Sigma 17-40mm F1.8 DC | ART Review

Sigma’s 18-35mm F1.8 that was released ten years ago became a cult favorite, particularly with the video crowd. Even full frame users often used it to help mitigate crop factors and because of the flexibility of having a zoom range AND a fast maximum aperture. Last year Sigma launched the 28-45mm F1.8 DG DN | ART lens, a lens I gave a fairly glowing review to because I felt it captured some of that “specialness” that is rare. That was a full frame lens, however, and as such was bigger, heavier, and more expensive than what APS-C shooters need. But Sigma is back with a true successor to the 16-35mm in the form of the 17-40mm F1.8 DC | ART. This is the first of the APS-C lenses in the current mirrorless era that has received the ART identifier (excepting a few very early primes that were definitely not ART worthy back in 2012 and 2013 when mirrorless was still an experimental oddity!) Has Sigma managed to recreate the magic that made people love the 18-35mm F1.8 so much “back in the day”? Is this lens a bargain at $829 USD ($1249 CDN)? We’ll explore that question in either my video review below or in the text review that follows.