Sigma 340101 35mm F1.4 DG HSM Lens for Canon, Black

Product Information

The pictures below illustrate the angle of view on full frame and APS-C. On full frame the 35mm offers a moderate wideangle; on APS-C it behaves as a slightly long 'normal' lens. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. See how we test. Design Above: moving into the corner shows some darkening due to vignetting and again some softness when the aperture is wide-open. Review notes: I reviewed retail copies of both the Canon 35L II and Sigma 35A provided to me by the great people at B&H Photo .

Above: Let’s move onto optical quality now, starting with a portrait with the Sigma 35 1.4 at f1.4 on the Alpha 1 using eye detection. When comparing the Sigma 35A and Canon 35L II side by side at a wide open f/1.4 aperture it is actually surprising how similar the bokeh highlights looked. The shape of the highlights is roughly the same, and while there is just a hint of additional busyness in the Sigma’s highlights, that is only detectable at 1:1 pixel level. The Canon shows a slight bit more concentric rings while the Sigma shows more of a pattern. As you move away from the center of the frame both lenses show a tendency towards lemon shapes instead of circles – a pretty common phenomenon. At identical exposure the Canon’s image is noticeable brighter, but probably no more than a quarter stop. Did Sigma beat Canon on this lens? When you factor in the cost, the look, the optics and the images (that's all that matters in the end), then yes, absolutely. There is nothing that the Canon offers that would make me want the Sigma any less, especially the extra bit of cash left over after you buy it. I went through and counted 9 improperly focused shots from the Canon (out of 113), for a hit rate of around 92%. Most of these misses were with the subjects right on top of me and weren’t in situations where I would have expected to get good results. There were about 2-3 obvious misses where I would have expected accurate focus to be possible. This raises the keeper rate to better than 98% – very good under the circumstances I was shooting in. Canon has once again leapfrogged Sigma in this area, but I would say that the Canon advantage might be seen more in the microcontrast than in green or purple fringing in typical images. In this video segment I really break down resolution and overall image quality in detail:Above: Now for a comparison in the middle with the Sigma 35 1.4 on the left and the Sigma 35 f2 on the right, both at their maximum apertures and zoomed-in for a closer look where they’re both looking quite similar. This is a great lens. But it won’t magically make you an amazing photographer. I’ve seen lots of up-and-coming photographers invest in this lens and then feel disappointed and ripped off when their images aren’t suddenly better. And in fairness, Sigma's strongest E-mount rival, the otherwise-superb (and much more expensive) Sony 35mm F1.4 G Master also shows significant focus breathing, albeit not quite as strongly as in this lens. But it still feels like a bit of a missed opportunity for Sigma to differentiate itself from its rival, and is something of an Achilles' heel on the video front. Above: Measuring 76x110mm and weighing 645g, Sigma’s mirrorless 35 1.4 is actually 16mm longer and 20g heavier than the previous DSLR version. That said, if you’re comparing the DSLR version with the built-in e-mount adapter, the new lens becomes 10mm shorter and 110g lighter.

Don't get me wrong - I'd buy any better, smaller and lighter lens in a heartbeat - I am completely brand agnostic - I buy whatever is best - only one sigma lens thus far and this is going to replaced soon when we'll get a GM macro from Sony - I am expecting this might beast all existing macro lenses by a good deal - given the pedigree of recent lens releases. As I’ll talk about below, this is a story-telling lens. The 35mm lens was the standard photojournalism lens for a long time for this very reason. It’s a great lens choice for street, wedding, event, birth, documentary or even newborn photographers limited on space. Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens specifications Above: The Sony maintains this lead across the frame, although once you’re looking in the far corners, some of the benefit is lost due to darkening from vignetting. Note the Sony 35 1.4 captures a slightly smaller field-of-view than the Sigma 35 1.4, perhaps due to some geometric correction taking place. Note the Sigma lens exhibited some barrel distortion at distant focus or pincushion close-up, both of which can be reduced with Distortion Compensation on the camera set to Auto. Both the Sigma and the Canon 35L II will produce less busy highlights than the Tamron 35 VC when bright light sources are in the scene. Where the Tamron will win over all of these is in the amount of bokeh it can create in some situations due to being to focus much closer and having a maximum magnification figure twice that of Sigma (.40x). Our Image Engineering MTF tests were carried out with the lens mounted to Canon’s 50-million-pixel DSLR, the EOS 5DS R. The solid red line spike tells us sharper results can be achieved in the centre of the frame as a result of stopping down from f/1.4, however this shouldn’t put people off making the most of the fast maximum aperture available. Corner sharpness, illustrated here by the dotted line peaks at f/5.6, beyond which point diffraction gradually takes the edge off sharpness. Shading

Both E-mount and L-mount versions of the Sigma 35mm F1.4 are very sharp lenses, and in most respects can deliver great image quality even when shooting wide-open. Although there are issues with ghosting and cat's eye, in many situations you'll be able to work around these. I wasn't necessarily talking about that specific lens. I was just using it as an example of how it is possible to make a 35mm 1.4 lens that is half the size. Of course its image quality, AF performance, handling and build are essentially identical on both mounts, but the competition on each mount differs, and E-mount shooters have access to Sony's truly excellent 35mm F1.4 G Master lens, albeit at a higher price-tag than Sigma's rival.

Sigma’s Art collection continues to go from strength to strength and introductions to the series in the past couple of years include the 20mm f/1.4, 24mm f/1.4 and, most recently, the 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art in Sony E and L-Mount fittings. A sublime performer Sigma is arguably one of the more recognizable of the third party lens manufacturers. It is known for providing inexpensive alternatives to many of Canon's own zoom lens offerings, or filling niche gaps left in Canon's lineup. This applied to their limited selection of prime lenses as well; I briefly owned their 30mm f/1.4 EX DC and was happy with it on a consumer level, though the optics didn't hold up to some of the more pressing work I did and a move to full-frame (it's a “DC” lens, denoting it's for Digital Camera's only, and specifically crop sensors) meant I wouldn't be able to use it anyway. They released a 50mm f/1.4 EX DG that retailed for MORE than the Canon equivalent; their stance was that it performed better optically and had better build, both of which may very well be true. But pervasive issues of quality control, of batch variance where you never know for sure if the lens you get will be anywhere close to being as good as it can be, or as it is advertised, and a stigma (pun?) attached to owning something “inferior” than a first party “L” lens kept many consumers away. Above: here’s the Sigma 35 1.4 with its supplied petal lens hood. Note the Sony lens with its hood is almost the same length as the new Sigma without it. Its 35mm focal length and bright aperture make it well-suited to weddings, events and street photography, where its smaller, lighter design relative to adapting the 2012 version to mirrorless cameras is a definite plus. And it has potential as a video lens as well, although with a caveat which we'll discuss shortly.HSM stands for hyper sonic motor, Sigma’s lens motor technology. It’s designed to provide fast and quiet focusing. I own both a Sony and Oly m4/3 there where really no competition, the images where not just sharper, the images had more contrast, better saturation, more DR, less noise, better colours with a better transition of the colours etc… The 40mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, pictured here in the centre, is a considerably larger and heavier lens than the 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (left) and the 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (right)