Quick take: After five weeks with Sigma's review copy, I bought my own Sigma 12mm F1.4 at full retail. That's how much I like it. It's an 18mm full-frame equivalent ultra-wide that gives you real background blur on APS-C, it's weather sealed, sharp wide open, handles flare beautifully and costs $629. It's my new main YouTube lens, and it opens up creative setups like car rigs and SnorriCam shots on tiny cameras. Honestly, I can't come up with a real negative.
I Bought the Lens I Was Reviewing
A few weeks ago I did a first-look video and was super hyped about this lens. Now the excitement has worn off after about five weeks of use. I've returned Sigma's copy, and the one I'm using is the one I bought with my own money. I don't think I've ever bought a lens I was still reviewing. That's a first.
Side note: Sigma's new packaging is great. It comes in a nice fabric pouch instead of the old white box.
My New YouTube Lens
For the past year or so, my main YouTube lens has been the Sigma 10-18mm. I love it, but on a crop sensor you don't get much subject separation. The 12mm F1.4 gives you a ton of background blur on a wide lens, which is usually reserved for full-frame glass.
Like the other Contemporary lenses, it's small, black and clean, but this one is fully weather sealed. It takes a simple 62mm filter, has a nice manual focus ring and a clicky aperture ring that tells me Sigma was thinking of Fujifilm shooters. It also focuses impressively close. It's not macro, but you can get great separation on details while out walking. With its small size, it's an ideal travel lens for video people, and it's now the lens I leave the house with.
Wide and Fast
In full-frame terms, it's an 18mm lens on Fujifilm and Sony (about 19.2mm on Canon RF-S with its 1.6x crop), and it renders roughly like F2.1. If you go looking for an 18mm F2 full-frame lens to compare, you'll find it doesn't exist.
On camera, you get all the headroom you want, but move it closer and the background just melts. I can practically touch the lens with my face, and the background separation on an ultra-wide is something else.
Real-World Samples
I brought the 12mm to a community event where my work colleague's band, Troubleman, was playing (they're shockingly good, go check them out). The venue had a big column blocking much of the stage view, so I needed a wide lens, and it was dark, so I needed a fast one. A phone would have produced horrible photos.
On the 40MP X-T5, the photos were tack sharp wide open at F1.4, with plenty of room to crop. Color and contrast were phenomenal. I don't care much about corners. If people are studying your corners, you have bigger problems.
Shooting in harsh midday sun, there was almost no ghosting unless I pointed straight at the sun, and even then it was a stylistic ghost that didn't ruin the image. The petal hood or your hand takes care of it.
What Makes It So Good?
More affordable glass usually washes out when it flares because of cheap coatings. Sigma is known for optical excellence at every price point. Focus breathing is basically undetectable, and I didn't see any meaningful longitudinal chromatic aberration, purple fringing or weird softness. For APS-C video shooters, this is going to be a must-buy lens.
It makes me wish Sigma could make full-frame glass for Canon and Nikon, and that Sony didn't limit third-party lenses to 15fps. After the Sigma BF's excellent photo autofocus, and the fp being years ahead of its time with external SSD recording, I think the world is ready for a true Sigma hybrid camera.
How I'll Be Using It
The lens has no stabilization, but almost every Fujifilm body has IBIS, and at 12mm you barely need it. I mostly use it on the X-M5 (no IBIS) because I'm too lazy to take the grip off my X-H2S, and my style is mostly setting the camera down and talking to it. For walk-and-talks, it worked well on a DJI RS4, and the X-H2S is great when I need stabilization. The X-S20 might also be a nice small pairing.
I've even considered the Canon RF-S version, since Super 35 mode on the R5 C gives you great 4K and it would make a very light setup.
Opening Up Creative Applications
Because the lens and the cameras it goes on are so light, it opens up setups that are hard with bigger gear. I mounted it on a Glide Gear SnorriCam rig for those POV "spider-sense" shots, and weight, usually the limitation, wasn't an issue.
It's also an easy car lens. Put a cage on the camera, stick it to the windshield, and you get a really wide, high-quality interior shot. If you've ever rigged a camera to a car, you know how hard that usually is.
On the X-H2S, F-Log2 C (developed for the Eterna cinema camera, with great skin tones) gives you high-quality footage that's easy to match to Canon C-Log2. You have to look beyond the spec sheet and consider the whole package.
Final Thoughts
I'll use it for talking-head videos and for POV shots I used to do on my iPhone. The ProRes footage grades well, but a larger sensor gives you a more premium feel. Since it's weather sealed and great in low light, it can come with me everywhere, even now that it's dark by 5pm.
So what are the negatives? Realistically, none. It's wide enough that you don't need stabilization, image quality is crisp, autofocus is responsive, and everything resolves well at 40MP and 6.2K open gate. At $629 as of recording, it's a fair price.
It's fantastic for video shooters and probably great for astrophotography. It might be too wide for landscapes and portraits for my taste, though my buddy Hunter Hart takes incredible portraits with wide lenses, so check out his channel. I'll do an update in a year or so.
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