Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens Review

The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art significantly extends the traditional f/2.8 general purpose lens's focal length range from 70mm to 105mm on the long end, where its focal length matches the traditional f/4 general purpose zoom focal length range. However, it does give up 4mm on the wide end to the common 24-105mm F4 options. Still, the 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art lens provides a wide f/2.8 aperture over an extended general-purpose focal length range, and this range is especially valuable for photographing portraits, weddings, and other events.

While the long focal length range and wide aperture are extremely valuable, this lens's advantages do not stop there. The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens is well-designed and constructed, and it provides high-performance functionality, including its HLA AF system and super-sharp optical design.

Focal Length Range

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The focal length range (or the individual focal length for a prime lens) is a primary consideration for a lens purchase or selection for use. A specific angle of view is required to get a desired subject framing with the optimal perspective or from within a working distance limitation.

On the long end, the 28-105mm range considerably exceeds what I consider the optimal general-purpose range, about 28-70mm on a full-frame camera, especially reaching deeper into the portrait range.

Notably with the f/2.8 aperture, this lens is an outstanding choice for photographing people, both outdoors and indoors, with weddings, parties, events, documentaries, studio portraiture, interviews, lifestyle, fashion, sports (with close subjects or to capture the big picture), candids, groups, and environmental portraits being on this lens's capabilities list.

This lens alone can handle most portrait shoots.

This focal length range is a great choice for photojournalistic needs, it is ready to capture a wide range of product images, and it is well-suited for commercial photography in general.

While serious landscape photographers will want to add a complementary lens to the wide end, the 28-105mm range is an ideal choice for landscape photography. The 28mm perspective can provide emphasis on a foreground subject against an in-focus background, leaving the viewer feeling a sense of presence in the scene. At the other end of the range, 105mm works great for modestly compressed landscapes featuring distant subjects such as mountains remaining large in the frame. This is a fun focal length range to walk around the garden with.

The f/2.8 aperture avails this lens for nightscape photography, though the wide end of this focal length range will often be slightly long for this pursuit.

The following images illustrate the 28-105mm focal length range:

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On an APS-C imaging sensor format camera, the 1.5x FOVCF (Field of View Crop Factor) provides an angle of view similar to a 42-157.5mm lens on a full-frame camera. This range is lacking from a wide-angle perspective, but it has an attractive long end, which is especially useful for portraits.

Max Aperture

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What is the second most important question to ask when selecting a lens? Usually, that answer is: How much light does the lens provide to the imaging sensor?

Few zoom lenses open wider than f/2.8, and only the Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z Lens exceeds this focal length range with an aperture wider than f/4.

The larger elements required to create this opening have a size, weight, and cost penalty, but the advantages are big. Vs. an f/4 alternative, an f/2.8 aperture provides a 1-stop lower ISO setting for the same shutter speed, low light AF is improved, and a stronger background blur can be created.

This lens is a great lens choice for low-light action and events.

These examples illustrate the wide range of maximum blur this lens can create:

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The background is a significant percentage of many compositions, and when the background is not complementary to the subject (or even distracting), blurring it away is highly advantageous. This lens, especially at 105mm, has that capability.

Is the background blur difference between 105mm f/2.8 and f/4 substantial? With the f/2.8 lens focused to approximately 0.7m, here are sets of background rendering comparisons showing full images reduced in size:

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Indeed, the background blur difference between f/2.8 and f/4 is substantial.

Videographers will especially appreciate this lens's iris ring, which permits a manually selected aperture. The camera controls the aperture setting with the ring in the A (Auto) position, while all other settings electronically force the aperture to the chosen opening. A 2-position switch on the left side of the lens toggles the aperture ring between 1/3 stop clicks and smooth, quiet, non-clicked adjustments, ideal for video recording.

Aside from a slightly more complicated design, inadvertent aperture changes are the primary disadvantage of an aperture ring (especially when photographing in the dark). The iris Lock switch on the right side of the lens eliminates that problem, holding the ring in the A position or within the manual range.

Image Stabilization

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The 28-105mm and f/2.8 combination is often handholdable without resorting to ultra-high ISO settings, and the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens does not feature optical image stabilization. Omitting the optical stabilization system reduces the size, weight, complexity, and cost. However, image stabilization is a very useful feature.

