Endlessly Curious

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art

Added:

Specifications

BrandSigma
CategoryNormal
Prime or ZoomPrime
Focus TypeAuto
Focal length (mm)50
Aperture (max)1.4
Angle of View47°
Filter Size (mm)77
Weight (g)905
Length (mm)124
Diameter (mm)85.4
Weather Sealed✘
Image Stabilization✘
Min. focus distance (m)0.4
Max. magnification0.18
Release Year2014
Release Price (USD)1049
Featured image

Description and Reviews

Key Take-Aways:

The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is a discontinued full-frame standard prime from Sigma’s 2014 Art line. Sigma’s page lists the L-Mount version at 905 g and 85.4 mm across, with a length of 124 mm (Sigma gives 123.9), a 77 mm filter thread, a 47 degree angle of view (Sigma gives 46.8), a 0.40 m minimum focus distance and 13 elements in 8 groups, and Sigma’s US store prices the L-Mount selection at $1,049. Sigma makes no sealing claim. As of Oct 2026, six written reviews and twenty-four videos are linked. The Digital Picture’s Bryan Carnathan found that Sigma delivered big with the lens’s image quality, but after extended testing on Canon bodies he could not completely count on its autofocus. Photography Life’s Nasim Mansurov called it optically superior to other fast-aperture primes of similar focal length, with well-controlled distortion, field curvature, chromatic aberration and flare, and a bargain at $950 next to the Zeiss Otus. Cameralabs’ Thomas, testing on a 46-megapixel body, found very good centre quality even wide open at f/1.4, easily surpassing Canon’s and Nikon’s standard 50mm f/1.4 lenses, with gradual softening toward the corners and a beautiful bokeh, and he noted the heavy build and the lack of weather sealing. Lensvid’s Darren Miles found the autofocus quick and pretty accurate, the image quality very good across the board and the lens big. Expert Photography’s review calls it its author’s favorite lens for shooting weddings and superb in low light. In his video description Christopher Frost retested it on a 42-megapixel Sony a7R II, and Roy Riley’s description says he used it for around four years as a professional photographer.

From Sigma:

A 50mm F1.4 large-aperture lens offers an angle of view similar to human vision, a beautiful bokeh effect, and expressive versatility. It’s a basic specification that lets photographers take many different approaches to their craft. For this very reason, it demands a high level of fundamental performance. SIGMA has designed lenses especially for digital SLRs since they first appeared on the market. In 2008, we first introduced the SIGMA 50mm F1.4 EX DG HSM. Although compared to the lenses of today it had a fairly large body, this lens offered uncompromising performance and embodied our ideal of the standard lens. Until this time, only camera manufacturers had produced a lens in this specification for DSLRs. Our version of this go-to lens created quite the stir at first. Earning the support of photographers with its exceptional performance, it has become one of our representative lenses. The SIGMA F1.4 DG HSM fulfills our design concept and quality requirements at the highest level. While producing a beautiful bokeh effect, it features exceptional peripheral brightness and minimal distortion. Uncompromising in every detail, this large-aperture standard lens offers the ultimate in image quality. Its high resolution makes it perfect for the high-megapixel era. Resolution is extremely crisp at the area in focus, while both front and rear bokeh are silky-smooth. Offering the ultra-high performance that characterizes our Art line, this lens inherits the design principles of the line’s first model, the flagship SIGMA 50mm F1.4 DG HSM.

While maximizing resolution at the area in focus, this lens offers a silky-smooth bokeh affect to the front and rear. To achieve exceptionally crisp resolution, we have minimized sagittal coma flare, chromatic aberration, and every other type of optical aberration that affects image quality. The result is minute detail without bleeding or streaking, even at wide-open aperture. Moreover, we have also minimized both vignetting and color streaking to the front and rear of the area in focus, thereby establishing a bokeh effect that is natural and aesthetically pleasing.

An ideal large-aperture standard lens offers outstanding image quality across the image plane, even at wide-open aperture. Sagittal coma flare is an optical aberration in which point light sources near the image periphery have a tail (“coma”) instead of appearing round. To minimize this aberration, we have included a precision-molded aspheric lens element in the rearmost lens group. Since it minimizes the streaking of point light sources near the edge of the image, this lens is an excellent choice for shooting heavenly bodies and nighttime illumination. In addition, its beautiful bokeh effect makes it a great go-to lens for portraits, interior shots, and many other applications.

Official Website

Sigma has discontinued this lens. It is the predecessor of sigma-50mm-f1-4 (the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art): the DG HSM is a DSLR design that Sigma also offered in L-Mount, which is why it is large and heavy. Specifications are the L-Mount figures from Sigma’s English page (angle of view 46.8 degrees entered as 47, length 123.9 mm entered as 124, maximum magnification 1:5.6 entered as 0.18). Sigma’s current page no longer carries the marketing text, so the quote above comes from an archived copy of the same page (web.archive.org, Jan 2023). The price is the L-Mount selection on Sigma’s US store (Sigma America). Dustin Abbott’s Sony FE video and several other videos cover the Sony E version of the same lens, and Cameralabs’ review was done on the Nikon F version.

Reviews:

YouTube: