Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART Review

Sigma has been releasing one hit after another in 2025, and it feels like a full time job just to keep up with all the new lenses. This most recent tranche of lenses has a number of huge releases: the first 135mm full frame lens with an F1.4 aperture, a new version of the exotic 35mm F1.2 that is optically improved while also being 30% lighter and 20% shorter than the lens it replaces, and a full frame travel zoom in the form of the 20-200mm F3.5-6.3 Contemporary. The second of this trio that I’m reviewing is the Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART, the awaited update to their first 35mm F1.2 that release in late 2019. That lens was in some ways ahead of its time, the first autofocusing F1.2 lens on the Sony FE platform. It was very good optically, but was also pretty huge, weighing nearly 1100 grams and being a whopping 136mm long. In that way it reminded me of the more recent Nikon 35mm F1.2 S that I reviewed this year. I’m not sure how well that first Sigma lens sold, but I do know that I heard a lot of feedback about it being too big and heavy for most people. So I was excited to hear Sigma’s SEO Kazuto Yamaki announce a Mark II version of that lens at Tokyo’s CP+ this year. The 35 ART II (as I’ll call it here) is much smaller (-25mm) and lighter (-345g) than the lens it replaces and is now smaller and lighter than its chief competition – the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2. That part is great, but the not so great part is that the $1549 USD price tag for the new Sigma tops the Viltrox by $550 USD, meaning that Sigma is going to have to earn this win. Find out by reading this review or watching the video review linked below.

Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for sending me a review loaner of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses. You can visit the product page for the Sigma 35mm F1.2 II ART here.

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AI SUMMARY: The Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART is a significantly smaller, lighter, and more advanced version of its predecessor, offering enhanced portability and autofocus performance. Its optical quality is outstanding, delivering sharp images across the frame with minimal distortion and excellent bokeh, making it a versatile choice for both photos and videos. While priced higher than some competitors like Viltrox, the Sigma justifies its premium through improved build, speed, and optical consistency, catering to enthusiasts and professionals seeking top-tier performance. Overall, the lens stands out as a compelling option for those willing to invest in high-quality fast prime glass.

Strengths:

Markedly reduced size and weight, improving handling and portability
Excellent optical performance with sharpness and minimal distortions
Fast and stable autofocus with full-time manual override
Versatile for both photography and videography, with smooth focus breathing and good video AF

Weaknesses:

Higher price point compared to competitors like Viltrox and Sony GM
Slightly less close focusing distance and magnification compared to some rivals
Residual vignette requiring correction, though minimal distortion
Flare resistance is good but not exceptional, with some ghosting at smaller apertures

35mm Comparisons

Sigma obviously can’t win on price, so having a smaller, lighter lens is important. Even more important will be the performance, as the Viltrox is already a strong performer, and then there are other options like the extremely compact and optically excellent Sony 35mm F1.4 GM and Sigma’s own 35mm F1.4 ART. The Sony GM lens is a bit cheaper (about $1400 USD), but Sigma’s F1.4 option is right under $1000, so the 35 ART II needs to justify its place as the lens with the premium price in the segment.

Sigma is highlighting three main areas of improvement 1) size and weight B) autofocus performance and C) optical improvements. The latter was probably the least needed, but always welcome. We’ve certainly got an amazing optical instrument now.

So is Sigma’s newest 35mm F1.2 lens worth the price premium over the competitions on Sony E-mount and L-mount? Let’s find out…

Build and Handling

The first of Sigma’s objectives with this Mark II lens was to radically reduce the size and weight. According to Sigma, they have reduced the length by about 20% and the weight by 30%, and even reduced the filter size from 82mm to 72mm. This comparison shows the new lens in the middle, and you can see that not only is it radically reduced in size from the first generation lens, but also is now competitive in size with the 35mm F1.4 ART.

So how big is it? It is 81mm (3.2″) in diameter and 111.4mm (4.4″) in length. That’s about the same length as the 35mm F1.4 ART lens but about 5.5mm wider in diameter. The previous Sigma 35mm F1.2 was 87.8mm (+6.8mm) in diameter but a whopping 136.2mm in length (+24.8mm). The aforementioned Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 is considerably wider (89.2mm, +8.2mm)) and longer (121.8mm, +10.4mm). It looks considerably beefier from all angles.

