Last year I reviewed the first full frame prime lens in Sirui’s Aurora series last year – the Aurora 85mm F1.4. It fell into a nice budget space of under $600 and added a nice build and features along with excellent rendering. The autofocus and sharpness weren’t at the level of the top contenders in the class, but it did produce very nice images. Sirui is back about 10 months later with the second lens in the series, the Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4. Quality full frame 35mm F1.4 lenses are still fairly rare on Sony, Nikon, L-mount, and Fuji (yes, there is an X-mount version for Fuji’s APS-C cameras), so this will certainly be welcome. I’m reviewing the Z-mount version on my Nikon Z8 camera, but, having reviewed the E-mount version of the 85mm F1.4, I feel like I can extrapolate a few details for E-mount shooters as well. Once again we have an excellent price of $549 USD, but here on Nikon you have a Nikkor Z 35mm F1.4 for not much more. Is the Aurora 35mm the one to get? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on.
Follow Me @ YouTube | Patreon | Instagram | Facebook | DA Merchandise | Flickr | 500px | X
Thanks to Sirui for sending me a review sample 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 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here. You can find the product listing page for the Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4 here.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sirui Aurora Series Reviews
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Most of Sirui’s lens development to date has been on the cine side of things, and while the Aurora series is not cine lenses, specifically, I actually think that video performance is one of the greater strengths of the Aurora 35mm. It has very nice rendering, corner sharpness doesn’t matter as much (not a strength here), and the footage looks lovely from it. The rendering generally is amongst the nicest you’ll find from a 35mm F1.4 lens; this is something that Sirui does really, really well.
I’ll give Sirui high marks for presentation. There’s a clever little tab made of material that allows the box to be easily opened, and inside they packed the lens in a zippered and padded nylon case (like Sigma’s lenses), which actually adds real protection value, unlike, say, a Canon L series drawstring pouch. The lens is shrinkwrapped inside to help it to be perfectly sealed during shipment. I’m not a big “unboxing” kind of reviewer, but I was impressed as I unboxed the Aurora 85mm.
This is a feature rich, functional lens that does a number of things very well. The rendering is good enough that I don’t see much difference between my beloved Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM (which costs 3x as much!)
What’s more, in some situations (like the scenario above), there really isn’t much difference in sharpness and contrast.
To be fair, the Sony is definitely most consistently high performing in a wider variety of scenarios, but if you use the Aurora 35mm to its strengths, it will definitely reward you with very nice results.
Read the review carefully, as I think that if the strengths of the Aurora suit your priorities, and you aren’t turned off by its weaknesses, you will find this to be a very attractive 35mm option. Let’s dive in…
Aurora 85mm Build and Handling
The Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4 will be coming to four different platforms.
Sirui has joined the L-mount alliance, meaning that the Aurora 35mm will be releasing to four rather than 3 different platforms this time around. It faces a different reality of competition on each platform. On Sony E-mount, there are F1.4 challengers from Sony, Sigma, and Samyang, with the Samyang being the closest competitor in terms of price.
On Nikon, where I’m reviewing, the landscape looks different because Nikon has released an F1.4 lineup that is priced below their F1.8 S lenses that released earlier in the cycle. I think Sirui will perhaps have the hardest sell on Z-mount, as at the moment of this review, the price difference between the Aurora and the Nikkor 35mm F1.4 is just $27. The Aurora has a bigger feature set, but the appeal of a first party lens for roughly the same price might be challenging to overcomer. I haven’t yet reviewed the Nikkor 35mm F1.4, but I have reviewed the more expensive 35mm F1.8 S, which I found very capable but not as special as the 50mm F1.8 S.
On L-mount (which I’m less familiar with, as I don’t review the L-mount platform), it would appear that the principle competitor will be the Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART, though that lens will cost you nearly $1000. Sirui could see some success there, since they are actually now a member of the L-mount alliance, which means that they should get “first party” support on cameras with L-mount.
The oddball fit here is on Fuji, as X-mount is APS-C only, meaning that this will function like a 52.5mm lens on that platform. It is overengineered for APS-C, making it bigger than it needs to be. The equivalent Fujinon 35mm F1.4 R lens weighs just 187g and is only 55mm long, making the Aurora a bit of an oddity on X-mount.
