برچسب: Art

Back in July 2024 I had the pleasure of being one of the first photographers to try the new Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | Art lens that was soon to be released. It was an opportunity I jumped at when offered to me. I wrote this article for Sigma after using the lens for only a few weeks.

You’ll see the images I took back then with a Lumix S5 II camera and the Sigma fp L. In that article, I mentioned that I couldn’t wait to own the lens myself. Now I do, and it’s been nothing but pure joy to shoot with on my Nikon Z8. This lens is currently available in both L-Mount & E-mount, and I’m using the E-mount with a Megadap E-to-Z adapter.

After nearly a year of frequent use, I wanted to give a little update on my overall experience with the lens.

Experience and images

The lens is extremely sharp throughout the focal range from 28mm to 105mm, and for night photography the corners are very sharp at F2.8. Even the colors of the RAW files are very nice. The lens provides a beautiful amount of contrast along with excellent color to give you an incredible starting point for RAW files and instantly printable/publishable files if you shoot JPG.

Aside from shooting landscapes and general photography, one of the main reasons I wanted this lens was for its F2.8 maximum aperture throughout the entire focal range. This means that it’s a fantastic lens for night photography too. So I’ll start and end my image examples with night photos.

The above image “Echo Lake Stars” was shot on the morning of March 3, 2025. It was very cold and clear out. I arrived at Echo Lake near Idaho Springs, Colorado. I’ll admit, I was hoping for more snow on the trees, but we take what we can get, right? I knew this would be a good opportunity to not only test the low-light ability of the Z8 (although this blog isn’t about the Z8) but to really test the lens in low light again, this time not shooting the Milky Way, but just the stars.

The lens did an amazing job with manual focusing, and as you can see the details are razor sharp which allows for larger than normal printing if needed (that’s another topic for another blog). After shooting this landscape, I then took a series of shots for the sky to help reduce the noise for a better overall image. You don’t want a nice clean foreground with a noisy sky… that just wouldn’t look right. Even in the cold weather the lens performed flawlessly.

Near my home in Colorado, there are scrub oak trees that look like autumn color most of the year. I captured this more intimate scene of the leaves and branches in all their details. Even at 95mm, there is detail from edge to edge, corner to corner. The versatile zoom range really lets you perfect your composition in-camera so there is less to do in post processing. The low dispersion elements in the lens do a fantastic job of eliminating chromatic aberrations (purple and green fringing) that could potentially be problematic in scenes like this.

With the lens coming in right at 2 pounds, it makes it an easy walking around lens that I don’t need to put away in my bag when walking from place to place. The two above images were shot the same morning and are roughly 1/4-mile from each other. While this is a short distance to me, some may consider it quite a hike when walking through the snow. I’ve walked through both towns and natural settings like this for hours, and never felt like the lens was too heavy or bulky. I also find it balanced well on all three cameras I used it with… Nikon Z8, Sigma fp L & Lumix S5 II.

When I sat down to photograph these geese, I thought they were going to all fly or swim away. The exact opposite happened – they came right up to me to see what I was about. They were moving so fast and my camera wasn’t set up to shoot wildlife (AF tracking) so I just did the best I could, and was able to capture this image of a goose looking right at me. The lens nailed the focus to give the feathers incredible details to go along with the razor sharp eyes.

One feature that I have found to be extremely handy is the zoom lock switch. Because I generally walk around with my camera and lenses at my side, I really like to lock my lens at 28mm so it doesn’t extend down while I’m walking.

I’m an absolute sucker for ice photos. Normally, I’d take out my Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN Macro | Art lens for shots like this. But now I can take advantage of the 28-105mm’s close focusing ability and save the macro lens for more technical work. The crazy amount of details in this image shows how well the lens performs even at close distances. I’d say the ice is only about 2-3 inches from the golden water below.

The above image and several photos below showcase what I like to call “subtle details”. Snow is the perfect example. By being able to visually see the small bits of snow, it really helps to tell the story of the image rather than if the snow was overexposed or not in proper focus. The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | Art really does a great job of nailing the focus to bring all the details to the viewer.

Recently, while walking around town, I captured a couple images that show differences in the lens’ ability – please click to expand the images and get a closer look:

The statue portrait shows the amazing close focusing ability to capture all the details while shooting at F2.8 to allow for a gorgeous blurred background. The street sign image shows how we can use the zoom range to fill the frame and keep everything in focus. These are nothing fancy by any means, but if you’re looking for a good travel lens, this one is hard to beat. I need to get out and do some city night photography with it soon.

As a mid-day walking around lens, the 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | Art lens can really do it all. It’s the new workhorse standard by which all other 24-105mm and similar range lenses should be compared to. Even after all the shooting I’ve done with this lens, I’ve never been in a situation where I couldn’t get a shot because it was 28mm rather than 24mm. That 4mm at the wide end isn’t something I even notice, and neither will you unless you’re working in a very confined space or studio.

As a photographer who works primarily outdoors, I really like the idea of my gear being weather sealed for better protection against the elements. When your lens is this close to the water (see above), you feel safer knowing it’s protected from splashes and dust.

I’ve always said if you want to upgrade your equipment, it’s best to look at your lenses first. No matter how good your camera sensor is, it will only record the light that passes through all the elements of the lens. If that light doesn’t hit your sensor with crisp, colorful details, your camera simply can’t make adjustments to give you a better file. This is one reason why most people never keep their kit lenses after a year. They are striving for better images, and better images come from better light being passed through the lens onto your sensor.

Lastly, if you enjoy night photography and don’t want to buy a bunch of different lenses for the various types of photography you do, I highly encourage you to look at this lens.

Both of the images above were shot with the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN | Art lens. 28mm is my favorite focal length for shooting the Milky Way, and for years I have used the Sigma 28mm F1.4 DG HSM | Art lens, which rarely leaves my Nikon D850 camera, my dedicated night photography camera. However, now that I have the 28-105mm, I find myself using my more compact mirrorless combination more often.

Final thoughts

I can’t say enough good things about this lens, its features, and the outstanding build quality. I still own the 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM | Art lens for Nikon F mount, purchased roughly 12 years ago, and I suspect I’ll own this 28-105mm even longer. It’s fast, fairly lightweight, super quick to focus, and it makes photography fun without the hassle of changing lenses all the time!

If you have any specific questions about the lens, please don’t hesitate to ask.