The weight has been reduced from the 1090g of the MK I lens to a much leaner 755g (26.6oz), which, while not light, is considerably lighter than the 910g of the Viltrox lens. The lens still looks pretty big mounted on a camera, but only moderately so. It is definitely the smallest, lightest full frame 35mm F1.2 currently on the market.

The look of the lens is clean and elegant, reflecting the subtle 2025 updates to the typical Sigma look in some of the textures and fonts.

Sigma has established a high bar for their feature set on their better lenses which rivals that provided by anyone. That starts with a robust approach to aperture control. There is a manual aperture ring where you have the option to use clicks, with one third stop detents, or to declick the aperture for smooth aperture racking. The Click/Declick switch is low down on the left side of the lens. There is also an “iris lock” switch that will allow you to either lock into or out of the manual aperture ring. This ensures that you won’t accidentally end up out of the manual aperture settings or into them if you prefer to control aperture from within the camera. The iris lock switch is found on the right side of the lens barrel and has no label attached to it.

With the aperture declicked I was able to successfully perform smooth aperture racks all throughout the aperture range for video.

The aperture iris has 11 blades, which helps maintain a nice circular shape when the lens is stopped down. Here is the iris at F16:

The iris allows for nice geometry as the lens is stopped down. Here’s a look at F1.2, then F1.4, then F2. You can see that across a good part of the frame the specular highlights are nice and round even at wider apertures, and by F2 that extends all across the frame.

The lens also includes an AF | MF switch along with a Fn/Custom button… As always, you assign the function of that button through the camera body.

The final element on the lens barrel is a nice, wide focus ring with rubberized ribs. It has nice damping and moves well. It is worth emphasizing that Sigma lenses provide full time override, which not all lenses do. I appreciate this.

The ART 35 II cares Sigma’s dust- and splash-resistant structure, including a gasket at the lens mount, internal seals, and a special coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture.

The lens comes with a hood and case. The lens hood is pretty typical, with a scalloped design and grip elements like a rubberized section along with a thin ribbed section to make it easy to grip and remove. There is a lock on the hood with a release button.

Sigma has equipped the ART 35 II with a competitive minimum focus distance of 28mm. That’s closer than the Viltrox (34cm) but not quite as close as the Sony GM (25cm). The Sigma’s magnification is 0.19x, which is slightly higher than the Viltrox (0.17x) but considerably below the Sony (0.26x) Here’s what that looks like on my test chart:

That definitely is enough magnification to get close to subjects and strongly blur out backgrounds.

It is unusual for a Sigma lens to be more expensive than the Sony G-Master at any given focal length, but that’s only because the Sony lens here is a more pedestrian F1.4 option. I’m sure that a Sony-branded 35mm F1.2 would almost certainly be in the $2000+ range like the 50mm F1.2 GM. $1549 USD isn’t cheap, obviously, but it is a good value for this class of lens, and the build and feature set here is top notch.

Autofocus

The 35mm F1.2 II and the 135mm F1.4 ART lenses are the first from Sigma to tout dual HLA focus motors. Sigma debuted the HLA (High speed Linear Actuator) focus motor a few years ago, but only now are they developing the ability to use these motors in tandem. This is one area that has really set Sony GM lenses apart from the competition, but between Sigma and Viltrox, it is clear that the competition is catching up. The HLA motor has much more torque/thrust than lenses equipped with the stepping motor that the first gen 35mm F1.2 had, which is very important when you are talking about a lens with larger, heavier optical glass like this one. The increased thrust of the focus motor makes focus nice and speedy. I was testing a 50mm F1.2 lens at the same time from the new lensmaker SongRaw, and on the days I was carrying both lenses at the same time, the difference in focus speed was very noticeable. The good news is that the Sigma ART 35 II does expand the horizons of what you can do with the lens relative the first generation lens, though there are still limits. Focus is reactive enough to stop action.

I was able to get many well focused shots of Nala on the move, even at F1.2 and in difficult lighting, though there were moments in those sequences when focus moved around a bit. Sometimes those came within consecutive frames from bursts shot on my Alpha 1, where frame 1 is in focus, frame 2 obviously out of focus, and frame 3 back in focus.

In this application I would call focus not as effective as the Sony G Master lens, which is pretty much flawless. That’s in large part because Sony does limit access to its algorithms, which bakes in an advantage over third party lenses. If your priority is shooting sports, I essentially always recommend shooting with first party lenses. On L-mount, however, the Sigma is a first party lens, and it is unlikely that there is a better focusing alternative.