Sony addresses that omission with Steady Shot IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) in their Alpha cameras. In addition to reducing camera shake, the stabilized imaging sensor provides a still viewfinder image, enabling careful composition. Furthermore, sensor-based AF takes advantage of the stabilized view for improved accuracy.

With no IS switch on the lens, the camera menu must be used to enable or disable IBIS or check the current settings. This extra step is a slight impediment to working quickly, going from tripod mounted to handholding, for example.

Image Quality

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The wide aperture and extended normal zoom range are great, but how does the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens perform optically? For a 1-word answer, excellently.

At f/2.8, this lens produces super-sharp image quality in the central area of the frame until 70mm, where sharpness declines just slightly but remains really nice. Stopping down to f/4 brings the long end up to the super sharp description.

Lenses typically produce decreased sharpness in the periphery of the image circle, where light rays are refracted to a stronger angle than in the center, but this one shows only a slight decline from the center to the corner, except at 105mm. The extreme full-frame corners are slightly soft at 105mm, but the other focal length corner results are excellent. Stopping down primarily reduces peripheral shading.

The resolution chart is merciless on image quality, so let's take the testing outdoors, next looking at a series of center-of-the-frame 100% resolution crop examples. These images were captured in RAW format using a Sony Alpha 1 and processed in Capture One using the Natural Clarity method. The sharpening amount was set to only "30" on a 0-1000 scale. Note that images from most cameras require some level of sharpening, but too-high sharpness settings are destructive to image details and hide the deficiencies of a lens.

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This performance is impressive.

Next, we'll look at a series of comparisons showing 100% resolution extreme top left corner crops captured and processed identically to the above center-of-the-frame images. The lens was manually focused in the corner of the frame to capture these images.

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Count on samples taken from the outer extreme of the image circle, full-frame corners, to show a lens's weakest performance. Still, the 28mm and 50mm results are excellent. At 105mm, the corners are slightly softer but still quite good.

This lens does not exhibit focus shift, the plane of sharp focus moving forward or backward as the aperture is narrowed (residual spherical aberration or RSA).

When used on a camera that utilizes its full image circle, a lens is expected to show peripheral shading at the widest aperture settings. This lens's maximum shading is just over 3 stops at 28mm f/2.8. Its lowest f/2.8 shading is 1.8 stops at the next marked focal length, 35mm. Shading gradually increases over the remaining focal length range with about 2.5 stops in the 105mm corners.

Want less corner shading? Stopping down is the near-universal solution. At f/4, about 2.4 stops of shading remain in the 28mm corners, with about 1.5 stops of corner shading throughout the longer range. The shading reduction occurs more slowly at narrower apertures. At f/16, just under a stop of shading remains at 28mm, and under 0.5 stops at the longer focal lengths.

APS-C format cameras using lenses projecting a full-frame-sized image circle avoid most vignetting problems. In this case, the half stop or less of corner shading showing at f/2.8 will seldom be visible.

One-stop of shading is often considered the number of visibility, though subject details provide a widely varying amount of vignetting discernibility. Vignetting is correctable during post-processing, with increased noise in the brightened areas the penalty, or it can be embraced, using the effect to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the frame. Study the pattern shown in our vignetting test tool to determine how your images will be affected.

Lateral (or transverse) CA (Chromatic Aberration) refers to the unequal magnification of all colors in the spectrum. Lateral CA shows as color fringing along lines of strong contrast running tangential (meridional, right angles to radii), with the mid and especially the periphery of the image circle showing the most significant amount as this is where the most significant difference in the magnification of wavelengths typically exists.

With the right lens profile and software, lateral CA is often easily correctable (often in the camera) by radially shifting the colors to coincide. However, it is always better to avoid this aberration in the first place.

Color misalignment can be seen in the site's image quality tool, but let's also look at a set of worst-case examples. The images below are 100% crops from the extreme top left corner of Sony a1 frames showing diagonal black and white lines.

