For years, the 135mm focal length has been underserved, which is a downer as it's an excellent choice for portraiture and other shallow depth of field images. Thankfully, the winds of change are blowing, as Canon, Nikon, and Sony all include made-for-mirrorless 135mm F1.8 primes in their current mirrorless lens catalogs. That didn't stop Sigma from engaging in some one-upmanship, with its 135mm F1.4 DG Art ($1,899) that focuses in an instant and features a brighter optical formula that excels in tough light and blurs backgrounds into nothing. The 135mm F1.4 DG Art is not only better, but also a few hundred dollars less expensive than its main competitor, the Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM, so it easily earns our Editors' Choice award.

Design: A Squat, Dense Telephoto Prime

The 135mm F1.4 DG Art is relatively squat among telephoto lenses. Its barrel measures about 5.4 by 4.4 inches (HD) at its widest point, with the removable tripod collar adding another inch to the overall diameter when attached. The 135mm Art is heavy for its size, too, around 3.2 pounds, which is not surprising given how much glass is inside. Sigma uses a 17-element/13-group optical formula to realize the F1.4 aperture at this focal length, along with a sizable front element that works with 105mm threaded filters. Larger filters are costly, so make sure to budget for the creative filters you like to use if you don't already have a set in 105mm.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Sigma makes the lens for two camera systems. You can get it for L-mount bodies made by Sigma, Panasonic Lumix, Leica, and others, or for Sony E-mount cameras. Sony owners have several alternatives to mull, including the aforementioned 135mm F1.8 GM, the value-priced Viltrox 135mm F1.8 FE Lab, the affordable FE 85mm F1.8, and Sony's 100mm F2.8 STF GM OSS portrait specialty lens. There are fewer options in the focal length for L-mount cameras; the closest you'll get is a shorter telephoto, like the excellent Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

An 85mm F1.4 gathers as much light, but its shorter focal length means that it doesn't blur backgrounds quite as heavily or as readily as a 135mm. Given a ten-foot distance between the camera and subject, the 135mm F1.4 has a 1.7-inch plane of focus, compared with 4.2 inches for an 85mm F1.4. If you prioritize blurred-out backdrops, this extra compression is welcome, though it can be overkill in some situations. With such a narrow depth of field, it's a little too easy to get just one eye of your subject in focus. You can still get plenty of blur at narrower apertures with a 135mm, however.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Aside from the bayonet mount, the E- and L- editions are doppelgängers. The lens uses a mix of magnesium and Sigma's thermally stable composite, a plastic that's as sturdy as aluminum. Pro-grade is a term that's thrown about a little too casually, but the 135mm F1.4 qualifies. It's suitable for use indoors and out, as Sigma includes gaskets to keep dust and moisture from finding their way inside, and coats the front glass with fluorine, a material that prevents grease and moisture from adhering to its surface. This makes it easy to wipe away raindrops without leaving watermarks, and lets you clear off accidental fingerprints with just a microfiber cloth.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Sigma bundles a hood, front and rear caps, a shoulder strap, a soft pouch, and a tripod collar with the lens.

Controls: Dual Function Buttons and On-Barrel Aperture

The 135mm F1.4 has the expected, typical set of controls for a serious lens. It includes discrete rings to set focus and aperture, a pair of configurable function buttons, and a trio of toggle switches to change focus mode, switch the aperture ring between smooth and clicked adjustment, and lock the aperture to its body-controlled "A" position.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The control layout is sensible and works as expected. There are two function buttons, but as with most other lenses, both do the same thing; the replication is so that the button is in the same relative place regardless of whether you're holding the camera vertically for portraits or horizontally for landscape compositions.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The aperture ring is properly indexed, and each click makes a one-third stop change. That's not usually news, but is worth mentioning here simply because the more affordable Viltrox 135mm F1.8 FE Lab ($899) uses a ring that may take one, two, or three clicks to change the f-stop. You can rely on your ears and tactile feedback to set the f-stop with the Sigma (and most other lenses), but can't with the Viltrox.

