Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art vs Canon 35mm 1.4L - In Depth Comparison

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• published: 30 Jul 2015
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✅ Click here to see my Top 5 Prime Lenses under $150 ➜ http://amzn.to/1HnIkAW A Big Thanks to Brisbane Camera Hire for the rental of the Canon 35mm 1.4 & Sigma 35mm 1.4 for the tests, you rock! Today I’m going to take in a depth look and compare two 35mm lens, the Canon 35mm 1.4L and the Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art. To get started lets take a look at the build quality of these two lenses. Over my testing, I’ve found that both of these lenses are manufactuered very very well. They both have quite a lot of weight to them, with the Canon being lighter at 580g vs the Sigma at 665g. Is it noticeable? Well yeah it is, you can definitely feel that the Sigma is heavier. Some people like a heavier lens and some people like a lighter lens, the choice is up to you. Both of the lenses have focus windows as you can see here which is a nice feature and both also have solid metallic mounts. The Sigma has a wider focus ring which is very nice, but the Canon has a longer focus throw which for video work, is very nice indeed, with the Sigma being quite difficult to manually pull focus. But overall both of these lenses are built fantastically, and in terms of built it’s a tie. - Now both of these lenses have maximum aperture of f1.4, which means they produce a shallow depth of field. Let’s take a look at the bokeh of both of these lenses. Now bokeh itself is really quite subjective, but for me the Sigma has slightly nicer bokeh. Whereas the Canon has only 8 aperture blades, the Sigma improves on that by with 9 rounded aperture blades, so in theory should have rounder bokeh. Again it’s all subjective, but if you check out more photos of the bokeh compared i’ll leave a link in the description below. - Let’s quickly talk about Autofocus. Now the Canon is using it’s tried an tested Ultrasonic motor for autofocus whereas the Sigma is using it’s Hypersonic Motor. In the past Sigma lenses were way behind in terms of autofocus speed and accuracy, but with these new art lenses things seem to be changing. So let’s test both out and see how they perform, starting with the Canon. TEST - Just like we did in stills mode, I also want to test out both of these lenses in video mode using the Canon 70’ds autofocus. Firstly lets test out the Canon 35mm using face tracking mode at f1.4. Next lets test out the Sigma 35mm using face tracking mode. RESULTS - Now if you are thinking about purchasing one of these two, I do quickly want to mention one other lens that I feel could be useful and thats the Canon 35mm f2 with IS. Sure it’s not got that wide f1.4 aperture, but the fact that it has image stabilisation built in is huge for a few reason. Firstly if you’re going to be using this for video work, that IS can make a real difference in stabilisation your footgage. Secondly, if you’re going to make taking a lot of handheld shots at night, having that IS is definitely going to help produce sharper shots. Just a little food for thought. - Let’s quikcly talk about sharpness. Now in my testing, I really did find that the Sigma consistenly produced sharper images that then Canon, especially at wider apertures. Don’t get me wrong, both lenses are incredibly sharp, but if you are a pixel peeper, you’ll probably want to go with the Sigma. In terms of Color reproduction, both do a good job but I generally do prefer the way that Canon glass does look, and it’s the same with their version of the 35mm. Both lenses suffer slight from Chromatic aberration, with the Sigma producign a little bit less. And in terms of vignetting, they both have quite a lot on a full frame body, but I’ve been using testing this on a crop sensor, so it’s not much of an issue for me. Now again if you want to check out all of my images from this comparison, make sure to check out the link in the description below. - Now let’s talk about value for money, and as you can imagine, this is where the Sigma wins .. again. Just like with the 24mm versions that I tested a while back, the Sigma comes in at close to half the price of the Canon and as you can tell in this review, is rgiht up there in quality. I would say that if you are using this for video work that I would look at getting the Canon because of that focus throw, but for all other purposes, it does seem like the Sigma is a real bargain in comparison. -