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These images should only contain black and white colors, with the additional colors indicating a lateral CA presence. The color separation is strong at the wide end, slowly decreases to negligible near 70mm, and increases slightly to moderate at 105mm as the separated colors align and then reverse. This performance is normal for a lens in this class.

A relatively common lens aberration is axial (longitudinal, bokeh) CA, which causes non-coinciding focal planes of the various wavelengths of light. More simply, different colors of light are focused to different depths. Spherical aberration, along with spherochromatism, or a change in the amount of spherical aberration with respect to color (looks quite similar to axial chromatic aberration but is hazier) are other common lens aberrations to observe. Axial CA remains somewhat persistent when stopping down, with the color misalignment effect increasing with defocusing. The spherical aberration color halo shows little size change as the lens is defocused, and stopping down one to two stops generally removes this aberration.

In the real world, lens defects do not exist in isolation, with spherical aberration and spherochromatism generally found, at least to some degree, along with axial CA. These combine to create a less sharp, hazy-appearing image quality at the widest apertures.

The wide-open aperture examples below compare the fringing colors of the defocused specular highlights in the foreground to the background. The lens has introduced any differences from the neutrally colored subjects.

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A moderate color blur shows throughout its range.

Bright light reflecting off lens elements' surfaces may cause flare and ghosting, resulting in reduced contrast and sometimes interesting, usually objectionable visual artifacts. The shape, intensity, and position of the flare and ghosting effects in an image are variable, dependent on the position and nature of the light source (or sources), selected aperture, shape of the aperture blades, and quantity and quality of the lens elements and their coatings. Additionally, flare and ghosting can impact AF performance.

This lens features Sigma's Nano Porous and Super Multi-Layer Coatings to suppress flare and ghosting, but the relatively high 18-element count increases that challenge. Still, this lens produced only minor flare effects even at narrow apertures in our standard sun in the corner of the frame flare test, an excellent performance. This lens is a great option when bright lights are in the frame.

Two lens aberrations are particularly evident in images of stars, mainly because bright points of light against a dark background make them easier to see. Coma occurs when light rays from a point of light spread out from that point instead of being refocused as a point on the sensor. Coma is absent in the center of the frame, gets worse toward the edges/corners, and generally appears as a comet-like or triangular tail of light that can be oriented either away from the center of the frame (external coma) or toward the center of the frame (internal coma). The coma clears as the aperture is narrowed. Astigmatism is seen as points of light spreading into a line, either sagittal (radiating from the center of the image) or meridional (tangential, perpendicular to sagittal). This aberration can produce stars appearing to have wings. Remember that Lateral CA is another aberration apparent in the corners.

The images below are 100% crops taken from the top-left corner of Sony a1 images captured at the widest available aperture.

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The stars show obvious stretching, but the results are not unusual.

This lens has moderate barrel distortion at the wide end that rapidly diminishes as the focal length is increased until little geometric distortion is discernable at 35mm. The transition gradually continues until moderate pincushion distortion is present at 105mm.

Every lens is a compromise, and reasons for designing a lens with uncorrected geometric distortion include lower cost, smaller size, lighter weight, reduced complexity, and improved correction of aberrations not software correctable. Distortion can be corrected, with stretching or cropping required to true the geometry.

As seen earlier in the review, it is easy to illustrate the strongest blur a lens can create. Due to the infinite number of variables present among available scenes, assessing the blur quality, bokeh, is considerably more challenging. Here are some f/11 (for diaphragm blade interaction) examples.

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This lens has a 12-blade diaphragm that keeps defocused highlights impressively rounded even when stopped down by 4 stops. The highlights are smoothly filled.

The second set of examples shows full images reduced in size and looking great.

Note that Sigma calls this 12-blade count design an exception and has no plans for even-numbered aperture blades in future models.

Except for a small number of specialty lenses, the wide aperture bokeh in the frame's corner does not show round defocused highlights, instead showing cat's eye shapes due to a form of mechanical vignetting. If you look through a tube at an angle, similar to the light reaching the frame's corner, the shape is not round. That is the shape we're looking at here.

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At 28mm, the peripheral shapes show strong truncation, but primarily only the deep corner shapes show impact at the longer focal lengths.

