued following the arrival of its successor, the Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II.

In the ranking, Minna Camera classifies lenses by their longest focal length. Zoom lenses reaching 200mm or longer accounted for 51.2% of all zoom-lens transactions, while 200mm was the single most common telephoto-end category, accounting for 17.9% of transactions. In this category, the best-selling model in 2026 so far is Nikon's popular 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S lens. While US stock seems empty, UK retailers still offer the zoom brand-new, with discounts available.

Zoom lenses covering up to 70mm make up 15% of the transactions, with the Sony FE 20-70mm f/4 G being the most purchased option. Close behind are lenses covering up to 400mm, with 12.5%. The top zoom in this category is the Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM.

Top 10 zoom lenses by telephoto end market share at Minna Camera (H1)*

*Source: Minna Camera, based on zoom lens transactions completed January 1 - June 30, 2026.

"Probably the best 70-200mm zoom in the world. Ever."

The Z 70-200mm f/2.8 builds on the legacy of the popular Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR DSLR lens, a go-to for pro Nikon shooters worldwide. This optic of the mirrorless S-line goes even further: it handles better, delivers sharper images and performs at a consistently high level.

Nikon packed this lens with some serious glass: 21 elements in 18 groups, AF (autofocus) is fast,accurate, smooth and super quiet. Unlike many S-line lenses, this one doesn't rely solely on the camera body for stabilization. It features a built-in optical VR (vibration reduction).

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More than half of the zoom lenses traded on the Japanese camera marketplace Minna Camera in the first half of 2026 had a focal length of 200mm or longer, according to new data from the retailer.

Minna Camera's analysis of zoom-lens transactions shows: lenses reaching 200mm or longer accounted for 51% of all zoom-lens transactions, narrowly exceeding the 48.8% share for lenses whose longest focal length was below 200mm.

Importantly, Minna Camera classifies lenses by their longest focal length, rather than their 35mm-equivalent field of view. A 24-200mm and a 70-200mm lens therefore both fall into the 200mm category, while lenses designed for different sensor formats are not converted to a common 35mm equivalent.

Top 10 traded zoom lenses by focal length at Minna Camera (H1)*

*Approx. used prices in USD and GBP added by Digital Camera World.

Canon accounted for the largest brand share

Among the five manufacturers for which Minna Camera supplied brand figures, Canon accounted for 38.1% of zoom-lens transactions, followed by Nikon at 27.2% and Sony at 16.6%.

Sigma accounted for 4.1% and Tamron 3.4%.

Looking instead at the proportion of each brand's zoom transaction that reached 200mm or longer shows a different picture. Tamron had the highest figure at 65.6%, narrowly ahead of Canon at 64.2%. Nikon stood at 49.7%, Sony at 39.7% and Sigma at 37.8%.

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Sigma’s long-awaited 85mm f/1.2 DG Art is now available to preorder. For portrait photographers looking for a seriously fast prime, this could be one of the most exciting lenses Sigma has released in years.

In the US, the new 85mm f/1.2 can be preordered from B&H and Adorama for $1,599, while UK photographers can order from Wex Photo Video, London Camera Exchange, and Park Cameras for £1,299.

The lens will be available in both Sony E-mount and L-Mount versions, with Sigma officially listing September 30, 2026 as its launch date.

An 85mm lens has always been something of a sweet spot for portrait photography, but combining that classic focal length with an f/1.2 maximum aperture takes things to another level. That exceptionally wide aperture allows photographers to create an incredibly shallow depth of field and really separate a subject from the background, while also giving the lens serious low-light capabilities.

Sigma has paired this with a 13-blade rounded diaphragm, which is designed to maintain smooth, near-circular bokeh even as the lens is stopped down. For portraits, weddings and fashion photography in particular, that combination has the potential to deliver exactly the kind of three-dimensional rendering photographers want from a premium 85mm prime.

Of course, an f/1.2 aperture means very little if a lens cannot deliver the optical quality to make the most of it, and this is where Sigma’s Art series pedigree becomes important. The 85mm f/1.2 DG Art uses 17 elements arranged in 12 groups, including two SLD elements alongside high anomalous-dispersion glass and aspherical elements.

Sigma says this design has been developed to suppress axial chromatic aberration, spherical aberration, and sagittal coma flare, with the aim of maintaining impressive resolving power even when the lens is being used wide open at f/1.2. That is particularly important with today’s high-resolution full-frame cameras, where any optical weaknesses can quickly become obvious.

Perhaps one of the most impressive things about the new Sigma, however, is that the company has somehow managed to stop an 85mm f/1.2 from becoming an absolute monster. The lens weighs 905g and measures approximately 119.7mm long in its L-Mount version, with Sigma claiming it is the smallest and lightest autofocus 85mm f/1.2 lens in its class for full-frame mirrorless cameras as of September 2026.

It is certainly not what I would call a lightweight everyday prime, but considering the amount of glass and that enormous maximum aperture, Sigma has clearly put some serious work into making this lens practical enough for weddings, portraits and location work rather than restricting it to the studio.

Autofocus should also make the 85mm f/1.2 considerably easier to live with than some ultra-fast portrait lenses. Sigma has equipped it with a dual HLA, or High-response Linear Actuator, focusing system designed to provide fast, quiet, and accurate AF for both stills and video.

That becomes especially important at f/1.2, where depth of field can be razor thin and even a small focusing error can mean the difference between perfectly sharp eyes and a missed shot. Video shooters have not been forgotten either, with Sigma specifically designing the lens to suppress focus breathing, alongside an aperture ring, aperture-ring lock, click/de-click switch, and two customizable AFL buttons.

Sample images

At $1,599 / £1,299, the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art is unquestionably a premium lens, but it also feels like an impressive amount of glass for the money when you consider exactly what Sigma is offering. You are getting that enormous f/1.2 aperture, a professional Art-series optical design, sophisticated autofocus, weather-resistant construction, and a surprisingly manageable body.

More importantly, this finally completes Sigma’s current f/1.2 Art prime lineup alongside the 35mm f/1.2 DG II Art and 50mm f/1.2 DG DN Art. For Sony and L-Mount photographers who want the ultimate combination of subject separation, low-light performance, and classic 85mm portrait rendering, this looks like a lens that could be very difficult to resist.

Most people don't realize this, but Sigma has never made an 85mm f/1.2 lens. The fastest it has ever gone is f/1.4 – until now. After teasing its development back at CP+ 2026 in February, the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art is finally here – and it's every bit as beautiful as I'd hoped.

This focal length and aperture combination produces, for my money, the best lens for portraits. And with Canon and Nikon having set incredible standards, Sigma had a lot to live up to. But, boy oh boy, did it live up to them.

The first thing that hit me when I took the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art out of its box is how small it is. For reference, the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L weighs 1,195g and is over 117mm long – while the Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S tips the scales at 1,160g and is even longer at over 141mm.

The Sigma? It's a mere 950g and 120mm – making it the world's smallest and lightest 85mm f/1.2 (with autofocus). Seriously, seeing it next to my Canon is like a before-and-after commercial for Mounjaro.

So, it's small and light – but that's far from all that the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art has going for it. I don't usually put much stock into press release noise, but Sigma brags that, "In addition to two SLD glass elements, glass with high anomalous dispersion is used to suppress the axial chromatic aberration inherent to large-aperture lenses to the utmost limit."

Well, in our own tests for this lens, our lab manager concluded that, "Control over both axial and lateral chromatic aberrations is pretty epic at all aperture settings", adding that, "Center sharpness is spectacular in the f/2 to f/11 sector of the aperture range and holds up really well even at the widest aperture".

That's what 17 elements, 12 groups and 13 aperture blades from Sigma will get you, I suppose, powered by dual High-response Linear Actuator motors for fast and accurate autofocus.

"I feel that the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art comes as close to portrait perfection as any lens in its class," said my colleague Matthew in his Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art review.

"That makes it a really top-class lens, combining its essential 85mm focal length with a highly desirable and super-fast f/1.2 aperture. It’s an aspirational, heady mix but one that’s more attainable than with Canon and Nikon equivalent lenses, in terms of purchase price."

The Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art review will be available from September 30 for Sony E and L-Mount, with a price tag of $1,599 / £1,299 / AU$2,225 (for reference, that's half the price of Canon and Nikon's offerings!).

You might also like…

Looking for something similar for other mounts? Check out the best Canon portrait lenses and the best Nikon portrait lenses.

When it comes to prime time for portraiture, an 85mm focal length with a super-fast f/1.2 aperture is an aspirational combination. However, it’s one that doesn’t come cheap (or small). These lenses tend to be built for the most discerning professional portrait photographers, prime examples being the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM and its even pricier sibling, the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS with ‘Defocus Smoothing’, along with the Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S.

In fact, these lenses are in such a rarified atmosphere that neither Sony nor Panasonic even make 85mm f/1.2 lenses. The closest you can get in the Sony camp is the (still excellent) Sony FE 85mm f1.4 G Master II, but Panasonic doesn’t even make an ‘S Pro’ 85mm lens, the only 85mm prime being the Panasonic S 85mm f/1.8 which is a relatively slow, humble offering that doesn’t really bear comparison. Available in both Sony E (FE) and L-mount versions, the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art aims to be one of the best portrait lenses in the world.

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Specifications

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Price

Portrait perfection doesn’t come cheap. Let’s crunch some numbers. The Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM weighs in at $3,099 / £3,059 / AU$4,829 and the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L USM DS ‘Defocus Smoothing’ edition is even pricier at $3,399 / £3,499 / AU$5,499.

From the Big N, the Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S will set you back $2,995 / £2,999 / AU$4,999, roughly the same as the regular version of the Canon lens. This trio of lenses makes the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 look outstanding value for money at $1,599 / £1,299 / AU$2,225. The bottom line is that the Sigma is less than half the price in some world regions and not much more than half the price in others.

Set your sights a little lower with an f/1.4 rather than f/1.2 aperture and there’s the Sony FE 85mm f1.4 G Master II at $1,950 / £1,799 / AU$3,099. The Sony is still pricier than the Sigma f/1.2 and is seriously undercut by its equivalent Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art at $1,255 / £979 / AU$1,596.

Like the new f/1.2 lens, the Sigma f/1.4 is available in Sony E (FE) and L-mount versions and as I’ve mentioned, Panasonic doesn’t yet offer anything faster than an f/1.8 prime with an 85mm focal length.

