Comparing Sigma art f1.4 lenses and why prime in the first place?

I love the Sigma Art lens line-up. Not only are they a great bargain for what they offer, but also their design, sharpness, and incredible low-light performance are features I don’t want to miss in my work as a photographer.

My first Sigma lens was the 18-35mm f/1.8 Art zoom lens, and to this day, it remains my favorite zoom lens I’ve ever owned. Sadly, I had to move to a full-frame sensor, leaving the 18-35mm behind, as it’s only available for smaller APS-C sensors. Ever since, I’ve been using the Sigma 50mm f/1.4, especially for portrait and documentary photography, the 24mm f/1.4 for street, architecture, documentary, and portraits, and most recently, the Sigma Art 105mm lens.

Since I have such a wide collection of these lenses, why not compare them and see how they perform during a photoshoot? Spoiler alert: I sold the Sigma Art 105mm shortly after the shoot. Why? And how did each lens perform? Coming up! Here’s an overview of this article:

Why “prime” lenses in the first place

When it comes to professional photography, investing in good glass is just as important, and some might argue even more important, than the camera itself. If the camera is the canvas, lenses are the brushes and instruments used to create… whatever it is you want to create.

I’m not saying every photo is a piece of art, but you get my point. The lenses you use make all the difference, from the angles you can capture to the depth of field, isolation, low-light capabilities, and overall quality/sharpness and colors in the final images. They matter a great deal.

In general, lenses can be categorized into fixed focal length (prime lenses) and zoom lenses. Zoom lenses are what most consumers and hobby photographers use. With these lenses, you can zoom from a wide angle, great for capturing buildings, streets, and landscapes, to a narrow, zoomed-in perspective, which is great for sports, animals, and portrait photography.

Reasons professionals choose prime over zoom lenses

Professionals often prefer fixed focal length lenses. These lenses do not offer any zoom but are instead set to a fixed distance. So, if they want to shoot architecture, they need a fixed wide-angle lens. If they want to shoot sports, they need a telephoto lens, which is zoomed in quite a bit.

This means professionals often carry more than one lens and frequently swap them during a shoot, depending on the situation. The question is, why do professionals limit themselves to lenses that cannot zoom?

For one, the image quality is better, and secondly, prime lenses are often better in low-light situations, as well as providing a softer, more “buttery” depth of field, which can make portraits more candid and helps isolate the point of interest the photographer desires.

Depth of field and why it is essential in portrait photography

We call lenses, that are able to perform in low light and also isolate their points of interest better, lenses with a low aperture. The lower the aperture, the wider open the lens can be shot, making it more sensitive to light and creating more blur in the background and foreground. Sounds complicated? Here’s an image that speaks more than a thousand words:

In this portrait, shot in a restaurant after a wedding, I used a wide-angle lens. The camera is right in front of a schnapps glass, and the shot is focused on the groom. Usually, it’s risky to shoot a portrait with a wide-angle lens since they tend to include too many objects in the frame. In this shot, the objects include bottles, glasses, flowers, two hands, and two people in the background. Additionally, the mirror adds extra distraction.

Did all these different elements in the image distract you? Or was your attention immediately focused on the eyes and smile of the happy groom? Behold, this is the power of a shallow depth of field.

Experienced photographers know how to use low apertures and therefore prefer prime lenses, as these are able to produce a narrow depth of field.

That being said, not all professionals use prime lenses. Many documentary, wedding, or travel photographers who can’t afford to carry too many lenses or swap glass in the middle of action prefer zoom lenses. However, prime lenses are often the choice for many professionals and are associated with certain photography niches.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the Sigma Art prime lenses: the 24mm wide-angle, 50mm portrait, and 105mm telephoto lens. The higher the number, the more “zoomed in” the lens is.

The reason I trust sigma art prime lenses as a professional photographer

Over the years, I’ve used many different lenses, and of course, my first lenses were the ones that came free with the cameras. But as my demand for image quality, sharpness, and specific looks grew, I discovered prime lenses and have rarely looked back. I still remember the huge eye-opener when I used an 85mm lens for the first time.

