Today we take a look at an innovative lens announced back in 2023 – the Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art, the widest & fastest lens ever produced by the company.
Background
Making an ultra-fast and ultra-wide-angle lens is not easy. Sigma already has the older 14mm F1.8 DG HSM | Art DSLR lens which has an E-mount version, but the company decided that instead of making a more compact and more affordable mirrorless version of that lens, to design the fastest ever 14mm production lens in existence in the form of the 14mm F1.4 DG DN.
Ultra Wide & Fast
Optical Design
The lens has a complex optical design including 19 elements in 15 groups (4 aspherical, 3 FLD elements, and one SLD element).
Materials
According to Sigma, the lens uses lightweight materials such as polycarbonate TSC (Thermally Stable Composite), as well as magnesium to reduce weight while ensuring robustness. In our hand, this lens certainly feels extremely robust.
Size and weight
This level of robustness comes at a cost and that is size and weight. With its caps, the lens is 17cm long (over 6.5″) and weighs in at over 1.2kg not light by any standard.
Rings
The lens includes a decently wide focus ring in the front and a narrow aperture ring with a lock (for the auto mode only) closer to the camera.
Our copy of the lens seems to make a slight grinding noise when turning (possibly dust/sand entered the mechanism), we treat this as a strange anomaly as we handled the lens with great care so we are not sure how this could happen. Other than that, the ring seems to turn fairly well and has good resistance. The aperture ring can be set to click or de-click mode and its de-click seems to have good resistance.
Buttons and switches
The lens is packed with interesting features including an AF/MF switch, focus hold button, MFL switch which prevents the focus from changing accidentally when using MF – great for astrophotography, as well as the de-click switch, we mentioned previously.
Lots of control and features
Sealing
According to Sigma, the lens is fully weather-sealed.
Mount
The lens comes in a Full Frame E mount and L mount variants.
Hood, cap, and accessories
The lens comes with a non-removable short hood and a large thick cap with an interesting “secret” feature we shall discuss in a moment. Aside from the cap the lens comes in a nice padded carrying case and its design is such that it should be able to hold a lens heater using a special retainer (we didn’t have one or a real need to test it).
The Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN with its optional heater
Aperture
The lens has 11 aperture blades.
Filter
The lens can’t use normal front filters due to its huge curved front element, just like other 14mm lenses. It can take gel filters in the back though and even has an interesting storage compartment in the large cap that comes with the lens – an interesting design choice although we didn’t have any gels to test with the lens.
Foot
The lens comes with a removable collar and a tiny foot that is super close to the lens in a way that does not allow to place your fingers between the foot and the lens, something that we don’t really care for.
Another strange negative is the fact that for some reason Sigma forgot to place 90-degree white markers to make sure the collar is aligned with the lens. Something that does exist on the 60-600mm for example and there are also no 90-degree angle clicks.
The only positive thing about the foot has an Arca base.
Performance
Focusing
Although we didn’t run our normal AF test on this lens it is also not typically all that important on ultra-wide-angle lenses and working with the lens we did not encounter any focusing issues.
Image stabilization
The lens has no image stabilization so you are relying on your camera IBIS but again, this is less relevant for ultra-wide-angle lenses. You can see how well it works on our Sony A7R V in different modes (see example in the video).
Sharpness
We tested the sharpness of the lens against the Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM lens using our IMATEST high-end chart. Keep in mind that using these types of ultra-wide-angle lenses with the chart means that you need to be very close and we will see how it influences the results that we got shortly.
We started with the Sigma and you can see that even wide open it is fairly sharp in the center but with what seems like a pretty nice improvement in both sharpness and contrast around f/2.
Sharpness test Sigma center – left top (f/1.4), top right (f/1.8), bottom left (f/2.8), bottom right (f/4)
Sharpness test Sigma corners – left top (f/1.4), top right (f/1.8), bottom left (f/2.8), bottom right (f/4)
The corners are a more interesting story as you can see the lens is not sharp at all and even if we stop down to f/5.6 the image isn’t sharp and only become acceptable at around f/8.
Sharpness test Sigma center – left top (f/2.8), top right (f/4), bottom left (f/5.6), bottom right (f/8)
Sharpness test Sigma corners – left top (f/1.4), top right (f/1.8), bottom left (f/2.8), bottom right (f/4)
We will get back to this result but first, let’s look at the Sony. In the center at f/1.8, the lens is pretty sharp with maybe a slight improvement between f/2 and f/2.2. The corners are again not extremely sharp until around f/5.6 with another improvement at f/8.
Sharpness test Sony center – left top (f/1.8), top right (f/2), bottom left (f/2.2), bottom right (f/4)
Sharpness test Sony corners – left top (f/1.8), top right (f/2), bottom left (f/2.2), bottom right (f/4)
Sharpness test Sony corners – left top (f/2.8), top right (f/4), bottom left (f/5.6), bottom right (f/8)
So, what is going on here? Well with the distortion compensation turned off in the camera it is easy to see the effects of field curvature on both lenses, the Sigma more than the Sony (you can see this more clearly on our barrel distortion test later).
With the distortion compensation turned on in the camera and at normal working distances corner sharpness is less affected (on both lenses) results should be much more acceptable. Overall, though, the Sony does feel sharper wide open.
