All right. Nice pictures (and family). However, some observations. The transition from the focus plane to background blur seems very abrupt, almost like artificial bokeh. Portraits wide open where only one eye is in focus do irritate me, but I assume they have been taken to demonstrate wide open performance, not as a photographic choice.

Background blur and focus sharpness looks very nice. Foreground blur looks like what I've seen of other lenses with overcorrected RSA for the background (i.e. undercorrected for foreground).

These are some impressive images... but quite frankly... all of them could have been shot with the same effect and sharpness with my Nikon 85 F 1.8 for $700 less... ;)

The best never rests!
http://www.viewbug.com/member/garyabigt

Not so pleasant bokeh, otherwise agree with Alex Hanin

Although not a portrait fan, these are very nice shots and the lens delivers for that use. Everybody clamouring for big apertures but even at f/4 there was not a single shot where if you had two people that both sets of eyes were in focus. Wide open with just 1 person, it's hard to get both eyes in focus without careful alignment. Still think f/1.8 is a sweet spot for this FL.

All you individuals that were till now unable to take a great or at least very good photo with any other 85mm lenses introduced in the last 7-8 years are utterly delusional by believing that this new 85mm lens will make you a better photographer.
This new lens will NOT significantly improve your mediocre photography skills, it will NOT help you to finally create a meaningful, exceptionally looking pictures.
Sorry, it hurts but ... that's a simple, harsh true.

Yellow

Sharp, high contrast, lifeless. No thanks.

I couldn't find the video review neither here on the site nor in youtube. Is it out yet? I've zero interest in the lens but those reviews are still fun to watch.

First of all, it's a nice set of family portraits. Thank you for sharing. However, being a pixel-peeper, I would say 95% of the shots did not nail the focus. You can always tell by looking at the eye lashes; it should be needle sharp...something I get all the time with my Sony 85mm f/1.8 when I nail the focus.

Fans of the Gaussian Blur bokeh rejoice!

Best part for me was to meet the family. Very nice photos.

A lots of eyelash af even at f2 !!
Is that the camera or lens?

I did read this lens has pincushion. I’d expect this is an easy correction in camera or in post . The portraits are very nice , well done DP ! I’m a Nikon dslr shooter and am going mirrorless ( not 100% of course) sometime Within the next year. That said I’ll be looking at Sigma lenses hard for my lens collection. I already have 4 Sigmonsters and they are definitely among my best lenses.
Being a bokeh whore I really love how this one renders . I haven’t been a fan of the DSLR 85mm Art . Good job Sigma

Just speaking for myself, the sample images look wonderful. So much so, I am seriously thinking of getting this lens. For me, it looks like the Mark II version of the Sony 85mm 1.4 GM lens without the Sony label and higher cost. Once it arrives, I suspect this smaller and lighter lens will replace my Sigma 105 1.4 in my camera bag. In any case, in my opinion, Sigma has a winner on their hands.

One of the best portrait galleries I have seen on DPreview.The photos look great.Top lens.

I have a Sony 85mm F1.8, and while it is great for the money, I wouldn't call it perfect: too much LoCA, not that sharp wide open (blaming my copy) and often performs poorly in backlit shots. Whenever I rented Sigma's old 85mm F1.4 HSM Art, I was blown away by the IQ difference. The only reasons I stuck with the Sony were its small size and excellent AF speed.

This one looks just fantastic in terms of sharpness, backlight performance, size AND weight. CA is much better controlled than in the old HSM Art. The creamy toneh is absolutely there, too, even though a couple of full body portraits wide open would have been great to see (often shooting like that, and it is very useful for when you need the shot quickly and need to get rid of ugly background).

Can't wait until it starts shipping here in Russia.

Not a bad portrait in the bunch, and most are lovely. It's why a 90mm f/2.8 IS macro is the default lens on my DSLR. We can only hope smartphone engineers are fans of DPReview.

Interesting. LoCA looks somewhat better than the dSLR Art lens - not perfect around a few highlights, but it was a weakness of the older 85, itself better than, say, the Nikkors. Seems true even in Sigma's f/1.4 images, although manufacturers don't show images where their lenses look bad. Might constrain my Canon LoCA envy on this. The bokeh looks a little busy, but that may be sharpening or odd lighting.

Still quite a bit of mechanical vignetting/cat's eye swirly bokeh at the image edges, sadly.

Good to see lens developments continuing. This may be what makes me move to mirrorless - modern lens designs not being done on dSLRs.

And yes, I shoot an 85mm at f/1.4 to lose the background. DoF is plenty if the subject is small enough in the frame and you're trying to capture an area.

Can you all do a comparison shootout between all the 85mm lenses for E-Mount with AF? Failing that, at least a comparison between the f1.4 options would be amazing, especially the two Sigma options and the G-Master!

Also, please include more shots taken wide open in future galleries, thanks :)

good job Sigma, finally a reasonably sized product.
Lets see how it will compare to the Sony 84f1.4 GM especially in terms of bokeh.

Such a great lens but the color from the sample photos not very impressive. Is it the lens or the camera?

Thank you so much for the great gallery. As the unofficial and self-designated family photographer, these types of scenes are where I would be using my lens most of the time, so I love seeing how it handles these kinds of shots. Looks great!

Other galleries: "Booo! DPReview, you need to get better photographers. Booo!"

Now Chris tries to give realistic output for clients where more than just one eye is in focus and sharp: "Booo! Why don't you shoot everything at f/1.4? Booo!"

It is a F1.4 lens, yet in the whole gallery there is just one photo that is taken at F/1.4. How are we supposed to know how good the lens is at F/1.4?

Beautiful photos! Well done!

if you're on a budget, sure

Sigma has produced some more interesting comparisons and samples here https://www.sigma-global.com/en/lenses/cas/product/art/a020_85_14/impression/

If I buy that lens, I want to use it with an open aperture.
Those are the samples I want to see. From there on, the lens Quality will only get better.
When using f 2.8 or lower, I would take a 2.8 70-200 because of its higher versatility.
So please, show us a few more samples with f 1.4 and not only closeups with flowers but portraits and some more Full-Body images.

Great lighting in this sample shots!

Seems to be a sharp enough lens but also one without much rendering magic. Subjects appear to be compressed with relatively little depth to their features.

Had this gallery included some images shot with a strong comparator lens like the RF 85/1.2, I think the rendering differences would have been quite noticeable.

Nice photos )

Fantastic lens!

Jordan never looked better.

Only one photo shot at f1.4? Useless gallery....