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Bring It with You Everywhere! The Best 28mm Lenses We’ve Tested

Chris Gampat
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11/28/2020
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sigma 28mm f1.4 Art DG HSM Review product images 5

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If you had to have one lens, what would it be? Some photographers would go for 28mm lenses. If you’re experienced, you’ll know just how versatile these lenses are. In recent years, they’ve become good enough for portraiture. What’s more, many of them are built very well. Couple this with the extra pop some have, and you’ll be hooked. Below are some of the best 28mm lenses we’ve tested. And we’ve used almost every 28mm lens on the market.

Sigma 28mm f1.4 DG Art

In our review, we said:

“The Sigma 28mm f1.4 DG HSM Art has some beautiful image quality to it. A little bit wider than the 35mm focal length, it’s going to be perfect for a lot of photographers who tend to look to a scene and want to capture the world just as how they saw it. In our tests, we found the lens to not only have some beautiful bokeh but also be more than usable for many different applications. Coupled with a great photo editor like Capture One Pro 12, photographers are bound to be able to get a lot out of not only lots of modern RAW file capabilities, but the already great colors of the Sigma 28mm f1.4 DG HSM Art too. We also found there to be no aberrations worth speaking of and lots of great sharpness.”

Sample Images

Buy Now: Around $1,034

7Artisans 28mm f1.4

In our review, we said:

“…I have to admit that I like the colors. I’m aware that the image below is in black and white, but it goes to illustrate my points a bit more. The colors are excellent, and even if you want to go colorless, you can create gorgeous images. If you’re looking to create videos with the 7Artisans 28mm f1.4, you’ll get beautiful colors overall. If you’re working with film, just ensure that you nail that exposure right.”

Sample Images

Buy Now: Around $499

Nikon 28mm f1.4

Pro Tip: 28mm lenses are sort of an odd focal length. While not as popular as 35mm or 24mm, they’re in a sweet spot. Some folks say they see the world in this focal length. If you’re not sold, then give 28mm a try. We find them to be best for street photography and walking about. But in truth, they’re also good enough to do certain portraits.

Leica 28mm f1.4 Summilux

In our review, we said:

“The Leica 28mm f1.4 Summilux is quite honestly second to none. The closest thing you might compare it to is the Nikon 28mm f1.4, but that is a DSLR lens. Then there is Sony’s 28mm f2, but that is an autofocus lens and f2. There is seriously nothing like the Leica 28mm f1.4 Summilux. This applies to the quality of the bokeh, the colors, the ease of use, the sharpness, and the overall performance. Believe it or not, even though I was tempted to shoot with this lens wide open most of the time I resisted the urge and stopped it down. The choice was a good one, as I discovered just how incredibly sharp the Leica 28mm f1.4 Summilux is.”

Sample Images

Leica 28mm f1.4

Buy Now: Around $6,295

Nikon 28mm f1.4 E ED

In our review, we said:

If you’re a fan of Nikon’s colors, then you’ll be happy to know that the Nikon 28mm f1.4 is pretty much consistent with everything that you’ve come to expect from Nikon. This lens is fantastic is so many areas of image quality parameters. It keeps the distortion down, doesn’t suffer from fringing issues when dealing with images right out of the camera, has nice bokeh, and is pretty darned sharp. For a lens that’s right under $2,000 you have to expect that the quality is just top notch. And in all honesty, that’s all that I’d truthfully expect from a lens like this.

Sample Images

Buy Now: Around $1,996.95

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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