Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG DN Art lens for Sony FE 

This versatile, full-frame 50mm prime lens with an ultra-wide F1.4 aperture is ideal for almost any genre of photography, including portraits, weddings, street, landscapes and travel.

Optically the lens delivers exceptional sharpness across the frame, allowing photographers to capture characterful images in remarkable detail.

Background blur is smooth and attractive – perfect when shooting with a shallow depth-of-field.

• Full-Frame | f/1.4 to f/16
• Fast Compact Prime
• HLA Linear Focusing Motor
• Aspherical & SLD Glass Elements
• Rounded 11-Blade Diaphragm
• Dust & Splash-Resistant Design

The 50mm F1.4 has Sigma’s exceptionally fast, accurate and quiet High-response Liner Actuator (HLA) motor built in, which provides superb AF performance for both stills and video.

Included on the lens is a manual aperture ring, which has a useful de-click function for smooth aperture transitions, and a lock function to keep aperture control in either manual or auto.

A customisable AFL button is included on the lens, as well as a robust lockable lens hood. Used widely by professional photographers, the lens is also ideal for casual day-to-day shooting, weighing in at just 670g.

Perfect for portraits

With an F1.4 aperture, the lens can produce a very shallow depth-of-field, ideal for creating portraits with blurry backgrounds. The bokeh is smooth and attractive.

The 50mm focal length is perfect for the most flattering perspective on the face with a waist-up composition.

The lens is also able to collect four times more light than an F2.8 optic, so if light is low there is much less risk of camera shake and unwanted blur.

HLA focusing motor

The 50mm F1.4 DG DN | Art was only the second SIGMA lens to be fitted with its High-response Linear Actuator (HLA) motor, which controls the focus group of lens elements. More powerful than a stepping motor, it ensures extremely rapid AF. It’s also very accurate and near-silent, and works well with focus tracking systems.

The other advantage the powerful HLA motor brings is that it can move larger and heavier focusing groups than a stepping motor, which unlocks the door more advanced optical designs, and therefore even better optical performance.

High-performance optics

The 50mm boasts outstanding optical quality with excellent rendering of detail right into the corners even wide open at F1.4.

Its advanced optical design is made up of 14 elements in 11 groups, including 3 aspherical elements and 1 SLD element. These help to ensure razor-sharp results and eliminate chromatic aberration, flare, distortion and vignetting.

Advanced optical coatings reduce flare and ghosting when working in bright direct sunlight, creating high-contrast images with rich colours and strong blacks.

Professional feature-set

A range of controls on the lens include an AF/MF switch, and a customisable AFL button (depending on camera model).

The lens also has a click/de-click switch so that the aperture ring can be adjusted smoothly rather than in hard stops, which may be useful for film-makers. There’s also a lock switch that keeps the aperture ring in either Auto or Manual. This stops the ring accidentally being knocked out of Auto to F16 during use.

Outstanding build quality

The exceptional build quality of the 50mm F1.4 DG DN is exactly as you’d expect from an Art-line lens, in the materials used, the overall ergonomics and the quality of craftsmanship.

The exterior barrel is made of a polycarbonate called Thermally Stable Composite (TSC). Not only is this very strong and light, but it has a similar thermal expansion rate to aluminium. This ensures that the interior aluminium parts and the exterior TSC parts behave in the same way as temperatures change.

The focus ring is rubberised for easier operation, and focusing is internal, meaning the lens never changes length. This makes it ideal for use on a gimbal as the centre of gravity remains fairly constant.

Towards the rear of the barrel is an aperture ring so that aperture can be changed on the lens, and it has an Auto setting should users prefer to change aperture using the camera.

To reduce flare and ghosting in bright sun, and to help protect the front element from damage if dropped, the lens has a robust petal-type lens hood with lock button. A rubberised ring on the hood makes for easier removal and fitting.

The durable brass mount is surrounded by a rubber seal to help keep out dust and moisture.

Made in Japan

All Sigma cameras and lenses are designed, manufactured and assembled at their sole factory at Aizu in Japan. This domestic production model is unusual in today’s industry, with most imaging companies opting to outsource to other countries to reduce costs. But SIGMA believes that keeping virtually all manufacturing, processing and assembly in Aizu is essential for creating innovative, carefully thought-out and impeccably constructed products that meet the high standards demanded by professional photographers and film-makers around the world.