SIGMA 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM | A £1129/$1199

The newest lens design in the group, Sigma’s latest offering goes distortion-free

With a slightly more modest max viewing angle but a faster aperture rating than the Sigma 12-24mm Art lens, this one has a virtually identical size and weight.

The lens is immaculately engineered and, unlike the Sigma 12-24mm Art, it gains a full set of weather-seals instead of just a sealed mount. Again, a fluorine coating is applied to repel muck and moisture. Typical of ultra-wide lenses, the built-in lens hood gives physical protection to the bulbous, protruding front element as well as helping to reduce ghosting and flare. Unusually, however, you can have this exchanged for a shorter, circular hood for minimizing shadows when using multiple cameras in video capture.

Handling is excellent, with a smooth and precise feel to the zoom and focus rings, the latter enabling the usual manual override of autofocus. As you’d expect in this calibre of lens, there’s a focus distance scale beneath a viewing panel.

Performance

Sharpness and contrast are very impressive even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8. Indeed, sharpness towards the edges and corners of the frame are better than in any other full-frame lens on test, towards both ends of the zoom range. Despite the lab results from our very close-range test charts, a particularly impressive facet of this lens is that it’s practically free of any distortion in longer-range, general shooting.