Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM

Introduction

For a number of years Sigma has been known as a cheap, third-party alternative lens marker. While not exactly copying a name brand lens, they often didn't stray too far from the popular lens sizes. At some point in the late 2000s it seems the folks at Sigma wanted to change that stereotype and wanted to engineer their own high quality lenses that would exceed competitors, creating new lens types, filling holes in available offerings from competitors (faster lenses or longer lenses than others are making). They called this new series of lenses ART lenses to denote their intended use by artisans.

The 35mm f/1.4 lens punches above its weight with outstanding optical clarity (sharpness) and fantastic color rendition. Its only major issue is its cheap-feeling build. The price is cheap and it sadly feels cheap, but the images it makes are outstanding.

Being f/1.4 this is a very fast lens to have in your arsensal and I do recommend owning one if you get a chance at an affordable copy.

Specifications

The lens is setup with 13 elements in 11 groups. That is an amazing amount of glass for a 35mm prime.

Maximum Aperture: f/1.4

Minimum Aperture: f/16

The diaphragm is 9-bladed with rounded blades, producing high quality, creamy bokeh.

Auto focus with simple manual override at any time you want.

Construction

Made out of polycarbonate this lens has a cheap, plastic feel to it.

The focus ring is covered in a ruber grip that is more comfortable than many other lenses I've used.

The lens hood is a pedal style. Being pedal style I can reach in quite easily to to access the lens cap. I leave my lens hood on the lens all of the time, pointed out.

Performance

The coating in this lens is nice, nicer than many Nikkors, nearly as good as a Voigtlander, the kind of company I thought Sigma was going to go after with their ART series of lenses. However, a prime lens that is this fast and has accurate auto focus should be more than Sigma has set the MSRP. This kind of makes it feel like a cheap, third-party alternative again.

Though a good cheap, if that makes sense, given the f/1.4 performance, optical sharpness, and great colors. The feel of the lens is cheap, with its plasticy feel and the price is cheap, but betraying all of that is the high quality optics.

Speaking of that great coating, not only does it makes for some fine color rendition but it provides outstanding micro-contrast that makes for some sharp and contrasty black and white photos, too.

If you were to use this lens on a Dx camera it behaves just like a 50mm normal prime lens. This makes it an astounding portrait lens for a Dx-crop-sensor camera.

Alternatives

There are a number of 35mm primes available including Zeiss and Nikon, though both of those are f/2 making them far slowering than the f/1.4 you can get here.

Examples

Following are some sample photos to demonstrate the power of this type of lens and some general uses which will likely yield good results. If you shoot things like these, then this lens may be a good one to think about adding to your camera bag.





Check out more photos I have shot with this lens in my Flickr Album.