TL;DR - YES: it helps your shaky hands

It helps in hand held scenarios when shooting near or below the minimum shutter speeds (based on the reciprocal rule 1/effective focal length shutter speed). AND so does putting your camera on a tripod/any stable surface (it removes shakes by forcing you to remove your shaky hands from the camera)

TL;DR - NO, it does allow you to get longer exposure but if your subject moves during the 'longer' exposure, GG.

You can use longer exposures now that its stabilized, but they don't do any good if your subject moves/is fast moving; your background will be well exposed but your subject will be a blurry mess.

I think its only half to two thirds a stop diff, probably not drastically different aperture wise (a reminder that while larger apertures let in more light, it doesn't guarantee more light reaching the sensor, different (same focal length) lenses although have equal aperture (f/stops) may not have same transmission of light (T/stops). many factors involved with this mainly the construction of the lenses; materials, no of elements etc. Cant say for sure needs to be tested side by side to see if the difference is noticeable or significant.

Better look at other stuff rather than these two OSS and aperture; built quality handling, sharpness etc etc. Its the same price like you say, so pick the one that suits YOU, not the one rando people on internet forum say its the BEST, because everyone is different and has different needs and expectations that is BEST served by different equipment.

eg. want bokeh, then the 1.4 then would produce more etc etc

PS: we have no idea which sony 1.8 lens and sigma 1.4 lens you are referring to (sony and sigma makes many 1.8 and 1.4 lenses)

This post has been edited by lonewalker: Oct 19 2021, 01:33 AM