The Aurora series has been a step up for Sirui in build quality and feature set. There has been some evolution on this front since the 85mm, which is nice to see. The Aurora 35mm adds an iris lock and also a lock on the lens hood, giving the Aurora 35mm F1.4 a Sony GM-level of features.
The overall appearance is similar to the 85mm F1.4, though with some subtle tweaks that make for a more mature look. Rather than the blasting the fact that the lens is “full frame” on the top of the lens, they have instead added the lens designation under the Aurora badge.
They have eliminated the too-large lens designation from the side of the lens, too, making for a cleaner, less busy look.
It’s almost like Sirui was paying attention to my critiques!
The end result is a cleaner, more sophisticated looking lens.
The front face is also clean and simple. I always like when there is lens information on the front of a lens.
There is one oddity towards the front of the lens. The lens actually tapers down to the front filter threads, which are a less common 62mm rather than the 67mm filter threads of the Aurora 85mm. I don’t don’t understand this choice, as it seems like it would have been easy to engineer for the 67mm filter threads of the 85mm and thus give some incentive (filter sharing!) to own both lenses. It also makes for a slightly odd visual in the silhouette of the lens. This feels like a minor misstep to me.
The Sony 35mm F1.4 GM still takes the prize for having the highest performance in the smallest body, but the Aurora isn’t a radically larger lens, as you can see below. It is 76mm (2.99″) in diameter and 104.9mm (4.13″) in length. Though this isn’t large in an absolute sense, only the Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART is larger and heavier amongst the current crop of competitors. The Sigma is an additional 6mm long and weighs in at 640g, while the Aurora 35mm is considerably lighter at 503g (17.76oz). The Nikkor 35mm F1.4 is just 88.5mm in length and weighs just 415g, so if traveling light is the priority, Sirui might not be a compelling option.
The included lens hood (pictured below) has been improved from the one included on the 85mm lens. It has a vaguely Sigma feel, with a gripped section (rubberized ribs), a petal shape, and a locking mechanism to keep it in place until you want to move it.
This is a fairly feature rich lens. It has a robust approach to aperture control, including a manual aperture ring that can be controlled with clicks (at one third stop detents) or clickless by changing the position of the switch on the right side of the lens. The new inclusion is an iris lock, which will allow you to either lock into or out of the aperture ring.
On Nikon I was able to make reasonably clean aperture racks, though not quite as good as what I see on first party lenses.
The aperture iris itself is beautiful, with more blades (13) than competing lenses. I did notice that the aperture iris shape isn’t perfectly round when stopped down. The iris still looks rather “James Bond”, however, and does help provide rounded specular highlights through a lot of the aperture range.
On the left side of the barrel there is a Function button that can be programmed to a wide range of functions from within the camera along with an AF | MF switch.
The manual focus ring has a nice feel to it overall. The damping is good, and focus smooths well without any apparent lag between input on the ring and the actual focus action, though you will hear a very light clicking from the focus motor during manual focus. All Nikon focus aids are supported, as they will be on other platforms as well. I will note that on Nikon the body control switch for AF-S | MF | AF-C will override the switch on the lens. If you have manual focus selected on the body, then switching the AF | MF switch on the lens will not produce autofocus. When the switch on the camera is selected to an autofocus mode, however, the switch on the lens will be active and you can switch between autofocus and manual focus. Most Nikkor lenses don’t have an AF | MF switch (the same will be true on Fujifilm), so just be aware that a lens that adds a function outside the normal protocol might not get seamless support.
At the rear of the lens you’ll find a USB-C port that allows for quick and easy firmware updates.
You’ll also find a weathersealing gasket located there, and Sirui adds that there is a fluorine coating on the front element. I count a total of 11 seal points according to this diagram from Sirui.
The lens barrel is made of metal (aluminum alloy), and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. This is generally an attractive lens, and while the tweaks from the 85mm are subtle, they do add up to a more comprehensive and attract style.
One area where the Sirui is not competitive with other 35mm lenses is on the minimum focus distance and maximum magnification front. You can focus only as closely as 35cm, which is longer than the average of 30cm. That will give maximum magnification figure of right at 0.14x, whereas most competitors are in the 0.18x+ range, with the best main competitor being the Sony GM, which can focus down to 25cm and delivers an excellent 0.26x magnification figure. Here’s what the Aurora’s maximum magnification looks like.
