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amazon Sigma 20mm F1.4 Art reviews
Wide-angle lenses don’t get enough credit for their versatility. If you think they are just for the scenery, give me this opportunity to change your mind. Despite being advertised as a landscape and astrophotography lens, I enjoyed using the Sigma Art 20mm F1.4 for portraits and product photos. It was the perfect lens for wedding dance shots.
That isn’t a new product – Sigma released it in 2015. Going on 6 years old, this $900 lens remains the current champion of fast, wide-angle primes for Nikon and Canon DSLRs. It is also available for mirrorless in the Leica L-mount or Sony E-mount, although it is more difficult to use for such cameras.
The 20mm Art’s design raises some usability concerns I would have, but if that’s the ultimate low-light performance you’re after, no 20mm lens can compare with it. Considering it’s priced to compete with a few first-party 20mm f/1.8 lenses out there, this is a great product.
Design
Any photography lens is an exercise in compromise. Price, size, image quality, and features all have to be balanced to achieve the goal. The Sigma Art series always offers the best quality at a price that surpasses or at least doesn’t exceed comparable first-party lenses – with little regard for size.
Weighing in at over 2 pounds, the 20mm Art is certainly not light, but that’s the price you pay for its bright f/1.4 aperture and a great optical formula. 15 elements in 11 groups, including two aspherical elements, two Sigma’s Low Dispersion elements, and five special Low Dispersion elements, ensure sharp, aberration-free images with minimal distortion.
The lens body measures 3.6 inches in diameter by 5.1 inches long, including a built-in petal-style hood. I found it a good fit for the Nikon D780, but I’m unsure how I feel about using it on a mirrorless camera.
That is the first DSLR lens; The mirrorless version includes a built-in adapter to improve the difference in back distance, making the lens longer. Perhaps on a giant Panasonic S-series camera, this wouldn’t feel too out of place, but I don’t know how comfortable it would be on a smaller, lighter Sony Alpha-series camera. Sony recently introduced the excellent FE 20mm f/1.8 G, a solid alternative to E-mount shooters.
Sigma serves up a minimalistic exterior with its wide, knurled focus ring and window gap ratio giving it a premium look and feel. The AF/MF switch is the only other control point. There’s no stabilizer to turn it on or off – not that I’d expect one on such a fast, wide lens – nor an aperture de-click switch like we’ve seen on Sony’s F1mm f/1.8 and Sigma’s 35mm F1. 2 Art.
Sigma’s bulb front element means you won’t fit a standard screw filter, which can be a problem for landscapes when you want a polarizing filter or a neutral density filter. Professionals and other experienced shooters might not mind using a filter adapter with large drop filters. The lack of native filter support could be a reason to consider a replacement lens for the rest of us.
Autofocus
Using Sigma’s Hyper Sonic Motor (HSM), the Art F1.4 20mm quickly focuses on the viewfinder and live shooting. As the rack goes from the foreground to the background, you can feel the engine’s torque as it starts. Even so, it makes very little noise.
Continuous autofocus performance is also very good – aided, no doubt, by the intelligent focusing algorithm used in the D780 – and keeps pace with an approaching cyclist on my side. It also performs well in a dimly lit reception hall, although this is where the camera’s focus sensor is likely to be the larger limiter (the D780 is fine with -3 EV when using the viewfinder).
However, there is a big problem with autofocus, at least when shooting through the optical viewfinder. Out of the box, my lens clone centered quite significantly in front. Customers have reported similar issues in user reviews. That isn’t entirely new to Sigma – I also noted the problem when I reviewed the Art F1.4 105mm – but it’s something the company seems to have controlled with newer lenses, like the 40mm Art which I have shot on both Canon and Nikon with no problems.
Fortunately, most modern DSLRs give you the option to adjust the focusing behavior of the lens (the Nikon D780 can do this automatically with the AF Fine Tune function, which uses the information. focus from live view to adjust viewfinder performance). You can also purchase Sigma’s USB lens dock to adjust focus right in the lens firmware programmatically.
While this problem is easily remedied, it’s still something customers need to know how to recognize. I can imagine someone buying this lens and returning it because they think it simply isn’t sharp. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Image quality
Once I realized what was going on with the autofocus and figured out how to fix it, the Sigma 20mm Art wowed me with its incredibly detailed images and surprising bokeh. There seems to be a little sacrifice in sharpness when shooting wide open at f/1.4.
The distortion is certainly there, but it’s fairly light and easily corrected in post without generating many crops.
However, Vignetting can be the real issue here, especially if you intend to use this lens for astrophotography. Photographing the night sky requires a bright aperture and consistent sharpness and exposure across the entire frame. At f/1.4, the 20mm Art vignettes are like you’d expect a 20mm f/1.4 lens to vignette. It’s serious.
I don’t mind that for other types of photography, but in astrophotography, once you’ve shot at high ISO, correcting the vignette in the post by lightening the corners will only cause more noise. It might not be a big deal – I’ve seen great Astro shots from other photographers using this lens – but it’s something to a lookout.
The 20mm focal length may be of limited use to most photographers, but the Sigma 20mm F1.4 Art has made me a fan. I enjoyed shooting with it more than I thought, especially for subjects with such a wide lens, like portraits and products, is not expected. Sometimes, all it takes to refresh your creativity is a new perspective.
The improved Sigma Illustrated 20mm Art capture had achieved autofocus accuracy in newer lenses as an older model. I would love to see a mirrorless redesign of this lens, as Sigma did for the 14-24mm f/2.8 Art. However, for Canon and Nikon DSLR shooters, this is still the wide-angle prime to beat.
where can you get a Sigma 20mm F1.4 Art online
Sigma 20mm F1.4 Art DG HSM Lens for Nikon: Buy it now