Sigma Aizu Cine Lenses

The Sigma Aizu Lenses was my lensing choice for my 2nd year visual essay at The American Film Institute. The project, I used the Arri 435 Xtreme with today 5219 film, which I rated at 250. I’ve used Sigmas previously and have always loved how clean they are. The Aizu lenses were introduced months ago and I knew I wanted to test them out and thought this project was a great opportunity to not only see how they perform on set, but also how they look on film. At the time of filming, I only had a few focal lengths to choose from, the 27mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 65mm. The size and build quality of the Aizus is great. They have a nice balance of sharpness with character. The Aizus are completely redesigned for cinematic filmmaking. I enjoy using the original sigma cine lenses, as they are sigma art lenses rehoused to filmmaking. Aizu lenses are really fast at 1.3 maximum aperture across the line. And they are sharp wide open and consistent throughout the focal lengths. These lenses cover full frame and close focus is pretty good.

They resolve really nicely in the center of frame and have gentle fall off toward the edges of frame, which I really appreciate. The 27mm and 35mm have slight barrel distortion while the 50mm and the 65mm have slight pincushion. The distortion is minimal and correctable in post if you choose to do so. I personally like it. They have a little bit of chromatic aberration wide open but when you stop it down to 2 it cleans up. At t4 they clean up nicely across the entire image and because I was shooting film, and not trying to give my 1st AC a heart attack, there were only a few shots that I was shooting at a 2.8. Most of this short was shot at a T4. I chose not to add any diffusion filtration to the glass to see more of the characteristics. Because I was shooting with tungsten stock, I used an 85b filter across the entire shoot to balance the colors so I didn’t have to fix the color shift as much in post. (The 85b meant I’d have a 1 stop loss of light that I had to account for). One one of the things I didn’t expect is the flare characteristics. I’m not much of a person that focuses on flare characteristics as I’m usually cutting them out, but with this story, the flares were welcomes and I noticed these lenses flare beautifully. It’s worth mentioning that these lenses have data support through contacts on the back and the data port on the lens. The marks on the lenses also glow in the dark, which my 1st AC thought was really cool.

Visual Essay - Emotional Bull short film

Arri 435 - 24 fps, 180 Shutter Angle - Kodak 5219

Sigma Aizu 27mm @ T4 - Clean

Overall, these lenses are a solid choice for any range of production. I feel like they work well on all types of projects from commercial to indie features or big studio productions. The price is in the mid to upper range of lens prices at $8299 per lens.

“The Sigma Aizu Lenses have been on my list to test since they were announced a few months ago. They have a balance of sharpness and character that I think fits any story needs. I want to thank Sigma again for their support as everyone at Sigma was very welcoming and helpful.”