The compact, quality prime isn’t dead. Photographers are easily wowed by images captured by big primes with exotic, bright apertures, but you don’t always want to carry a heavy lens, especially when hiking or exploring a city. The Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary ($639), available for Sony E and L-Mount Alliance systems, is part of the I Series, a lens family that sets itself apart with slim, light optics, and quality aluminum construction. It adeptly balances size, performance, and cost to please photographers with a tilt toward vintage lenses, without sacrificing autofocus and other modern conveniences.
I Series
The 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary is part of the I Series, a family of mirrorless lenses with a few characteristics in common, including a slim design, strong (but not perfect) optics, aluminum construction, and an aperture control ring. The fit and finish is reminiscent of Leica M rangefinder lenses, but you’ll enjoy modern conveniences, including autofocus.
And it gets there in a package that’s a lot more appealing for grab-and-go shooting. The lens measures about 2.7 by 2.8 inches (HD), weighs just 11.5 ounces, and supports 58mm threaded filters—it’s a lot easier to carry, and less imposing, than the 35mm F1.2 DG DN Art (5.4 by 3.5 inches, 2.4 pounds), a plus for photographers who don’t need an exotic F1.2 lens.
It’s on sale for L-mount and Sony E-mount camera systems. The L-mount version works with full-frame cameras from Leica, Panasonic, and Sigma itself. I received the E-mount edition for Sony a7 and a9 models for review.
On a full-frame camera, the lens is a moderate wide angle. The focal length is appealing for its versatility—it’s suited for environmental portraits, cityscapes and street photography, and reportage. For many photographers, it’s a favored focal length.
And for those who prefer another angle of view, this is just one entry in the I Series. We’ve already reviewed the Sigma 45mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary, a better fit if you prefer a standard angle prime—the I Series didn’t exist as a marketing concept when it was announced, but it’s now considered part of the line.
For fans of wider views, the 24mm F3.5 DG DN Contemporary ($549) is due to ship soon, and we hope to start testing it in the coming weeks. We’re following this review with coverage of the short telephoto telephoto 65mm F2 DG DN Contemporary ($699), a lens with stunning optics and an unusual focal length.
Fit and Finish
Aesthetics are as classic as the angle of view. The barrel is machined aluminum, finished in black. The aperture ring, settable in third-stop increments, has a knurled metal finish, as does the manual focus ring. Sigma’s design team added a small cutout window between the two control rings, a nice touch that brings some character to the design.
A metal lens hood is included, along with standard front and rear lens caps, plus a second magnetized cap. It’s a slick accessory, best used when you’re skipping the lens hood—there’s not enough clearance inside to pop it off when the hood’s in use. I typically use the hood and skip a lens cap entirely, but absolutely see the appeal of the metal cap for photographers who prefer to work without one. The magnetic cap is lined with black felt—the soft material protects the front element, but picks up dust and lint pretty easily.
There’s some weather protection included, but not to the same extent as Sigma’s Art or Sports lens series. With the 35mm F2, you get a seal around the lens mount, so water and dust are kept out from that egress point. But the lens doesn’t have the same internal seals you find in others, so stick to fair weather and lighter precipitation—this isn’t one to take out in a downpour.
The aperture ring operates as expected, clicking in place at third-stop increments for photographers who want to set the f-stop the old fashioned way. It also has an A setting so you can let the camera decide, or use on-body dials to set the aperture yourself.
The ring cannot be set for clickless operation, something that videographers ask for, but this is more of a photo lens than a video one. Autofocus is fast and quiet, but focus breathing, an effect that changes the angle of view as the lens changes focus, is visible. It’s a distracting effect you don’t want to see in your video projects and vlogs.
But the breathing has a benefit—the narrower angle of view when focused close nets a better close-up focus ability than you’d expect from a lightweight lens that opens to f/2. It can lock on to subjects as close as 10.7 inches from the image sensor, netting 1:5.7 life-size magnification. It’s not as close focus as some others, though—if you want a light 35mm prime that focuses closer, think about the Tamron 35mm F2.8 1:2 Macro, available exclusively for the Sony camera system.
You don’t get stabilization in the lens, but it’s not a big deal. Most mirrorless cameras have a 5-axis IBIS system, so any attached lens is steadied, and you can expect to snap shots at speeds where subject motion is more likely to induce blur than jittery hands.
In the Lab
I tested the 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary with the full-frame Sony a7R IV, the company’s highest-resolution camera. It’s a body that shows good lenses at their best, but can expose flaws in lesser optics.
From a resolution perspective, Imatest software shows that the 35mm F2 Contemporary rises to the challenge. It’s not impeccably sharp, as some modern lenses are, but manages good resolution wide open (3,600 lines), very good clarity at f/2.8 (4,000 lines), and excellent results starting at f/4 (4,500 lines).
Resolution does drop off, due to diffraction, as you approach the minimum f/22 aperture. I’d avoid using the lens beyond f/16 on any digital camera, even a typical 24MP sensor model, for most shots. If you’re chasing the sunstar effect, you can get decent results at f/16, though a wider-angle lens, or one without rounded aperture blades, will typically do better for that look.
In-camera corrections do a good job reducing vignette and knocking out some modest barrel distortion. You do see some color shift in bokeh, but it’s not overwhelming. If you work in Raw format, you can apply corrections to photos in your workflow app: Lightroom offers one-click profiles for most lenses, and while it doesn’t have one for the 35mm F2 at press time, we expect it to be added in short order.
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Sigma certainly makes some compromises in order to deliver a small, light prime, but they’re all sensible. You can shoot the 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary wide open and walk away with head-turning photos with the shallow depth of field look. The defocused bokeh is pleasing, too—defocused highlights don’t show the onion ring effect, sometimes visible with lenses that use molded aspheric optics, but do take on a cat’s eye effect toward the periphery of the frame.
A Modern Classic
Put it all together and you’ve got an everyday prime lens that will absolutely please fans of the 35mm angle of view. It sets itself apart from competitors with exterior style, and delivers the results you expect from a modern, quality prime.
It can be hard to decide on just which 35mm prime lens you want, though, especially if you own an E-mount camera. The Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary vies for attention with some fantastic alternatives, including the Sony FE 35mm F1.8, and there are a number of budget-friendly 35mm designs from Rokinon, Tamron, and others.
The L-mount system isn’t as broadly developed. The 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary is peerless here; your other options are the bigger Sigma F1.2 Art, or sacrificing an arm and a leg to go with a Leica APO-Summicron-SL 35mm, currently selling for $5,095 at retail.
Still, I can’t help but compare the Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary with a different Leica lens, the legendary 35mm Summicron-M. It’s another optic that delivers images that outclass its diminutive form, and one that snaps shots with particular character wide open, giving way to razor sharpness when stopped down.
If that’s the type of lens you want, with autofocus, then the Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN Contemporary is absolutely worth it. That said, I continue to recommend the Sony FE 35mm F1.8 more highly in general to E-mount owners, as it’s a bit sharper, with better weather protection and less video focus breathing, for about $100 more.