In my controlled focus tests, moving back and forth from a near to distant subject, I found the focus speed to very similar to either the Sony (dual XD linear motors) or the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 (quad HyperVCM motors). I would give a very slightly edge in overall speed to the LAB, though I will also note anecdotally that some users report focus issues with the LAB as well. Focus seemed very stable to me with the Sigma, and the focus motors are so quiet that I never heard any focus sounds.

Focus precision was also excellent, allowing me to focus on very narrow subjects effortlessly.

I will also note that Sigma’s full time manual override is great for the moments when the autofocus wants to grab a background rather than foreground subject (something I find common with all modern cameras and lenses), allowing you to get focus in the proper “zone” where AF can take over and make sure that focus is accurate.

As expected, focus was flawless for shooting portraits, even at F1.2:

I compared the Sigma to the Sony GM and the Viltrox LAB, and they are performed flawless in this regard, even at their maximum apertures.

The ART 35 II proved an excellent companion for a portrait session…even if I had to be the subject!

I didn’t have great success with snapping bees out of the air. The wider angle of view didn’t lend itself well to this.

But outside of this, autofocus for stills was generally excellent. I regret Sony’s continued unnecessary limitation of burst speed to 15FPS (with continuous autofocus) with third party lenses, but that’s not Sigma’s fault. For shooting ordinary subjects I had zero problems. Focus felt confident, stable, and accurate.

Video AF

I also saw mostly good results for video work. Autofocus pulls were fast and confident, and focus breathing is naturally better controlled than either the Viltrox or the Sony GM (which is fairly notorious for focus breathing). The Sony has the advantage of being able to be digitally corrected by Sony’s focus breathing compensation in camera, but this comes at the cost of a crop factor and thus less width to the image. The Sigma wins for the lowest native focus breathing.

My hand test (where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it to allow focus to move to my face) went fairly well, with confident transitions back and forth.

Focus was stable in static shots or shots with various movements, though I did notice some focus slippage if I moved into very close focus range. Things would get out of focus and then snap back into proper focus.

I shot some of my YouTube episodes with the lens and saw nothing but stable focus.

Sigma has done a solid job on the autofocus here.

Image Quality Breakdown

Lenses like this are by necessity fairly complex. This is an extreme aperture/focal length combination, so the optical design is 17 elements in 13 groups. There are 4 ASPH and 1 SLD element as a part of the design. Sigma chose to benchmark their own 35mm F1.2 in their literature, showing how the new lens is sharper all across the frame at F1.2 despite the radical size reduction.

The optical class leader here is the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2, and we can see that an MTF comparison that I’ve put together suggests a slight edge for the LAB through the middle of the frame and with a slight advantage for the Sigma lens in the outer portion of the frame.

In real world shooting I found some give and take between the two, but mostly what the MTF suggested. There are a few minor areas where the Viltrox looks sharper here in the center:

But I did feel that the Sigma was slightly sharper in the corners.

As we are going to see, the Sigma holds up well in a lot of metrics. Let’s take a look at vignette and distortion.

While I sometimes complain about how much correction Sigma wide angle lenses often need, the ART 35 II isn’t one of them. There is only the tiniest amount of pincushion distortion, requiring just a -1 to correct for. Vignette is another story, however, requiring a full +73 (nearly three stops) to correct the vignette. You will see that natural vignette pretty strongly in certain images.

Sigma has thorough profile support on both Sony and L-mount, so these are not any kind of real world issue.

Testing for longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) shows only a tiny amount of fringing before the plane of focus.

I often shoot my Dad’s old SLR because it really exaggerates fringing. The ART 35 II handles it well, however.

I also saw zero issues with LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations), which shows up along the edges of the frame. All of the transitions here are very neutral.

This is a high-end optical instrument, and they’ve (mostly) corrected the issues in the optics rather than through software (other than a bit too much vignette).

So how about resolution and contrast? My formal tests are done on the 61MP Sony a7RV.

The MTF suggests that this is a very sharp lens all across the frame even at F1.2. Is that what we see? Here’s a look at the test chart from which the crops come.

Here are crops from across the frame at F1.2 and shown at a 200% magnification.

The center and midframe look excellent, and the corners still look fairly strong as well.

