This Incredible Lens Let Me Take Amazing Star Photos

CNET

a day ago

CNET's key takeaways
Sigma's Art 14mm f1.8 DG HSM is a fast, wide-angle lens that can take amazing photos of the night sky.
It's fairly heavy at 1,120 grams (2.5 pounds) but compact for what it is.
The f1.8 aperture lets you take unique wide-angle photos with a shallow depth of field.
Taking photos of the sky at night is one of the most challenging types of photography. There's not a lot of light available (obviously, it's night), and to get truly epic images, you want a really wide-angle lens. Fast lenses aren't hard to find, and neither are wide-angle lenses, but fast wide-angle lenses are far rarer. Rare, and often really expensive.
The Sigma ART 14mm f1.8 DG HSM isn't cheap by any stretch, but it's reasonable considering how fast and wide it is. I traveled for years with a predecessor of this lens, the Art 12-24mm f4 DG HSM. That lens was amazing for many things, including the interiors of submarines and other tight spaces. While f4 isn't slow, it's not particularly fast either. I was able to get some cool photos of the Milky Way and star-filled skies, but none I really loved. On a recent trip to Death Valley National Park in the campervan I built, I rented the 14mm f1.8 and oh my.
My experience with the Art 14mm f1.8 DG HSM
You can see a million miles tonight, but you can't get very far.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
One of the big challenges with astrophotography is that you don't have the luxury of time like you do in other low-light situations. The Earth is spinning, after all, so if you want pinpoints of starlight, you need to limit your shutter speed. For a wide-angle lens like my old Art 12-24mm f4, 30 seconds was pushing it. The 500 Rule says 41 seconds was the max for this lens, but I found that to be too long. Worse, most lenses can look soft when wide open (at f4 in that case), especially at the edges of the frame. So you often want to step down a few steps, which means your shutter time has to be even longer to get the same amount of light. Which is to say, it's a fine balance and one that I never quite perfected with the Art 12-24mm f4.
Visually, the Art 14mm f1.8 looks similar to my 12-24mm f4. It's a pretty big lens, nearly as big as the f4, and weighs a beefy 1,120 grams. On top is a distance scale with a depth of field indicator. It's not often you need to worry about depth of field with such a wide-angle lens. The autofocus isn't great, but for astrophotography, the camera is on a tripod, and there's a big manual focus ring to help make smooth adjustments. While the front element bulges outward, there are at least wings to avoid some disasters. You'll want to be careful, though.
A motorized star tracker can help you get great images of stars with lesser lenses, but because they move with the sky, you can't also get Earth and anything on it in the photo.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
As I mentioned above, I traveled for years with the f4 and let me tell you, you're always going to notice its weight. In your bag, on the camera, switching lenses -- it's a drag. It basically doubles the weight of any camera it's attached to. So, as good as the 14mm f1.8 is, that's one of my main reasons I'd hesitate adding it to my kit. I also don't do as many photo tours as I used to, so I don't have as much need for such a specialized lens.
Plus, all prime lenses are less flexible than a good zoom lens, which is fine, as each has its uses. Even so, a 14mm lens has a very distinctive look and it's not as well suited for as many situations as, say, a 35mm or 50mm lens might be. If you're not familiar with ultrawide lenses like this, everything looks sort of like you shot it with a GoPro. Way better quality than a GoPro, but that's the aesthetic. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just something to consider. It's also not weatherproofed at all.
The specs
Intended sensor size: Full frame
Field of view: 114.2 degrees
Minimum focusing distance: 10.6 inches
Dimensions: 5 inches tall, 3.8 inches in diameter (at front lens)
Weight: 1,120g/2.5lbs
Mount: Canon EF, Leica L-Mount, Nikon F, Sigma SA, Sony E
The 14mm f1.8 is a heavy lens, but not quite as large as it seems. Here it's mounted to my Canon R6. Note that the EF-to-RF adapter in between increases the apparent size.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
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CNET's buying advice
As much as I love this lens and am blown away by its performance, I'll be the first to admit it's not for everyone. On one hand, there are only a handful of fast, wide lenses like the 14mm f1.8 and none that I know of that are as fast, as wide and cost what the Sigma does. On the other hand, $1,599 is a lot of money for a lens that most people won't regularly use. However, if you know you will use it often, it's great! I wish I had the space (and money) to add it to my kit.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
The Sigma Art 14mm F1.8 DG HSM is available for all full-frame lens mounts, including Canon EF, Leica L-Mount, Nikon F, Sony E and Sigma's own SA. While the lens is still available new as of this writing, it seems Sigma is discontinuing it for some mounts, including Canon and Nikon. Fortunately, it's been available for a few years, so there are some used options on KEH and MPB. If you go that route, check out our guide for buying used camera gear.
If you're headed somewhere with dark skies, you can also do what I did and rent it for a week from Lens Rentals.
In addition to covering cameras and display tech, Geoff does photo essays about cool museums and other stuff, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, medieval castles and epic 10,000-mile road trips.
Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his travel book and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.