Sigma Art vs Zeiss still lens

[Minu Park]

Zeiss still lens kit (ZE) and Sigma art prime kit, which do you prefer to have?

Zeiss still lenses are well known for it's sharpness and well balanced price, but Sigma has been announcing their art lenses 35, 50, 85 so far and there will be 24 coming out soon too.

Therefore, I was wondering which do you prefer to use in cinema and greater for rental package purpose.

1. people love zeiss, so if you bring them as a set, directors and producers will love you

2. Sigma's art lenses are targeting against for Zeiss's newest lens outs distagon, and some review says sigma is similar level with it.

3. Although Sigma's the quality of the optics are better than old zeiss prime lens, the price of the lens isn't different much.

4. Sigma's focus throw is way shorter - Any way I own a red rock micro wireless focus system, so it doesn't bother me.

How do you think about it?

Honestly, my colleague keep arguing me that i should get 18-85 PL lens instead. - It means I need to change my tripod system too...(Extra $1500 cost more)

 

[Akin A]

I recently switched from Zeiss ZF to Sigma Art.
I had the Zeiss ZF 25/2, 35/2 (and was about to get the 50/2), and now I have the Sigma Art 18-35/1.8, 35/1.4, 50/1.4. I plan to get the rumored 85mm too.

The main reason for me switching was that the Sigmas are very good at F/1.4. The Zeiss F/2 glass is great at F/2, but the reviews of the Zeiss F/1.4 glass showed way too much softness at F/1.4 for me.
Plus, the ZF lenses wider than the 25mm (21/2.8, 18/3.5) don't have a very wide max aperture. The fact that the Sigmas are cheaper on top of performing better made it a no brainer. I think once the rest of the world realizes how good the Sigma Art lenses are, the value of the ZF/ZE will go down.

I do miss the built in aperture ring and scale on the ZF lenses though. I don't like Sigma's decision to use a Nikon G mount.
And that Zeiss 25/2 is damn near flawless. I miss it, but I wanted my set to match.

I don't have any personal tests to show, but I'm sure you can find some tests on the review sites.

For example, this is the Sigma Art 50/1.4 vs Zeiss ZE 50/1.4:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/...LensComp=709&CameraComp=0&FLIComp=0&APIComp=0

 

[Maik Müller]

It's difficult to compare these two sets. There are so many factors here, so many questions.

On one hand you have Zeiss, a full set with a wide range of prime lenses, all with full manual control and all with a more or less consistent look. And yes, they have a look that is widely loved and comes close to what people are used to see. It's the "poor mans" Zeiss set, great for Indie, Hobbyists, Freelancer, No-/Low-Budget. They can also easily be cine-modded. Some of them are mediocore (old designs), some of them really great. But it's not always about charts, technical performance and aperture.

On the other hand you look at SIGMA's ART lenses, which is not yet a full set. Sure, you can get away with just the 18-35/1.8 and the 50/1.4 for some stuff, but not everytime. The family is growing fast, a 85 and 24 is probably coming, but right now they only exist in form of rumors. Those lenses are also fully electronicl lenses. Manually pulling focus works on them and feels consistent through the line (speaking for the 18-35, 35 and 50) and actually doesn't feel bad (some Canon L lenses feel worse). But it's nothing if you compare that to a manual lens with a long focus-throw and some good markings. A redrock follow focus might be a workaround. This is for now. In the (near) future lenses with internal motors will become way more interesting. Foolcontrol on your iphone, RED's mini-THC, Optitron 2 and whatever else is coming... Focus-Pulling will become real fun with such lenses. Those external motors and boxes like the redrock micro will become obsolete. Having access to those focus-motors will open up room for new ideas. Repeating focus-pulls precicesly? No problem... Something for VFX-lovers. And for now, we already have some useful features like the autofocus and rack-focus.

So manual vs electronic focus is a really tough decision today if you ask me. I admit there is a reason why i ended up keeping the Zeiss Otus 55 and Sigma ART 50. Damn!

Performance-wise the SIGMA Art's are fantastic, especially for the price. The 50 comes close to Otus, yes they are comparable, it's that good. The 18-35 is a truly outstanding lens, it's something nobody else has and it beats lots of primes in it's range. It also covers more than APS-C, which is good for RED-shooters. Seriously, every RED-owner should have this lens. It's always in my bag and would be the choice if i could only take one lense with me. The 35/1.4 is a great lens too. You could add a zoom from SIGMA's sports or contemporary series to fill gaps until their new primes arrive.

Your two options feel like totally different worlds if you ask me. I can't give you a real suggestion here. If only SIGMA had already more to offer...

Three more things. Canon and Nikon have nice lenses too and there are lots of older lenses (Contax/Zeiss for example), they are worth a look too. And last but not least, mixing lenses isn't THAT bad, if you know what you are doing, especially with the power of REDCODE.

 

[Tuukka Mikael]

And last but not least, mixing lenses isn't THAT bad, if you know what you are doing, especially with the power of REDCODE.

...

 

[David W. Jones]

IMHO neither one of those lens sets are going to draw as rentals.

The Art glass is very sharp.

I have never been a huge fan of the Zeiss ZE lenses.

That being said, I absolutely love the older Contax Zeiss lenses with the early T* coatings.

 

[Phil Holland]

I went with the Otus route mostly because for what I'm using them for they edge out the Art primes "just enough" to make it worth my while. That and the larger focus rotation is pretty important for motion work. Outside of missing proper gears and having a PL mount the Otus are pretty much motion picture lenses when it comes to the cam design and focus movement. Gears can be solved in this case via a Duclos Mod or whatever other method to slap them on there. PL mount, not-so-much. Not easily at least.