While the Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4 isn’t the smallest and lightest 35mm F1.4 lens out there, it is a very comprehensive package that isn’t radically bigger or heavier than competing lenses. One of its chief competitors on multiple platforms is the Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART, and it manages to undercut that lens in weight (and price) by a big margin. This is a lot of lens for the budget price of $549 USD, and I think Sirui has done a great job of steadily improving on the Aurora series formula.
Stills Autofocus
Sirui has equipped the Aurora 35mm with an STM or stepping motor. While I consider STM motors to be the lower tier of modern mirrorless AF motors (with Linear and Voice Coil motors in an upper tier), the truth of the matter is that there’s a pretty broad range of performance with STM motors. The chief competitor to this lens from Nikon also uses an STM motor, though some other competing lenses on other platforms use more sophisticated focus motors. On my Nikon Z8 I found focus to be a bit on the slower side. It is smooth and accurate, but you can definitely see focus moving from one point to another. I didn’t find that focus could keep up with a moving subject with any consistency, as you can see here.
I didn’t feel like I had as good of focus accuracy with the 35mm as I did with the 85mm, though I attribute that in large part to the difference between testing one on Sony and the other on Nikon. It seems to me that third party lenses largely have an easier time with Sony’s focus algorithms and hardware than they do with any other brand.
With still subjects my accuracy was fine, though I still wouldn’t say that it was as precise as I would prefer.
It feels like a firmware update could help in this regard, though to date while the Sony and L-mount versions have received a few firmware updates, the Z-mount firmware updates of the Aurora 35mm haven’t arrived yet. When they do, you can find them here. I anticipate at the moment that the focus precision is better on Sony and L-mount than it is here.
The focus motor is reasonably but not perfectly quiet, but focus sounds are quiet enough that I don’t think they would be picked up by an on board microphone.
Particularly once a firmware update arrives, I predict that the Aurora 35mm will be fine for portrait or wedding work, though I wouldn’t want to trust it in situations where action picks up.
Other than the general reluctance to focus on a close subject that I see on almost all lenses on Nikon, focus for general purpose subjects was just good, delivering good accuracy with no drama. I sometimes need to use full time manual override (available here) to pull focus closer to the camera, and then allow the AF to take over again.
I would say that here on Nikon the autofocus is probably the weakest link of this package. It isn’t as fast as some competitors, and is at least one firmware update away from being as accurate as I would like.
Video AF
I actually liked the autofocus performance better on the video side of things. The very first thing that I did with the Aurora 35mm after its arrival is shoot almost all of the footage in this video review. I found autofocus to be stable, footage looked good, and even the focus pulls were fairly good. That being said, touch-to-focus pulls on Nikon aren’t as sophisticated as on Sony or Canon, so my touch-to-focus pulls included some pulses as focus settled, which is less than ideal. I was testing some of Tamron’s new G2 lenses on Z-mount at the same time, and they definitely performed better in this test.
Focus breathing is noticeable but not extreme.
My hand test where I block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove, challenging the camera/lens to change focus from my hand to my face and vice-versa was a bit of a mess. Focus wasn’t always perfect in the transitions, leaving focus not accurately resolved on my face or hand, and at times there was a general reluctance to pull focus back to my face, like below.
My test when approaching the camera was mostly better. Once focus was on me, it moved consistently and accurately on me as I approached the camera (even at F1.4), though when I ducked or moved out of frame, the lens took a bit to fully resolve focus back on me. It would come back to almost the right focus, but would take a few seconds to properly resolve focus. Focus isn’t particularly reactive, so you might need to turn up focus reactiveness and speed for video work if that is what you are looking for.
In clips where the subject was not moving quickly towards or away from the camera focus remained stable. It is fine with smaller adjustments, but does struggle a bit with large adjustments.
Aurora 35mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown
The Aurora 35mm has an optical design of 16 elements in 11 groups, which includes some exotic elements like high refractive elements, extra low dispersion elements, aspherical lenses, and one Special Extra-low Dispersion element.
The MTF chart shows a fairly consistent performance across the frame with mild rises and falls.
My optical tests are done on the 45MP Nikon Z8, which is the highest resolution currently available on Nikon but considerably lower than the 61MP standard available on Sony. I found my perceptions of sharpness and contrast to be very situational, with moments of absolute brilliance at F1.4 (like this):
…but less impressive results nearer infinity (also at F1.4):
I also found that the Aurora 85mm was optimized for “sweet spots”, however, and think that at least some of that variability here on Nikon comes down to focus being very slightly off. On paper, however, this MTF chart compares very favorably with that from the Nikkor Z 35mm F1.4.
The Sirui starts at about 83% in the center and ends at about 68% in the corners, but the Nikkor starts at 70% and ends more like 39%.
You may have noticed the real strength of the lens already. Like the 85mm, the Aurora 35mm has gorgeous rendering and bokeh. It isn’t the sharpest 35mm out there, but it compensates by having really gorgeous bokeh rendering. When it nails focus and contrast and then adds that beautiful rendering, it is a pretty special optic.
The Aurora 35mm shows some light color fringing before and after the plane of focus (LoCA, or Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations), though nothing excessive in my standard tests. You can see some fringing on my chart, but nothing too bad.
One of the key areas that I see fringing is in the imprinting on lenses and cameras, and I do see some fringing in this shot of my Dad’s old SLR, though nothing too severe. You’ll note that contrast up close (at F1.4) isn’t extremely strong.
There is some mild fringing around bright specular highlights.
There is also a some lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) in evidence near the edges of the frame.
The Aurora 35mm isn’t a top notch landscape lens, though I do feel like it is a stronger option than the Aurora 85mm was. I feel the greater strength of the lens is for its rendering and video footage.
Moving on to vignette and distortion we also find some good and some bad. Distortion is well managed here, though as per usual vignette is very high on Nikon. Thus far I’ve found every third party lens that I’ve test on Nikon to have at least a stop more vignette on Z mount than it does on E-mount, and that includes if I take the same E-mount lens and put it on Nikon via the Megadap ETZ21 Pro+ adapter. I used only a -3 to correct a tiny amount of pincushion distortion but needed to max out the vignette slider at 100%.
A bit of pincushion distortion can be flattering to portrait subjects, but this is probably excessive. You’ll want to correct at least some of it, though you can probably get away with not correcting the vignette.
Unfortunately the Aurora 35mm does not seem to be getting in-camera correction support on Nikon or Sony, though I would expect it to receive support on L-mount. I pulled the JPEG file of the chart test above off my second card and it looked just like the RAW file.
So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 45MP Nikon Z8, and crops are typically shown at 200% magnification. Here’s the test chart:
Here are F1.4 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
At F1.4 I see very good center sharpness, good midframe performance, and rather soft corners. The corners seem to be underperforming what I would expect from the MTF a bit, but I suspect that Sirui does their MTF testing at a further distance than I do. I tried testing focusing in the corner, but that didn’t make a meaningful difference.
Stopping down even to F1.8 produces a bit more contrast, though strong contrast doesn’t arrive until F2.8:
The above shot is of the center, however, and I don’t see a similar jump in the midframe until F5.6:
The corners are largely similar to the midframe, though there is a lot more color fringing playing with results there (including a lot of yellow toned fringing that I don’t often see).
You can see some of that impact in landscape images, as resolution and contrast off to the corners never quite matches the center performance.
The MTF chart suggests that the Aurora will be sharper than the equivalent Nikkor lens, though it won’t match something like the Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART in terms of pure sharpness.
Diffraction will creep in at F11 and become slightly more pronounced at F16, but to a fairly mild degree here on the lower resolution of the Nikon body.
In many cases, however, I felt like resolution and contrast were just fine, be it for landscape shots:
…or even artful nature shots at F1.4:
The image above shows the Aurora 35mm at its best. Good sharpness and contrast where it matters, and absolutely gorgeous bokeh for a 35mm lens. Put simply, if you want resolution and contrast, go with something like the Sigma, but if your priority is rendering, then the Sirui is a lovely option as it has a general rendering that is, in my opinion, much more pleasing than the Sigma.
This proved true even in more complex scene like this one, where outlining and harshness is at a minimum.
I shoot this scene in particular because of its harshness (it is all hard edges in all seasons), and while I don’t love this image, it isn’t bad.
