Better, faster, more! Sigma’s latest lens becomes the world’s fastest 14mm ultra-wide-angle prime
(Image credit: Matthew Richards)
It’s summer and, while Sigma isn’t heading to the Bonneville Salt Flats, the company is nevertheless celebrating a world speed record. The new Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art becomes the fastest ever 14mm ultra-wide-angle prime lens, available for shooters with Sony E or Leica L mount cameras. Heck, this lens might even make it worth buying one.
As well as general ultra-wide-angle shooting, the Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art is designed for top-quality astrophotography, so that stars don’t take on irregular shapes across the whole image frame. (Image credit: Matthew Richards)
More good news in June for Sony photographers was that the acclaimed Irix 15mm F2.4 Dragonfly and Irix 150mm F1.8 Macro Dragonfly were to be relaunched in Sony E-mount editions. They’re both manual-focus lenses but with a lovely look and feel, catering to wide-angle and macro photography respectively.
The Irix 15mm f/2.4 Dragonfly includes magnesium alloy in its high-quality construction and features a de-click switch for stepless aperture control when shooting video. (Image credit: Irix)
The only other lens-based news in a hot June month was the rumor that Canon might be developing an RF-mount fisheye zoom, some 13 years after the EF 8-15mm. We’d expect to offer the same dual benefit of being a circular fisheye at the short end of its zoom range, and a diagonal fisheye at the long end, effectively being two fisheye lenses in one.
Our June review schedule kicked off with the Nikon Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR. We paired the lens with a Nikon Z 30 and found the combination perfect for vlogging, as advertised.
The Nikon Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR lens’s motorized zoom works really well with Nikon’s ML-L7 Bluetooth remote controller. (Image credit: Matthew Richards)
Going from the little DX lens to large and larger, we also reviewed the brand new Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art and found it to be every bit as good as the press release claimed it would be. For ‘larger’, we also reviewed the new mirrorless edition of the Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports for Sony E and L-mount cameras. It’s a bit of a beast at almost 2.5kg but combines impressive performance with a 10x zoom range, stretching from standard to super-telephoto lengths.
The Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports is a new and improved version of the lens that was originally designed for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. (Image credit: Matthew Richards)
We also took pleasure in reviewing the new Sony E-mount edition of the Irix 150mm Macro 1:1 F2.8 Dragonfly, as reported earlier in June, in our news piece. It has a useful telephoto focal length for shooting macro images of bugs and is a joy to use. On a shoestring budget, we also found that the Pergear 35mm F1.4 had something to offer, especially for street photography.
Matthew Richards is a photographer and journalist who has spent years using and reviewing all manner of photo gear. He is Digital Camera World's principal lens reviewer – and has tested more primes and zooms than most people have had hot dinners!
His expertise with equipment doesn’t end there, though. He is also an encyclopedia when it comes to all manner of cameras, camera holsters and bags, flashguns, tripods and heads, printers, papers and inks, and just about anything imaging-related.
In an earlier life he was a broadcast engineer at the BBC, as well as a former editor of PC Guide.