A 12-blade count diaphragm will create 12-point sunstars (diffraction spikes) from point light sources captured with a narrow aperture. Generally, the more a lens diaphragm is stopped down, the larger and better shaped the sunstars tend to be. Wide aperture lenses tend to have an advantage in this regard, and this lens can produce beautiful stars, as illustrated below.

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The examples above were captured at f/16.

The design of this lens is illustrated below.

"Measures have been taken to minimize changes in optical performance due to differences in zoom and focus positions, including the use of a difficult-to-process large-diameter FLD glass in the first group to suppress aberrations in each group. In addition, the use of 5 aspherical lens elements has enabled the lens to achieve both a wide zoom range of 28mm to 105mm and a large aperture of F2.8, while reducing its overall size." [Sigma Corporation of America]

Especially for the range of wide to telephoto focal lengths it covers, the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens is an impressively sharp lens.

Focusing

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Like the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II and 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN Art Lenses, the 28-105 uses a linear motor HLA (High-response Linear Actuator) to drive AF.

This lens focuses smoothly and fast with excellent accuracy. A faint shuffling is heard during AF in a quiet environment.

This lens's low-light AF capability is good. When mounted on a Sony Alpha 1, it focuses on strong contrasting colors in light levels that are difficult to navigate in. As usual, focusing becomes extremely slow as the camera and lens' low-light limits are approached.

Non-cinema lenses usually require refocusing after a focal length change. However, as illustrated in the 100% crops below, the reviewed lens exhibits close to parfocal characteristics. When focused at 105mm, reasonable focus is retained while zooming to 28mm.

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FTM (Full Time Manual) focusing is supported in Sony's DMF (Direct Manual Focus) mode with the shutter release half-pressed or the AF-ON button pressed.

Two customizable AFL (Autofocus Lock) buttons are provided in optimal locations for horizontal and vertical orientation. With the camera set to continuous focus mode, pressing AFL locks focus at the currently selected focus distance, enabling a focus and recompose technique. These buttons are customizable to another function using the camera's menu.

As usual for Sigma Art lenses, this one provides an outstanding manual focus experience. The large, strongly ribbed rubber focus ring is modestly raised from the lens barrel and is ideally positioned at the front of the lens where it stays out of the way but is easy to locate tactilely. It turns smoothly with ideal resistance, and the AF/MF switch makes this feature readily accessible.

A 120° slow rotation completes a full extent adjustment at 28mm, and 160° does the same at 105mm. Interesting is that turning the ring faster increases the required rotation.

It is normal for the scene to change size in the frame as the focus is pulled from one extent to the other. This effect is focus breathing, a change in focal length resulting from a change in focus distance. Focus breathing impacts photographers intending to use focus stacking techniques, videographers pulling focus (without movement to camouflage the effect), and anyone critically framing while adjusting focus.

This lens produces a differentiatingly minor change in subject size through a full-extent (worst-case) focus distance adjustment.

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Often manufacturers talk about their lenses having minimum focus breathing, but this one has it.

This lens has a specified minimum focus distance of 15.7" (400mm) throughout its focal length range, and at 105mm, it generates a significant 0.32x maximum magnification spec.

Model	Min Focus Distance		Max Magnification
Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens	8.3"	(210mm)	0.30x
Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z Lens	17.7"	(450mm)	0.29x
Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM Lens	17.7"	(450mm)	0.24x
Canon RF 28-70mm F2 L USM Lens	15.4"	(390mm)	0.18x
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens	6.7"	(170mm)	0.37x
Sigma 24-105mm f/4.0 DG OS HSM Art Lens	17.7"	(450mm)	0.22x
Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN Art Lens	11.8"	(300mm)	0.25x
Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens	15.7"	(400mm)	0.32x
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens	8.3"	(210mm)	0.32x
Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens	15.0"	(380mm)	0.31x
Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 Lens	15.0"	(381mm)	0.20x
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 Lens	7.1"	(180mm)	0.37x

While this lens will manually focus slightly closer than its spec at 28mm, the difference is not enough to make a significant magnification difference. At 28mm, a subject measuring approximately 10.4 x 6.9" (265 x 177mm) fills a full-frame imaging sensor at this lens's minimum MF distance. At 105mm, a 4.0 x 2.7" (102 x 68mm) subject does the same.