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Design & Handling

Sigma is keen to point out that the 85mm f/1.2 DG Art is the smallest and lightest lens in its class. That’s all well and good, but you still need wide-diameter glass elements to suck in sufficient light for that super-fast aperture rating. The lens certainly doesn’t feel small or lightweight, measuring 7x120mm / 3.4x4.8in and weighing in at 905g / 32oz. By way of comparison though, the equivalent Canon RF and Nikon Z lenses are both over a kilogram, weighing 1,195g / 42oz and 1,160g / 41oz respectively. As they say at a certain UK supermarket chain, ‘every little helps’.

One factor in the moderately downsized, lighter-weight design is that the Sigma features no less than three aspherical elements in its optical path. This effectively reduces the total number of elements in the chain. Two SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements are also featured, to enhance clarity and to suppress chromatic aberration. Even so, there’s still a lot of hefty glass to move around when focusing and 85mm f/1.2 lenses have historically suffered from slow and cumbersome autofocus systems.

The Sigma has relatively rapid autofocus, with not just one but two HLA (High-response Linear Actuators) assigned to the job. Again, the design is optimized for compactness, integrating eight of the lens elements as well as the aperture diaphragm assembly between the two autofocus motors, which Sigma says enables a significant reduction in size and weight.

Although autofocus will usually be preferred, due to the accuracy demanded by such a shallow depth of field at f/1.2, the lens has a large manual focus ring. As required by the type of autofocus system employed, the focus ring is electronically rather than mechanically coupled to the focusing mechanism. The L-mount version of the lens edges ahead of the Sony edition in this respect, adding switchable linear and non-linear focus ring control, where supported by compatible cameras, and also works with the Sigma USB Dock, sold separately.

One thing (or rather three) shared between both mount versions of the lens is that they feature a physical AF/MF auto/manual focus mode switch. This enables quick and easy switching between modes without having to resort to in-camera menus. There are also dual, customizable AF-Lock buttons, positioned on the side and on the top of the lens barrel. This ensures easy, ergonomic access when using the lens for both landscape and portrait (upright) orientation shooting.

Another handling extra that many see as a ‘must-have’ is a dedicated aperture ring. The lens is actually optimized for high-end videography as well as for shooting stills, with minimal focus breathing.

Similarly catering to both disciplines of stills and video, there’s a physical click/de-click switch, so you can have precise one-third f/stop increments for stills and smooth, silent aperture transitions when shooting video.

One thing that I’m particularly pleased to see from a handling perspective is that Sigma has added an aperture ring locking switch. This enables you to lock the aperture ring in it’s Auto position for shooting in Program or Shutter-priority modes, and any other time you want to control the aperture direct from the camera body. To my mind, all too many lenses with physical aperture rings lack this locking switch, making it all too easy to nudge the ring from it’s Auto position to a really narrow aperture accidentally. You can almost guarantee this would happen at the worst possible moment in a time-sensitive shooting scenario.

Other little extras that I’d fully expect include a soft drawstring carrying pouch and a hood. The hood has a circular profile, common for 85mm lenses, and is a high-quality item featuring a ridged inner surface and a locking button.

The hood itself is long enough to ensure good additional resistance against ghosting and flare, as well as offering physical protection against knocks and scrapes to the front glass element.

Last but not least among the supplied accessories, there’s a front cap that has the usual pinch-style release mechanism. This makes it easy to fit or remove the cap with the hood mounted in its forward-facing orientation.

At the rear of the lens, the mounting plate is made from Sigma’s usual plated brass, complete with weather-seal gasket and gold-plated electronic contacts. Multiple weather-seals are fitted throughout the lens to ensure a dust/splash-proof build, giving good protection when shooting in adverse conditions or inclement weather.

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Performance

As a portrait lens, the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art is a spectacular success. Combined with the face/eye-detection autofocus systems of most modern cameras with which the lens is compatible, it gives an incredibly consistent hit rate for accuracy, coupled with sufficiently fast performance to track movement. On top of that, image quality remains sharp with plenty of fine detail, contrast and clarity, even wide-open at f/1.2. In our lab tests, the equivalent Canon and Nikon lenses proved a little sharper at f/1.2 but you’d be hard pressed to see any difference in real-world shooting.

Arguably every bit as important if not more so, the quality of bokeh is sensational. Defocused areas look buttery smooth at f/1.2 and the transition between focused and defocused elements looks entirely natural. The Sigma certainly delivers that elusive ‘3D pop’ in spades, making people and pets really come to life in two-dimensional images.

When stopping down, the immensely well-rounded 13-blade aperture diaphragm helps to maintain excellent quality for defocused areas within images, and really smooth bokeh disks. For comparison, the shots above and below were taken at f/5.6 and f/1.2.

Fast lenses can often exhibit axial/longitudinal chromatic aberration at their widest apertures, also referred to as ‘bokeh fringing’. This can occur across the entire image frame, giving rise to color fringing around high-contrast transitions just in front of or behind the plane of focus. Again, the Sigma performs really well in this respect, keeping the aberration to an absolute minimum.

Not just a one-trick pony, the Sigma performs equally admirably as a short telephoto lens for still life and product photography and for general shooting. If and when you want shots to be sharp from edge to edge and corner to corner, it can do that too, as demonstrated in the longer-distance shot below, of boats and residential apartments across the dock. This shot also shows the absence of unwanted lateral chromatic aberration, even at the extreme edges and corners of the frame.

There’s a slight touch of pincushion distortion but it really is very slight and will usually go unnoticed unless you’re shooting lab test charts or very straight-sided geometrical objects. And that’s with automatic in-camera correction disabled. Switch this on and the Sigma essentially becomes a distortion-free lens, as shown by the image below.

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Sample Images

I shot the following gallery of sample images at the floating harbor of Bristol Docks in the UK, during an afternoon of mixed but mostly sunny weather conditions. I’ve included images taken wide-open at f/1.2 as well as shots captured at a medium aperture setting of f/5.6.

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Center sharpness is spectacular in the f/2 to f/11 sector of the aperture range and holds up really well even at the widest aperture, considering it’s such a fast f/1.2 lens. Ultimately, the Sigma can deliver more than enough sharpness at f/1.2 for portraiture but it can be worth stopping down to between f/2 and f/11 if you feel the need to retain the absolute maximum of fine detail and texture.

Fringing:

Control over both axial and lateral chromatic aberrations is pretty epic at all aperture settings. Automatic in-camera correction tends to be available for the latter but really isn’t necessary.

Distortion: 1.14

There’s a touch of pincushion distortion but it’s generally hard to notice any distortion at all in real-world shooting. For effectively zero-distortion shooting, automatic correction is available either in-camera or at the editing stage.

Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art: Verdict

I feel that the Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art comes as close to portrait perfection as any lens in its class. That makes it a really top-class lens, combining its essential 85mm focal length with a highly desirable and super-fast f/1.2 aperture. It’s an aspirational, heady mix but one that’s more attainable than with Canon and Nikon equivalent lenses, in terms of purchase price. Although the Sigma lens is great value, there’s no skimping on extras. Handling exotica includes a dedicated aperture control ring with click/de-click and Auto-lock switches, along with two customizable function buttons and an AF/MF focus mode switch.

Most importantly, image quality is to die for, combining scintillating sharpness, clarity and bite with sumptuously smooth and creamy bokeh, and an entirely natural falloff between focused and defocused areas. All things considered, it’s top marks to Sigma for this epic new lens which is destined to become an instant classic. I just wish it was available in more mount options… Go ahead Sigma, make my day!

Alternatives

Jump back in time six years and Panasonic surprised me (and everyone else) by launching something genuinely new and different among full-frame ‘standard zoom’ lenses. It came in the diminutive, lightweight and reasonably priced guise of the Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6, which gave photographers a whole new option. Crossing the boundary from standard to ultra-wide-angle coverage at the expense of extra telephoto reach, the zoom range is ideal for landscapes, cityscapes and any other time you need so shoehorn more into the image frame. The trade-off is limited telephoto reach but the formula worked so well that Panasonic more recently followed up with the even wider (and less telephoto) Panasonic S 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3, although that’s arguably more of an out-and-out (but still very compact) wide-angle zoom lens.

In direct response to the Panasonic S 20-60mm zoom, Sigma has now launched the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary that I’m reviewing here. As one of Sigma’s Contemporary line of lenses, it’s again built with lightweight compactness at its core, and is similarly simple and straightforward to use, compared with the Panasonic lens. Ultimately, the Sigma seeks to be a small and convenient lens for walkabout photography, not only as one of the best standard zooms, but also one of the best travel lenses and best landscape lenses.

And it doesn’t stop there! With its ultra-wide maximum viewing angle, the Sigma 20-60mm is also a contender as one of the best lenses for vlogging, for when you’re presenting to camera and want to include some background to set the scene. On top of that, the combination of a 20mm focal length and f/2.8 aperture (faster than the Panasonic lens) also has the potential to be one of the best astrophotography lenses if you’re on a tight budget. And unlike the Panasonic, the Sigma is available in a Sony E (FE) mount option as well as in L-mount, but sadly not in any other fitments.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Specifications

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Price

The Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary is competitively priced at $849 / £749 / AU$1,179. Of course, it’s a zoom lens and when it comes to primes, Sigma can’t really compete with relatively cheap Chinese brands and unlike most ‘Japanese’ manufacturers, still makes its lenses in Japan rather than China or an alternative Far East location. That said, zoom lenses from Chinese brands are very few and far between.

To the best of my recollection, the Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 that I reviewed back in 2020 was made in China and undercuts the Sigma with a price tag of $598 / £619 / AU$1,149. Conversely, the closest own-brand E-mount comparison is the Sony FE 20-70mm f/4 G, which has a larger overall zoom range but is considerably more expensive than the Sigma, especially in the UK and Australia, at $1,099 / £1,233 / AU$1,999. All in all, I think the Sigma 20-60mm is very fairly priced.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Design & Handling

The Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C is from the Contemporary line-up of Sigma’s ‘Global Vision’ lenses. As such, it’s designed to be thoroughly modern yet compact, lightweight, affordable and easy to live with. And while it’s designed to deliver thoroughly satisfying performance with straightforward handling characteristics, it doesn’t have the fully pro-grade aspirations of Sigma’s Art and Sports lines of lenses.

For an everyday lens, I love that it measures just 72x88mm / 2.8x3.5in and weighs in at a mere 375g / 13.2oz, at least for the Sony E-mount version. The L-mount edition is marginally shorter but heavier, but not enough in either respect that you’d notice the difference. The lens certainly feels right at home on the very compact Panasonic Lumix S9 full-frame body, with which I tested it.

And here’s another thing. While the Sigma is a full-frame compatible lens, I feel it’s sufficiently compact and lightweight to be equally desirable for use with APS-C format bodies, on which it gives an ‘effective’ zoom range of 35-90mm. That’s a bit of a moot point for L-mount cameras but serves up an interesting supplement for Sony shooters.

