GEAR MINI TESTS
This month, we put a pair of high-end Sigma Art wide-angle lenses through their paces and get to grips with the latest Atomos Shogun Connect
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
SIGMA 20MM AND 24MM F/1.4 DG DN LENSES £859/$899 for 20mm, £779/$799 for 24mm
sigma-global.com
There’s something special about a fast wide-angle lens. The combination of extremely wide viewpoint – especially shot up close to the subject – and wide-open aperture for seriously shallow depth-of-field gives a look you just can’t get any other way. A 16-35mm zoom at f/2.8 can sort of approximate the look, but lenses like this don’t focus as close or shoot as wide open as an f/1.4 prime. Sigma’s latest full-frame wides are from the flagship Art range, which means they are designed for uncompromising image quality above all else. These are 20mm and 24mm f/1.4 AF lenses, suitable for Sony E or Leica L-Mount, which means a camera with great phase detection autofocus can actually nail focus
quickly in many shots. That means Sony, as the Sigma and Panasonic L-Mount full-framers just can’t compete. We even used the 20mm f/1.4 wide open on a Sony A1 using eye detection on our always-flighty test dog subject and it worked very well. There’s no way we could keep up with a manual focus or cine prime. Sigma will also change your lens mount for a price – something no other brands offer in their AF ranges. As well as shallow depth-of-field, the fast maximum aperture of both lenses makes them ideal for low light, in tight locations or even vlogging. Both are well-built and rugged, with great weather sealing and a solid feel. They have AF with a lock button and manual focus override switch, but
no distance markings – that’s only in the realm of real MF primes. An MF lock switch will disable the focus ring. This works so you can manually focus the lens, then hit the lock switch to stop focus changing. It’s a fresh feature for Sigma lenses. The iris ring has a lock button, and a switch to de-click it – ideal for silent and accurate exposure changes when shooting video. Both lenses have a front filter thread – 82mm on the larger 20mm lens and 72mm on the 24mm version – but can also accept rear filters. The 20mm lens takes sheet filters cut from gels, while the 24mm will fit special
ART FOR ART’S SAKE The fast, new Sigma primes can give a very different look to your films
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