There is a typical amount of cat-eye effect in the corners, but the high aperture blade count helps turn that towards consistently round results as you stop down a bit (F1.4, F2, and F2.8, here).
I rather like this as a monochrome lens, as the level of contrast and out-of-focus rendering gives it some vintage charm.
Also vintage, unfortunately, is the flare resistance. In some situations it can be fairly pronounced and destructive, so it is best to block a bit of of the sun (if possible) in your compositions.
In this shot the result isn’t completely destructive, but you can definitely see some veiling and ghosting.
I’m not a huge fan of Sirui’s colors. Their optical glass isn’t quite neutral to my eye. In this side by side comparison with the Sony GM lens you can see a slight blueish tint, whereas the Sony’s colors are just a bit more pleasing. It’s not major, but I do see it (and sense it in other photos as well).
But in general I was happy with images that I got, and I found that the three-dimensional qualities of the Aurora 35mm were quite good.
The best case scenario is those who shoot LOG for video, where you can take advantage of the beautiful rendering, control sharpness somewhat, and can color grade to taste. The Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4 is a perfect antidote for those who feel like lenses from Sigma are too corrected. This is a lens with character, and if it suits your style, you’ll probably love it. Here’s a mini gallery of more images for you to evaluate.
Conclusion
The Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4 is a positive evolution of the Aurora series. It feels like a slightly more mature effort, with a more sophisticated build and slight improvements to the optical performance relative to the 85mm. There is definitely an emerging trend as to the strengths of the Aurora series, and that is the beautiful bokeh and rendering from the lenses. They aren’t competitive with the best in pure sharpness and contrast, and definitely don’t have the best aberration correction, but some of those flaws help define the character from the lenses.
At this point it feels like the series is being held back primarily by its autofocus, which is both a bit too slow and, at least here on Nikon, not quite reliable enough. I’d love to see them move to a Linear or Voicecoil style motor in the future.
As mentioned previously, the competition for the Aurora 35mm will vary from platform to platform. Very likely the biggest challenge at this price point will come from the Viltrox Pro 35mm F1.4 when it arrives, as that lens will likely have a slightly stronger optical performance and better autofocus, though almost certainly at the cost of more size and weight. Until then, however, there are few challengers at this price tag. The Aurora 35mm is a lens with both flaws and character, and I suspect it will garner more of a cult following than a mainstream one. But there are photographers out there who will absolute love this lens for its character, and for that reason, I’m very glad it exists.
Pros:
- Nice looking lens with nice build
- Subtle tweaks to the design make for a better looking lens
- Includes nice case
- Added iris lock
- USB-C port for firmware updates
- Good manual focus ring and experience
- Very feature rich
- Weather sealed
- Declickable aperture
- Custom button
- Good sharpness and contrast at portrait distances
- Beautiful bokeh
- Very nice video footage
- Has an interesting character
- Great price to performance ratio
Cons:
- Autofocus needs a firmware update on Nikon for more precision
- Video AF has a few quirks
- Some fringing issues
- Not as corrected as some competing lenses
- Lower magnification levels than competitors
_________________________________________________________________________
GEAR USED:
Purchase the Sirui Aurora 35mm F1.4 @ Sirui (use code DustinA5 for 5% off) | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany
Purchase the Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 @ Sirui (use code DustinA5 for 5% off) | B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany
___________________________________________________________________
Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany
__________________________________________________________________
Purchase the Sony a6600 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
Purchase the Sony a6400 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay
_________________________________________________________________
Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal
Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch
Keywords: Sirui, Aurora, 35mm, F1.4, Sirui Aurora Review, Sirui 35mm Review, Aurora 35mm F1.4 Review, f/1.4, Review, Sony A1 II, Sony a7RV, Wireless, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
Related posts:
Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 Review
Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 AF Gallery
Sirui Aurora vs Sigma DN 85mm F1.4
Sirui AF 20mm T1.8 1.33x Anamorphic Review
Yongnuo YN 33mm F1.4 DA DSM WL Pro Review
Yongnuo YN 23mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro
Sirui Autofocus 1.33x Anamorphic 40mm T1.8 Review
Viltrox AF 85mm F1.4 PRO FE Review
Yongnuo YN 56mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro Review
Viltrox Pro AF 50mm F1.4 FE Review