Reviews of Sigma 14mm F/18 Dg Hsm Art
The Sigma 14mm F1.8 DG HSM Art ($1,599) is a lens that has a lot of appeal for photographers working in sure disciplines—notably astrophotography—thanks to its ultra-wide field of view and bright aperture. You'll be able to focus much more easily in dim conditions because of its f/ane.eight design, ensuring that stars and night landscapes are well-baked. Information technology'due south not as good of an all-arounder as another lens from Sigma, the 12-24mm F4 DG HSM Art, but if your images require a brighter aperture, the 14mm prime number is an excellent option.
Design
The 14mm F1.viii ($1,399.00 at Amazon UK) is big. It measures 5.0 by three.8 inches (HD) and weighs 2.5 pounds. In order to capture images with such a wide field of view and bright aperture, its front element is huge and bulbous, so you can't use front end filters without a third-party accessory holder. A slip-on lens cap is included to protect both the front drinking glass and integrated lens hood, and Sigma also includes a rear cap and soft carrying example.
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Construction is solid, and in line with other Global Vision Sigma lenses. The barrel is metal at its base, but the majority is polycarbonate. It'due south not cheap plastic, though—information technology feels very well made. Sigma states that it's protected from dust and splashes, important for a lens that'south likely to become a lot of use for landscape photography.
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The front element is most sure to pick up a devious fingerprint from time to time. Thankfully it has a fluorine forepart glaze, which repels water and oil. That makes it easier to make clean and to keep clean.
You tin can purchase the lens in several mounts—Canon EF, Nikon F, Leica/Panasonic/Sigma L, Sigma SA, and Sony East. There are a few differences between them. The Nikon has an electromagnetic aperture pattern, the aforementioned as recent Nikkor lenses with an Eastward designation, and then it won't work with some older Nikon DSLRs. The Canon version is the lone one that can exist used with an optional rear filter holder, the $36 FHR-11. You have to be comfortable with a screwdriver to install it. And the versions for mirrorless cameras are a bit longer than the SLR versions, a requirement to maintain the same distance between the lens elemens and paradigm sensor.
At that place'southward a broad, rubberized manual focus band, positioned at the wider part of the barrel, at the base of operations of the lens hood. The narrower portion holds the only command switch, an AF/MF toggle, and the focus distance scale. It's marked in feet and meters and has depth of field markings for f/4, f/viii, f/eleven, and f/16.
The 14mm focuses as close every bit ten.6 inches, measured from the image sensor. This lets you lot become right up close to a discipline to shoot it, and when working that close at a wider aperture you can mistiness backgrounds, although you lot should have care in framing, as subjects shot close with a wide angle lens are prone to perspective distortion. The macro magnification rating is a meager ane:ix.eight, but that's because the field of view of the lens is so wide.
Image Quality
I tested the 14mm F1.8 with the 50MP Canon EOS 5DS R. It delivers solid sharpness numbers, fifty-fifty broad open. At f/1.8 it scores 2,963 lines on a centre-weighted exam, better than the 2,750 we look for at a minimum. It's non an even field, though. Imatest shows that the heart surface area of our test nautical chart is excellent (3,870 lines), simply gives way to a middle surface area and edges that are a fleck soft (two,250 lines) in lab tests.
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I experience those numbers skew a bit depression. Edges expect pretty good in shots taken in the field at f/1.8, although not on the same level as the center. Field curvature is an issue when testing ultra-wide lenses, every bit we need to identify them very close to our test nautical chart in order to frame it from edge to border.
Lab results are about the same at f/ii. At f/2.eight we see an comeback in center resolution (iv,180 lines), which brings the average score to three,149 lines. At f/4 the edge score improves significantly (2,981 lines), equally does the heart area (five,575 lines), for a center-weighted boilerplate of 4,143 lines. That's a sharper event than you lot get with the 12-24mm zoom at 12mm f/4 (3,295 lines).
The lens delivers peak image quality at f/v.6 (4,620 lines) and f/8 (4,668 lines), with edges that show about 3,500 and iv,000 lines, respectively. Those are outstanding numbers all around, especially when you consider that this is an ultra-wide angle lens.
Diffraction cuts into resolution at the two narrowest options, f/xi (three,835 lines) and f/sixteen (3,336 lines), simply they're both still useable options, even on a high-resolution body similar the 5DS R. Lower-resolution sensors are a niggling less prone to showing the effects of diffraction.
There is some visible baloney, most 4.3 percent. That's non overwhelming for an ultra-broad, but you will want to remove it to get the all-time representation of reality, specially when shooting architectural subjects. Lightroom includes a profile for the lens that offers one-click corrections, only any editing suite with a distortion control adjustment slider will do the trick.
Nosotros besides see some dimness at the edges of the corners of the frame when shooting at wide apertures. At that place's about a 4-stop (-4EV) drop from center to corner at f/1.8 and f/two, cut to -2.5EV at f/2.viii, -2EV at f/4, and -1.5EV at narrower apertures. Y'all won't notice it for most shots at f/five.6 and smaller, but you lot'll want to dial in some correction in software if yous observe that a vignette distracts from your wide-aperture shots. Again, you lot'll need to do this in Lightroom or another editing suite, as in-camera corrections aren't available for tertiary-party lenses.
Conclusions
Ultra-broad lenses aren't everyday tools for about photographers, but for some disciplines they're indispensable. I tend to recommend zooms at this end of the coverage range, as they're more versatile tools, giving you the ability to capture a wider multifariousness of subjects without irresolute lenses. But wide zooms are typically f/2.8 or f/4 designs, and at that place are times that you just need more than light.
The Sigma 14mm F1.8 DG HSM Fine art is an specially highly-seasoned lens for mural photographers who like to piece of work at night and comprise the night sky into compositions, as it's much, much easier to manually focus with a brighter lens and a live view organisation than with a dimmer one. Sadly, New York's light pollution means that I wasn't able to do any real astro work with the lens during my review menses.
Information technology's also an highly-seasoned pick for architectural photographers, especially those who demand to work quickly and don't always have the ability to apply a tripod. The bright aperture ways you lot'll be able to get crisp handheld images at a lower ISO than an f/iv zoom like the Sigma 12-24mm ($i,399.00 at Amazon UK) or Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM. Both of those zooms are Editors' Selection winners, although we give preference to the 12-24mm due to its more affordable price. But if your needs require a lens that gathers more light, the 14mm is a good manner to go.
Sigma 14mm F1.viii DG HSM Art
The Bottom Line
The Sigma 14mm F1.8 DG HSM Art is an ultra-wide prime lens with an extremely bright aperture and crisp eyes.
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