Sigma vs. Sony corner sharpness in the corner at f/1.8 (Sony left)
Close up performance
On paper, the official minimum close-up distance of the Sigma is 30cm, about 5cm longer than the Sony. Both have a pretty awful maximum magnification of 1:11 and 1:10 respectively, so they are not even remotely designed for close-up work.
Our close-up sharpness test was interesting. The Sigma showcased OK sharpness in the center wide open but you can clearly see a big difference in sharpness and contrast closing down to f/2.8.
The corners show a pretty similar story with a big improvement at f/2.8, especially in contrast but sharpness is still affected by the same issue that we have seen in our regular sharpness test.
We didn’t have a chance to run this test on the Sony as we only had the lens on loan for a few hours in the studio.
Sigma 14mm close-up sharpness test (center of the frame) – f/1.4 left, center f/1.8, and right f/2.8
Sigma 14mm close-up sharpness test (corner of the frame) – f/1.4 left, center f/1.8, and right f/2.8
Breathing
The Sigma demonstrated some visible breathing in our testing. Again, we didn’t test the Sony here (check out the example in the video).
Chromatic aberrations
The Sigma performed very well in our CA test (with the in-camera corrections turned off of course) and even wide open you see only tiny hints of longitudinal CA which are gone when closed down (we tested again at f/1.8 and f/2.8 but we suspect that you don’t really have to close down even that much for a perfectly clean CA image).
Sigma 14mm CA test – f/1.4 on the right, center f/2.8, and left f/1.8
Flare
The lens has quite a bit of flare both in the front and when light enters from the side so you need to be careful when shooting into bright light sources (check out the example in the video).
Vignette
Wide open with the camera compensation turned off the lens has a ton of vignetting which is even somewhat present at f/4.
Vignette test Sigma – left top (f/1.4), top right (f/1.8), bottom left (f/2.8), bottom right (f/4)
We did have a chance to test the Sony and it has quite a bit as well but for some reason, it did not seem to be reduced much as we closed down (we are not sure why).
Vignette test Sony – left top (f/1.8), top right (f/2.8), bottom left (f/4), bottom right (f/5.6)
Barrel distortion
With the in-camera geometric distortion compensation turned off the Sigma has TON of barrel distortion. This might very well be part of the reason why we have seen the results that we have seen in terms of sharpness in the corners so make sure you turn on those in-camera corrections with this lens.
The Sony has some distortion but nothing that bad and to our eyes it also looks like the Sony is the wider lens of the two (is the Sony 14mm or actually a bit wider or is the Sigma, not a true 14mm its hard to tell).
Distortion compensation test (correction turned off) Sony on the right, Sigma on the left
Bokeh
As mentioned, we didn’t get a chance to test the bokeh of the Sony but the Sigma actually has surprisingly nice Bokeh balls wide open if you are close enough to your subject, especially in the center. They are round and clean. You can sort of see that in an actual frame, we took during an evening walk downtown (it’s hardly a portrait lens so personally we would not put too much emphasis on this anyway).
Studio shot with the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Bokeh (f/1.4)
Night image with the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN (f/1.4)
Sample images
We used the lens over a period of several months and here are a few images taken with it on our Sony A7R V and A1.
We also had a chance to shoot with it in the south of the country in the middle of the desert with a group of astrophotographers, a first-time experience for us.
Sigma 14mm f/1.4 vs. Sony 14mm f/1.8 (both at f/2.8), night sky, corner of the frame (Sigma on the left)
Conclusion
The Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN is a technological marvel and a testament to the capabilities of the Sigma lens design team and what they can achieve when given the chance to create a groundbreaking lens.
The lens has a great build quality and nice features, fast focusing, good center sharpness, low CA, and a pretty nice bokeh.
With that said, the lens is also big, heavy, and cumbersome to use (more or less just like the original 14mm F1.8 DG HSM | Art DSLR version). While all of these might be acceptable for some users, what is less acceptable is the price.
If the lens would have existed in a vacuum, Sigma might have been able to convince some users that its level of innovation merits its high price tag. However, in a world where the smaller and sharper Sony 14mm GM exits and costs less, we find Sigma’s current price tag hard to swallow.
Here we come to the real question. Is there even a market for an f/1.4 14mm lens? Most professional landscape and architectural photographers have no need for such a fast ultra-wide lens as most of their work is done at much slower apertures. The exception might be those who shoot nighttime stills and video city Cityscape timelapses.
The second group that might benefit in some way from such a fast lens is astrophotographers. The ones that we spoke to did not see a clear advantage of the f/1.4 over the f/1.8, or at least not enough to justify the high cost and added bulk, except maybe for use in video work shooting things such as the Aurora Borealis.
With that said, we want to hear what you think. From your experience, is there a need for such a fast ultra-wide-angle lens even if you consider its extra cost and bulk? Let us know in the comments.
The Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN
Pricing
We mentioned pricing. Currently, the Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art Sells for $1600, this is surprisingly the same price as the older Sigma 14mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens (the price recently went down) while the Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM lens sells for $1500 (Pricing seemed to go up recently so pay attention to seasonal sales).
Special Thanks to Sigma/Shefa Spot for loaning the lens for the review and to our friends and colleagues Photographers Matan Sharon, Guy Geffen, and Ron Kashinevski.
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Iddo Genuth 
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