Sigma A 35 mm f/1.2 DG DN review - Summary

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Sigma A 35 mm f/1.2 DG DN

11 September 2019

Arkadiusz Olech

11. Summary

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Pros:

sensational image quality in the frame centre,
very good image quality on the edge of APS-C,
good image quality on the edge of full frame,
slight longitudinal chromatic aberration,
negligible lateral chromatic aberration,
sensible coma correction,
low astigmatism,
moderate vignetting on APS-C,
silent and accurate autofocus.

Cons:

higher distortion level than that of its rivals,
a bit too weak performance against bright light,
huge vignetting on full frame.

Sigma has entered the full frame mirrorless optics segment in a very decisive manner. Not only they presented a lens with unique parameters but they also took care of image quality, so the lens is able to offer you excellent shots across the frame. It is a really huge achievement because edges of the frame were notoriously difficult for even expensive, mirrorless constructions.

Still there is a price to be paid for that performance. Despite significant physical dimensions and a hefty weight you have to make do with huge vignetting and weak distortion correction. Perhaps the decision not to correct that aberration was crucial in order to ensure high resolution across the frame but, in our opinion, the slip-up with flares was avoidable; as it is, you can catch ghosting even if the source of bright light is far away from the frame corner. It's a pity the constructors didn't try harder.

Lately Sigma have got us used to outstanding constructions without any flaws. Does it mean we are entitled to criticize the 1.2/35 model? Not at all – at least as long as somebody presents a better lens with the same parameters. So far, the Sigma remains matchless and we should enjoy its unique parameters and quite good performance.