I’ve emphasized the compact, lightweight nature of this lens for a full-frame compatible zoom but there are a couple of caveats. The f/2.8 aperture looks relatively fast at the short end of the zoom range but slows to f/4 at the long end. Even so, the variable f/2.8-4 aperture is significantly faster than many mirrorless zooms, which shrink to f/6.3 at the long end, and the equivalent Panasonic 20-60mm lens is rated at f/3.5-5.6, making it about an f/stop slower throughout most of its zoom range (two-thirds of an f/stop at the short end).

The other factor that impairs compactness is that the lens has an extending inner barrel that adds to the physical length as you stretch from 20mm to 60mm through the zoom range. The net result is that it’s noticeably longer at 60mm than it is at 20mm, as you can see in my product images above and below.

Back on the downsizing trail, one thing that keeps size and weight to a minimum is the inclusion of three aspherical elements in the optical path. Each of them can effectively replace multiple regular elements. The Sigma also includes three SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, to enhance clarity and to minimize chromatic aberration.

Autofocus is courtesy of an HLA (High-response Linear Actuator), which is essentially a linear stepping motor by another name. Typical of those used in most modern mirrorless lenses, it enables speedy and accurate autofocus, along with smooth and near-silent focus transitions when shooting video. Furthermore, the lens itself is optimized for video as well as stills, ensuring minimal focus breathing when altering the aperture.

Fitting right in with the ‘keep it simple’ approach of Sigma Contemporary lenses, this one doesn’t feature an AF/MF focus mode switch, nor an aperture control ring. That said, pretty much all of Sigma’s recent full-frame Contemporary prime lenses do actually feature an aperture control ring. Unlike the zoom mechanism, focusing is fully internal so the front element neither extends nor rotates, the latter being a bonus when using filters like circular polarizers and ND grads, as well as enhancing the lens’s overall handling.

Like the aperture rating, the minimum focus distance is variable throughout the zoom range. It kicks off at 0.2m at the wide-angle end and stretches to 0.25m at the telephoto end. This puts close-up photography well within the remit of the lens and its maximum magnification factor of 0.43x is actually attained at an interim focal length of 35mm.

A petal-shaped hood is supplied with the lens so, unlike with budget lenses from some manufacturers, you don’t have to buy it as an ‘optional extra’. It’s well worth the inclusion as it further reduces the risk of ghosting and flare, as well as giving physical protection against knocks and scrapes to the front lens element.

Another typical design feature is that the front lens cap has a pinch-style lock/release mechanism. This makes it possible to fit and remove the cap even when the hood is fitted in its forward-facing orientation, as shown below. A drawstring soft carrying pouch is also supplied with the lens.

Whereas some budget-friendly lenses from various manufacturers including Canon and Nikon feature plastic, rather than metal mounting plates, Sigma resists the temptation. This lens has a sturdy metal mounting plate that features gold-plated electronic contacts and a weather-seal gasket to reduce the risk of dust and moisture entering through the joint between camera and lens. Other weather-seals are incorporated throughout the lens barrel to ensure a dust/splash-resistant overall construction.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Performance

It sometimes seems to be a rule of thumb that increasingly ultra-wide-angle lenses suffer from decreasing levels of sharpness towards the extreme edges and corners of the frame – laws of physics and all that. The Sigma surprised me by being very sharp at its shortest 20mm focal length, right out to the edges and corners, significantly easing ahead of the Panasonic S 20-60mm zoom in this respect. For photographic evidence, just check out the image below. And by the way, highly impressive sharpness is maintained across the whole image frame even when combining the widest-angle focal length with the widest aperture of f/2.8.

To give a sense of scale, or at least zoom potential, the sample shots above and below were taken of the same scene from the same vantage point, at the shortest and longest focal lengths of the lens. You’ll see a very substantial difference, although that’s mostly down to the extreme wide-angle ability of the lens rather than any serious telephoto reach. Either way, the 3x zoom range gives you a lot to play with, marginally outstretching the 2.9x zoom range of a 24-70mm standard zoom. In our lab tests, edge/corner-sharpness dropped off a little in the long half of the zoom range but the following test shot looks plenty sharp enough to me, right from edge to edge.

Compared with truly fast prime lenses, the ability to deliver a tight depth of field isn’t one of this zoom lens’s strongest points but it can still do a pretty good job, especially when shooting close-ups. And even so, the variable aperture range is an f/stop or more ‘faster’ than with many zoom lenses, as I mentioned earlier. The shot below is of my granddaughter’s teddy bear against the backdrop of Bristol Docks and shows that background bokeh is entirely feasible and of a pretty decent quality.

The Sigma exhibits good control over color fringing but like many modern lenses for mirrorless cameras, especially those designed with compactness and a lightweight build in mind, it relies fairly heavily on automatic in-camera correction for distortions. When enabled, the correction takes distortions completely out of the equation, as shown in the sample image below.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Sample Images

I shot the following gallery of sample images at the floating harbor of Bristol Docks in the UK, on an afternoon of mixed but mostly sunny weather conditions. I used a variety of focal lengths throughout the entire zoom range, at various apertures, to give a good idea of the overall picture.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Sharpness is highly impressive at the center and intermediate areas of the image frame, throughout the entire zoom range, even when shooting at the widest available apertures. Sharpness at the extreme edges and corners of the frame also bears up particularly well at the most wide-angle zoom setting, less so at mid to long zoom settings at wide apertures.

Fringing:

Color fringing is entirely minimal at the wide-angle end of the zoom range, even out at the edges and corners of the frame. It can be a little more noticeable at mid to long zoom settings but is nevertheless easily within the remit of automatic in-camera correction, which effectively eliminates the appearance of any fringing.

Distortion:

There’s heavy optical barrel distortion at 20mm, minimal pincushion at 35mm and noticeable pincushion distortion in the 50-60mm sector of the zoom range. Bear in mind though that the Sigma is typical of most modern lenses designed for mirrorless cameras with compactness and a lightweight build in mind, relying on automatic in-camera correction for distortions. When enabled, in-camera correction effectively counters distortions at all zoom settings.

Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG | C: Verdict

For walkabout, street and travel photography, I often find that I want to squeeze more into the frame than my 24-70mm standard zoom will allow. The result is that I’ll need to carry an additional ultra-wide-angle lens and endure the chore of swapping between lenses more often than I’d like to. I love that the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary gives me all the extra viewing width that I crave, without lopping too much off the long end, compared with a more typical 24-70mm zoom lens.

I’m really impressed that Sigma has been able to design this lens with its ultra-wide-angle potential, while delivering excellent image quality in a package that’s refreshingly compact and lightweight. Sure, the inner barrel extends at longer zoom settings but that’s only natural. And although it has a variable aperture rating, it’s faster than is often the case. All in all, I think this Sigma lens is a small wonder, and a bargain at the price.

Alternatives

Sigma just dropped one of the best lenses you never knew you needed – and once you know it exists, you may not be able to do without it.

The Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary is a not-so-standard zoom that delivers prime-level sharpness while minimizing the footprint of full-frame cameras – which means that those small bodies like the Sigma BF, Lumix S9 and Sony A7C II actually stay small.

Yes, the Lumix heads among you may be pointing out that Panasonic already made a lens like this. But while the Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 was a very good lens, it's a stop slower – and it's only available for L-Mount, whereas Sigma's lens is also available for Sony E (but not, alas, Canon RF or Nikon Z).

Take a closer look in the launch video:

Topping and tailing the 24-70mm standard zoom lens, Sigma's 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary offers a much more useful ultra-wide starting point of 20mm – which is rapidly becoming the new normal, thanks to smartphones changing the game.

And it's that extra width that makes this such a useful everyday, walkabout, travel and even vlogging lens – ideal for those situations such as indoor photography, taking pictures of church ceilings and presenting pieces to camera where you can never "get far back enough". Focus breathing is well controlled, too, further buttering its bread as a video optic.

Indeed, the bottom-heavy zoom range also makes this a very practical zoom for APS-C shooters, where it offers an eminently practical 35-90mm equivalent focal range, with a minimum focus distance of 158mm at 28mm for versatile close-up shooting.

Positively palm-sized at just 72 x 88mm and weighing a mere 375g, this little lens packs 15 elements in 13 groups – including a trio of aspherical lenses and a trifecta of special low dispersion glass elements.

"I'm really impressed that Sigma has been able to design this lens with its ultra-wide-angle potential, while delivering excellent image quality in a package that's refreshingly compact and lightweight," said my colleague Matthew in his Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary review.

"Sure, the inner barrel extends at longer zoom settings but that's only natural. And although it has a variable aperture rating, it's faster than is often the case. All in all, I think this Sigma lens is a small wonder, and a bargain at the price."

The Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 DG Contemporary will be available from September 30, priced $849 / £749 / AU$1,179.

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Take a look at the best Sony lenses and the best L-Mount lenses.

All-in-one super zooms, also known as workhorse lenses, give photographers incredible versatility from a single lens. The Sigma 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS | C is a prime example. Designed for APS-C mirrorless cameras, it offers an impressive 18.8x zoom range, covering everything from wide-angle to telephoto without changing lenses.

Now, Sigma has released a new firmware update for the superzoom, improving AF (autofocus) operation speed, tweaking peripheral illumination correction, and fixing occasional blackout/freesing issue when used with the Canon EOS R6 Mark III.

The latter hints at why photographers shouldn't get too excited. While the 16-300mm f/3.5-6.7 DC OS | C is available for Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Sony E and L-mount, the firmware update is only for the Canon RF version.

Firmware overview

Ver.1.0.1
Download link Windows
Download link Mac OS

Improvements
• Fixed an isolated issue where the monitor blacks out and the camera freezes during shooting when used with the Canon EOS R6 Mark III
• Improved autofocus (AF) operation speed
• Optimized peripheral illumination correction data to improve correction accuracy

Pro Advice

If you caught Episode 4 of Bokeh Face: Digital Camera World podcast, above, we discussed the best time to install firmware updates, why they matter, and what issues they can cause. It's a helpful listen if you're unsure when – or whenever – you should update.

It's smart to wait a week or two after release to see if any users hit snags. In the past, brands have had a few hiccups with major updates – for instance, introducing memory-setting bugs or minor interface glitches before being reissued.

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Eight of the Top 10 best-selling lenses in Japan right now come from third-party manufacturers, according to the latest BCN Raking data.

Sigma and Tamron dominate the chart, with four lenses each, while only one Nikon and one Sony lens make the Top 10 – and there isn't a single Canon optic in sight.

