RF135/1.8L IS vs. Sigma Art 135/1.8, Astrotest

Franz Kerschbaum

There are already many tests of the new RF135/1.8L IS demonstrating its fantastic performance. For my own final decission to stay with my Sigma Art 135/1.8 or switch to the RF I did some additional night sky pics shown here. We all know the Sigma is fantastic. Can the RF be better in extreme corner definition and/or vignetting?  I pointed my EOS Ra (for the more critical CA and coma corner test) to the polar star field on a stable tracking mount and exposed 4 pics with same exposure for each lens with changing aperture (1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0) and compared them WITHOUT any lens profile correction (knowing that they work very well). See the results below. For me they are both fantastic performers with the RF having the edge for "colorless" corner sharpness wide open and the Sigma Art for Vignetting. Both trump everything that was available before in that focal range.100% upper left corner UNCORRECTED: first horizontal row RF135/1.8L IS @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0; second row Sigma Art 135/1.8 @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0Fullframe bright Urban night sky UNCORRECTED: first vertical row RF135/1.8L IS @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0; second row Sigma Art 135/1.8 @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0


nighthiker

Hi!Thanks for that test! It's helpful for me to see that - at least some - of the new RF lenses are very good performers for astro photography as the number of native RF lenses (Canon and 3rd party) is small. Well, that is also due to the Canon politics of suing 3rd party AF lens manufacturers ...Checking your images I agree with the vignette (Sigma has less than Canon). Concerning the quality of the stars I find that the Sigma has slightly more astigmatism and color fringing which is visible at the bright star. But the difference is very small and only based on these 8 images. Does the other corners behave similar?And you haven't mentioned it, but it's well known: The Canon is twice as expensive as the Sigma.


CamerEyes

Franz Kerschbaum wrote:There are already many tests of the new RF135/1.8L IS demonstrating its fantastic performance. For my own final decission to stay with my Sigma Art 135/1.8 or switch to the RF I did some additional night sky pics shown here. We all know the Sigma is fantastic. Can the RF be better in extreme corner definition and/or vignetting? I pointed my EOS Ra (for the more critical CA and coma corner test) to the polar star field on a stable tracking mount and exposed 4 pics with same exposure for each lens with changing aperture (1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0) and compared them WITHOUT any lens profile correction (knowing that they work very well). See the results below. For me they are both fantastic performers with the RF having the edge for "colorless" corner sharpness wide open and the Sigma Art for Vignetting. Both trump everything that was available before in that focal range.100% upper left corner UNCORRECTED: first horizontal row RF135/1.8L IS @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0; second row Sigma Art 135/1.8 @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0Fullframe bright Urban night sky UNCORRECTED: first vertical row RF135/1.8L IS @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0; second row Sigma Art 135/1.8 @ 1.8/2.0/2.8/4.0Thank you for this test! The Sigma 135mm is my absolute favorite lens for portrait and landscapes. I was tempted to try out the RF135mm the other day at the store. Good thing I did not bring my cameraWith this test and other reviews, I think my conclusion is the RF135mm is too expensive for what I do, without any phenomenal gains in performance.


Franz Kerschbaum

Thanks!  Yes the corners are very similar. Both of my lenses are well centred. And dont forgett the pics are done with an Ra! So (red)CA on an normal camera would be even less.


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