Suddenly, I was able to produce the portrait look I’d been craving for over a year, and all it took wasn’t improving my skills as a photographer but simply switching the lens in front of my camera. But those come at a price…

Whether it’s Canon’s L-series or Sony’s G-Master, professional prime lenses deliver the quality you want for your clients, but the investment is huge. For example, a wide-angle professional Canon L-lens costs nearly 1,500 Euros, and unless you only shoot documentary or architecture, you’re going to need at least one more.

Here’s where the Sigma Art line-up comes in. Imagine excellent build quality, super low aperture, fast autofocus, and incredible sharpness—all for about two-thirds the price of Canon or Sony lenses. I’d even argue that I prefer the look and feel of Sigma Art lenses over their more expensive competition. They’re just amazing lenses for a fair bargain.

Comparing the sigma art 24, 50 and 105 mm lenses

Still here? Sorry, it’s my specialty to get lost in long intros and explanations that could be their own blog posts. Let’s finally get to the meat of this article and talk about my favorite and least favorite focal lengths, using the Sigma Art lenses: the ultra-wide 24mm, the versatile 50mm, and the portrait monster 105mm.

The first of the three that I got was the 24mm. I already had a 35mm lens and was mostly happy with it, but I wanted something that would give me just a little more wide angle—a bit more of the whole scene. In summary, the 24mm lens delivered. That being said, you’re not supposed to use ultra-wide lenses for portrait photography, or at least that’s what many photographers believe.

Why 24mm and wide-angle is challenging in portrait photography

In fact, 24mm, while challenging for portraits, is one of the most creative focal lengths. It’s not so wide that it creates the well-known fish-eye look, but it still covers a lot in the frame. The other benefit is that perspective-wise, there’s almost nothing you can’t do. From below, above, or at eye level, wide-angle 24mm has you covered.

I was like literally above Mica in this image holding on to the ladder.

However, this comes at a price: distortion. Body parts can be stretched, heads can grow, and backgrounds get pulled. Not to mention, you need to be very close and experienced with these lenses to counteract those effects.

There are good reasons why photographers avoid these fixed focal lengths in the first place. Especially in portrait photography, the “advantage” of having many elements in the frame besides your subject often becomes a hindrance, making it difficult to focus on the main protagonist of the image.

This is one of the main reasons why portraits and photos shot with wide-angle lenses, in general, are so often edited in black and white. Black and white is a clever method to focus the viewer’s attention on the details in the image. More on that topic in this blog article (it’s an old one, so let’s hope I gave it a revision…).

Sigma art 50 mm and you’re set for almost anything

The Sigma Art 50mm is by far the best prime lens recommendation in the series. 50mm is called the “nifty fifty” for a reason: 50mm is an incredibly versatile focal length, hitting the sweet spot between an everyday lens while still delivering amazing portraits. It leans a bit more toward the portrait/tele aspect compared to, let’s say, a 35mm.

That means you have a lens that can shoot amazing portraits while also being quite usable for capturing street scenes or documentary situations. If I had to limit myself to shooting with only one focal length for the rest of my life, I would choose 35mm, but only because I think shooting with 50mm would make things too easy for me—and I do love a challenge… Ok, actually there is another reason, but I’ll get to that later.

But let’s move to our last Sigma Art lens, the biggest one of the bunch, packing some serious punch (hoho): the Sigma Art 105mm f1.4. Before we dive into this one, let me explain what got me interested in this lens in the first place.

The Talk of an Almost Medium Format Look: 105 Sigma Art f1.4

Ever since I took my first portraits with a medium format film camera, I got hooked. I got hooked because I hadn’t seen anything comparable to digital. The first medium format camera that I shot was lent to me by a friend. It was a Rolleiflex, limited to 12 shots per roll. The creative potential from that camera, due to its limitations, is something incomparable to digital gear.

In frame, my friend Annie, who also dressed perfectly for the colors of the Munich metro. We like to call this the medium format look. It creates a very unique depth of field and background separation that you would expect from a narrow portrait zoom lens but still includes a lot of the surroundings, like a wide angle.

In this example, the lens used is a Rolleiflex f3.8 80mm fixed focal length, shot on medium 6×6 format. It does have the same depth of field as an 85mm lens on digital cameras but with the field of view of a 44mm lens. Sounds very complicated, right? Simply put, it’s a very unique look that is very difficult to achieve with digital cameras.

