| Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | | Review Date: October 26, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $800.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | good lens with weakness | | Cons: | wide open strong CA's in the edges and | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 6
Value: 5
Camera Used: K-1 K-5
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 8
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AN OVERRATED LENS - FOR BOKEH-FREAKS
=====================================
For such a lot of money I expect best results - but not at all ! This lens is decentered, obviously. 
++ best center sharpness, undoubtably 10 points
O/- edge sharpness not real sharp wide open, CAs and double contures  - 5 points
O f 3.5-4 moderate sharpness in the edges, double contures and still visible CAs, even with APS-C
O/+ better values of sharpness at f 8-11 - disappearing CAs and double contures eliminated
Why fore these results ? - I suspect some plastic elements in the interior
++ for portaits with great bokeh part in the edges very good
O for architecture and landscapes : pay attention to the weakness in the edges - shut / stop down the aperture to f 8-11
I'd borrowed this lens - no decision to buy this overrated lens, never !
7 points only - because of the high price and the bad edges
| | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 65 | | Review Date: October 21, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $560.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | ++sharpness, f1.4, great bokeh, | | Cons: | heavy, large (for a 35mm lens), AF issues | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 9
Camera Used: K1, K3, K3-III
New Or Used: Used
Autofocus: 5
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I bought the Sigma 35 f1.4 in parallel to the FA31, which I have since more than 10 years. This are two different lenses for different usages.
The Sigma is razor sharp - already wide open. The edges and even the corners are already very sharp wide open - much superior to the FA31. With the object close to the lens it is perfect; but for landscape there is the flaw that the edges have a closer focus compared to the center:
The micro contrast is on a very high level already at f1.4 and outstanding at f2.0 - biggest difference to FA31, which needs F2.8 for similar micro contrast in the center and never reaches this micro-contrast in the corners.
Aberrations are negligible and not field relevant.
The Bokeh is the reason to go for this lens. Already wide open the bokeh is pleasant:
Stopped down to f5.6 it may look harsh - but only cropped. If you look 1:1 on the picture it pleases again:
 .
The AF is a different story; I got the lens from a Pentaxian who was very unpleased with the AF on his K1-II and used mostly >F5 to get sharp images. I tried to fix this issue with the Sigma USB dock, but was not successful - between 1m and infinity I would needed several additional steps. So I called the Sigma service and sent the K1 and the Sigma lens to service and for a small money I got back a perfect lens in relation to the AF. Now I should give 8 of 10 points for the AF rating, but the AF is not too fast and the problems should find their way into the rating.
As the lens is quite heavy and large, the handling is not the best. If I have to walk a lot, I mainly take the FA31 or the DA*55 due to the lower weight and size. But if I have only this chance to get a perfect picture I would take the Sigma and ignore the pain (the pain is for now, the great picture forever  ).
With both K3s the Sigma does not perform as perfect as with the K1. With the Crop sensor the FA31 is the better choice for me.
| | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2020 Location: Lincolnshire Posts: 7 | | Review Date: April 18, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Really sharp | | Cons: | Heavy | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K1ii K3
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 9
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I wanted a fast prime lens for use with my K1ii & K3, the 35mm is an ideal length to use on a full frame and crop sensor. The Broken doesn't disappoint and lives up to the reputation this lens has, the other plus point is it is very sharp and excels when used on the K1ii with it's high resolution sensor. The only downsides are it is not weather sealed and the weight, but if your carrying a K1ii weight is not your primary concern.
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2019 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: May 8, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $380.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, reliable indoor or night shoot, fully metal | | Cons: | quite heavy, only suitable for one-lens only person like me, CA not good as HD pentax lens | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K1
New Or Used: Used
Autofocus: 8
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I want to try for a 35mm lens - to practice more with fix lens. As (i) i couldn't find any HD FA 35mm in my area, (ii) used FA 31mm ltd is a bit expensive for me(350USD vs 500USD), thus i decided to buy a sigma lens. And for now, i am quite happy with it.
Note: these 2 pics below were both cropped around 2X:
.
This one is totally unedited, using portrait mode and -2 sharpness in in-camera picture style. It reminds me how excellent pentax camera can be if u can fully understand about the camera mode:
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This one is slightly edited, i dont know how it gonna look like as my laptop screen is a piece of shiit.
my friend told me that the boat looked like a fking coffin 
.
