• Categories
• Tips & Inspiration
• Reviews
• News
• Events
• Features
• Buying Guides
• Competitions

Hands-on Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Review

Having been released back in August 2020, the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art was the first Sigma lens to be completely redesigned for mirrorless systems. Despite its popularity, it wasn’t until May 2025 I finally got hold of a copy for a couple of weeks of hands-on photography. Better late than never though, right?

Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART Lens Video Review | Amazing Portrait Option for Sony

Check out Gareth's video review here.

Why revisit this lens five years after launch? For one, it complements the second-generation hands-on Sigma 24-70mm F/2.8 DG DN II Art lens review, which I made almost precisely one year earlier, so when I saw Park Cameras had a couple of used Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN lenses for Sony E-mount in stock, I jumped at the chance to find out if this is a good portrait lens for myself.

Another reason is that with the rise of AI-generated portraits and images composites, I’ve found myself wanting to create more natural images, and gravitate towards capturing real faces of family, friends, and people on the street. It feels as though there’s something more meaningful about capturing real people in real environments, with an actual camera, by using natural light, and old school human creativity. This Sigma lens offered the perfect excuse to try just that.

So in this hands-on Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art review, you’ll find a mix of portraits and candid street photography taken over a couple of weeks. Even if you’re not currently considering whether this modern classic belongs in your lens lineup, you might still take away something useful.

Sometimes, it just takes the right bit of kit, or even a reminder to spark the urge to head out and make new photographs. Finding reasons to shoot, whatever they may be, can be just what’s needed to keep things real and keep creating, no matter how fast new technology appears.

Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Sample images

Nick Dautlich captured these sample images over a few shooting sessions in spring 2025. All of the samples are edited to taste with some processing such as contrast, luminance and a handful of tweaks. No sharpness or noise reduction has been applied outside of the default settings in Lightroom. Please note all images are © Nick Dautlich.

New and used price

If you’re looking to add one to your own kit, the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Lens for Sony E and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Lens for L-Mount are both available new for £979.00. Alternatively, as the lens has now been on the market for a few years, you’ll often find a used Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN lens available at Park Cameras. The FE Mount version typically starts around £759.00 in good condition, with L-Mount models available at a similar price.

Saving over £200 by choosing second-hand can go a long way. That difference might cover a lens filter (77mm), an extra camera battery for extended shooting, or a return ticket to your favourite city for a day or two of street photography. Budget-friendly used camera and lens kits, which include a warranty can provide additional confidence that if something goes wrong it will be fixed straight away.

What are 85mm lenses good for?

85mm has long been associated with portrait photography, and it may arguably be the best lens for portrait photography, but I was surprised to find it a natural focal length for street photography as well as general low-light snapshots. I’ve long associated wider lenses with street subjects, but you can without doubt capture beautiful candid portraits with less of the environment in the frame with an 85mm. If you look further away, you can also include a wider street scene, which I’ve shown in a couple of the images here. I’m definitely no street photographer but next time I head out to the city I’ll be packing an 85mm lens, as soon as I get my hands on one!

You do need to stand slightly further from your subject and be more aware of what’s happening in the background, but I really enjoyed the sense of separation and the way it frames a scene. When you are shooting closer, you can achieve fantastic subject-background separation, especially with the wide f/1.4 aperture, which uses an 11-blade design to create rounded bokeh highlights.

Other suitable subjects include landscapes and urban scenes, product photography where smooth background blur is desirable, as well as events, weddings, or lifestyle images. 85mm turns out to be a surprisingly versatile focal length, which slots neatly between a 35mm prime and a longer telephoto. It also complements the many possibilities of a 135mm lens, by offering a unique take on compression and composition.

Next, let’s take a look at image quality and how this lens performs in the real world.

Image quality

Sigma Art lenses are known for image quality, colour accuracy, bokeh quality and sharpness, which are qualities they often achieve even when shooting wide open. Although the optical formula in this lens was developed five years ago, it stays true to the Art-series, and I appreciated the results it was able to produce. The colours are accurate and natural, with smooth tonal transitions and detailed rendering throughout the frame.

You can achieve real ‘pop’ with 3 dimensional subjects and capture soft, gradual falloff between in- and out-of-focus areas. There are, of course, times when the background becomes busy, so you need to shift your position or ‘zoom with your feet’, but there aren’t many lenses that isolate a subject and remove distractions as elegantly as an 85mm f/1.4.

