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Zeiss Milvus or Sigma Art primes?

Larry Cheuk

Larry Cheuk

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Hi all, I thought I'd put this out there to the community and see what your opinions are. I'm wanting to get new high quality lenses for my Scarlet-W, and after doing tons of research, I'm pretty much narrowing it down to these two brands. Not sure which specific primes I'll get though. I'm possibly considering mixing the brands in a set for budget and bang for your buck reasons. In general the Milvus and Sigma Art primes are the price range/per lens that I'm comfortable with budget wise. I'd love to hear your suggestions, thoughts and/or experiences with any of these lenses. Thanks!
 
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I've only used the Milvus 85mm but the Sigma primes are beautiful! We have the 35 and 50 (and 18-35) and couldn't want more from them (except maybe for them to produce an 85...). The only thing I would say is that I don't feel that the lenses have a great deal of character. Which for corporate work is great, but personally I find for narrative stuff not so much, but that's just me. The 85 Milvus I rented for a bit nice, but it's super hefty! That said, using an adaptor and having a declicked aperture was great! In the end it's down to preference over the look I suppose, but I don't think you could go wrong either way.
 
Thanks Brody! That's why I'm thinking the Milvus seems to be such a great budget option.
 
if you look up #lovegrowswherekjgoes on instagram all the screen shots by color room films (me) were done with milvus with gh4 or as7sii, call screen captured so the resolution isn't as high as one would expect. Great lenses, my wife now uses my milvus stuff for new born shoots all the time, the detail is insane.

I do see alot of photogrpahers using the art series though, mostly on canon
 
Larry Cheuk said:
Thanks Brody! That's why I'm thinking the Milvus seems to be such a great budget option.
Click to expand...

In particular I also think the 21mm length is perfect on 6k red sensors, feels plenty wide but still natural, and not too wide when doing pans that it looks like the room is spinning.
 
Thank you Steve! Beautiful work! Which ones are you and your wife using mostly? The 50...85?
 
all of it was the 35mm, we had the 85 but was not subtle enough for what we do, if you have any questions on any particular screen cap or want to see higher res stuff email me info@colorroomfilms.com

from what I have seen the arts are not built on the same level, I can't speak for optics, but the actual focus area are rock solid on the milvus, adding the 50 soon for ring shots
 
Awesome thank you so much for the offer Steve, I really appreciate it!
 
Thanks Raymond! I noticed your post on the Wow sigma thread, and I was absolutely surprised by your findings, which just makes the decision that much harder especially with regard to the Milvus. I was most interested in the 50 and the 85. Out of all the info online, I have never heard anyone definitively make that observation. Thanks for sharing the results!
 
Raymond Zananiri said:
As far as sharpness is concerned, I recently tested the 50mm 1.4 version of both. At 1.4, 1.8 and 2.0 the Sigma is much, much sharper than the Milvus. No question. The Milvus focus ring is better though.


http://s33.postimg.org/5ucuc08un/Sigma_Art_50mm_1_4.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/d9u6y7jyn/Zeiss_Milvus_50mm_1_4.jpg
Click to expand...
Side by side the sigma looks contrasty appearing sharper, but I like the highlight rendition of the Zeiss. It's kind of the signature of Zeiss. Just a matter of taste I guess.
Thanks for sharing your test.
 
Raymond Zananiri said:
As far as sharpness is concerned, I recently tested the 50mm 1.4 version of both. At 1.4, 1.8 and 2.0 the Sigma is much, much sharper than the Milvus. No question. The Milvus focus ring is better though.


http://s33.postimg.org/5ucuc08un/Sigma_Art_50mm_1_4.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/d9u6y7jyn/Zeiss_Milvus_50mm_1_4.jpg
Click to expand...
Wow that's day and night- it almost looks like the Zeiss had the focus buzzed. It also looks like the sigma is quite a bit faster- the picture is brighter.
Sigmas is absolutely fantastic- the Zeiss is a diffused Sigma haha. Oh how the tables turned ;-) Zeiss not as sharp as Sigma...
 
Interesting comparison. I need to look at the test more but just looking at the 2 images linked in this thread it looks like the Milvus is focused more on the hair and the Sigma on the bridge of the noise.
 
There is no focus in the Milvus pic that is comparable to the Sigma sharpness- I looked at them again. Milvus is just soft compared to Sigma. By itself it would probably look good but if you do A->B there is significant sharpness advantage of the Sigma...
 
Here are the other tests I made at f2. This might be helpful.
Zeiss Milvus 50mm
Sigma 50mm Art
Sigma 50_100 at 50mm
Sigma 50_100 at 50mm plus Tiffen Glimmerglass 1

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...n=567818174&preview=Zeiss+Milvus+50mm+2_0.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...=e&n=567818174&preview=Sigma+Art+50mm+2_0.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...=e&n=567818174&preview=Sigma+50_100mm+2_0.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...iew=Sigma+50_100mm+2_0+Plus+Glimmeglass+1.jpg

The surprising finding is that the Sigma 50-100 is as sharp as the 50mm prime. Even with the filter it is still very sharp. I really think I nailed the focus right on the eyes of the maniken with all of the shots for sure. I rented the Milvus from Adorama for the test. Could it be a bad copy? Not sure.
 
Raymond Zananiri said:
Here are the other tests I made at f2. This might be helpful.
Zeiss Milvus 50mm
Sigma 50mm Art
Sigma 50_100 at 50mm
Sigma 50_100 at 50mm plus Tiffen Glimmerglass 1

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...n=567818174&preview=Zeiss+Milvus+50mm+2_0.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...=e&n=567818174&preview=Sigma+Art+50mm+2_0.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...=e&n=567818174&preview=Sigma+50_100mm+2_0.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0dzssyb...iew=Sigma+50_100mm+2_0+Plus+Glimmeglass+1.jpg

The surprising finding is that the Sigma 50-100 is as sharp as the 50mm prime. Even with the filter it is still very sharp. I really think I nailed the focus right on the eyes of the maniken with all of the shots for sure. I rented the Milvus from Adorama for the test. Could it be a bad copy? Not sure.
Click to expand...

Wow Raymond, thanks so much for sharing the photos. Were these shots straight out of the camera, no correction of any kind?
 
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