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You can see me in the girl's eye :v bloody sharp!
Using some chinese presets and cropped via lightroom :
Finally, nearly unedited lotus picture for someone who want to buy the lens for flowers: (only +1 exposure in lr)
My advice? it is excellent and ****ing heavy, buy it only u want it for a specific purpose, or just like me who want only 35mm lens for all the things. 31 limited is quite good in color rendering though, but not that sharp.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2016 Posts: 4 | | Review Date: April 21, 2020 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very Sharp, Silent AF | | Cons: | Big and Heavy for a 35 | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: k-3 k-1
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 9
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I know many people have reported AF issues with this lens but I really haven't experienced any, I chose it over the 31 Ltd and am happy with that choice as I value sharpness above everything else.
My full video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoT2EUZX40&t=2s | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2019 Location: Geelong, Australia Posts: 341 | | Review Date: January 4, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $380.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Clarity, color pop, sharpness | | Cons: | slow auto focus | |
One of my favorite lenses and became so very fast.
Excellent almost everywhere with my one and only complaint being focus speed.
The lens is slightly heavier than imagined, but is build quality feels like a tank.
Excellent even wide open and produces awesome texture, color, sharpness and bokeh and I am yet to find a problem with aberrations.
I highly recommend this lens.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Brno Posts: 295
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 13, 2019 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Excelent optics | | Cons: | Weight, size, only MF on film body. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K5, K20D, MZ10
New Or Used: Used
Autofocus: 9
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While I also have FA35/2 and quite potent Sig17-50/2.8, this lens optically is far superior to both. Bokeh is creamy, resolution is superb, aberations are well controlled. It is fully usable at F1.4 being better than FA35/2 at F2.8 concerning fine detail rendering! Sigma stopped down to F2 is perfectly fine for hi-res work and around F4 it peaks in excellent detail resolving power. Great lens.
With Pentax IBIS SR it enables user to shoot low light like charm too.. 1/10S at F1.4 and ISO1600-3200 gives you options even in very dark scenarios. Portraits? Perfect.
It is very sad, that Sigma decided to abandon K mount
 | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: Florence Posts: 7
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 1, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $550.00
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | Great sharp, beautiful bokeh | | Cons: | Nothing | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-1
New Or Used: Used
Autofocus: 9
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 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2016 Posts: 689
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 1, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $780.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | excellent, no surprising, usable at all apertures. Bought with the new mount. | | Cons: | big, heavy, a no smooth focus ring, vignetting at f:1.4 until f:2.8, AF issues for some samples. Need Sigma Dock. No updated firmware since the first release. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-1 (upgrade mk II)
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 8
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Excellent, even better on Pentax K-1 (MK II) than Canon EOS 6D, 5D MKIII (I owned Sigma Art EF 35/1.4 & 50/1.4). Besides, K-1 includes excellent SR/IBIS. I am a Manual focus "fundamentalist" and the focus ring is not as smooth as the vintage lenses' as Leica-R lenses' I own nor the Limited edition Pentax lenses'... The lens is very big, heavy, not discret only to use for special purpose, not for travelling... except if it is your unique lens...
Nice CA control. A must have for a 35mm focal length, but you could look for the Pentax FA SMC FA 31/1.8 Limited if 1.8 aperture (vs 1.4) is not an issue.
A beautiful prime to complete the collection with the new HD PENTAX-D FA ★ 50mmF1.4 SDM AW...
 Brigitte, contre-jour, Sigma Art 35mm F1.4 DG HSM, 1/500s @ f:2.0, 100Iso, SR on, manual focus.
Developed in Iridient 3.2.3 full compatible with Pixel Shift Classic mode & K-1 MKII, and DxO Film Pack 5.5.17.
 Crop 100% (click in another window).
 Crop 100% (click in another window).
 Crop 100% (click in another window).
 Marie, Sigma Art 35mm F1.4 DG HSM, 1/500s @ f:2.0, 100Iso, SR on, manual focus.
Developed in Iridient 3.2.3 full compatible with Pixel Shift Classic mode & K-1 MKII, and DxO Film Pack 5.5.17.
 Crop 100% (click in another window).
