Price: £599 / $699
Launched in 2012, this was the first Art lens in Sigma’s Global Vision lineup of Art, Contemporary and Sports lenses. As such, the design ethos emphasises artistic freedom and creativity. Many subsequent Art lenses, including the 50mm and 85mm f/1.4 primes, are particularly large and heavy models for their respective focal lengths, but the 35mm is relatively compact, undercutting the Canon and Tamron lenses for size and weight.
Build quality and handling are very good overall, with a sturdy feel to the barrel and brass mounting plate, and a pleasantly smooth-action manual focus ring. As with other Global Vision lenses, it’s compatible with Sigma’s optional USB Dock, in this case enabling autofocus fine-tuning and the application of firmware updates. However, unlike a number of subsequent Art…