The biggest winner is Sigma, whose 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C takes the No.1 spot for Sony E-mount. The same lens also appears at No.2 in Canon RF-mount and No.4 in Fujifilm X-mount, making it one of the most successful individual lens designs in the ranking. Sigma's 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | C also takes third place, giving the brand four spots in total.

BCN's Top 10 best-selling lenses, July 2026

1. Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C (E-mount)
2. Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C (RF-mount)
3. Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | C (E-mount)
4. Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C (X-mount)
5. Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD (E-mount)
6. Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 (E-mount)
7. Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S
8. Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 (E-mount)
9. Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS
10. Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD (E-mount)

Sigma's third party lens success in Japan

Launched for Canon RF in 2024, the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C was Sigma's first AF (autofocus) lens for the mount – a long-awaited release for Canon EOS R users.

It's an ideal choice for APS-C cameras such as the EOS R7, R10, R50 and R100 and is priced relatively affordably at $659 / £468 (RF-mount).

It offers a useful standard zoom range equivalent to roughly 27-75mm in full-frame and is lightweight, weighing 290g in Sony E and L-mount versions, 285g for Fujifilm X and 300g for Canon RF.

In our review, we highlighted its lightweight design and constant f/2.8 aperture as its major strengths. We also found its AF to be fast and virtually silent, while build quality and weather resistance were further strengths.

Tamron also claims four spots

Tamron accounts for four of the Top 10, with the 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD at No.5, followed by the 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 at No.6, the 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 at No.8 and the 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD at No.10. All four are Sony E-mount lenses.

Together, Tamron's lenses span everything from fast standard zooms to all-in-one travel lenses and long telephoto zooms – great alternatives to often larger or more expensive first-party options.

That leaves just two first-party lenses in the chart. Nikon's Z 24-120mm f/4 S comes in at No.7, while Sony's E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS takes ninth place.

Canon, meanwhile, is completely absent from BCN's July Top 10 – despite its hugely popular RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM previously claiming top spots across different Japanese retailers, like Kitamura.

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Browse the best telephoto lenses, the best budget telephoto lenses, and the best standard zoom lenses.

In an age of increasingly complicated cameras, one minimalist full-frame mirrorless is going in the opposite direction – and it has now won another major award for doing so. It is unlike almost anything else currently on the market and arguably teaches lessons no other mirrorless can – at least not in such a minimalist way.

The Sigma BF has no viewfinder, minimal physical controls and a design that strips photography back to its essentials: light, position and the act of taking a picture. That philosophy has now earned it a 'Best of the Best' award at the 2026 Red Dot Design Awards.

It's the second major accolade that the BF has picked up this year. The camera previously received the Editor's Choice R&D Award at the Camera Grand Prix 2026, where it was praised for its radical simplicity and design philosophy.

What Red Dot says the Sigma BF

"In an era where images are produced almost without thinking, it creates a deliberate counterpoint – focusing on photographing with intent and for pure enjoyment.

"The body of the camera is made from a solid block of aluminum and has an almost monolithic appearance. The controls are kept to the absolute minimum; transitions are meticulously crafted and the connection between the lens and the body looks seamless and streamlined.

"The camera reveals itself in a clearly defined form – a self-contained object that owes its character to its materiality and proportions and whose sculptural quality fascinated the jury.

"The same minimalist approach has also been applied to the user interface. A separate status display shows all relevant information, keeping the main screen clear of superimposed data. The center of attention is the image. The only element on the top of the camera is the shutter button.

The jury paid tribute in particular to the rigor of the design and manufacture: “From a production perspective, the Sigma BF is an embodiment of perfectionism, made as it is from a single aluminum block, characterised by radical simplicity and the seamless transition from body to lens.

"The camera’s materiality has been deliberately rendered visible. It is an exceptionally minimalist product whose quality and merit are immediately noticeable.

"This camera reduces technological complexity to a simple principle: light, space and purposeful focus – it is a contemporary interpretation of what began with the camera obscura."

Why the Sigma BF teaches photographers lessons no other mirrorless really can

The BF's minimalism isn't simply about having fewer buttons. Its entire design is built around keeping your attention on photography.

The controls, display and physical layout have all been deliberately stripped back to keep your attention on light, composition, subject and timing.

Of course, plenty of compact cameras and point-and-shoots have always been simple. What's different about the BF is that Sigma has taken that idea and built a modern full-frame mirrorless camera around it, making simplicity and the act of taking a photo central to its design.

That's what makes the BF so interesting. It's not trying to give you more ways to take a picture; it's trying to make you think more about the picture itself.

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Check out our full Sigma BF review and the best L-Mount lenses to use with it.

Sigma has released free firmware updates for 13 Sony E-mount lenses, bringing compatibility improvements for photographers using the new Sony A7 V.

The rollout covers a range of Contemporary and Art primes, including six of the company's premium I Series lenses.

While the firmware versions vary between Version 3 and Version 7 depending on the lens, they all deliver the same fix: resolving a rare issue that could cause the camera's monitor to black out and freeze during shooting when paired with the Sony A7 V.

Firmware

Updates: 17mm, 20mm and 24mm

1. Sigma 17mm F4 DG DN | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.03
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

2. Sigma 17mm F4 DG | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.03
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

3. Sigma 20mm F2 DG DN | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

4. Sigma 20mm F2 DG | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

5. Sigma 24mm F2 DG DN | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

6. Sigma 24mm F2 DG | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

Updates: 35mm, 45mm, 65 and 90mm

7. Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG DN | Art Sony E-mount – Ver.05
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

8. Sigma 45mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.07
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

9. Sigma 45mm F2.8 DG | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.07
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

10. Sigma 65mm F2 DG DN | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

11. Sigma 65mm F2 DG | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

12. Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

13. Sigma 90mm F2.8 DG | Contemporary Sony E-mount – Ver.04
Download link for Windows and Mac OS

Pro Advice

If you caught Episode 4 of Bokeh Face: Digital Camera World podcast, above, we discussed the best time to install firmware updates, why they matter, and what issues they can cause. It's a helpful listen if you're unsure when – or whenever – you should update.

It's smart to wait a week or two after release to see if any users hit snags. In the past, brands have had a few hiccups with major updates – for instance, introducing memory-setting bugs or minor interface glitches before being reissued.

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Browse the best lenses for the Sony A7 V

With camera manufacturers now focused on mirrorless systems, it would be easy to assume DSLR lenses have faded into history. Japan's latest sales figures suggest otherwise. According to Japanese retailer Kitamura, a 11-year-old Canon DSLR lens climbed to No.2 in its best-selling lens chart for June 2026 – outperforming almost every modern mirrorless lens on the list.

The lens in question is the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM. The only optic ahead of it is the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary for Canon RF mount – the company's first RF lens. The zoom is also available for Sony E, L-mount and Fujifilm X-mount.

Kitamura's June Top 10 reflects today's mixed lens market, with two lenses each from Sigma, Canon, Sony and Nikon, while Tamron and Fujifilm each claim one spot. Yet among all those zooms, there's just a single prime lens in the ranking – and it's the budget-friendly DSLR fifty first released more than a decade ago.

Kitamura's 10 best-selling lenses, June 2026

1. Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C (RF-mount)
2. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM
3. Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | C ( E-mount)
4. Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM
5. Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S
6. Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS
7. Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR II
8. Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 (E-mount)
9. Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR
10. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II

Why the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM is so popular

Launched in 2015, Canon's EF f/1.8 STM is still available for $169 / £129, making it one of the most affordable first-party prime lenses on the market.

In our review, we described the classic nifty fifty as an "affordable marvel that any Canon photographer should own."

Our reviewer, Matthew Richards, praised its combination of sharp optics, smooth bokeh, fast and reliable AF (autofocus) and exceptional value for many, arguing that it outperforms Canon's EF 50mm f/1.4 USM in almost every meaningful area apart from its wider maximum aperture.

Its lightweight 160g (5.6 oz) design only adds to its appeal, making it an easy everyday lens for DSLR photographers.

Perhaps most impressively, our testing found that the budget-friendly prime delivered more accurate AF than the pricier EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, and produced sharper images across much of the f/1.8-2.8 aperture range.

It also offered better edge sharpness on APS-C cameras, along with lower levels of color fringing and distortion.

Taken together, those qualities help explain why a decade-old DSLR lens continues to attract buyers, even as the camera industry shifted almost entirely to mirrorless systems.

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Browse the best standard zoom lenses, the best telephoto lenses, and the best Canon lenses for DSLRs.

Before digital tools revolutionized visual arts, creators harnessed hands-on techniques, working with chemicals and physical layers to concoct graphic designs and process images. Trevor Key was a foremost British creator in this space and his innovative techniques transformed the darkroom into a graphic design studio.

Now, The Sigma Foundation, a philanthropic initiative set up by the Japanese lens manufacturer to promote photography, is set to release an eponymous book on the late photographer, delving into his creative process and his work.

Trevor Key is the first book to document the artist's work, covering two decades of his career (1972–1995). At the core of the book is the collaboration between Key and Peter Saville, the influential British art director and graphic designer.

This creative partnership spanned the 1970s and 80s, with the duo's work blending bold typography with pioneering analog photography techniques, notably bringing to life the visual identities of artists like New Order, Mike Oldfield, Phil Collins, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Peter Gabriel.

The Dichromat Technique, where they selectively re-colored black-and-white negatives using layered filters and varying exposures to produce striking images, came to define their approach.

This technique was further innovated later in the partnership to infuse color, producing album covers and wider works reminiscent of Andy Warhol's silkscreens, which the pair achieved by taking hundreds of exposures to refine the exact color intensities.

Trevor Key will be presented by Peter Saville at Arles, France during the Les Rencontres d'Arles photography festival, tomorrow, July 07, and is set for a 1,500-edition release in August.

The 244-page monograph also includes an essay from photography curator and writer Charlotte Webb, as well as commentary from Saville. Prices for the book are yet to be confirmed – keep an eye on the Sigma Foundation webpage for updates.

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Take a look at our pick of the best cameras for black-and-white photography as well as our review of the best photo editing softwares.

When I think about third-party lenses, I think about optics that sit at a more affordable price range – but the latest trends list coming out of Japan suggests that third-party lenses aren’t only about snagging a bargain.

According to Minna Camera, an online “flea market” of sorts for selling new and used camera gear, the trendiest third-party lenses in Japan over the last seven months are almost exclusively zooms. But, some of the most popular third-party optics are those that cover a range that’s hard to find from the first-party brands – and many of the lenses aren’t budget picks either.

