Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A review – Introduction

Sigma is one of the longest-established third-party camera lens makers, having been in business for more than 50 years. But while even recently it was best known for budget alternatives to the camera makers’ own optics, over the past few years it’s been steadily transforming itself into a premium manufacturer fully capable of making lenses as good as, if not better than the major camera makers’ own.

Indeed, its extraordinary 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A is so good that we named it not just Fixed Focal Length Lens of the Year, but also our overall Product of the Year at the 2015 Amateur Photographer Awards.

This means that the new 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A for full-frame DSLRs comes to the market with significantly heightened levels of expectation. Where once we might have been impressed by Sigma making a truly excellent lens, we now fully expect its designs to be nothing less than class-leading.

So with this in mind, does the 24mm f/1.4 continue the company’s recent rich vein of form?