12 lenses of Christmas: June 2023 saw Sigma break the world speed record
It’s summer and, while Sigma isn’t heading to the Bonneville Salt Flats, the company is nevertheless celebrating a world speed record. The new Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art becomes the fastest ever 14mm ultra-wide-angle prime lens, available for shooters with Sony E or Leica L mount cameras. Heck, this lens might even make it worth buying one.
More good news in June for Sony photographers was that the acclaimed Irix 15mm F2.4 Dragonfly and Irix 150mm F1.8 Macro Dragonfly were to be relaunched in Sony E-mount editions. They’re both manual-focus lenses but with a lovely look and feel, catering to wide-angle and macro photography respectively.
The only other lens-based news in a hot June month was the rumor that Canon might be developing an RF-mount fisheye zoom, some 13 years after the EF 8-15mm. We’d expect to offer the same dual benefit of being a circular fisheye at the short end of its zoom range, and a diagonal fisheye at the long end, effectively being two fisheye lenses in one.
Our June review schedule kicked off with the Nikon Z DX 12-28mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ VR. We paired the lens with a Nikon Z 30 and found the combination perfect for vlogging, as advertised.
Going from the little DX lens to large and larger, we also reviewed the brand new Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art and found it to be every bit as good as the press release claimed it would be. For ‘larger’, we also reviewed the new mirrorless edition of the Sigma 60-600mm F4.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports for Sony E and L-mount cameras. It’s a bit of a beast at almost 2.5kg but combines impressive performance with a 10x zoom range, stretching from standard to super-telephoto lengths.
We also took pleasure in reviewing the new Sony E-mount edition of the Irix 150mm Macro 1:1 F2.8 Dragonfly, as reported earlier in June, in our news piece. It has a useful telephoto focal length for shooting macro images of bugs and is a joy to use. On a shoestring budget, we also found that the Pergear 35mm F1.4 had something to offer, especially for street photography.