Sigma’s 18-35mm F1.8 that was released ten years ago became a cult favorite, particularly with the video crowd. Even full frame users often used it to help mitigate crop factors and because of the flexibility of having a zoom range AND a fast maximum aperture. Last year Sigma launched the 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | ART lens, a lens I gave a fairly glowing review to because I felt it captured some of that “specialness” that is rare. That was a full frame lens, however, and as such was bigger, heavier, and more expensive than what APS-C shooters need. But Sigma is back with a true successor to the 16-35mm in the form of the 17-40mm F1.8 DC | ART. This is the first of the APS-C lenses in the current mirrorless era that has received the ART identifier (excepting a few very early primes that were definitely not ART worthy back in 2012 and 2013 when mirrorless was still an experimental oddity!) Has Sigma managed to recreate the magic that made people love the 18-35mm F1.8 so much “back in the day”? Is this lens a bargain at $829 USD ($1249 CDN)? We’ll explore that question in either my video review and text reviews. Or, just enjoy the photos below.

Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the APS-C mode of my Sony a7RV.

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Some of the key selling features of the 17-40 ART include:

Prime-like optical performance
Full range of video features
Custom (Fn) button
Aperture ring with declick and iris lock options
Internally zooming design
Thorough weather sealing.

This is a slight deviation of the original zoom range, going a little wider (17mm vs 18mm) and a little longer on the telephoto end (40mm vs 35mm).

The APS-C crop factor of either Sony E, Fuji X, or L-mount is 1.5x (Sony is tested here, but I suspect we’ll see this lens on all these and perhaps Canon RF as well), meaning that 17mm has an effective full frame focal length equivalent of 25.5mm, which looks like this:

Meanwhile the 40mm end has a full frame equivalency of 60mm, which looks like this:

*Canon’s RF-S has a crop factor of 1.6x, so the effective focal range shifts to 27.2-64mm.

The advantage of an APS-C specific lens is that Sigma could produce a bigger zoom range (25.5-60mm) than what we saw on the 28-45mm full frame lens from last year. That could obviously be very useful for a lot of reasons.

The 28-45mm was a very large lens – over 153mm in length and weighing 950g – which leads us to the second big advantage of developing for the smaller sensor – the 17-40 ART, which still large, is considerably smaller and lighter than its full frame big brother…and even the DSLR era lens that it is the spiritual successor to.

The idea of a lens like this is that it is a “bag of primes” of focal lengths and optical performance while retaining a maximum aperture that is competitive with many prime lenses. You’ve got 24mm (ish), 35mm, 50mm, and even a slightly more telephoto 60mm equivalency. That’s very useful. And, in what we’ve come to expect from Sigma, the 17-40 ART does really deliver optically, be it from a distance or close up.

This is a not a perfect lens (it has some fringing and isn’t parfocal), but it is a very, very sweet lens.

Build and Handling

Photos taken with the Sigma 17-40mm F1.8 ART

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Sigma 28-45mm F1.8 ART @ B&H Photo | Nuzira | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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