Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Dg hsm | A

£599/$949

What’s good: Superb build and image quality, fast autofocus, excellent handling.

What’s bad: Relatively big and heavy build, no stabilization nor weather-seals.

Our verdict: For premium all-round performance, this Sigma lens is the best buy.

For outright image quality and topdrawer construction, along with superb handling and all-round performance, the Sigma 50mm Art lens is currently our favourite standard prime on the market. It’s not completely perfect, as it lacks weather-seals and is quite big and weighty, but it’s an epic lens that puts Nikon’s 50mm f/1.4 firmly in the shade. On the other hand, the much smaller and lighter Nikon can be more convenient, and the Nikon DX 35mm and 50mm f/1.8 lenses are both very good value. Even so, Sigma wins again in the DX format camp, with its excellent 30mm Art lens.

The Zeiss Milvus is a feast of a lens with immaculate image quality and sublime handling, but it’s even heavier than the Sigma and nearly twice the price (in the UK, at least). And manual focusing isn’t for everybody. Both of the Tamron lenses on test are very attractive propositions, losing out slightly on maximum aperture width but gaining image stabilization. In our tests, the 45mm proved sharper than the 35mm, and it’s better value.