The top ten third-party lenses in Japan are a near even split between Sigma and Tamron, with Sigma at 54.7 percent and Tamron at 45.3 percent. While a Carl Zeiss lens made the top 20, only those two popular optics brands make up the top ten list, which includes:

• Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN (Sony E)
• Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD (Fujifilm X)
• Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM (Canon EF)
• Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN (Fujifilm X)
• Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II (Sony E)
• Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di III Macro VXD (Sony E)
• Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD (Sony E)
• Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD (Nikon Z)
• Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD (Sony E)
• Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN (Sony E)

While there are a number of standard focal length options on the list, including multiple 24-70mm f/2.8 workhorse lenses, several of the top lenses are options that don’t quite have an exact match in the brand native to the mount.

The Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8, for example, covers an equivalent of a 25.5 to 105mm, all-in-one lens that still maintains that bright f/2.8 throughout the range. That’s an unusual combination that doesn’t have an exact match from Fujifilm – and the crop sensor lens is also available in the Sony E, and now Canon RF and Nikon Z.

Similarly, Tamron’s 18-300mm and 50-300mm cover an all-in-one approach that makes the lenses more unusual.

Even the top lens, the Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN doesn’t have an exact match, though Sony does offer the same focal length range in an even brighter f/2 lens.

The number of lenses on the list that don’t have an exact match from a first-party brand, combined with the number of lenses selling for more than ¥100,000 ($618 / £468 / AU$839 / CA$877), leaves Minna Camera drawing one key conclusion: Buying a third-party lens isn’t necessarily about getting a better price.

The other thing that surprised me about the list of top third-party lenses is that only one prime makes the list, a Tamron 90mm that has macro capabilities. While I’m not surprised that there are more zooms than primes, I would have expected at least one of Sigma’s popular Art series primes to be a trending option.

Another surprise? While I fully expected Sigma and Tamron to dominate the list, the growing number of third-party Chinese lens brands hasn’t become popular enough to break into the top 20, though expanding the list to 20 options does bring in a Carl Zeiss lens.

The top trending third-party lenses in Japan – and from an app that has both new and used lenses – may not match up exactly with the trends in other regions. But, the data offers an interesting insight into the popularity of some third-party lenses – and it seems it’s not just about price.

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take a deep dive into the best zoom lenses or the best telephoto zoom lenses.

A US$4,599 medium-format lens isn't the kind of model you'd expect to see competing with mainstream full-frame best-sellers. Yet the Hasselblad XCD 35-100E has been doing exactly that in Japan, consistently ranking among the country's most popular lenses and now claiming the No.1 spot in Yodobashi's latest sales chart for the second half of May.

The world's fastest medium-format zoom is Hasselblad's second "trinity" lens for the X-System and is versatile enough to replace up to seven premium prime lenses worth over US$20,000.

That winning formula has helped it outperform some of photography's biggest pro workhorse lenses, including Sony's flagship Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II and Nikon's new Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II.

Yodobashi's 10 best-selling lenses (2nd half May)

1. Hasselblad XCD 35-100E
2. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II
3. Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM
4. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II
5. Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 (E-mount)
6. Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II
7. Fujifilm XF 16-55mmf /2.8 R LM WR II
8. Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN | Contemporary (E-mount)
9. Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S II
10. Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM

Why is the XCD 35-100E so popular?

In real-world use, the XCD 35-100E can handle a wide range of genres.

From street photography and architecture to portrait, it replaces multiple prime lenses while maintaining the image quality expected from Hasselblad's high-resolution system.

That versatility is one of the reasons it has become such a strong seller in Japan.

The fastest (and best) zoom lens for medium format cameras

With the Hasselblad XCD 35-100E, the brand has delivered one of its most capable lenses to date.

And the competition is strong: Sony's 70-200mmm is a key lens in the company's pro lineup, while Nikon's latest Z 70-200mm successor arrived to huge acclaim after the original was described as "probably the best 70-200mm zoom in the world," in our review.

While the XCD 35-100E is not a constant f/2.8 throughout its entire range, its ability to reach f/2.8 at the wide end still makes it the fastest autofocus (AF) medium-format zoom currently available.

Combined with Hasselblad's latest AF system in the X2D II 100C, it delivers a level of responsiveness that brings medium-format shooting closer to the speed and flexibility traditionally associated with full-frame systems.

Lower demand for 70-200mm in Japan

The second half of May shows a modest shift in the ranking. Canon's RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z is absent from the top 10 this time, with the popular 70-200mm category represented by one fewer lens overall.

At the same time, the rankings continue to favour versatile zoom ranges. Standard 24-70mm lenses remain a staple, while extended-range options such as 24-105mm, 28-200mm, and 100-400mm optics continue to appear regularly across the top 10.

The next best-seller chart could see further changes following the arrival of Sony's FE 100-400mm f/4.5 GM OSS.

High-profile launches have historically performed strongly in Japan's rankings, with Nikon's Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II, for example, quickly climbing to the No.1 spot after release before settling into the chart.

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Browse the best standard zoom lenses, the best telephoto lenses, and the best 70-200mm lenses.

Sometimes a great camera kit can be more than the sum of its parts. I think it’s true that particular lenses are a better fit for individual camera bodies rather than others, even when there are similar models in the line-up. When I’m choosing lenses for the slim and budget-friendly Sony A6400, I feel that the size, weight and price are strong contributing factors. For my money, the A6400 is one of the best Sony cameras because I think it delivers such a great combination of features and versatility, at a keen price. It’s a compact and affordable camera, so its lenses should be as well.

I’ve regularly used the Sony A6400 and I’ve tested all the lenses featured in this guide. If I was spending my own money, these are the options I would consider first. You can also check out my list of the best lenses for Sony A6000 cameras generally if you like, and many of the best Sony lenses will also be a good match for the A6400.

As photographers, we all have our special areas of interest, so I’ve tried to cover plenty of genres, from travel photography to portraiture, sports and wildlife. As you’ll see, I’ve also taken A6400 video shooters into account, with the inclusion of a couple of affordable prime lenses which are great for video as well as for stills. Above all, I’ve aimed to give full consideration to each lens’s suitability for the A6400’s size, its performance in relation to the camera’s 24MP sensor, and the kind of value for money that reflects the price of the A6400 itself.

Best lenses for the Sony A6400 

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Best everyday lens for the A6400

The Sony A6400 is usually sold with Sony's 16-50mm power zoom kit lens, which is very compact and convenient but a bit lacking in optic prowess. If you want a step up in quality, one option is Sony's rather massive and expensive 16-55mm f/2.8 G, but I would pick this Sigma instead.

The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN offers a constant f/2.8 aperture, just like the Sony lens, with a classic 3x zoom range for a standard zoom. The Sigma is smaller than you’d expect given its constant maximum aperture (my shot shows it fitted to a Sony A7R III, but you'll get the idea), yet the build quality is very good – and it’s weather-resistant as well. The autofocus system is super-fast and virtually silent, and I'm impressed by the image quality.

Read more: Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C review

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Most versatile lens for the A6400

Frustrated by the short focal range of the standard Sony 16-50mm kit lens? Get this! With an equivalent focal range of 27-202mm in full frame terms, the Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS is practically a superzoom, but remains compact, neat, and affordable, and – unlike almost every other long-zoom lens – it holds its performance all the way through to its longest zoom setting.

What I like about this lens is its neat, simple design, its fuss-free exterior, easy operation, and built-in optical image stabilizer. Like a lot of modern mirrorless lenses, it does rely on digital as well as optical corrections, but the result is a long-range lens with far better image quality across the range than I would normally expect from a lens of this type.

Read more: Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS review

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Best wide-angle lens for the A6400

Sony also makes an older E 10-18mm f/4 OSS lens, which is a little cheaper than this one and is also worth considering. The 10-18mm has optical stabilization, which is good for stills photography, but this newer E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G has a power zoom, which is ideal for video, so take your pick.

The Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G is especially good for vloggers who need to film themselves in the context of their background, because it gives a wider angle of view than a regular zoom. It's also a great travel lens, ideal for narrow city streets, tall landmarks, and spectacular interiors. None of the ultra-wide lens options for the Sony A6400 is cheap, but this is such a useful lens to have that I recommend it without hesitation.

Read more: Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G review

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Best telephoto lens for the A6400

I love using this lens on both A7-series full-frame cameras and APS-C format Sony bodies. It’s much more compact and lightweight than conventional 70-200mm f/2.8 ‘trinity’ telephoto zooms, which I feel is always a good thing when shooting with slimline mirrorless bodies. Sure, it doesn’t quite stretch to 200mm at the long end, but it comes pretty close, while retaining that all-important constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the entire zoom range. Pop it on an APS-C format body, and you get an ‘effective’ zoom range of 105-270mm. It works a treat for weddings and events and even for sports and wildlife photography, while keeping the weight off.

And there’s more. While the original Tamron 70-180mm was a great lens, I love that the G2 adds optical image stabilization, uprated handling, and revamped optics. And it delivers all this at a more inexpensive launch purchase price than the original lens. I find that in-body image stabilization tends to be less effective in telephoto shooting, so the addition of optical stabilization is particularly welcome.

Autofocus is super-fast, based on a VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) system, and well able to do justice to the Fast Hybrid AF, Eye AF, and advanced tracking options in Sony’s recent mirrorless cameras. The proof of the pudding is in the image quality, and I like that the optical layout has been redesigned to include an XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) element, a hybrid aspherical lens element, three LD (Low Dispersion) elements, and two GM (Glass Molded aspherical) lens elements. Tamron’s BBAR-G2 (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection Generation 2) coating is also applied to minimize ghosting and flare. All in all, it’s a terrific lens and a bargain at the price.

Read more: Tamron 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 review

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Best super-telephoto lens for the A6400

For longer-range subjects, you need a lens with big telephoto reach, but also with sufficient optical quality for sharp results. So while there is a cheaper and smaller Sony E 55-210mm lens, this is the one I would recommend for action, sports, and wildlife, as well as for bird photography.

The Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS is a relatively big and expensive lens, but its 5x zoom range is equivalent to 105-525mm on a full-frame body, stretching into super-telephoto territory. It might not have an ultra-fast maximum aperture, but the modest f/4.5-6.3 aperture rating enables a more compact, lightweight build, and it does have Sony's OSS optical image stabilization system. It's a manageable lens that offers huge reach at an affordable price.

Read more: Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS review

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Best street photography lens for the A6400

I said in the introduction that I wanted to include a couple of prime lenses, and this is the first. The Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 is actually a full-frame lens, so if you decide to upgrade to a full-frame Sony camera in the future, you can keep this lens for the journey.

On a full-frame camera, it's an ultra-wide-angle prime. Fit it to your Sony A6400, and it has an 'effective' 30mm focal length – perfect as a semi-wide-angle 'street photography' lens. Not only that, its 1:2 close-up capability means it's halfway (literally) towards a full macro lens, so it does two jobs, not just one. Best of all, it's not too big and not too expensive, despite first-rate optical performance, so it's a great buy for Sony A6400 owners.

