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

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The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART lens is only as good as the photographer shooting it. To be honest, I’m still learning how to get the most out of this lens and use it more creatively. You’ll notice an improvement in your images in terms of sharpness, contrast and color when you step up from a kit or budget lens. But it’s not going to magically make you an award-winning photographer. You need to understand how to use the lens, compose creatively and pose for optimal images. This 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.

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.And the speed of this lens is impressive. At f/1.4 you get loads of light in. I shot my weddings pretty much with available light only and the option to keep a reasonable shutter speed in dim churches was amazing. And for those who love a shallow depth of field, there is plenty to play with. The shot below is at f/2.2. Before wrapping-up my review, a few notes for the videographers out there. Just like for stills, 35mm is an ideal general-purpose length for filming, wide-enough to squeeze in bigger scenes, but not so wide to suffer from distortion. Movie autofocus is smooth, quiet and hassle-free with none of the hunting of AFS in stills, nor any issues with accuracy or repeatability. That said, it’s not an issue with the other three lenses either. 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 .

Little changes at f/2.8, although now both lenses show the slight shape of their aperture blades at a 1:1 level to a similar degree. Determining a lens’ bokeh quality is somewhat challenging because bokeh is both a subjective measure (the Helios 44-2 “swirly” bokeh is either wonderful or terrible depending on your perspective) and it is also notoriously difficult to demonstrate in a controlled test. Since its introduction there has been some debate about the bokeh quality from the Sigma. I myself have referred to it as being somewhat “clinical”, and feel that the lens tipped the scales more towards sharpness than overall drawing. The reality is that while the lens is perhaps not exceptional in this regard, it is in no way objectionable either. I’ve been using the lens side by side with the Canon 35L II over the past five weeks, and while I instinctively prefer the “look” of the images from the 35L II, the reality is that the differences are subtle at most. However, calibrating focus to maximize focus accuracy is one thing. Focusing consistently is another. I owned the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art for three years and used it primarily for weddings and events. I can say without hesitation that it did not nail focus as consistently with phase-detect (viewfinder) AF as my Canon USM lenses. The consistency wasn't bad, but the difference was noticeable. Thankfully, there is something you can do to significantly increase your in-focus rate. This review is based on my experience with the Nikon version of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART lens. You can extrapolate this information for other versions, such as the Canon or Sony copies.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. It is also a champ in low light, as shown above. The lens grabbed focus despite our dark, dusty barn conditions. Focus ring The Canon suffers from heavy vignetting, and modest vignetting is a factor even at f/5.6, while the Sigma shows no significant vignetting until f/2.8 (and none worth worrying about until f/2) Lens flare is very well controlled, but with the sun in or near the frame, you can nevertheless get quite a bit of ghosting. Sunstars are quite well defined when stopped down, providing a nice effect so long as you can live with the ghosting that comes hand-in-hand with them. Longitudinal chromatic aberration (fringing) The new Canon 35mm f/1.4L II USM is now the class leader for Canon shooters and surpasses the Sigma is most metrics. I reviewed it here. It rings in at twice the price of the Sigma.