Sigma A 24-70 mm f/2.8 DG DN review - Summary

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Sigma A 24-70 mm f/2.8 DG DN

22 January 2020

Arkadiusz Olech

11. Summary

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Pros:

very solid and weather- sealed casing,
excellent image quality in frame centre,
good image quality on the edge of APS-C,
acceptable image quality on the edge of full frame,
low lateral chromatic aberration,
negligible astigmatism,
low vignetting on the APS-C/DX sensor,
fast, silent, and accurate autofocus,
very good performance against bright light.

Cons:

very high distortion which, additionally, at the shortest focal length, shows significant moustache deformations,
a tad too high spherical aberration at 70 mm,
noticeable longitudinal chromatic aberration at 70 mm,
monstruous vignetting on full frame.

The Sigma A 24–70 mm f/2.8 DG DN is a well-put-together lens, sharp practically across the whole focal lenghts and aperture range. Its tests results, however, leave us a bit dissatisfied. Even the mere pros-to-cons ratio is higher than in the case of other Sigma instruments, tested by us lately. Still, the number of flaws is not as jarring as their intensity - you deal here with really nasty distortion and vignetting levels. The explanation that these two aberrations can be easily corrected with the help of software I don't find especially convincing. I'd rather optics specialists tried harder and corrected at least some of them with optical system, not leaving all the work to software. Additionally, the presence of longitudinal chromatic aberration, with so many low dispersion elements inside, was rather a nasty surprise.

Still, compared to the reflex camera version, this lens has some assets too. It is physically lighter, a bit slimmer and, what's interesting, cheaper, because its suggested price is almost $1100. The reflex camera version of this lens, present on the market for almost two years now, is $20 cheaper.

The tested lens has a serious rival in the shape of the Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 Di III RXD, an instrument $220 cheaper. Of course the Sigma still offers you the 24 mm focal length, an important feature, and a significantly better performance on the edge of the frame - for many prospective customers these will be two big selling points. By the way we, customers, should enjoy the fact that, apart from expensive brand name products (after all the Sony FE 24-70 mm f/2.8 GM costs almost $2200!) we have an opportunity to buy quite good products of thrid-party producers in this segment.