First, for the 72,534 of you that want to compare it to 16-35s, go right ahead. If you’re thinking of matching a 14-24mm f/2.8 with a 24-70mm f/2.8 to collect the whole focal length set, then the Sigma is the best optical choice. Honestly, though, for a little more money you should consider the Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art if that’s the case. That being said, if you’re buying a 14mm lens to be a 14mm prime (and some of you are), then all three of these do very well.
There are lots of other things that go into choosing a lens, but at these very wide angles, things like autofocus speed are not big points. I think it’s pretty apparent that while they are all within hair splitting distance of each other at 14mm, the Sigma is the best at 24mm. Optically, this one is worth the money and the best overall 14-24mm zoom. I said at the beginning that I expected this lens to be at least as good as the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 and better than the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8. It could also be caused by an aspheric element. The drop in tangential MTF you probably note at 4mm away from the axis is perhaps a testing artifact I won’t bore you with details about distortion being mapped at insufficient points for a very wide-angle lens. About halfway to the edge, we start to see some astigmatism-like separation of the sagittal and tangential lines (it could also be the lateral chromatic aberration).Īs I mentioned above, 14mm full-frame lenses are right at the limits of our machines automation.
MTF of the Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM Art At 14mm At both ends the distortion is mildly mustache shaped – a bit like the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8. Distortion is also reasonable: 0.8% at 14mm and 1.1% at 24mm. I mention this because that’s less ‘fudging’ than the label usually has +/-5% is pretty standard for a zoom. To start with, let’s mention the actual focal length of the lens is 14.3mm to 23mm. Optical TestingĪs is our practice with 2x zooms, these lenses were tested at both ends (we do middle focal length testing on 3x and longer zooms). If you’re interested in why you can read about it in the addendum.
The test I’m showing you today is my second set of 10 copies of the lens, not the first 10. It’s complex, it’s arguable, but it deserves mention that you should probably consider the graphs in this post ‘close, but might not be exact’ at the outer edges.Īlso, I’ve violated my usual testing protocol for the first time, and I think you should know that. One other thing needs to be mentioned when we test full-frame f/2.8 lenses wider than 16mm we are either right at, or possibly past, the limits of our machine. Of course, the usual ‘this is not a lens review, it’s an optical test’ stuff applies to this post. Second, 16mm is not 14mm, they are very different beasts (not to mention, most 16-35mm zooms are actually 17mm at the wide end). Yes, I’m aware someone is going to make noise about other lenses. So I thought that the new Sigma should be as good as the Nikon 14-24mm and better than the Tamron 15-30. The Sigma, at 1150 grams is a bit heavier than the Nikon (1000g) and about the same as the Tamron (1100 gm). The Sigma is less expensive than the Nikon by $400, but $200 more expensive than the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD. Sigma isn’t filling a void here Nikon already has an excellent 14-24mm, and Tamron has the not-quite-as-wide but really close 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD. It remained the gold standard of wide zooms for years. It was a revolution wider and sharper than any other wide zoom made at the time. Years ago, Nikon came out with their Nikon 14-24mm f2.8G ED lens. And somewhat because this became an exciting learning experience that I’ll tell you about at the end of the post. Why then, you may logically ask, am I just now writing it up? Well, partly because I have jobs that like, you know, pay me to do stuff. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM Art, so I was eager to test it and grabbed copies as soon as we had them in stock. The Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Art, on the other hand, I thought was adequate. I thought the Sigma 24-105mm f/4 Art was the best 24-105mm I’ve ever tested (and I hate testing 24-105s). I’ve been more mixed in my opinions of Sigma’s Art zoom lenses. Most of you know I’m a big fan of Sigma’s Art prime lenses. They give superior optics at excellent prices just about every damn time.
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