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The individual USPS love stamps measure 1.19 x 0.91" (30.226 x 23.114mm).

While this lens produces sharp center-of-the-frame details at minimum focus distance with a wide-open aperture, expect the image periphery to be soft due to field curvature and increased lateral CA, especially at 105mm. F/11 (selected for the examples) brings on increased depth of field that provides significant improvement in corner image quality, though even 105mm f/16 corners remain bit soft.

Extension tubes enable a decreased minimum focus distance, which significantly increases the magnification capabilities of this lens. Extension tubes are hollow lens barrels that shift a lens farther from the camera, allowing shorter focusing distances at the expense of long-distance focusing. As of review time, Sigma does not publish extension tube specs or manufacture these items, but third-party Sony-compatible extension tubes are available.

This lens is not compatible with Sigma extenders.

Design & Features

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Sigma Art lenses always feature a great physical design, which includes professional-grade construction and attractive aesthetics.

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After the usual diameter increase out from the mount, this lens features a relatively straight design, with the ribs of the three rings raised slightly outward from the lens barrel. About 1/3 of the empty lens barrel is ribbed for enhanced grip.

The zoom ring is ideally positioned and has an easy-to-use size. It has a short 70° rotation that is ideal for the focal length range. This ring turns in the opposite direction of Sony's zoom lenses, the same direction as Canon's.

As the focal length is increased, the inner lens barrel extends up to 1.62" (41.2mm) at 105mm. The extended barrel has impressively little play. A zoom lock switch holds the lens in the fully retracted position, but a light twist on the zoom ring conveniently releases its hold.

Sigma's typical raised switch bank is gone, and having all switches flush-mounted is a nice improvement. The center of all switches is raised just enough for use with gloves. These 2-position switches snap crisply into position, and all feature a white background when in the enabled position.

This lens is dust and moisture resistant.

The front lens element has a fluorine coating that repels fingerprints, dust, water, oil, and other contaminants and makes cleaning considerably easier.

Incorporating the 28-105mm focal length range and f/2.8 aperture combination necessitates increased size and weight over the conventionally available 24-70 f/2.8 and 24-105 f/4 lenses, and Sigma has made a big effort to avoid these penalties. "By thoroughly reducing the weight of each part, the lens is kept under 2 pounds while achieving both a wide zoom range and an F2.8 aperture. The lens barrel near the mount is made of magnesium rather than aluminum, ensuring rigidity while reducing the weight of these parts alone by two-thirds." [Sigma Corporation of America]

There are no direct comparable lenses, so this chart will feature class extension.

Model	Weight oz(g)		Dimensions w/o Hood "(mm)		Filter	Year
Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM Lens	31.8	(900)	3.5 x 4.9	(88.5 x 125.7)	82	2019
Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z Lens	46.9	(1330)	3.5 x 7.8	(88.5 x 199.0)	82	2023
Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM Lens	24.7	(700)	3.3 x 4.2	(83.5 x 107.3)	77	2018
Canon RF 28-70mm F2 L USM Lens	50.5	(1430)	4.1 x 5.5	(103.8 x 139.8)	95	2018
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens	26.3	(745)	3.5 x 4.7	(87.8 x 120.2)	82	2024
Sigma 24-105mm f/4.0 DG OS HSM Art Lens	31.2	(885)	3.5 x 4.3	(88.6 x 109.4)	82	2013
Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN Art Lens	33.5	(950)	3.5 x 6.0	(87.8 x 153.4)	82	2024
Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary Lens	16.6	(470)	2.8 x 4.0	(72.2 x 101.5)	67	2021
Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens	34.9	(990)	3.5 x 6.3	(87.8 x 159.9)	82	2024
Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II Lens	24.5	(695)	3.5 x 4.7	(87.8 x 119.9)	82	2022
Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens	23.4	(663)	3.3 x 4.5	(83.4 x 113.3)	77	2017
Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 Lens	31.9	(904.3)	3.5 x 4.4	(88.4 x 111.8)	82	2017
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 Lens	19.1	(540)	3.0 x 4.6	(75.8 x 117.6)	67	2021

View the complete Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens Specifications using the site's lens specifications tool for many more comparisons.

