From time to time in Photography, you get those “Wow”-moments. Some days ago I finally bought the Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART lens and when I tried it out, I got several of those moments. For over a year now I thought about buying this lens, but something always kept me from it – will it focus properly? Will it perform evenly good on my crop-sensor 7D body? Before I go into detail on those points, here are some test shots I took yesterday evening, all shot wide open at f1.4 (and not edited at all):
Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART, f1.4, 1/25, ISO 1000
Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART, f1.4, 1/25, ISO 1000
Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART, f1.4, 1/15, ISO 1000
Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART, f1.4, 1/80, ISO 1000
This lens truly is a beast. I have never encountered a lens that sharp wide open. When using my Canon EF 50mm f1.4, I always expect soft results when I shoot it wide open. But none of those concerns with the Sigma: It’s razorsharp at f1.4 already, for a fact I haven’t even stopped it down when testing so far. It was just not really necessary, and I think this speaks for itself.
I won’t do a full review of the lens here, since the internet is full of those, but just some remarks from a guy with a crop-sensor body: If you think about getting this lens and you’re not sure if it’s worth the money for your crop-sensor body: It is, believe me. Of course you have to be aware that the focal length will be different, on my EOS 7D the Sigma 35mm behaves similar to a 50mm lens (56mm actually), of course still with other image characteristics since it’s a cropped 35mm image. But I like the field of view, and I can’t wait to use this on people photography. I’m convinced that I will use the Sigma 35mm much more often than I currently use my Canon 50mm, not just because of the sharper images it produces, but also because I prefer the field of view. A 50mm lens on a crop body is really long, which makes it even harder to get sharp pictures in low light.
Also, some people still complain about autofocus problems with the Sigma lenses. For me, this hasn’t been a problem so far. Of course when taking the 35mm for a test ride at night, focusing can be hard from time to time, but that would be a problem of the 7D and not the Sigma lens. In normal lighting conditions, the Sigma lens got the focus right every time so far.
All in all, I’m really happy I finally got this lens and I can’t wait to use it more in the real world. And I also can’t wait to put this on a full frame camera, since this will mean an even nicer image frame (I love the 35mm field of view) and and even shallower depth of field, and of course better low-light performance at higher ISO settings. When I upgrade to a full frame camera this year as I’m planning right now, I think the Sigma 35mm f1.4 will probably be my always-on lens. And I can’t wait!
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