A budget alternative to the 105mm F1.4?

[bjornthun]

Nikon has a new AF-S 85/1.8 lens as well, that should be considered. For use on a Nikon body I'd strongly consider Nikkors before going for other brands to ensure full compatibility. Sigma will NOT ensure full electronic compatibility.

Zeiss lenses will be compatible, since they are essentially Ai-P lenses, no AF to worry about.

[longzoom]

" Sigma will not..." - is it your own experience, or any reliable source? Would you kindly clarify please? In my experience with almost all Art lenses, with any Nikon body, I've not admitted any problem. The new 85/1.4 is only left one I did not try it yet. THX!  LZ

[bjornthun]

My own experience it is. Both with using Sigma on Nikon and lately with Sigma on Sony mirrorless. In both cases native Nikon or Sony lenses work the best with full compatibilty. So for Nikon I suggest Nikkors, Voigtländer and Zeiss, the latter two brands are MF only. Same for Sony, Sony, Zeiss (Batis, Touit, Loxia series) and Voigtländer. The Zeiss Batis and Touit AF lenses for Sony work well without issues. The Batis (AF) and Touit (AF) and Loxia (MF) series that are made by Zeiss themselves and  are not Sony/Zeiss made by Sony, which of course work well too.

You will find reports about the Sigma 18-35/1.8 here on Nikongear about AF issues.

Sony licenses the interface to third parties. Zeiss has been able to do AF for mirrorless Sony E mount right, and Sigma not. Then I think that Sigma's issues with Sony must be due to Sigma. Nikon mount Sigma lenses are based on reverse engineering of Nikon's electronic communication protocol. There is, in my opinion, no way this can be better than licensing the electronic communication protocol. In particular, compatibility with future bodies could become an issue.

[longzoom]

I see thanks. But for future problem, if any, will  not we have the Sigma Dock? Extremely convenience for any problem, including AF and FT ones. OK, thank you! LZ

[Peter Forsell]

I see thanks. But for future problem, if any, will  not we have the Sigma Dock? Extremely convenience for any problem, including AF and FT ones. OK, thank you! LZ

I have the dock and the latest lens firmware, but despite this my 24 Art and 35 Art autofocus is bad. In low light both lenses act as if they have Parkinson's. If it really was a simple "extremely convenient fix", I suppose Sigma would have done it already, right? They just don't know how, and that is the root of the problem. I won't buy another Sigma lens, life is too short.

I chose the Nikon brand decades ago because of Nikkors. If I really had wanted to shoot with Sigma brand lenses I would have chosen Sigma camera. 

[longzoom]

While I do share your point-of-view on Nikon/Nikkors, my Sigmas Art 20, 35, 50 have never developed problem like this. Silky smooth ones, like the others Art or C lenses, which I tried. That's why I share my experience, as well as you do, what is completely fair! LZ 

[Roland Vink]

In dealing with the Laowa SFT feature the adverts "forget" to inform of the changes to the foreground ... There cannot be a change outside the focus plane in just one direction. Nikon's own DC lenses do exhibit this fact quite clearly.

The Laowa SFT (Smooth Trans-Focus) uses an apodization filter, which works equally well on both sides of the focus plane. The Nikon DC lenses use an optical adjustment which over or under corrects spherical aberration - this produces smooth bokeh only on one side of the focus plane, the other side has harsher rendition.

If the OP is looking for a cheaper alternative to the AFS 105/1.4, surely the best option is the AFS 85/1.4. The focal length is only 20% shorter, but otherwise the rendition and bokeh are similar.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Thanks for the heads-up, Roland, I stand corrected apparently.

[Macro_Cosmos]

I have the laowa 105mm/2 STF, a red one too 
The later 105mm STFs do have aperture coupling and was renamed to B-Dreamer. I didn't bother sending mine in for an update (shipping from and to Australia... nah) and I didn't bother lugging it to China last year either.

Alrighty, before I continue, I need to set forward some things. I am in close relationship with the company and manage their chat groups as well as flickr groups, not paid however, also not sponsored. I'm just there to help them reach an audience outside of China. So please take my subjective views with a grain of salt, I may be biased.

It's a pretty good lens, damn sharp being on-par with the otus 85/1.4 and the CA correction is just as good.
With that being said, as mentioned, the lens performs pretty bad against light and exhibit some horrendous flares. The 105/2 DC however is magical when shooting against the sun. Build quality is really solid and it is fairly heavy.

I use mine primarily as a reproduction lens, no need to deal with CA in post and it's just sharrrrrrrrppp.


Laowa STF 105mm f/2 by Daniel Han, on Flickr

I can complete a set of around 5-8 stacks in 15 minutes, great asset to have when I decide to shill my photography for some cash
Delicious Blackberries by Daniel Han, on Flickr

You can see that the lens' resolution is just insane. So if you're after something that is blazingly sharp that will figuratively cut you, and has pretty nice bokehballs, the Laowa 105 is great. Oh and I forgot to mention, focusing this lens is extremely hard, especially at f/2, I usually use LV. The STF filter seems to confuse the confirmation dot on Nikons. I do see a possibility to fit a chip (dandelion maybe) onto the mount. I'll try ask Laowa to see if they would like to send me some old unmodified mounts so I don't have to destroy my own.

Customer service is another problem. Reaching the company is fairly easy but getting the lens fixed/swapped is pretty troublesome indeed. I assume the same goes with Samyang? Or maybe they have outlets in the Americas.

If you want AF, the 105/2 DC is great! If you don't mind manual focusing, I would recommend the 105/2.5 lenses. Even the 100mm/2.8 series-E is great, and it can be had for as low as $100 AUD.