Our Recommendation
The Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art is an extremely specialized, professional-tier Milky Way photography lens. It’s not just the wide focal length of 14mm and the bright maximum aperture of f/1.4. Beyond those (already very useful) features, Sigma has thoughtfully designed this lens in many ways with night photography in mind.
There’s the thermally stable barrel of the lens, so the lens doesn’t expand or contract throughout the night and change your focus point. There’s the manual focus locking switch and variety of other controls – plus the white paint underneath switches that are engaged, so you can see them better at night. And there’s the dedicated section at the front of the barrel for lens heaters, a welcome addition for Milky Way timelapse photographers. From start to finish, everything about this lens is meant to improve your ability to photograph the night sky.
That also applies to image quality, with two caveats. First, the vignetting at f/1.4 is quite high – not really a surprise, but it means that you may want to stop down to f/1.8 or f/2 for better evenness across the frame. Second, for Sony users, the Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM actually has slightly smaller pinpoint stars in the corners of the image. The difference isn’t huge, but the Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM is also a much smaller lens. Since the two lenses cost the same at $1600 apiece, I can see a lot of Sony Milky Way photographers choosing the 14mm f/1.8 GM instead.
Which one is actually better? It depends. The Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM is lighter and has a bit less coma in the corners of the frame. But the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art has better quality-of-life features for Milky Way photographers, and it also sports the f/1.4 maximum aperture. Even if you plan to stop down to f/2 or f/2.8 anyway, the ability to focus at f/1.4 is very useful. The Sigma lens also has about 1/3 stop less vignetting at f/1.8 and f/2.
In my Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM review, I called it “arguably the best Milky Way lens ever made.” I would say the same thing about the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art. The two lenses are arguing only with each other. No other lens compares, unless you’re comfortable with a fisheye lens and are considering the Sigma 15mm f/1.4 Fisheye Art. Even the best 14-24mm f/2.8 lenses that match these lenses in optical quality are not capable of shooting at f/1.8 or f/1.4.
Pros:
- Excellent build quality with tight tolerances and strong weather sealing
- Advanced handling features including as many controls as an exotic supertelephoto
- Fantastic quality-of-life features like an Arca Swiss tripod foot, a spot for lens heaters, a manual focus locking switch, and more
- Minimal chromatic aberration
- Surprisingly good vignetting performance at f/1.8 and narrower
- Very strong sharpness from corner to corner
- Relatively low coma and high-quality stars even at f/1.4
- Great flare performance when the sun is in the frame
- Excellent value for what you get at $1600
Cons:
- Very large and heavy design, bigger than any other ultra-wide lens
- Large and exposed front element
- No easy way to attach front filters
- Vignetting at f/1.4 and f/1.6 is pretty severe
- Fairly high barrel distortion
- Dots of flare will appear when the sun is outside the frame
Conclusion
It’s hard to beat the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 Art for Milky Way photography. Depending on your priorities, it could easily be the best Milky Way lens ever made. But Sigma definitely made some sacrifices to get there.
For starters, it’s a large, heavy lens any way you look at it. Any other ultra-wide on the market will save space in your bag. On top of that, it really isn’t any sharper than a good ultra-wide zoom (like the Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM or the Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S) if you’re planning to shoot at f/2.8 or narrower.
The benefit of this lens is all about f/1.4. Despite the vignetting and slightly visible coma at f/1.4, shooting this lens at night wide-open is like wearing night vision goggles. It’s amazing how many details in the stars you can gather at f/1.4. And if you want to stop down to improve your image quality, you still get the benefit of focusing and composing more easily at f/1.4 first.
Something that I didn’t really talk about yet is that it’s also fun to shoot at f/1.4 for normal, non-Milky-Way subjects. There aren’t a lot of lenses that can achieve a shallow depth of field combined with an ultra-wide perspective, and I know there are some interesting, unique photos to be had.
At the end of the day, a lens is a tool, and even a good lens is not going to excel at everything. I’m impressed that Sigma went all-in on their vision of a perfect Milky Way lens, and they succeeded to a pretty impressive degree. Even the weight isn’t a big drawback if you consider that fact that it is, after all, the lightest 14mm f/1.4 on the market today :)
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- Build Quality and Handling
- Size and Weight
- Sharpness Performance
- Other Image Quality
- Value
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