![]() One would think that with three 35mm options available on Sony that Sigma would “rest on their laurels”. Two of those were actually 35mm lenses, including the massive and optically superior 35mm F1.2 DN ART (the first autofocusing F1.2 lens on Sony, which I reviewed here) and, more recently, the compact 35mm F2 DN from their iSeries which I reviewed here. But Sigma wasn’t done, as they have gone on to produce at least ten other new DN (their designation for mirrorless) lenses during the past two years. That was the very first lens to bear the ART name, and, while it has been beloved, its a bit “long in the tooth” at this point and was never designed with Sony mirrorless in mind. Part of that initial batch of lenses was the adapted FE version of the Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG ART. It more or less worked, but never as reliably as native lenses. They weren’t designed for the mirrorless flange distance (distance from optical path to the sensor), so they had more size and weight added to them to move the optical path forward and to make room for a built-in adapter to allow focus to work properly on Sony mirrorless. They started with a huge drop of “adopted” DSLR lenses that gave them a basic lineup built on their existing lenses, though those lenses were always somewhat compromised. Sigma 35mm F1.It’s hard to believe that just a couple of years ago Sigma had no lenses for Sony full frame E-mount (FE). On full frame the 35mm offers a moderate wideangle on APS-C it behaves as a slightly long 'normal' lens. The pictures below illustrate the angle of view on full frame and APS-C. Available for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma and Sony mounts.0.3m closest focus, offering 0.19x magnification.Hypersonic Motor (HSM) focusing with full-time manual override.Fast F1.4 maximum aperture F16 minimum.Let's see if the Sigma can deliver on these requirements. This type of lens is a significant investment too, and mainly bought by professionals or serious amateurs demanding excellent image quality and flawless operation. But make no mistake the Sigma is up against very strong competition, with the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM, Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G, and Sony 35mm F1.4 G all very highly regarded within their respective lineups. This clearly all adds up to an impressive-sounding package. As the icing on the cake, Sigma says each lens will be individually inspected before leaving the factory, using a measuring system based on its own high-resolution Foveon sensor. The aperture diaphragm uses nine curved blades for the attractive rendition of background blur, and Super-Multi-Layer Coating is employed to minimise flare and ghosting. This drives a floating inner focus system, that's designed to maintain high image quality at all subject distances. The lens also incorporates an ultrasonic-type HyperSonic Motor for fast, quiet autofocus with full-time manual override. According to Sigma this allows the minimization of an array of aberrations including both longitudinal and lateral chromatic aberration, astigmatism, and field curvature. Its 13 element, 11 group construction is the most complex in its class, and includes no fewer than four elements made from Super-Low Dispersion (SLD) glass, along with one formed from fluorite-like 'F' Low Dispersion (FLD) glass, and two aspheric elements. £800 / $900 launch price, it's a tempting proposition compared to Canon, Nikon and Sony's offerings, which all sell for upwards of £1000 / $1300.ĭespite this, the Sigma gives up nothing in terms of ambition when it comes to optical design. It's designed as a high-quality alternative to the camera manufacturers' equivalents at a substantially lower cost even at its ca. At the same time the company announced three new lenses, one in each class, with the 35mm F1.4 DG HSM as the first release in the Art category. At Photokina 2012, Sigma announced a reorganization of its lens lineup into three categories - 'Contemporary' covering lightweight, flexible zooms, 'Sports' for larger telephoto lenses, and 'Art' for a wide range of optics aimed at serious photographers, including ultra-wideangles, macros and fast primes.
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