This review isn’t sponsored. This is purely a review about a lens that I own and use regularly for my professional work, which consists of mostly of couple and family shoots, and weddings.

Choosing Lenses

When choosing lenses to use, it’s really important to me how they pair up with my other lenses and for them to form a cohesive line up. The most important lens that I own is my 35mm. Everything else is setup around that central lens.

I’ve been looking for a good pairing for a while now. After trying a 55mm, and a 75mm, I was lucky enough that Sigma came out with a 65mm lens. Lucky, because they are the only manufacturer that offer an autofocus lens with this focal length.

I always struggled to find a secondary lens to go along with my 35mm. One that suited me and for the type of photography I do. An 85mm lens would be the traditional way to go, but it always felt way too tight for couples and especially for family shoots. It made me feel so claustrophobic! A 75mm felt closer to what I wanted but it was still way too telephoto for me and I ended up having to use my feet way more than I wanted to. Always running back and forth. And it wasn’t just angle of view that was the issue, but also the look of the photos. When looking at a finished gallery from a shoot, I could tell immediately which photo had been taken with which lens in a really jarring way. With the 55mm I had the issue that it was a bit too wide and there wasn’t enough of a focal length difference to the 35mm. And using my 24-70mm as a secondary lens also never really clicked with me.

But thankfully that 65mm came out! It reminded me a lot of an old lens I had many years ago. When I was still photographing on an APS-C Nikon DSLR. I had a Sigma 50mm f1.4 ES DG HSM lens for it. Sigma lied about it and sold it as a 50mm when in reality it was a 45mm and noticeably wider. I loved that lens though and no wonder, in full frame terms that would be a 67.5mm lens. So essentially the exact same as this 65mm. I used it for so many of my favourite photos at the time.

The Positives

What I really love about the lens is how versatile it is. Because it’s such an in-between focal length, it sometimes behaves and looks like a 50mm and other times as an 85mm. So it’s great to use for some close up portraits in combination with a wider lens or to use it for headshots, where one would generally use a portrait lens for. And it saves me from getting two lenses. I’m a minimalist, so the less I can own, the happier I am.

I love the build quality and the aperture ring! Sigma always knock it out of the park in that regard but I especially love this whole ‘i’ series in general. If I wasn’t such a minimalist, I would gladly get almost every one of their ‘i’ lenses! I always appreciate great quality, reliable, compact lenses. This is my smallest lens which makes it great to throw in the camera bag, just in case, for shoots where I’m unsure if I’ll need it or not. In comparison, bringing the 70-200mm is always such a commitment!

As per usual with Sigma, it’s not just the build quality that’s great but also the autofocus! Fast enough to capture running kids and always accurate too.

The bokeh is also pleasing. My opinion on bokeh has shifted a lot over the last years. I used to really like the more swirly, old-school bokeh. I still do, but as a professional photographer I found that to be unsustainable. It’s great to have that in some photos but it doesn’t always work at every single location, lighting situation, subject, background etc. So I’ve learnt to appreciate the cleaner Sigma look over the years. And to be fair, I think these lenses could look way more clinical than they are, especially this one. It still has character and a bit of swirl without being overpowering. Also f2.0 is absolutely fast enough at this focal length for my liking. Enough bokeh and still compact enough, it’s the perfect balance.

The Negative(s)

The biggest negative for me is that compared to my other Sigma lenses, this has a magenta colour cast. In Lightroom it generally tends to be one click colder and two clicks more magenta. And sometimes, even after corrections, the colours in general aren’t quite as amazing as my Sigma 35mm f1.2 II. Although that is a real top performer in this regard. Usually this colour issue can be fixed, but every one in a thousand ends up being converted to black and white instead.

At first I thought the magnetic lens cap would be really cool feature, but since I use UV filters on all of my lenses, it makes the magnetic lens cap obsolete. Thankfully they do provide a regular lens cap too. So it’s not a big issue but worth mentioning.

Those are the only two (or one and half) negative points I have about this lens.

Verdict

I really appreciate what Sigma are doing. Their lenses are fantastic! Built well, reliable, great image quality and sold for a great price. I really appreciate the ease of mind I have with Sigma lenses when it comes to shooting a full wedding day. I know I won’t have any issues and they’ll work reliably all day! This lens is another great addition, not just to their line up but also to mine.

There seem to be rumblings that Sigma might make a faster 65mm lens soon. The faster aperture wouldn’t really interest me, but I would be interested to see if that ended up having a similar colour profile to my 35mm. If it did, I would possibly consider upgrading to it just for that reason.