The lens cuts straight to the heart of the scene
I am looking to capture.

Sweat drips off my brow as I pedal uphill trying to keep pace with my riding partners. The warm, sharp afternoon light sun darts through flickering aspen leaves in a kaleidoscopic effect both beautiful and dizzying. In the distance, mountains are still shedding the weight of winter snow and form the perfect backdrop for the image I seek. In my pack is a single lens, a single focal length: The SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art. I halt my friends, "this is the spot" I declare. I pull the camera out of my pack, wander through the crumbling rocks and compose an image. The riders come through the scene and click, I have my shot.

* The images without photograph data have been created
with other lenses other than SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art.

This scene plays out time and again in my photography. And it's not by accident. I photograph the outdoor world, not as an observer, but as an active participant in it. When I am out biking, skiing, hiking, or fishing I am "seeing" photos along the way. I put those images into my mental Rolodex and then head back out, camera in hand, and bring my vision into reality.

As an outdoor photographer keeping things as simple as possible has many advantages. It streamlines my photography and cuts straight to the heart of the scene I am looking to capture. Using a wide angle lens like the SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art is the ultimate expression of this ethos, and it does so in a technically beautiful way.

Let's go over some of the details. The images produced by SIGMA's new 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art lenses are, as expected, incredibly sharp corner to corner. The lens exhibits wonderful contrast and excellent color rendition and shows almost no distortion. The fast F1.4 aperture makes for fast focusing in low light which I can really appreciate when shooting early mornings or late into the evening. The lens also features a manual aperture ring that I find both practical and elegant. The 72mm front element is threaded so it's easy to use ND and polarizing filters.

One of the reasons people enjoy fast prime lenses like the SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art is that when they are shot wide open they can isolate the subject in a beautiful, almost cinematic way. When using the lens this way the bokeh (or the area that is out of focus) is very soft and pleasing to the eye. But keep in mind that if you have the subject very close to the lens, say two feet, your depth of focus is a mere two inches!

Video and hybrid shooters will love the functionality and image quality of this lens. L-Mount shooters can expect Hollywood-like results when shooting on a small mirrorless camera like the SIGMA fp, the LUMIX S series and also the Leica SL series cameras. The SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art for L-Mount features a manual aperture ring that can be adjusted in "clicks" or smoothly with a switch adjustment on the side of the lens.

As I scroll through Lightroom examining the mountain bike images on my computer screen my eye is eventually drawn to the mountains in the background. I wonder how much snow is left up there? Are the wildflowers up yet? Has the ice melted off the lakes? How big are the waterfalls? There is only one way to find out. It was time to lace up my boots, pack up the SIGMA 24mm DG DN F1.4 | Art and go look for myself.

Photographing landscapes high in the alpine is always a rewarding challenge. Long hikes and thin air are the norm and the weather is usually a wild card with that "one darn cloud" seemingly always in the way. But I approach landscape photography from an honest perspective and I will never replace skies or create a scene using a foreground from one place and mountains from another place. I photograph the scene as it is presented to me whatever it may be. But authenticity can come at a price as there are so many unknowns when you are out on a shoot. One variable I don't have to worry about is my lens. The SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art lens has a wide angle of view that is perfect for so many landscape photography applications. I can shoot it stopped down to F16 and get images in focus from near to far for a classic look. Or I can open the aperture up a bit to F2 or all the way to F1.4 and isolate a wildflower from its surroundings.

Low light photography and video is made so much easier with a wide maximum aperture like F1.4. Whether you are outside photographing stars or indoors getting shots at a wedding or concert, you will love the light gathering capability of the fast F1.4 aperture.

Photography is the way I have chosen to experience the natural world around me. It is my passport to adventure and serves as a record of my existence. I take my photography seriously, but not to the detriment of my enjoyment of the art. I am very precise when it comes to choosing the gear that will join me in the field. I bring everything I need to tell the story and nothing more. If a piece of gear is not 100% helping me achieve my goals, it gets cut. I have had SIGMA lenses in my pack for the better part of a decade and they never let me down.

The SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art lens is a beautifully crafted ultra high-performance lens that delivers world class image quality. On a high powerful camera like the 61 megapixel SIGMA fpL, the details that you can capture are simply eye-popping. Who is this lens for? Astro, concert and wedding photographers will love the storytelling attributes of a wide angle and the speed of F1.4 aperture. And landscape photographers will love the razor sharp images and deep depth of field at F16. For me, this lens is sophistication simplified. It is fast and sharp as well as small and light. I enjoyed shooting both action sports and landscapes with this incredibly versatile lens. The SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN | Art lens should find a spot in just about every photographer's bag.