Like most lenses, this one isn’t perfect and there’s some visible pincushion distortion, but that feels like a small trade-off for such beautiful background blur and sharp detail. Lightroom includes a lens profile that corrects distortion anyway, although it crops a portion of the image, so I left it off for all of these sample shots. You’ll see the distortion in certain images, such as the KODAK sign example, which has lots of lines, but I didn’t find it too distracting and it’s barely noticeable in the majority of shots.

All in all, the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens really impressed with its clean, smooth rendering and minimal artefacts. Bokeh quality is also very pleasing, and I’d say it more than lives up to its reputation, but how does it handle? Let’s take a look next.

Build and handling

You buy an Art lens for its image quality, certainly at the expense of size and weight compared to Sigma’s Contemporary series of lenses. As a five year old design you might imagine it’s very big and heavy, and although it’s definitely not light by any stretch, at 625g it feels solid and perfectly weighted, balancing well on a Sony A7R V body.

In fact the Sigma 85mm DG DN is still one of the lightest 85mm f/1.4 prime lenses with AF despite its age, so Sigma did a fantastic job from the outset with this mirrorless redesign.

There barrel includes a few useful controls, which are ideal in the field, such as the customisable AFL button and de-clickable aperture ring. It features reliable build with weather sealing and comes with a decent lens hood, although I shot without a hood to see how it handles internal reflections.

The only area where the lens occasionally fell short was when trying to track fast-moving subjects. The stepping motor isn’t as responsive as newer drive systems like Sigma’s High-response Linear Actuator found in the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II Art, and I did miss a few shots while capturing my energetic kids. That said, autofocus performance was otherwise consistent, and it worked well with Sony’s excellent Eye and Face Detection.

For portraits, street photography or studio subjects, handling is smooth and reliable. If you’re chasing high-speed action, just be aware there may be the occasional miss, which is a fair trade-off for such a bright aperture and strong optical performance. A workaround is to keep the shutter down and shoot through the action, which increases your chances of capturing the perfect moment, even if it means culling some extra frames afterwards.

Best filters and accessories for an 85mm lens

Choosing suitable lens filters really depends on the subjects you intend to capture. When shooting outdoors a circular polariser can enhance saturation and contrast, while reducing glare, and you can choose any quality 77mm polariser that fits your budget.

For moviemaking and using ND filters for long exposure photography you could select a variable ND filter or an effects filter like a mist filter.  Our PolarPro Shortstache Everyday Filter Review provides some insights into a solid option for this lens.

Other accessories include camera and lens cleaning accessories. The VSGO Camera And Lens Cleaning Kit Range was recently added to Park Cameras, where you’ll find everything needed to clean a camera lens.

Specs

The table below includes all of the main specifications for the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art lens.

The Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens is an ideal portrait lens that easily holds its own five years after launch. It delivers beautiful results with excellent sharpness, especially in the centre frame. Rendering is very natural and if you get into the right position you can completely obliterate the background, enjoy rounded bokeh and get creative with defocus areas across the frame. 

85mm is a versatile focal width for creating connections with real subjects including for family portraits, street photography and any subject-driven low-light images. The lens balances well on a mirrorless camera, and while it isn’t super lightweight, it’s still one of the most portable 85mm f/1.4 autofocus lenses available.

Browse our range of new Sigma lenses or explore a selection of Used Sigma Lenses with stock updated daily for E-mount and L-Mount systems. You can also buy a used Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens directly, and head out to get real with this superb prime lens.

Share this post:

By Nick Dautlich on 20/05/2025

Nick Dautlich

Senior Content Writer and Product Reviewer

Nick Dautlich is the Senior Content Writer and Product Reviewer at Park Cameras, with over 15 years of photography experience. A Sony Imaging Professional and expert reviewer, Nick has worked with major brands such as Canon, Sony and Nikon. His work is also featured on Vanguard World UK’s website, Capture Landscapes, and Shutter Evolve. Nick’s photography includes National Trust projects and magazine covers and he is passionate about landscapes and storytelling. Nick also enjoys hiking and teaching his children about nature. Learn more on his profile page.