I don’t honestly think that lack of sharpness will be a problem for anyone. Real world images are pretty impressive even at F1.2. This shot of light coming through leaves tells the story well.

I think the Viltrox has a tiny bit more microcontrast in skin textures, but the difference is minute.

Comparing to the Sony shows very similar levels of sharpness at contrast (both at F1.4), though you can see that the Sigma has softer, smoother bokeh beyond.

One thing I noticed in my three-way comparison is that the Sony lens frames quite a bit tighter than either the Sigma or Viltrox. That’s perhaps a neutral difference, though I suspect many people would prefer the slightly wider framing of the third party lenses over the tighter framing of the Sony. It’s easier to crop in than try to zoom out!

Stopping down to F1.4 produces a tiny boost to contrast and detail.

There’s about a similar amount of improvement from F1.4 to F2 over most of the frame, though the improvement in the corners is much more noticeable.

Stopping down to F2.8 shows exceptional results all across the frame, up to and including the corners. I’ve shifted to the upper left corner to give you a different perspective.

From F2.8-F8 results will be nothing short of amazing all across the frame. Landscape images are full of great detail, color, and contrast.

Diffraction will start to take a bite out of contrast by F11, but more noticeably by the minimum aperture of F16.

The Viltrox can match the Sigma for sharpness, but where the Sigma takes a win is the smoothness of the bokeh. I found that in some comparison shots that the foreground bokeh near the edge of the frame looks smoother on the Sigma to my eye.

But I also found the that bokeh rendering beyond the plane of focus looked smoother and less jittery to me from the Sigma.

Bokeh rendering generally looked nice. Perhaps not as magical as I saw from the vastly more expensive Nikkor 35mm F1.2 S, but very nice. The Nikkor lens costs nearly twice as much, so I would expect that it would cost a bit more. At closer focus distances the backgrounds are nice and creamy.

At medium focus distances the backgrounds have slightly more outlining than what I would like, but overall look good.

Here’s another example.

One final shot shows a lot of different layers, including a bit in the transition zone. I’ll let you determine your thoughts on the rendering.

Flare resistance is good but not great. I find the general veiling/flare at wide apertures to be artistic, but as you stop the lens down (F1.2. F5.6 and F11 in the series of images), I see a bit more ghosting both near the source of the light and then down into the frame.

That’s every bit as good as the Viltrox, though, so as 35mm F1.2 lenses go, only the Nikkor is better.

I was able to get some night sky images and got some great captures of the Milky Way. Other than the strong vignette, this is a nice astro lens, with crisp star points, low coma, and a lot of light gathering potential.

The image quality is in general pretty special. The lens is sharp, has low distortion, nice bokeh, and produces images that are generally delightful. Here’s a mini gallery of extra images for you to enjoy.

Conclusion

The Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART is a treat. It definitely shows that extra layer of polish that often only happens in the second generation of a lens. It is smaller, lighter, faster focusing, and optically superior to the lens that I replaces, all while retailing for basically the same price 6 years later. I suspect that size and weight kept the first generation 35mm F1.2 from being a big seller, but perhaps this second generation lens will be just that. Sony doesn’t appear to be hinting that they will add a 35mm F1.2 GM to pair with the excellent 50mm F1.2 GM anytime soon, so that leaves the Sigma and Viltrox to slug it out in this space.

The Sigma is smaller and lighter while arguably being a little more optically consistent, though the Viltrox has the important claim to fame that it costs $550 less. You’ll have to decide for yourself is the Sigma advantages are enough to warrant the extra cash.

But there’s no fatal flaw with the Sigma that should make give you pause about it. It’s a pretty impressive lens, and, while I already own both the Sony and the Viltrox, it is definitely making me consider whether I should sell one or both of them and add the Sigma instead. It is remarkable how good F1.2 lenses can be in the modern era, and the Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART is one of the best.

Pros:

20% shorter, 30% lighter than the Gen 1 lens
Considerably lighter than Viltrox LAB
Beautifully made
Feature rich
Thorough weather sealing
Dual HLA focus motors provide quick, quiet focus
Extremely sharp lens over the whole frame
No real distortion
Near perfect control of aberrations
Beautiful colors
Lovely bokeh
Great subject isolation
Cheaper than first party 135mm lenses

Cons:

Viltrox LAB can be had for $550 less
Fairly heavy vignette
Some flare issues at smaller apertures
Burst rate will be limited on Sony

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