Read more: Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M 1:2 review

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Best portrait photography lens for the A6400

Compared with full-frame cameras, APS-C models like the A6400 can struggle to deliver a tight depth of field. That’s because DOF is more dependent on the ‘actual’ focal length rather than the ‘effective’ focal length after the 1.5x crop factor is applied. To compensate, I love that this lens has an ultra-fast f/1.2 aperture, which is capable of delivering a really tight depth of field at typical shooting distances for portraiture.

Making the most of the tight depth of field, the Viltrox combines superb sharpness with beautifully smooth bokeh in defocused areas, with a natural-looking roll-off between the two. It’s a great portrait lens that enables you to really isolate the main subject within a scene by blurring fussy-looking backgrounds.

Handling is excellent, and although the lens is necessarily a bit chunky due to the super-fast aperture rating, it’s well stocked in features. These include an aperture control ring with a click/de-click switch, a handy AF/MF focus switch, and a customizable function button.

Read more: Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.2 E Pro review

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Best ultra-wide prime lens for the A6400

A small lens with a big heart and a big viewing angle, I love how this Sony 11mm shoehorns so much into the image frame. I find it ideal for everything from cramped architectural interiors to sweeping landscape vistas and cityscapes, while its fast f/1.8 aperture makes it equally adept for astrophotography. Buy one, and it won’t be long before you wonder how you ever managed without it.

I really like that the lens is designed to be equally adept at shooting stills and movies, boasting two linear stepping motors that deliver super-fast autofocus for stills and smooth, virtually silent focus transitions for movies. The minimum focus distance of 0.15m shrinks to just 0.12m in manual focus mode, delivering a tight depth of field at f/1.8 for close-ups or using the lens for vlogging. Handling benefits from an AF/MF switch and a customizable autofocus-hold button.

I also like that the lens is neatly compact and lightweight, ideally suited to the slimline Sony A6400. Even so, it packs quality glass including three aspherical elements and three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements to optimize image quality, while build quality is convincingly robust, featuring multiple weather-seals.

Read more: Sony E 11mm f/1.8 review

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Lab data and comparisons

The graphs below show the comparative performance of the lenses in this guide, based on our in-house lab tests. You’ll see that the Tamron 70-180mm has standout performance for sharpness, especially for a zoom rather than prime lens. By contrast, the Sony 11mm and Tamron 20mm show extreme barrel distortion but as with many lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, they rely heavily on automatic in-camera correction to put things right.

Scores for sharpness and color fringing are averaged from data taken across the entire image frame, from the center to the edges and corners, throughout the aperture range. For zoom lenses, the scores are also averaged from data measured at all marked focal lengths, and the same applies to distortion.

Bear in mind that these average values don't fully reflect specific areas of performance. For example, a zoom lens might have noticeable barrel distortion at its shortest focal length, which is less obvious when everything is averaged out. For more detailed graphs of each lens's performance, take a look at the graphs published in our full standalone reviews.

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How to choose the best lens for the Sony A6400

The A6400, like all A6000-series cameras, uses the Sony E lens mount. Sony’s own E-mount lenses have either FE (full-frame) or E (APS-C format) in their model names: all work on the A6400. Very broadly speaking, an FE lens will be heavier and more expensive than an equivalent E lens, but deliver better image quality. E lenses (again, very broadly) will tend to be smaller and lighter.

For shooting at shorter focal lengths and wider angles of view – specifically kit lenses or ultra-wide zooms – you are probably better off with an E lens. The APS-C crop factor of the A6400 means that FE lenses offer a reduced angle of view, curtailing their wide-angle capability with the smaller sensor.

If you are buying a third-party E-mount lens, check whether the lens is designed for use with APS-C Sony cameras, such as the A6400, or with full-frame Sony bodies.

Check out our guide to the best Sony lenses if you want to know more

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How we test lenses

The lens experts in our testing lab run a range of tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion, and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the centre of the image frame, corners, and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths.

There's more to it than just the technical side, though! Beyond the lab, our reviewers test lenses in real-world environments – and sometimes on professional shoots! We work with lenses both indoors and outdoors, in studio conditions and in natural light, with as many different subjects as possible (or appropriate – there's no point testing a landscape lens' ability to shoot a portrait!).

We take into account everything from handling and ease of use to speed of autofocus and the overall quality of the images produced.

Find out more about how we test and review on Digital Camera World

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Just about every photographer has a bucket list lens – a dream camera lens that they would love to see before they die. But only a handful of photographers run a company that manufactures lenses – and thus, can make that bucket list lens a reality.

One such photographer is Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma. And there was a lens on his bucket list for years – and he wanted to make it, even though it's a pretty niche lens that may not sell many units.

In fact, it's because it's a niche lens that may not sell many units that made him want to bring it to market.

"I’m always thinking, what is the raison d'être of Sigma? In other words, what is the reason why Sigma does business in this industry?" Yamaki told me, when I spoke to him in Japan earlier this year.

"If we only make similar products to major companies and just release them at a lower price, I don’t think it’s worth existing in this industry.

"We really want to contribute to the development of the industry and to the culture of photography. So we want the challenge to deliver something innovative, something new.

"And also, we believe it’s one of our missions to deliver niche lenses. Even though such products don’t have a huge demand, there is demand from a certain kind of photographer. So it’s our mission to satisfy those photographers.

And so, the Sigma 200mm f/2 DG OS Sports lens was born. "That lens has been on my bucket list for many years. And I always – I'm not a smart person. So I always try to listen to opinions from others.

"For example, in the [Sigma] office, I don’t have my own office; I only have my one desk on the engineering floor, because I can hear opinions from the engineers. So from the conversation with the engineers, I can learn.

"At the same time, I always try to listen to the opinions from photographers. And many photographers asked me to make a 200mm f/2. Although they said this lens would be very niche, and Sigma won’t be able to sell a lot, but they really need it. And so it’s been in my bucket list, and then I believe it’s the right time to do it.

ABOVE: Watch us discuss the lens on our podcast

"Every year, every one or two months, we have a product planning meeting including me, the engineers and the product planning team. And we make a road map for the, let’s say, next three to four years.

Because we know every time we discuss – especially because probably the road map for the next year, and then two years later, it’s probably fixed, but three years later we can change [the roadmap].

And every year we take the balance between the lenses that can sell a lot and support our business – like the 24-70 f/2.8, that kind of lens – but also we try to include one or two very niche lenses, although we understand that we cannot sell a lot.

But again, in order to contribute to the development of the industry, we try to makes such lenses. So the 200mm f/2 is one of those."

My hat is absolutely off to Yamaki. In a world where camera brands increasingly play things safe, only launching products that are guaranteed to please the masses, seeing Sigma cater to photography's niches is a welcome tonic indeed.

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Check out our Sigma 200mm f/2 DG OS | Sports review (spoiler alert: it's a five-star lens) and see how it compares to the Laowa 200mm f/2 AF FF.

In a world of increasingly complex cameras, one minimalist full-frame mirrorless camera is standing out – and is winning awards for it.

The Sigma BF is a camera that strips things back to the essentials. Its design philosophy focuses on simplicity, encouraging photographers to concentrate on the act of taking a picture rather than navigating menus or features.

This approach has now been recognized at the Camera Grand Prix 2026, where the Sigma BF received the Editor's Choice R&D Award.

Editor's Choice R&D Award: Sigma BF

The Camera Grand Prix 2026 is one of Japan's most prestigious photography awards. The Sigma BF was praised for its radical simplicity and design-led philosophy.

"The Sigma BF is based on a design philosophy that returns to the essence of the act of 'taking a picture,' simplifying the control and display systems to the extreme. This creates a unique user interface that allows for deep concentration on the act of shooting itself. We highly valued this aspect.

"Furthermore, the unibody structure, machined from aluminum, combines high rigidity with craftsmanship, boldly expressing the material appeal of a camera as a product.

"Its innovativeness, which re-examines the raison d'être of the camera from an approach different from the conventional trend of increasing multi-functionality, and presents new value and direction, is particularly noteworthy."

Why simplicity matters in photography

Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki calls the BF "beautiful foolishness" – a phrase inspired by The Book of Tea, which celebrates the beauty of simplicity over excess.

It's less a product slogan than a philosophy: that stripping things back makes photography more intentional, not less powerful. That idea runs deep in Sigma's identity, a company founded in 1961 by Kazuto Yamaki's father and long known for its unique, design-led approach to camera making.

You can read more about this in our interview with Yamaki (where he says, among other things, that he thinks he can make Sigma "a nicer brand" than Canon and Nikon, even if he can't make it a bigger company).

By stripping the camera down to its essentials, the BF encourages a more considered way of shooting. It offers something no feature-heavy camera can offer in the same way: it teaches how to see.

Without distractions from menus or layered functions, attention naturally shifts to the fundamentals of photography – subject, light, composition, and timing.

In that sense, the camera is less about what it does for the photographer and more about how it gets out of the way. The Sigma BF is built for focus and intention, helping photographers concentrate on the essence of photography.

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If the camera sparked your interest, you can read our Sigma BF review. And see why Sigma's CEO says "I don’t believe I can make Sigma a bigger company than Sony or Canon, but I think I can make it a nicer brand”.

Sigma is a brand that has gone through a pretty profound transformation – something that is incredibly difficult for any brand to accomplish, but especially a camera and optics company.

Only a few years ago, Sigma was just one of many third-party lens manufacturers – well regarded, but mainly known as being the maker of more affordable lenses that first-party products from the big camera brands.

Last year, however, it completely changed its visual identity and brand presentation. From its new logo and typeface to the product imagery and focus on "Made in Aizu", Sigma masterfully repositioned itself as an aspirational artisan brand.

I asked Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki, whose father started the company 65 years ago, why the company went to such great lengths to change its brand identity – especially at the same time as launching a brand-new camera, the enigmatic Sigma BF.

"Sigma is my life, but still I don’t believe I can make Sigma a bigger company than Sony or Canon – but I think I can make the Sigma brand a nicer brand than such big companies," said Yamaki.

"So this kind of rebranding, I think, contributes to making Sigma a better brand."

"Sigma was founded by my father in 1961, and then he passed away 14 years ago and I took over the business – although I had already been working for Sigma for over 33 years.

"Then in 2012 we introduced our first Art lens. That’s my passion; I want to make the best of the best products. And the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM was really well received, and I was very happy. Since then, our engineers and staff have been working hard to provide the best of the best products.

"And I’m really proud of that. But I had been under the impression that our marketing team or myself are failing to communicate to customers how our product is good, how our products made by our engineering team are good.

