Sigma 135mm f/1.4 Art - The King of bokeh
With a 300-600mm f/4 lens launched in Spring and a 200mm f/2 lens in Autumn (2025), Sigma were already knocking it out of the park, with never before seen mirrorless lenses. Then, merely a week later, they launched the world's first autofocus 135mm f/1.4!
Portrait Lenses | Large Entrance Pupils
As impressive as 135mm f/1.8 lenses are for the sheer size of their entrance pupils, they are closer to an 85mm f/1.4 than they are the 135mm f/1.4, hopefully that helps to illustrate just how crazy this new Sigma lens is.
The competition in third party Sony mirrorless lenses seems to keep accelerating. Sony already had access to five fast 135mm lenses, and all of them are fantastic. I started out using Sigma's 2017 model, and I absolutely loved its image quality. Things moved on from adapter DSLR lenses, however. Newer mirrorless versions managed to improve image quality further while cutting the weight down. Sigma needed to do something special to stand out in this crowd, and holy wow did they manage it. An f/1.4 135mm has been almost jokingly wished for by bokeh lovers for a while. I, for one, didn't think it was going to be possible, not hand-holdable, at least.
Sony A7CR | Dark Red Squirrel
Image Quality
With this 3.8x crop (above) from the Sony A7CR, we get a 514mm f/5.3 equivalent. The image quality from this lens at f/1.4 is incredible, even on these extreme crops! Not only is this lens superior to ones like the Samyang 135mm, but it even beats the Sony 135GM on sharpness, focus speed and chromatic aberration at f/1.4, and of course the out-of-focus rendering is sublime, as well as just being more than everything else.
The small amount of mechanical vignette (corner cats eye bokeh) that it has, goes away almost entirely at f/1.8. When you see that the Sony 135GM's mechanical vignette doesn't go away until f/4, you start to realize the crazy level of engineering going on inside this Sigma lens. The next image was taken on the Sony A1, so a bit lower resolution. The below crop represents a smaller sensor area than a 1-inch camera (like the Sony RX100) and yet it still produces crazy levels of detail. This is still wide open, at f/1,4!
Sony A1 | Old train
Build & Design
Despite Sigma shaving off at least 1KG from over any other 135mm f/1.4 lens, they have also made a lens that feels extremely well-made. Although I will likely never use it, the manual aperture ring feels fantastic. It has a great grip, solid click stops, can be de-clicked and has a locking mechanism that can lock it in or out of automatic mode (something that I loved from their mirrorless 85mm lens). You also get two custom buttons (mapped to a single function) for use in portrait or landscape orientation. A nice to have feature, even if I tend not to use them currently.
The tripod mount is very sturdy and features Arca-Swiss dovetailing. It can be rotated to any position, or removed entirely if you just want to cut the weight down further. If you do remove the tripod collar, there is a rubber ring (included) to cover the locking bolts, if you find them ugly or uncomfortable - a very nice touch. The 105mm filter thread is going to be costly if you want to combine this lens with filters and of course the front lens cap is like a dinner plate, so only for bigger pockets. The massive lens hood features a locking button, which is nice as lenses this size often have thumb-screws, which are bulky as hell. I usually prefer twist lock hoods, but on a lens this size the locking button feels like a better option.
Nature | Various Crops
Auto Focus
Sigma's dual HLA focus motors manage to drive its callosal lens elements at a ridiculously fast speed. There are three other 135mm f/1.4 lenses that I know of; a $47,000 Leica cine lens, a rare medium format Noritar, and the Mitakon Speedmaster. All of which are manual focus lenses, all are at least 1KG heavier, and were more expensive than the Sigma (before it came out). This Sigma version is not a light lens by any stretch of the imagination, but considering how much lighter it is than the competition while delivering blisteringly fast autofocus and a relatively short minimum focus distance, it's not bad.
Final Words
Now, you will never beat the Samyang 135mm f/1.8 lens on value for money or weight in my opinion (which is why I will keep it), but with that caveat out of the way... if you like the balance of extreme sharpness and subject isolation, the new Sigma 135mm f/1.4 Art takes things to another level.
There isn't much risk of being overly hyperbolic about this lens. I already favour the 135mm focal length, and this might just be the apex version. I don't think it is possible to get more subject isolation or image quality from a 135mm lens, and I will be shocked if any other manufacturer can shave off much weight without sacrificing something important. This level of performance and depth of field are usually only seen on insanely expensive telephoto primes (like a 300mm f/2.8 or above). This provides those results in a much more usable and affordable package. The only downside here is the lenses weight and minimum focus distance. Neither of which are terrible, especially for what is on offer.
The bar for high-end mirrorless portrait lenses, had already been raised to crazy heights over the last decade, but Sigma have managed to raise it further still.
Bokeh Panos
This technique (A-K.A. The Brenizer Method) involves stitching multiple images (with the same settings) from a fast portrait lens, to achieve a wider angle image with otherwise impossibly shallow depth of field. When I recommend lenses for this technique, I suggest full-frame* prime focal lengths between 85mm and 135mm, and with a fast aperture. This provides the largest entrance pupils (apertures) whilst restricting the workflow to a reasonable level. Longer focal lengths can have larger entrance pupils, but will be difficult to take enough photos to reach a wide angle result. It's this wide angle result that makes the magic of the technique, in my opinion. This Sigma lens has the biggest entrance pupil you will find before the focal lengths go crazy.
* If you're on a crop system, look no further than the Sirui 75mm f/1.2. It's a budget and lightweight lens that performs so well that I wouldn't recommend anything else.