Here is a visual comparison:

Positioned above from left to right are the following lenses:

Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens
Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens
Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z Lens

The same lenses are shown below with their hoods in place.

Use the site's product image comparison tool to visually compare the Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens to other lenses.

The filter threads are 82mm. While 82mm filters are relatively large and expensive, the size is common, with sharing of effects filters often possible, increasing the convenience and decreasing the overall cost. Also, 82mm filters can be adapted to most other filter thread sizes.

A standard-thickness circular polarizer filter does not impact wide-aperture peripheral shading.

Sigma does not provide a tripod ring for this lens. While I agree with that omission decision, the lens is a bit front-heavy with the camera mounted to a tripod.

Sigma includes the lens hood in the box, and this lens comes with the LH878-07 lens hood. This is a semi-rigid plastic petal-shaped hood with a ribbed interior designed to avoid reflections. A thin ribbed ring and rubberized rear section are provided for easy grip, and the push-button release makes installation and removal easy. This hood offers significant protection from both impact and, especially at the widest focal lengths, bright light.

Sigma provides a nice zippered, padded nylon case in the box.

The cap is always included.

Price, Value, Compatibility

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I was well into the development of this review before I saw the price. While it is not low, it is lower than I expected, and this lens is a good deal.

The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens is compatible with all Sony E-mount cameras, including APS-C sensor format models, and it is also available in the L mount (Sigma, Panasonic, Leica). Made in Japan, each Art lens is tested with Sigma's proprietary MTF measuring system, ensuring a quality product. Sigma develops, manufactures, and sells the Sony E-mount version of this lens based on the specifications of the E-mount, disclosed by Sony Corporation under license agreement.

Sigma provides a 1-year limited warranty, and Sigma Corporation of America provides a limited 3-year warranty extension.

The reviewed Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens was on loan from Sigma Corporation of America.

Alternatives

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The perfect lens does not exist. However, the best lens for your needs does. To determine that answer requires a look at the alternatives. That said, this lens does not have a direct alternative available at review time. So, let's look at a high-performing classic 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, one that has a similar design, the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens.

In the image quality comparison, the 28-105 is slightly sharper in the 28mm (vs. 24mm) corners, and the 24-70 is slightly sharper in the 70mm corners. Basically, the lenses are similarly sharp. The 24-70 has slightly stronger wide-open peripheral shading at 70mm, less stopped-down shading at 24mm, and slightly more stopped-down shading at 35mm. I see slightly fewer flare effects from the 28-105. The 24-70 has slightly less geometric distortion except in the 35mm comparison.

The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN vs. 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN II Art Lens comparison shows the 24-70 considerably lighter and smaller. The 28-105 has 12 aperture blades vs. 11 (still a high number), producing 12-point sunstars vs. 22, and a slightly higher maximum magnification (0.37x vs. 0.32x). The 28-105 has a big focal length range advantage on the long end, but it gives up the down-to-24mm range. The 24-70 is moderately less expensive.

The lens that exceeds the 28-105's f/2.8 focal length range is the Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z. While the Sigma lens is not available in the RF mount at review time, it is still interesting to compare these lenses.

The image quality comparison shows that the two lenses are similarly sharp. The Canon lens has slightly less peripheral shading at 105mm f/2.8. The Sigma lens shows fewer flare effects and has dramatically less geometric distortion at the wide end.

The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art vs. Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 L IS USM Z Lens comparison shows that the Sigma lens is considerably smaller and lighter. The Sigma lens has 12 aperture blades vs. 11 (still a high number), a slightly higher maximum magnification (0.32x vs. 0.29x) The Canon lens has a noticeable extra 4mm of focal length at the wide end, image stabilization, a fixed size, a tripod ring, a focus limiter, and compatibility with power zoom. The Canon lens costs twice as much.

Use the site's tools to create additional comparisons.

Summary

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The Sigma 28-105mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens's 28-105mm focal length range and f/2.8 aperture combination make this lens super versatile. This pro-grade lens produces excellent image quality and is an excellent choice for general-purpose uses, including for low-light scenarios, especially those involving people.