 Crop 100% (click in another window). That's not CA but the blue/green water of a swimming-pool behind... | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 2,389 | | Review Date: February 23, 2018 | Not Recommended | Price: $800.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Genuine lens that started a new quality standard | | Cons: | AF performance failed | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 6
Value: 8
Camera Used: K1
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 1
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I tried two different lenses within 14 months. The first one was off the scale on my K1 for fine adjustment. For an extra 50 bucks you can buy a Sigma dock - that only works for two lenses - only one of which interests me. This gimmick is just an 8% price increase. First time I did not bother buying the dock. Without working AF adjust the lens did not work at all. In live view the lens lived up to the performance reported in other reviews.
Tried a second copy 14 months later. Paid for the dock - value rating goes down to 7 for the extra charge. I spent quite some time adjusting with the dock, lens was within tolerance. Focus afterwards was erratic. In the meantime I have used D-FA* 50 for quite some time. No erratic focus and significantly better performance. Colors look more lively on Pentax also - sorry Sigma ART, sharpness rating goes down to 9. Handling rating with dock goes down to 6. Lens rotates focus in the wrong - non Pentax - direction, dock is required and takes extra time for fine adjustment.
In theory this is a great lens. It covers a base where Pentax still relies on the FA*31. At the end it is not on the same level as D-FA* 50. My Hollywood 28 will have to do the job until a wide angle D-FA* prime appears.
I am done with Sigma lenses on Pentax.
| | | | | Moderator
Site Supporter Registered: February, 2012 Location: Adelaide Hills, South Australia Posts: 11,275
8 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 6, 2017 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp from f/1.4. Great bokeh. Built like a tank | | Cons: | Nothing important | |
This lens is AMAZING. There is really no Pentax rival in the focal range. The FA31 has slightly nicer bokeh and colour rendition, but this thing is the sharpest f/1.4 lens I have used. CA is negligible. AF is silent, decisive and accurate - if not super fast. The focus ring is big, smooth, and well damped.
Sure it's biggish, and certainly heavy, but what do you expect? There's a lot of big, highly corrected glass in that package. At least the 67mm filter diameter is a familiar one in the Pentax ecosystem.
Negatives, for what they're worth: the focus ring moves in the "wrong" direction and the depth of field scale is, let us say, minimalistic.
Sample shots. All taken wide open.
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: September, 2013 Location: Brwinow, Mazovia, Poland Posts: 46
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 23, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $852.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, f/1.4, great colour, great bokeh, silent and fast AF | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-5
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 10
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I fell in love with that marvel once I mounted it onto my K-5. The purpose of that lens was to use it as a daily lens on a new K-1, which I have to buy yet. The performance with the K-5 is just brilliant.
I took several shots and can see the image is sharp from f/1.4. Colour rendition is just as fantastic as the bokeh is. I was positively shocked with very accurate, silent AF. Though, careful inspection showed the lens had a minor back-focus of +1, easily corrected in the camera.
The lens came with the mount adjusted for K-1, so no worries. Thank you Tau-Ceti for enlightening me on the matter.
A casual photo my wife took just after starting using the lens, f/2, t=1/750, ISO 160 before the slight BF was corrected:
EDIT:
Another shot, at f/1.7
 | | | | | Closed Account Registered: March, 2015 Posts: 8,694
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 30, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, color rendition, bokeh, build quality, great AF | | Cons: | None for me | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 10
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The Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG HSM ' Art ' is a stunning lens on APS-C cameras. The sharpness of this lens is outstanding IMO, and rivals my Pentax 100mm f2.8 Macro WR. It renders colours beautifully, and the bokeh is creamy smooth. As it is not a Pentax lens, the in-camera correction functions do not work, but this lens does not need them. The build quality is excellent. The AF is fast, silent and very accurate on my copy. The image quality is already great at f1.4, and gets better as the lens is stopped down. Because the images are so sharp, cropping is not an issue if you require a little more " reach." I do not find the weight of this lens an issue at all. There is not one negative thing about this lens for me. I can highly recommend it.
There is an excellent in-depth review of this lens on the forums.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/sigma-35mm-f14-art/introduction.html
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: June, 2015 Posts: 60
10 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 21, 2016 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 9
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I made a short comparison, showing the change made due to the mounting issue with the K-1, K-70.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Paris Posts: 1,939
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 2, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | super sharp, nice color | | Cons: | big big boy | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New Or Used: New
Autofocus: 9
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A super sharp lens, with nice bokeh, very useful in low light
Con : huge ! AF is not accurate sometimes
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