While I had tried multiple lenses that cover the 28mm focal range, I had never tried a dedicated 28mm prime. Enter the Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens, a DSLR adapted lens for E mount that is simply out of a dream.

With gorgeous depth of field, crisp sharpness and fast, accurate autofocus, it’s hard to fault this lens for much. It may be large and heavy … but the results are definitely worth it.

Pros

  • Bokeh is beautiful and creamy, providing excellent depth of field
  • Sharpness is great throughout the frame
  • Fast, accurate autofocus
  • Weather sealing

Cons

  • Big and heavy, as it’s a DSLR adapted lens for E mount cameras
  • No image stabilization

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens — Technical specifications

All technical specifications for the Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art have been taken from B&H Photo:

  • Aperture range: f/1.4–f/16
  • Angle of view: 75.4°
  • Minimum focus distance: 11.02″ / 28 cm
  • Maximum magnification: 0.18x
  • Optical design: 17 Elements in 12 Groups
  • Diaphragm blades: 9, rounded
  • Image stabilization: No
  • Filter size: 77 mm (Front)
  • Dimensions: 3.26 x 4.24″ / 82.8 x 107.7 mm

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens — Ergonomics and build quality

Like most of Sigma’s adapted DSLR lenses, the 28mm f/1.4 Art lens is a chonker. Coming in at just over 2 pounds, it’s 3.3 inches wide and comes out 5.3 inches from your camera.

All this said, Sigma has offset this concern with a solid build that leads to some absolutely beautiful optics. The 28mm features weather sealing, brass mount construction and a smooth focus ring. This will withstand no matter what Mother Nature throws at you.

The lens has one switch on it, allowing you to change between auto and manual focus.

The lens hood, like most of Sigma’s other lenses, is pretty large.

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens — In the field

The Sigma 28mm has some amazing character, led by its stellar subject definition. Like all of Sigma’s Art series lenses, the 28mm is just simply something to behold. It’ll give you a look that you won’t find from any other option out there.

Despite its weight, the lens felt pretty balanced on my Sony cameras. It might feel a bit top-heavy though on something like the a7C.

The only thing I wish this lens had was image stabilization. The lens instead relies on your camera body. While Sony has improved its image stabilization quite a bit, it still isn’t at the top of the market. And with a lens this heavy, image stabilization can really help.

I used the 28mm for a lot of street and nature photography, but also captured some outdoor events with it. Given its wider view, it created an often interesting look that I wouldn’t normally consider, especially for event photography.

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens — Autofocus performance

The Sigma 28mm worked well when it came to autofocus. Focusing was quick and usually accurate for both still and moving subjects.

The lens features a minimum focus distance of just over 11 inches, which is pretty impressive. It let me really get in close to my subjects when I needed to. If you aren’t shooting events, this lens would be stellar for environmental portraits.

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens — Image quality

Needless to say, image quality on the Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lens simply can’t be beat. There are virtually no flaws for this lens that I could find, and images just come out beautifully. Despite being adapted from a DSLR lens, the 28mm is simply stunning.

Distortion control and vignetting

Distortion and vignetting is very well controlled on the Sigma 28mm, coming in with just a subtle edge vignette and a slight distortion that can easily be corrected in post-processing. Most wouldn’t notice either without a side-by-side comparison.

Ghosting, flaring and chromatic aberrations

I experienced zero issues when it came to ghosting, flaring or chromatic aberrations.

Sharpness

The Sigma 28 Art is tack sharp, and combined with a shallow depth of field, subjects can really pop off the screen. There was some slight fall-off of sharpness in the corners, but nothing out of the ordinary or to be too concerned about.

Bokeh

Having gorgeous bokeh on a Sigma Art lens isn’t exactly surprising, but the 28mm just goes to remind you of that. Whether you’re using the lens to capture environmental portraits, or doing close-ups of still life, the background you achieve will be quite remarkable. The bokeh is near perfectly round, and has a soft element that makes it less distracting from other bokeh I’ve seen.

Color rendition

Colors on the Sigma 28mm f/1.4 Art lean a bit warm, but are still very pleasing to the eye. I didn’t find myself correcting color much in post-processing, because the colors seemed natural and represented a perfect sunny day.