To be honest, the topic of trying to recreate a film look on digital cameras and how they differ from each other might be a complete topic on its own.

However, I’ve heard from several reviews that the Sigma 105mm f1.4 comes very close to the desired “medium format look,” and that is what got me excited in the first place.

First impressions Sigma art 105 mm f1.4, – 1.7 kg

And it does resemble a medium format camera, just in its weight alone. Unfortunately, this was a pretty deciding factor for me. With its size and weight, I just couldn’t carry it around in addition to my already existing gear. So, in the end, I hardly used it. But I did use it with a friend a few weeks back in the English Garden in Munich for portraits, and I think it does deliver some great results and amazing depth of field.

And I have to admit, it does come very close to this desired look. Practically speaking, this tree wouldn’t have worked with any of the other lenses I had with me—the lens literally made those pictures work—which impressed me, of course.

As far as portrait photography goes, I think the lens does a splendid job. The background and foreground separation is great, and the sharpness is just as amazing as I would expect from a Sigma Art lens.

The wide-open f1.4 aperture creates incredible blur and makes taking pictures in low light much easier, even with such a narrow, zoomed-in lens like the 105mm. The optic is extremely close to the medium format look.

The main difference is, though, while the look is confusingly similar, medium format has a larger negative/sensor, so it feels like a cropped-in/zoomed-in medium format image.

But there’s the catch: if it were an actual medium format camera, it would be around 1.5 times larger. In this case, Leona’s hands and maybe feet would still be in the frame. Furthermore—and this is a big one for me—I would have been able to play with perspectives more.

The issue with the perspectives using tele lenses

For me, any lens above 50mm comes with a major drawback, and that is the fact that I’m not able to shoot well from a perspective above or below my subject.

With lenses that are so close and so narrow, it gets super difficult to shoot from a different level than the eye level of your subject. I do love some variations in perspectives, though. Which is why, by the way, I prefer 35mm over 50mm. 35mm gives you just a little more freedom to frame from different angles and include more of the background, playing a bit more with it.

For me, that is not only something the 105mm from the Sigma Art lens line-up is lacking, but tele lenses in general. And that’s purely speaking from my use case. Of course, if I were shooting astro-, wildlife-, or sports photography, this would be totally different. But I’m mostly doing street, portrait, and documentary photography, so the 105mm f1.4 is just something I do not need that often.

Did I enjoy the lens? Yes totally and I do love the images it produces, but with its size, weight and it being a lens I just use for certain shots. It just doesn’t hit the sweet spot for me. And I was very happy to sell the lens to an aspiring astro photographer and luckily, he just took his first images with the sigma:

Conclusion of my Sigma art lens line-up comparrison

So there we go, if you’re looking for a sigma art prime lens my highest recommendation would be the sigma art 50 mm, the most creative one of the bunch would be the 24 mm and for a very unique usecase I would recommend the 105 mm but for me that’ll be the lowest ranked of them.

To sum up:

• Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art: Clearly the most creative of the bunch, perfect for wide-angle shots, but challenging in portraits due to distortion. It’s a go-to for street photography, architecture, storytelling through capturing more of the scene and a welcome creative challenge for portrait photographers, who’re looking for something unique and fresh.
• Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art: If you’re looking for an all-rounder, this is the one. Sharp, with amazing depth of field, it’s versatile enough for portrait work, everyday, and documentary photography. I wouldnt consider it a great lens for architecture or street but it’s not impossible to use it in those genres as well.
• Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Art: A portrait powerhouse with an almost medium-format look and stunning depth-of-field. However, its size and weight, coupled with the limitations in shooting angles, make it more of a specialized lens for those who need tight, zoomed-in framing.

Although I enjoyed my time with the Sigma 105mm, it didn’t fit my style of photography, so I decided to part ways with it. That said, it found a new home with an astrophotographer, and it’s heartening to see it being used to its full potential.

Ultimately, the Sigma Art lens line-up offers unbeatable value for the price, providing high-quality performance without the premium price tag of other major brands. If you’re on the fence about investing in new glass, Sigma Art lenses are definitely worth considering, whether you’re just starting out or already a seasoned professional.

Thanks for reading and if you’re interested in printing your photos and need an overview about the process, look no further.