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I started this review not knowing what to say — and that’s partially because my office looks like a the remnants of a party due to how many review units are in for testing right now. But a part of that is because the Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports lens is something that’s, well, really plain in many ways. Some may call it beautiful, and I love that for you and that fact that you’re all about the true to life look that this lens can deliver. On the other hand, my heart is somewhere else with various other lenses that embody character. The entire time that I spent testing the Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports lens, I wondered why they couldn’t have just made a petzval lens or something else instead.
That’s not to say that I hate this lens. In fact, to understand it, I needed to do some research. So I browsed around Flickr, VSCO, and Behance to see what real photographers shoot with 200mm f2 lenses. The majority of the images are natural light portraits, pet portraits, and the occasional product photo. Then I went into the Phoblographer’s own archives to see work from photographers we’ve interviewed who use 200mm lenses. But most of them are using 70-200mm lenses instead.
Indeed, everyone is using some sort of zoom lens. Make no mistake, the natural light portraits that this lens can give you are gorgeous. In the mirrorless world, this lens is surely unique. Nikon is the last brand to make a lens like this and before that, Canon made a 200mm f1.8. Then there’s the beautiful Fujifilm 200mm f2 with a built in teleconverter.
Then I shot with the lens on LUMIX cameras with Real Time Lut applied. That’s when it all came together.
The Big Picture: Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports Conclusions
The Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports lens is showing off what Sigma does best: making big lenses that can deliver really beautiful images that absolutely need to be edited in some way or another. It also has autofocus that can be a bit spotty — and I’ve come to expect nothing less. That’s a longer way of saying that this is a Sigma lens — what more do you expect? Yes, it’s got really good image quality from a laboratory standpoint where people are measuring lines of resolution in replacement for something else that brings them pleasure. But this lens lacks a lot of soul and character to make it further unique. As far as I go, Viltrox, Sony, or Nikon could all make this lens tomorrow in some way or another.
I type this as I am currently testing a lens that I am absolutely smitten with: the Lomography Joseph Petzval 80.5mm f1.9. And I will continue to say the things that I’ve said about Sony G Master lenses for years: Why can’t Sigma make something with character?
The last Sigma lens that gave me image quality I was smitten for was the Sigma 40mm f1.4. Something about the 135mm f1.8 Art also gave me really beautiful vibes. The same also goes for the 105mm f1.4. At the same time, all of those lenses required a lot of post-production to really make the output stand out.
If you’re shooting with the Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports on L mount, you should expect a few oddities with autofocus performance and to need to rely on Real Time LUT in LUMIX’s cameras more than not.
I personally wouldn’t buy this lens. But I acknowledge that it’s a world’s first and that there’s a whole slew of photographers out there who only want to shoot in natural light.
I’m giving the Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports four out of five stars. I really wish that Sigma could bring some character to their lenses. Want one? Check it out on Amazon.
- Great weather resistance
- No one looks bad when being photographed with this lens
- Stunning bokeh
- Subjects pop, but not the same as they would with an Apochromatic lens
- Lots of controls
- Big and heavy
- Mediocre autofocus
- $3,299 price tag
Experience
Testing this lens was done with my very own Leica SL2s and the Panasonic LUMIX S1IIE that’s on long term loan to the site. In terms of balance, this lens felt right at home on the Leica SL2s — which is a heavier, bigger, and more sturdy body. It also looked really good considering that I covered my Leica in a fun skin. And most of the time, this is what I wanted to shoot it with.
Looking at this lens, you’ll see that there are a ton of controls on it as well as a massive lens hood. Luckily, for most of the time, you’ll probably only end up working with the focus limiter switch.
Let me tell you: this lens is massive and mammoth. Obviously, it’s something that you’d only ever take out when you want to do some serious work. And perhaps that’s the odd thing about it: I pull my Leicas out when I want to create. I use my LUMIX gear when I’m hired for my actual creativity. I use my Nikon, Canon, and Sony gear when I just need to get something done.
The Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports feels like it’s going to be somewhere in between all of this. I can see Sony users reaching for it when they want to do sports work. But I could also see L-mount shooters using it to make very specific portraits. And that’s what I ended up doing.
It’s enough that the lens is massive and heavy. Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to use. The mere act of taking the lens cap off, unscrewing the knob for the lens hood, flipping it around, screwing it back on, and then booting up the camera is a ritual that calls for shorter inhales, longer exhales of calm, and the need to slow down when shooting. At least, that’s how I tested it because portraiture is what seemed to be the dominant subject matter.
For one shoot, the Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports didn’t have much of a problem finding a friend doing yoga when using the SL2s. She wasn’t moving all that fast, but it surely was a full one breath per-movement type of affair. When another friend sat down, it didn’t have any problems trying to find her. The same happened with another friend, her husband, and her two daughters. However, in the rain, the Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports had some trouble. It couldn’t find a friend in the rain when she was doing yoga. Both the SL2s and the LUMIX S1II E detected her, but it couldn’t lock onto her.
Typically, I’ve known Sigma to blame the camera manufacturers in the past. But when I switched to a Leica and a Panasonic lens, they could both find my friend pretty easily. Sigma is supposed to be using the same autofocus communications as the other two companies. However, as I’ve always seen before, Sigma’s lagging behind on autofocus in place of really solid image quality for those who want to pixel peep at 100%.
At one point, my friend and her husband wanted to do a specific photo of them swinging their daughter — and neither camera could totally keep up with the speed. Surely, this has something to do with the Sigma lens.
That, to me, is quite odd. A sports lens? I’d imagine a sports lens having faster autofocus and an Art series lens being a bit slower.
Image Quality
The image above is the only image that I shot and liked enough that was unedited. You can see how rich the color and how creamy some of the bokeh can be. But my favorite photos needed to be edited to really make them pop and come alive. I don’t often have to do that with Leica or Panasonic lenses.
There’s a lot to talk about here. The Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports has beautiful bokeh that is truly some of the best that I’ve seen all year. And if you’re the type of photographer that really relies on bokeh to make your images pop, then you’ll love this. I’m not one of those photographers as I usually rely on lens filters, lights, moment, etc.
The images are also insanely sharp. In fact, it’s so sharp that I think that it needs to be shot with natural light to ensure that there’s softness in a person’s skin. If you use a flash, you’ll be introducing specular highlights that will make them look way too sharp.
With that said: I should also state the obvious here — it’s nearly impossible to take a bad photo of anyone with this lens.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing good things about the photos that I shot of these folks — with all the EXIf data removed from the images, of course. Folks love looking at the images because I’m so busy capturing great moments with everyone and putting them in a spot where they’re really looking their best.
But the truth is that I can do that with any lens. And I don’t feel like the Sigma 200mm f2 added to that in any major way except for basically making the background pretty much disappear. To that end, it lends itself more to capturing instead of creating.
The following images were all edited; and they really needed it to make them stand out in a special way.
Sigma 200mm f2 DG Sports Tech Specs and Features
- Lens construction: 19 elements in 14 groups (2 FLD, 2 SLD)
- Angle of View: 12.3°
- Number of Diaphragm Blades: 11 (Rounded Diaphragm)
- Minimum Aperture: F22
- Minimum Focusing Distance: 170cm / 67.0in.
- Maximum Magnification Ratio: 1:7.6
- Filter Size: φ105mm
- Maximum Diameter x Length: φ118.9mm x 201mm / φ4.7in. x 7.9in.
- Weight: 1,820g / 64.2oz.
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The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:
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- Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the unit. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
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