Choosing a 35mm f/1.4 lens for Sony E-mount means navigating a short but competitive list, and the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art just reshuffled that list significantly. The Mark II version makes a strong case against both its predecessor and Sony's own G Master offering.
Coming to you from Curtis Padley, this detailed hands-on video puts the new Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Mark II through its paces against the original Mark I. Padley opens with a rare admission: he's buying this lens, something he says he's never stated outright in a review before. His previous go-to was the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Mark I, which he describes as lumpy, slow, and larger than it had any right to be for its focal length. The Mark II is roughly 115 g lighter than the original and only one gram heavier than the Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 GM, which was previously keeping Padley up at night despite its high price tag. The weight reduction alone was enough to get his attention before he even looked through the viewfinder.
The autofocus is where the gap between Mark I and Mark II becomes impossible to ignore. The original used stepping motors; the Mark II runs dual high-speed linear motors. In Padley's in-out focus test, the difference is visible immediately: the Mark II snaps to subject or background with confidence, while the Mark I hesitates and catches up. Padley says that with the Mark I, he was always second-guessing whether autofocus would hit its mark. With the Mark II, that mental overhead is gone. For video shooters, focus breathing has also been dramatically reduced, and the slight jitter that plagued focus transitions on the older version is absent here.
Build quality holds up to what Sigma Art lenses are known for, with weather sealing intact and a smooth, well-damped manual focus ring. The repositioned custom button makes portrait-orientation shooting more ergonomic. On image quality, Padley notes the center sharpness at f/1.4 is strong on both versions, but the corners tell a different story. The Mark II pulls noticeably ahead in the corners wide open, making f/1.4 genuinely usable across the frame. Flaring is mostly controlled, though Padley does flag specific ghosting scenarios worth knowing about before you commit. Bokeh on the Mark II is clean with a smooth subject-to-background transition, and while there is some cat-eye effect in the corners wide open, it's minor. Padley stops short of declaring the lens perfect, but his conclusion is blunt: for Sony E-mount, this is likely the best 35mm f/1.4 currently available.
Check out the video above for the full breakdown, including the side-by-side test footage and image comparisons, from Padley.
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