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amazon Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art reviews
When I reviewed the first Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 Art lens, it was noted that it was only the second lens respected on Nikon’s 2007 version. It’s Sigma, and it’s one of the best wide-angle zooms you can buy. So if it ain’t broken, what do you do? It has been less than two years since I have shot with the Art DG 14-24mm F2.8, and Sigma has now come up with a next-generation version with the “DN” appended to its name. This stands for mirrorless.
The DN 14-24mm feels as if it were conceived with mirrorless in mind, as opposed to the brilliant yet cumbersome Sigma 35mm F1.2 DN Art. Not simply an update of the original lens, it is a complete reworking. It sheds nearly a pound, but uses more glass elements, more iris blades, the same f/2.8 exposure, and remains weather-sealed.
Whatever genius they put into this design, it ought not to be expensive. The DN version is priced only $100 above the original launch price at $1,399. The fastest super wide now will win, but there is a catch: if you don’t have an E-Mount or L-mount camera, you’re out of luck.
This will also be the first time that E-mount and L-mount photographers can work with the 14-to-24mm lens without the need for an adapter. Unlike other Sigma DSLR lenses, the non-DN version was never released in a native mirrorless frame.
How did Sigma make it?
Big fasts are what is known for wide angles-a price to pay if you want the perfect everything. The wide field of view and giant aperture present a technical challenge by virtue of needing many glasses. The Nikon 14-24 f/2.8G, Tamron 15-30 G2, and the non-Sigma 14-to-24mm F2.8 weigh above 2 pounds (Sigma above 2.5).
What about the Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DN Art? 1.75 pounds. So it is now just that much lighter, narrower, and shorter than the others, which gives comfort in-and-out of your pocket. It does feel a little front-heavy mounted on the pocket-sized Sigma Fp, my test camera for this review, but would feel just right on the larger Sony A7 or Panasonic Lumix S series cameras.
You still have to struggle with the bulb front element, which calls for no screw-in filter, while a plate filter holder is built into the rear of the lens.
The optical design is completely new, employing 18 elements in 13 groups compared with 17 elements in 11 groups in the older 14-24mm Art. Several low-dispersion glass elements and three aspherical elements minimize chromatic aberration and flare, and Sigma claims the new lens was engineered to be less vulnerable to problems caused by strong backlighting.
It also has an 11-blade aperture diaphragm instead of 9 blades of the previous design.
But Sigma’s new design seems to be interested more in producing similar performance in a smaller form factor than a real jump in image quality. Given how good the first 14-24mm was, that’s not really bad.
Performance-wise, Sigma talks about speedy and silent operation of the autofocus stepping motor, but it would not be a good test for that with Fp’s contrast-detect autofocus. On Sony or Panasonic cameras, the AF is likely to be faster.
Image quality
Though I really can’t justify any assertion that the 14-24mm F2.8 DN bests the original without the comfort of side-by-side testing, I would say that, at this class, there is no perceptible optical penalty to the DN for its relatively smaller size. Such marvelous work.
Distortion is certainly present, but very much within tolerances, easily corrected. Vignetting is somewhat similar, giving f/2.8 noticeable dark corners from the center at 14 and 24mm, but then again not uncommon. Vignetting eases when stopping down, with even f/4 being a huge improvement.
Wonderful sharpness, barring some slight traces of chromatic aberration close to the corners. If some loss of sharpness happens toward the center, I am unable to spot it in real-world scenarios; I can, however, not guarantee the same for higher-resolution sensors.
The 11-blade aperture is something of a curiosity; ultra-wide lenses are not really known for bokeh effects. Obviously, if you are close enough to the subject, this lens is capable of achieving a shallow depth of field, but I had to test it further to see whether the shape of the aperture would make any difference from the previous 14-24mm.
I’d say creative blur in the background is different between the two lenses for other reasons. The non-business version showed a lot of out-of-focus areas into out-of-focus territory; the newer lens didn’t demonstrate that in my testing. That’s a subjective difference; it’s not good or bad, but aristocratically, one can safely say that DN handles things more naturally.
To think that they could pull off such quality from a smaller, lighter unit at almost the same price as the original really says something. If you had shot the original Sigma 14-24mm, you needn’t expect to be overwhelmed by any massive gains in image quality.
The 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art is a rare instance in which Sigma has improved, if not at least kept, the performance of their lens while improving functionality. The other Sigma Art lenses, even one like the massive Art 35.2 F1.2 designed for mirrorless, made some sacrifices in practicality to uphold their image quality requirements, while the 14-24mm DN did just the opposite.
And that they manage to still offer it at an affordable price only makes it all the better.
Still, it is a specialized case that not even everybody will be using; a limited 2X zoom lens, yet no better value in wide-angle zoom; f/2.8 range for mirrorless cells.
where can you get a Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art online
Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art Lens for Leica L: Buy it now
Sigma 213965 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN Art for Sony E Mount, Black: Buy it now
Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art Lens for Sony E Mount with Advanced Photo and Travel Bundle: Buy it now