Focus: Fast, Reliable, and Quiet

Sigma puts its fastest focus motor into the 135mm F1.4, and it shows. The lens uses a high-response linear actuator (HLA) system that snaps focus from near to distant targets in an instant. It's just as reliable to use to capture moving subjects and action scenes as with Sports series lenses like the 200mm F2 DG OS. If you own a pro Sony camera, you may prefer to go first-party for sports action, however, as all third-party lenses are limited to 15fps continuous drive. Its most expensive options support faster speeds, the a9 III goes to 120fps, and the a1 II rattles off photos at 30fps with Sony glass like the FE 135mm F1.8 GM. Sony a7 and a6000 series bodies don't support 15fps burst rates, so the restriction isn't relevant for them.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The 200mm F2 has a leg up for indoor sports because of its tighter angle of coverage and optical stabilization, though there is some overlap between the two. Portrait photographers who want even more compression and bokeh will find the 200mm F2 a worthwhile splurge, assuming you are okay with putting some space between camera and subject—if you're photographing a model, the distance can make communication difficult. On the flip side, the Sigma 135mm F1.4 is a good option for indoor sports like volleyball or basketball, especially if you're stuck working under the so-so lighting you'll deal with in some high school and collegiate venues.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The focus motor is quiet too, so it won't detract from video clips with in-camera sound. On the downside, the lens shows a narrower angle of view when focused close versus at a distance, a phenomenon called focus breathing. This detracts from rack focus shots that shift focus from one subject to another for narrative effect, a commonly used technique in cinema. Sony cameras support breathing compensation for first-party lenses, so video specialists may find reason to opt for the FE 135mm F1.8 GM instead. L-mount cameras don't have this feature, so cinematographers will just have to live with breathing as both the Sigma 85mm F1.4 and Lumix S Pro 85mm F1.4 bloom and shrink with focus as well. I've not tested the Lumix 85mm, but CineD notes its breathing is "quite apparent."

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The 135mm F1.4 DG Art makes one sacrifice to realize its F1.4 optical formula versus more common F1.8 alternatives: close focus. Its minimum focus distance is around 3.6 feet (1.1m) as measured from the image sensor. This is good for about 1:6.9 life-size magnification, and shy of what you want for macro images. I took the 135mm F1.4 to a nearby botanical garden, one of my go-to photography spots, and got good images of larger bunches of orchids and larger flowers. If you want a lens that can pick up specks of pollen or show off the details in a bumblebee's compound eye, the Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN Macro Art is a better choice as it focuses close enough to capture subjects at life-size (1:1) magnification.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Image Quality: As Close to Perfection As You'll Find

I tested the 135mm F1.4 DG Art with the 60MP Sony a7R IV, a camera that simply demands fantastic glass in order to get the most out of its pixel-rich sensor. The pair put up excellent Imatest numbers at f/1.4 (4,850 lines) and crossed over to the outstanding range at narrow apertures (5,300 lines from f/2-5.6). Results are a little lower at f/8 (4,800 lines) and f/11 (4,400 lines) due to optical diffraction—the laws of physics dictate that light particles scatter as they pass through a narrow aperture—but it's only a noticeable issue at the minimum f/16 f-stop (3,700 lines).

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Without corrections, the optics show a very modest vignette at f/1.4, along with some pincushion distortion at all f-stops. Both are corrected automatically when using your camera for JPG images or video without any detriment to photos. The distortion and vignette fall somewhere between nominal and minor, so you might not notice them at all unless you're comparing Raw and JPG pairs side-by-side. Sigma provided me with an early look at a Raw correction profile for the lens (it should show up in the next scheduled update to Adobe Camera Raw); it works as expected and makes the Raw images match up with corrected JPGs.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

I was a little worried about lens flare and ghosting, given the 135mm's imposing front element. Sigma's coatings and the lens hood prove effective enough in suppressing the effect, short of shots where the sun itself is prominently in frame. I saw a loss of contrast when sunlight hits the front element straight on, but almost no ghosting, aside from a blob of false color at the minimum f/16 aperture. The 135mm F1.4 DG Art is a stellar lens for photogs who like to make portraits against a strong backlight.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

My eye is drawn to scenes that isolate a subject from its background. If you're anything like me, blurring out backgrounds is a major selling point of a bright telephoto, and the 135mm F1.4 DG Art is capable of blurring backdrops into a lovely, buttery nothingness. The quality of the blur is exemplary, too. I couldn't spot any false texture in highlights, and there's no evidence of false purple or green fringing (longitudinal chromatic aberration, or LoCA) in the transition in focus or around the edges of bright specular highlights. All and all, the bokeh is exceptionally clean, giving the Sigma a leg up over the budget-minded Viltrox 135mm F1.8, which, while sharp, draws harsh backgrounds with hard-edged soap bubble highlights.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)