Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HS M | A £650/$900

Unbeatable for image quality

Sigma’s 50mm and 85mm f/1.4 ‘Art’ lenses are notoriously chunky, both of which featured in last month’s group test of portrait lenses. At 77x94mm and 665g, the 35mm edition is manageable yet retains the same, fast f/1.4 aperture rating. But it’s still one of the largest and weightiest lenses in the group, along with the manual-focus Samyang and Zeiss lenses.

Quality and finish are ace, but the lens isn’t weather-sealed. Autofocus is fast and quiet, while manual focusing is smooth and precise. There’s a generous amount of rotational travel and the focus ring is comfortably large. The focus distance scale is more useful than those of the Nikon lenses, with markings at the long end of the range for 0.6m, 1m and 2m before going on to infinity. Performance It may be big in design, but the Sigma goes extra-large in performance. Image quality is fabulous and, as with other Sigma Art lenses, it’s compatible with Sigma’s optional USB Dock for applying firmware updates and fine-tuning.