"So I realized that we had to do something different, because we’ve been working so hard for 12 or 13 years to make the best products. We found that we needed to change the logo, the brand perception; how the brand is being looked at by others."

Shortly before my meeting with Mr Yamaki, I'd been talking about the company to my colleague Mike Harris – who described rebranding as, "Sigma is the Leica of Japan".

I shared this with Mr Yamaki, and also how I felt that visiting the Sigma factory in Aizu reminded me of visiting the Leica factory in Wetzlar – there was the same sense of family and craftsmanship.

"Oh, thank you! In this industry, only Leica and Sigma are family-owned private companies. All of the other players are big companies. So it’s a great pleasure for me if you see the similarity between the two!"

For an imaging brand not only to change the way it's perceived, but to reposition itself almost as a luxury brand, is nothing short of remarkable – especially in a world where even legendary names like Kodak and Agfa are little more than novelties.

Somewhere, I'm sure that Michihiro Yamazki is smiling at what his son has achieved.

You might also like…

As a founding member of the L-Mount Alliance, Sigma makes some of the best L-Mount lenses. But it makes great cameras, too – check out my Sigma BF review along with our Sigma fp and Sigma fp L reviews.

At the China P&E trade show, which wrapped up May 18, Sigma displayed a prototype of its forthcoming 85mm f/1.2 full-frame autofocus (AF) prime lens.

We’ve known about this lens for a few months now, as Sigma unveiled it back in February at the CP+ Show in Japan, with the lens completing the company’s trio of pro-level DG Art f/1.2 primes for Sony E-mount and L-mount cameras, alongside existing 35mm DG Art II and 50mm DG Art models.

However, what we didn’t see at the show was a prototype of the forthcoming Viltrox LAB 85mm f/1.2 prime (full-frame Sony E-mount / Nikon Z-mount), which the company actually announced months before Sigma revealed its own version.

Viltrox first teased the lens back in December, and considering how aggressively the company has been developing its LAB lineup, and how quickly Sigma has responded by unveiling the 85mm f/1.2 prototype so soon after the announcement, I think it’s a sign that Sigma is starting to feel the pressure.

Of all the up-and-coming Chinese third-party lens manufacturers that have set up shop in the last few years, I think Viltrox stands the best chance of challenging established brands like Sigma and Tamron. The build quality of Viltrox gear is nothing to scoff at, and neither is the image quality.

Then there’s the pricing. Viltrox’s premium LAB-series lenses tend to come in around $500 (approximately £380 / AU$750) cheaper than Sigma’s equivalent DG Art lenses, which gives photographers some serious incentive to consider the disruptive Chinese competition over more established Japanese brands.

So, what do we actually know about these forthcoming Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art and Viltrox LAB 85mm f/1.2 lenses? Honestly, aside from the focal length and aperture, not a huge amount.

We know Sigma’s autofocus system will use a High-response Linear Actuator (HLA), Sigma’s proprietary motor technology that the company touts as whisper-quiet and highly accurate.

As for Viltrox, the company has mostly described the lens as having a “vintage vibe,” while remaining quiet on technical specs.

Still, we can look at existing lenses in both lineups for clues. The Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG DN Art II, released last year, features 17 elements in 13 groups, including one special low dispersion element and four aspherical elements. Impressively, Sigma managed to reduce the weight by roughly 30% compared to the first version of the lens, with the newer model weighing around 26oz (745g).

Meanwhile, the Viltrox 35mm f/1.2 LAB features 15 elements in 10 groups, including 5 extra-low dispersion elements, 3 high-refractive-index elements, and 2 precision aspherical lenses.

While the optical design is slightly simpler than Sigma’s and the minimum focusing distance of 13 inches (34cm) inferior, the Viltrox does feature a premium all-metal aluminum-alloy construction, whereas Sigma uses a combination of metal and engineered plastics.

If the forthcoming Sigma and Viltrox 85mm lenses follow the same design philosophies as their sibling lenses, there may be very little separating them in real-world performance. That’s where I think Viltrox’s combination of solid build quality and aggressive pricing could really start squeezing Sigma.

Adding to the pressure is the likelihood that Viltrox will eventually release a rival 50mm f/1.2 LAB lens once the 85mm hits the market.

If that happens, competition at the premium end of third-party prime lenses for Sony, Nikon and L-mount shooters could really heat up, potentially leaving Sigma to dominate the more affordable high-quality zoom market while Viltrox carves out a strong niche in fast primes.

I may be getting slightly ahead of myself, but I genuinely believe that whenever Viltrox finally launches its 85mm f/1.2 LAB — no release date has been confirmed yet — it could mark a significant shift in the premium third-party lens market.

As for Sigma, the company has already announced that the DG Art 85mm f/1.2 is coming in September, so I’d imagine Viltrox will want its rival lens ready around the same time to keep the heat on.

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Lots of brands unveiled a host of new lenses at P&E China, which you can read about next.

A 24-70mm zoom lens is a staple in almost every photographer's kit bag, whether shooting on DSLR or mirrorless systems. Now, a popular budget DSLR version is disappearing from the market, leaving mirror-based photographers with fewer affordable options.

The Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Art has been listed as discontinued by major Japanese retailers such as Map Camera and Yodobashi, signalling that one of the market's most accessible DSLR standard zoom lenses is reaching the end of its production cycle.

Built for three different camera mounts – Canon EF, Nikon F, and Sigma SA – the lens is also compatible with Sony E mount systems via the Sigma Mount Converter MC-11 (EF-E Mount) adapter. At a price point of only $1,429 / £1,149, it positioned itself as a lower-cost yet high-quality option within Sigma's generation of pro DSLR zooms.

The high-end DSLR zoom

The Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Art was launched in 2017 and quickly became a popular choice among Canon and Nikon DSLR photographers.

What made it so widely used was its combination of strong optical performance and relatively low price tag, offering a high-quality alternative to more expensive flagship zoom lenses.

For context, an alternative zoom for Canon EF mount, for example, is the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, available for $2,199 / £.1,999 A Nikon DSLR counterpart is the AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR, available for $2,246.95 / £.2,099.

With early signs of a product being discontinued, we often see discounts. But across US and UK retailers, there has been little to no movement from the already budget-friendly price tag.

While US photographers have the chance to save $30 on different variations of the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Art, the UK price has seen no movement yet. However, this may be one of the last chances to pick up this lens brand-new.

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Browse the best standard zoom lenses and the best lenses for travel photography.

The Sigma BF has barely had time to settle into the market, yet it’s already seeing its first meaningful price drop, and it’s a good one.

Over at B&H, the strikingly minimalist full-frame camera is now available for $1,999, shaving $200 off its original asking price. For a camera that’s as much about design philosophy as it is about performance, that early discount makes it all the more tempting.

The Sigma BF is not your typical mirrorless release. It’s a camera that leans heavily into simplicity, stripping things back to the essentials in a way that feels refreshingly different in today’s feature-heavy landscape. With its clean lines, uncluttered interface, and focus on pure photographic experience, the BF feels like a deliberate move away from spec-sheet wars and toward something more tactile and intentional.

Underneath that minimalist exterior, however, sits a very capable full-frame sensor, delivering the kind of image quality you’d expect from Sigma’s recent output. Color rendition is rich and nuanced, while detail is crisp without feeling overly processed. It’s a camera that rewards thoughtful shooting, appealing to photographers who value composition and timing over endless menu diving.

The $200 discount might not sound huge in isolation, but in the world of premium camera launches, early price drops like this are relatively rare, and often signal a sweet spot for buyers who were sitting on the fence. At $1,999, the BF starts to feel far more competitive, especially when you consider its unique positioning in the market.

What makes this deal particularly appealing is that the BF isn’t trying to be everything to everyone. Instead, it’s carving out its own lane, targeting photographers who want a more deliberate, almost analog-inspired shooting experience in a digital body. That alone gives it a certain allure, especially for those who may already be drawn to brands like Leica but are looking for something a little different.

If you’ve been intrigued by the Sigma BF since its announcement, this first price drop could be the moment to act. It’s a rare chance to pick up one of the most distinctive cameras of the year at a discount so soon after launch, and for many, that combination of design, performance, and now value might just be too good to ignore.

Portrait photographers wax poetically on nifty fifties, but I love to go a bit longer for even creamier bokeh – which is why I took note when Sigma announced that it’s working on a new 85mm portrait prime.

The Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art doesn’t exist yet – unless you’re lucky enough to happen to be at the CP+ Show in Japan, where a prototype is on display – but it’s officially slated for arrival in September 2026.

For now, the development announcement is just a tease of what’s to come, but the few details already available are intriguing. First, Sigma says that the full-frame 85mm will complete the brand’s line-up of f/1.2 primes – so the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG II Art, 50mm f/1.2 DG DN Art, and this upcoming 85mm will be it for bright f/1.2 primes in the Art series.

Sigma drops several more phrases to hint at what’s to come, including “latest optical design” and “exceptional resolution.” The company also says the lens will have a dual High-response Linear Actuator autofocus motor.

The single photo that Sigma shared doesn’t make the lens look very small, but Sigma describes the lens as “compact” and “lightweight.” From the photo, we know that the lens will have a dedicated aperture ring, a focus switch, and will take 82mm, though, of course, the teaser comes with the usual disclaimer that the specs and appearance could change between now and the launch.

The longer 85mm focal length tends to create more flattering portraits and creamier backgrounds – and I suspect this will be a welcome addition to the popular Art Series. That will be especially true if it’s anything like the Sigma 50mm f/1.2 DG DN Art. Reviewer Matthew Richards gave the lens five stars for its images and competitive price, the biggest complaint being that it’s a bit heavy. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the upcoming 85mm f/1.2 follows that same theme.

The Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG Art is expected to launch in September 2026 in the L-Mount as well as the Sony E-Mount.

The upcoming 85mm isn’t the only lens the brand announced the week of CP+ either – it follows the news of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG II Art and the crop-sensor 15mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary.

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Browse more news from CP+ in Japan where a Digital Camera World editor is on site exploring all the new trends on the show floor, including a new Canon with a waist-level finder and a new lens from Nikon.

Excuse me while I hit the rewind button for a moment… It’s October 2019 and I’m enjoying some very happy days reviewing the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN | C with a Canon EOS M50 camera. A variety of other APS-C format versions of this lens were available at the time, as well a Micro Four Thirds option. Further down the line, the supporting cast grew, spreading the joy to a grand range of L-mount, Sony E, Canon EF-M and RF-S, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z DX and Micro Four Thirds mount options. That covers most of the mirrorless crop-sensor bases and then some.

