Sigma has officially announced the new Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens (buy here), and it’s huge. This stonking monster of a lens is an ultra-wide-angle full-frame lens with an equally wide f/1.4 maximum aperture. The lens is the widest f/1.4 aperture lens available today and is coming to L mount as well as Sony E mount.

The lens joins five other lenses in Sigma’s f/1.4 Art series mirrorless prime lineup, bringing the total to six. Sigma also has a 14mm f/1.8 lens, but the company says this prime was designed for DSLRs and modified for use with mirrorless. The new Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series, on the other hand, was designed for mirrorless from the ground up.

The wide f/1.4 aperture provides a lot of benefits for astrophotographers. As shown in the presentation above, it has less distortion, chromatic aberration and coma than the older 14mm f/1.8 lens. Its wider aperture also means you don’t need to raise up your ISO quite as high, lessening the amount of noise in your shots. It also helps with things like events, nighttime street photography and architecture where you’re low on light but might not be able to use a tripod. A manual focus lock switch eliminates the risk of your focus going off once you’ve got it set where you need it.

Naturally, sporting such a wide angle means it’s great for landscape photography. With such a wide-angle lens, however, the chances of getting the sun or other bright light sources in the shot are very high. The examples shown off by Sigma show pretty much no ghosting or flaring in the images, even on a clear blue day with the bright sun fully in the frame. When it’s not sunny, the lens’ dust and splash-resistant structure allows you to shoot it in all kinds of weather conditions. It also includes oil and water-repellant coatings on the elements to help keep your view clear, even on the rainiest of days.

With a lens this wide, filters generally don’t tend to work on the front end of the lens. As has become the trend, the Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art uses rear gel filters. Of course, you need to remove the lens from your camera in order to swap these out, which isn’t always ideal. But to help keep things a little more organised, the lens cap includes built-in storage for two filters, allowing you easy access to them when you need them.

Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Specs

The specs for the lens are pretty much exactly as the rumours and leaks suggested.

Price and Availability

The Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens will be available to pre-order now for $1,599 in L mount and Sony E mount flavours and begins shipping on June 23rd. In the EU and UK, it will cost €1,599 £1,399, respectively.