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

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Above: Moving into the corner shows the Sigma 1.2 suffering more from vignetting, but look through it and you’ll see it impressively maintaining sharpness across the frame – and remember this is with the aperture wide-open. Note the Sigma 35 1.2 is delivering a slightly narrower field of view than the other four lenses, and is probably closer to around 38mm. I’m glad I’m able to show this lens at its sharpest here, but again it struggled to perform consistently in my tests with the Alpha 1 in autofocus.

There is a small amount of distortion in the corners with this lens when shot at very close distances or at infinity, which is typical of all wide-angle lenses. It’s much less obvious than other lenses I’ve shot. I had to really look for it to find it, and it’s easily corrected in post-production. Color and contrast It is also a champ in low light, as shown above. The lens grabbed focus despite our dark, dusty barn conditions. Focus ringThis is an in-depth review of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art prime lens that was announced at one of the largest photo shows in the industry, at Photokina in Germany on September 17, 2012 for Sigma, Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony mounts. The announcement came on the same day with Sigma’s new restructuring of its lens lineup, with three new categories that would differentiate different types of lenses: “Contemporary” for small and lightweight consumer lenses, “Art” for professional zoom and prime lenses and “Sports” for long lenses targeted at sport and wildlife photography. Being a professional-level lens targeted at a variety of photography needs, including portraiture, landscapes and travel, the 35mm f/1.4 is the first Sigma lens that falls into the “Art” category. Build quality is good, as we've come to expect from Sigma's recent prime lenses. The magnesium alloy-bodied 35mm F1.4 feels very rugged, with a well-constructed, premium feel. Its physical controls – and especially the large, nicely-damped, buttery-smooth focus ring – reinforce that feeling. The Canon produces surprisingly strong chromatic aberration (magenta fringing), even at apertures as small as f/8 There is one figure here where Sigma lags behind several competitors that I will note, and that is in minimum focus distance/maximum magnification. This has been and continues to be an area of strength for the 35mm focal length. 85mm lenses typically have very poor figures here (a maximum magnification figure of .11-.13x is common), and even 50mm lenses (where the standard used to be around .15x), but 35mm lenses have always bettered those figures. The Sigma’s ability to focus down to one foot/30cm and have a .20x magnification (1/5th life size) is useful, but not nearly as useful as the Canon 35 IS at .24x and is doubled by the Tamron’s .40x figure (one of the greatest strengths of that lens!).

Above: Sigma describes the design as dust and splashproof, including a rubber grommet on the mount. You’d expect weather-sealing on a high-end lens, but remember the original DSLR version of the lens was not sealed so this is an important upgrade. If it's simply beyond your budget, though, there's certainly plenty to like in the crisp results delivered by the Sigma, even when shooting wide-open. I decided to go ahead and do a review of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART (35A for short henceforth) that took into account the new releases from Canon and Tamron. Sigma is no longer the de facto choice, but do these new options make it any less deserving of your consideration? Build Quality and Design Increased shutter speed is obviously the answer. The question is just how much is needed? Presumably, then, if you can gain 3 stops of shutter speed you can get the equivalent clarity from the non-IS Sigma lens as you are getting from the IS lens. Open the aperture 2 stops and double the ISO once (or vice-versa) and your non-IS should be as blur-resistant as the IS lens. On top of this impressive array of features and elegant exterior, the body of the 35mm F1.4 DG DN | Art offers an exceptional level of durability that helps it withstand long-term professional use as well as individual operating parts that give a good fit to the hand. The dust and splash resistant structure* provides sealing on buttons and along joins between constituent parts, and there is a rubber gasket around the mount. There is also a water and oil repellent coating applied to the front element ensures that photographers can rely on it in any conditions.

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. Focusing speed was another concern. Some third-party lenses I’ve tried (like my beloved Tokina 100mm f/2.8 macro lens) are slow to focus and the motor sounds like a jumbo jet taking off in my ear. The Sigma 35mm lens was fast, quiet and crazy accurate. I haven’t shot them side by side, but I really feel like the Sigma is every bit as fast and accurate as the native Nikon 35mm f/1.4 lens I’ve used occasionally. I also can’t speak to how well it does shooting a football game in terms of handling, but for fast toddlers or dancing grooms, it’s pretty awesome. OK lets try to clear a few things up. The desired motion blur comes from the low shutter speed & a perfect pan. With both vehicles in motion the pan becomes more or less like shooting a still BUT as such the camera & photographer can't be in motion as in having road vibrations transfer to the photographer because he / she is leaning onto the side door or window.. Also lets be clear in that the Canon lenses with IS that go really wide DO NOT have a panning mode & for this kind of use IS may CREATE fuzzyness, but that's just a guess based on my own experiences with my 24-105 when shooting race cars with the IS on. IF you really want to do this kind of photography well you need to spend BIG money on a camera stabilizersuch as sold by Kenyon. The Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG DN Art is a wide angle prime lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras and, at the time of testing, available in Sony e and Leica L-mount versions; here’s hoping for Canon RF and Nikon Z versions of Sigma’s mirrorless lenses soon.