Sample Shots

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Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure 1/200s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/2.0 Exposure 1/8000s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/1.4 Exposure 1/8000s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/7.1 Exposure 1/800s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/7.1 Exposure 1/160s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/4.0 Exposure 1/1250s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/5.6 Exposure 1/125s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure 1/320s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 125 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure 1/400s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/4.0 Exposure 1/1250s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure 1/160s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure 1/320s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/8.0 Exposure 1/250s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/3.2 Exposure 1/2000s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/1.4 Exposure 1/8000s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/2.2 Exposure 1/4000s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/7.1 Exposure 1/250s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/4.0 Exposure 1/1250s
Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/2.8 Exposure 1/2000s	Make NIKON CORPORATION Model NIKON D3X ISO Speed 100 Focal Length 24.0mm Aperture: f/1.8 Exposure 1/6400s

Verdict

The center quality is excellent straight from f/1.4, but the borders are noticeably softer at large apertures. The full potential of the lens in terms of sharpness across the whole frame starts to kick in from f/2.8. The peak performance is reached around the f/4 mark. The lateral CAs are low and not disturbing. The same goes for the slight barrel distortion. A weakness is certainly the extreme vignetting at fully open aperture although you may argue that this can also be a desired effect at times (but then you could add this easily via post-processing anyway).

The quality of the bokeh is decent especially regarding the rendition of out-of-focus highlights - at least in the inner image zone, less so in the corners. You may spot a bit of bokeh fringing at large apertures but it's not obtrusive.

The build quality is clearly up to professional standards ... except for the lack of weather sealing. AF speed isn't a primary aspect on a 24mm lens but Sigma's HSM does a pretty fast and silent job here.

While the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A is certainly not a bad lens, it is still the weakest prime of the Art series that we have tested so far. To be fair - an ultra-large aperture 24mm lens is simply more difficult to design than a 35mm or 50mm lens. Still, Sigma did an excellent job in the end, and given it is considerably cheaper than the Nikkor AF-S 24/1.4 and at the same time outperforms the Nikon lens, it's really a no-brainer: if you look for an ultra fast 24mm prime, the Sigma is definitely one to seriously consider.

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