I was so impressed with the Sigma 16mm at the time that I gave it a 5-star rating and one of our coveted gold awards. Even so, it wasn’t entirely perfect, as it lacked any weather-seals and it wasn’t particularly compact or lightweight, which was only to be expected from a fast f/1.4 prime at the time. Enter the new replacement.

The Sigma 15mm that I’m reviewing here shaves a millimeter off the focal length to give a slightly wider perspective, while shedding 50% of the weight and 30% of the physical length, compared with the previous lens. It also features a more weather-resistant construction. In short, it’s wider (in the best possible way), smaller, more manageable and tougher. What’s not to love? Well, the mount options are comparatively restricted, at least at launch in early 2026, but it aims to be one of the best wide-angle lenses for Canon RF-S, Fujifilm X and Sony E mount mirrorless cameras.

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Specifications

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Price

The price tag on this new Sigma lens weighs in at $579 / £449 (cost TBA in other regions). That compares fairly favorably with the lower asking price of $539/£389/AU$629 for the older Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN | C, which has the same aperture rating, is bigger and lacks an aperture control ring, feeling a bit more basic in its handling characteristics.

I’d expect Chinese lenses to be more competitively priced than Japanese contenders and sure enough, the APS-C format Viltrox AF 15mm f/1.7 Air that’s half an f/stop slower than the Sigma comes in at a particularly budget-friendly $239/£229/AU$370. Suffice it to say that the Sigma isn’t a ‘cheap lens’ but it’s attractively priced nonetheless.

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Design & Handling

The last Sigma 15mm f/1.4 lens that I tested was the Sigma 15mm F1.4 DG DN Diagonal Fisheye | Art, which is a different kettle of fish entirely. The fisheye is comparatively huge and very expensive, especially by fisheye standards, and caters to full-frame cameras. Then again, f/1.4 fisheyes are a real rarity. This 15mm ‘Contemporary’ downsized delight matches its bigger sibling for aperture rating, but is a regular rectilinear wide-angle lens, rather than a curvilinear fisheye.

It bears repeating that the lens is very much more compact and lightweight than Sigma’s previous 16mm f/1.4 APS-C format prime, more befitting slimline mirrorless cameras. I’m very much put in mind of Viltrox Air lenses, including the Viltrox AF 15mm f/1.7 Air APS-C format lens which has the same focal length but a slightly slower aperture and more basic handling characteristics, with no aperture control ring. Even so, it seems that Sigma is fighting back against inexpensive Chinese lenses, while still basing its design and manufacture in Japan (Aizu, to be precise). There are very few ‘Japanese’ camera companies that can still say that nowadays. Indeed, the Nikon Z 180-600mm lens that I reviewed a while ago was made in China.

In keeping with the downsized design, the lens has a modest 58mm filter thread at the front, which is pretty small for a wide-angle lens with a fast f/1.4 aperture rating. Getting further into the innards of the lens, three double-sided aspherical help to reduce the size and weight to a minimum, while also boosting image quality. They’re supplemented by three SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements to enhance clarity while minimizing color fringing, along with one top-grade FLD (Fluorite Low Dispersion) element.

Along with optical quality, consistent sharpness in practical terms for most of us depends on the accuracy of the autofocus system. The Sigma features a now-common linear stepping motor to drive autofocus, which is both agile for stills and smooth for videography, operating in near-silence. To suit the burgeoning ranks of ‘content creators’, the lens is designed with more than a passing not to videography, featuring fast and effective autofocus tracking, as well as minimal focus breathing so that the angle of view remains constant during changes in focus distance.

Further good news for shooting video as well as stills is that the lens features a dedicated aperture control ring. This has an Auto position at the narrow end, while the full range between f/1.4 and f/16 is catered to in one-third f/stop click steps. That’s all well and good as far as it goes, but there’s no locking switch to avoid unwanted nudging when in the Auto position, and there’s no de-click option for smooth and silent aperture adjustment when shooting video. To be fair, the compact nature of the lens limits the space for any switches anyway.

To guard against ghosting and flare, the lens is designed with input from Sigma’s ‘advanced simulation technology’ to optimize clarity and contrast when shooting against the light. This is further enhanced by an effective petal-shaped hood that’s supplied with the lens (rather than being sold as an optional extra).

As is almost always the case, the hood has a bayonet-fit design and can be reversed to save space when stowing the lens. With the hood in its forward-facing mode, ready for action, you can still easily fit and remove the lens cap, thanks to its spring-loaded pinch-style mechanism.

Many lightweight lenses from the likes of Canon, Nikon and others have plastic rather than metal mounting plates. They should be sufficiently sturdy and robust but don’t exactly inspire confidence. Typical of Sigma lenses, this one has a ‘proper’ metal mounting plate and it also features a rubber weather-seal that runs around its circumference. Sigma doesn’t claim that the lens is comprehensively weather-sealed, but does say that it has a ‘dust- and splash-resistant structure’. Suffice it to say you should be safe enough shooting in the drizzle but Sigma says you shouldn’t allow large amounts of water to splash on the lens, as this may cause a major malfunction and render the lens unrepairable. There, you have been warned!

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Performance

I always think there’s little point in buying a fast lens if its performance is lackluster at its widest aperture setting. I’m happy in this instance that the Sigma delivers impressive clarity and very good sharpness even wide-open at f/1.4, at least across most of the image frame. As I’d expect, you need to stop down a little to enhance sharpness towards the edges and corners of the image frame, ideally to between f/4 and f/11. At f/16, there’s a drop-off in sharpness due to the usual phenomenon of diffraction at narrow apertures.

A main upside of an f/1.4 lens is that enables a tight depth of field for isolating subjects within a scene by blurring the background. Despite the wide-angle nature of this particular little beast, the Sigma does enable a tight depth of field for close-ups, and the quality of bokeh is pleasantly smooth. The need for consistently accurate autofocus also comes to the fore when shooting close-ups at wide apertures and the Sigma does very well in this respect as well. Naturally, another bonus of the fast aperture is that you can maintain quick shutter speeds for freezing motion, under dim lighting conditions, without needing to bump up your camera’s ISO too much.

Another plus point is that both axial and lateral chromatic aberrations are kept on a tight leash. Indeed, there’s negligible color fringing even with automatic in-camera correction disabled. I can’t say the same about barrel distortion, which relies heavily on in-camera correction. That’s entirely usual for modern wide-angle lenses for mirrorless cameras, especially those that are designed to be compact and lightweight. In a nutshell, I found that I could get away without using automatic correction for distortion with the older Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN | C lens, but correction is essential with this 15mm lens.

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Sample Images

The following gallery of example images was shot in and around the floating harbor at Bristol Docks in the south west of England. Weather conditions were mixed, with intermittent sunshine and clouds. I used a variety of wide and medium apertures to show the relative qualities of the lens for bokeh and for edge-to-edge sharpness.

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Levels of sharpness across most of the image frame are very good, straight out of the traps at the widest aperture of f/1.4. As I’d expect, it pays to narrow the aperture by at least a couple of f/stops to f/2.8 for edge/corner-sharpness to come on song, and it’s better still in the aperture range between f/4 and f/11.

Fringing:

Both lateral and axial (or longitudinal) chromatic aberrations are very negligible. The latter is often referred to as ‘bokeh fringing’, as it’s mostly a problem with fast lenses at or near their widest aperture settings. The Sigma does very well to keep these aberrations to a minimum.

Distortion: -6.18

There’s heavy barrel distortion, much more so than with Sigma’s older 16mm f/1.4 APS-C format lens. That’s more the norm than the exception nowadays, with compact wide-angle lenses designed for mirrorless cameras. Either way, it’s easily taken care of with automatic in-camera correction.

Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C: Verdict

I need a reason to splash out on a prime lens for my APS-C format mirrorless cameras, rather than using the kit zoom lenses that came with them for pretty much anything and everything. The Sigma 15mm f/1.4 DC | C actually gives me two viable reasons. First up, it gives a much more noticeably wide-angle perspective than a typical kit zoom that only shrinks to a minimum 18mm focal length. Secondly, it has a much faster aperture rating, ideal for gaining a tight depth of field for close-ups and maintaining quick shutter speeds under dim lighting.

What I don’t really want is a supplemental lens that’s big and heavy to carry around. The Sigma wins out on all fronts, being compact, lightweight and having a fast f/1.4 aperture. Handling is excellent, although the aperture control ring doesn’t have a de-click option, and the lens’s image quality and all-round performance are highly impressive. It’s a keeper.

Alternatives

When Sigma launched the DSLR-mount 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, the move sparked the beginning of the brand’s popular Art line. Now, Sigma has re-imagined the lens that sparked the Art series revolution – again. The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG II Art refreshes the popular prime with redesigned optics in a lighter, smaller package.

Sigma says the new lens is “the best optical performance ever in Sigma’s 35mm f/1.4 Art line,” which is the company’s way of saying that the new lens is better than the 35mm f/1.4 Art mirrorless and DSLR variants that came before it. At launch, the lens is available in both L-Mount and Sony E-Mount.

While the lens carries a “II” in its name, Sigma says that the lens has been “completely redesigned,” a change that makes the lens about 20 percent lighter and around 14 percent shorter than the previous mirrorless lens.

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG II Art uses a 15-element design in 12 groups (the predecessor used the same number of elements but in 12 groups). Sigma says that the new design focuses on bringing enhanced resolution across the entire frame to match today’s higher resolution mirrorless bodies.

The updated lens, Sigma says, corrects for chromatic aberration. The surface accuracy of the lens’ aspherical elements has also been improved, which works along with the lens’ 11-count rounded aperture blades for smoother bokeh.

The lens also uses a new flare-prevention coating called Advanced Amorphous Coating or AAC. Sigma explains that this coating uses a low-refractive index, which is tech speak for helping to suppress the reflections that cause lens flare and ghosting.

The lens’ lighter and smaller design, however, is largely attributed to a new floating focus system, which also uses Sigma’s dual motor design dubbed the High-response Linear Actuator or HLA. Sigma says the lens also keeps focus breathing to a minimum, making the lens geared towards both stills and video.

The lens comes in at 530g / 18.7 ounces for the L-Mount variant, a noticeable drop from the 22.8 oz / 645 g of the predecessor. (The E-Mount is slightly lighter.)

On the exterior, the lens is made with aluminum, a thermally stable composite, and other materials. Seals also make the lens dust and splash-resistant, while coatings to repel water and fingerprints help protect the front of the lens.

Sigma unveiled the lens alongside the new crop-sensor 15mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary, just days ahead of CP+, a major photography trade show in Japan that often brings a number of new gear announcements.

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG II Art is expected to begin shipping on April 16 for $1,059 / £849. This sits significantly less than the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG II lens, which retails for $1,549 / £1,299 / AU$3,099 / CA$2,099.

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