Sigma 35mm F1 4 DG HSM A Review | 54 Data compared

The Sigma FE 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is a versatile, high-aperture prime lens designed for Sony E-mount full-frame cameras, offering a natural field of view ideal for reportage and portrait photography. Built with premium materials and an exact physical scale window, it yields exceptionally sharp images in the center starting at f/2, reaching excellent sharpness by f/8 that surpasses rivals like the Sony Zeiss Distagon and Samyang alternatives. Additionally, it boasts near-imperceptible barrel distortion on everyday subjects, a permanent manual focus override feature, and an effectively restricted minimum aperture of f/16 to bypass extreme diffraction degradation. However, because the lens uses an elongated barrel to bridge the mechanical distance of reflex formulas rather than a native mirrorless design, it is notably heavy at 790 grams and bulkier than its direct competitors. Its prominent optical drawbacks include heavy vignetting at wide apertures that creates a noticeable "cat-eye" bokeh effect in bright backgrounds, and disappointing sharpness when shot wide open at f/1.4. Furthermore, the ultrasonic HSM autofocus system exhibits irregular behavior, hunting or ruining shots occasionally, which makes this specific model...

The Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM (Art) lens is a highly capable wide-angle prime option available for Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Sony, and Pentax SLR mounts. In field testing, it excels in reportage, travel, and landscape photography. It acts as a 50mm equivalent on APS-C sensor cameras. The lens delivers excellent optical quality with minimal distortion and chromatic aberrations, backed by high light transmission and a fast, silent, and precise internal autofocus motor. Furthermore, it boasts exceptional build quality, elegant finishes, and comfortable handling with a smooth manual focus ring and constant overall lens length during focusing. Despite these strengths, the review highlights several distinct drawbacks. The lens is quite heavy and massive at approximately 700 grams, which can cause wrist fatigue during long, handheld shooting sessions on smaller DSLR bodies. Optically, there is a lack of sharpness homogeneity at wide apertures, where sharpness drops significantly near the edges, alongside visible vignetting that only clears up from f/2.8 onwards. Finally, the lens lacks optical image stabilization—a feature that prevented it from earning a full five-star rating—and features a restrictive minimum...

The 01net review awards the Sigma ART 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM lens a perfect five-star rating, calling it an optical masterpiece offered at a moderate price of under €800. The review highlights its exceptional, premium all-metal build quality, which matches or exceeds the pro-grade offerings from Canon and Nikon but with a cleaner, more minimalist design. Optically, the lens delivers an impressive level of sharp detail, high resolution, and smooth background bokeh that can revitalize older full-frame camera bodies. Its bright f/1.4 maximum aperture pulls in enough light to prevent users from having to raise their ISO on aging sensors, thereby maintaining optimal image quality. However, the review details a few notable drawbacks to consider. First, the lens exhibits strong vignetting when shot wide open at f/1.4. While the reviewer notes this corner-darkening has a soft, charming character that highlights the center of the image—and is easily corrected via software—it remains an optical distortion that only fully disappears by f/4. Additionally, the high-quality glass and metal construction result in a heavy weight of 665 grams. Finally, the lens lacks environmental...

This field review evaluates the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens, praised for its exceptional high-end metal and composite build quality that rivals Canon's premium L-series lenses. The reviewer and four guest photographers highlight its superb image sharpness even wide open at f/1.4, smooth manual focus ring, rapid and silent autofocus performance, and a 9-blade rounded diaphragm that produces a delightfully soft bokeh. It is highly celebrated as a versatile storytelling tool for reportage, street, and low-light photography, offering excellent color density and contrast that outperform pricier first-party alternatives from Canon and Nikon. Despite the overwhelming praise, the review identifies several notable drawbacks, chief among them being the lens's lack of weather sealing (tropicalisation), which led to one contributor's lens failing after exposure to salt water <<... (AF HS).""" />>. Optically, the lens exhibits a slight vignetting effect at wide-open apertures on full-frame sensors and noticeable purple fringing/chromatic aberrations, though these are easily corrected using post-processing software like Lightroom. Minor ergonomic gripes include an annoying, impractical lens cap when used with the lens hood attached, and its heavy weight...

The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM A Nikon review highlights it as a highly accessible, premium wide-angle prime lens that stands out as one of the sharpest 35mm optics available for DSLR cameras. Tested extensively on the high-resolution 36-megapixel Nikon D800 series, it achieved an exceptionally high overall DXOMARK score of 43 (with a peak score of 39 specifically on the base D800 model). The lens delivers an outstanding sharpness profile of 30 P-Mpix, exceptional light transmission measured at 1.6 TStop, minimal distortion of just 0.3%, and well-controlled chromatic aberrations limited to 6 µm. These metrics establish its optical performance as being optimized perfectly when shooting wide open at f/1.4. The primary pros of this lens include its groundbreaking sharpness, very low distortion, and heavily minimized color fringing, making it an excellent value-to-performance choice compared to pricier native alternatives. Additionally, its fast f/1.4 maximum aperture yields superb low-light capabilities and a highly attractive, shallow depth-of-field blur. On the flip side, the cons noted in technical tests are a heavy corner vignetting of -1.8 EV when wide open, a slightly fussy...