Sigma 105mm f/1.4 DG HSM
I’ve long been a fan of using fast prime lenses and the two that see regular use in my kit bag are the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art and Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art. My need for a longer focal length prime has been fulfilled by the superb Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, but ever since Sigma announced the 105mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art at the beginning of the year I’ll admit I’ve had a bit of an itch that’s needed scratching. With a portrait shoot just days away after its arrival at the AP office, I snapped up the opportunity to review this ninth f/1.4 Sigma Art lens.
Beautiful bokeh
With a front element that has a filter thread size the same as its focal length, Sigma’s so- called ‘bokeh master’ is anything but small and compact. It falls into the wide-aperture, mid-telephoto length category of lenses and at 1.6kg is quite a lump of glass – so much so it even comes equipped with a removable tripod collar. The incredibly fast fall- off in
focus wide open at f/1.4 requires very precise focusing, but when you nail it you’ll create stunning images with gorgeous background blur that really accentuates the subject you’re shooting. Impressively, it manages to resolve a similar level of sharpness in the centre of the frame at f/1.4 as it does when it’s stopped down to f/11, with the sweet spot between centre and edge sharpness being located around f/5.6-f/8. While it’s a fairly niche full-frame lens and won’t appeal to everyone, it’s right up there as one of the finest performing portrait lenses I’ve ever laid hands on. It presents an attractive £450 saving over Nikon’s AF-S 105mm f/1.4E ED lens and is one of Sigma’s Art lenses available in Sony E-mount. You can expect it to make the shortlist for best fixed-focal-length lens at next year’s AP Awards.