Even shot wide open, I have been completely blown away by how sharp it is. In all honesty, I bet that I could count on one hand the number of times that I stop it down to even f/2 on any given outing. If you know anything about the Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM, you know that it is ridiculously sharp. With this said, if you don’t care about how the lens feels in the hand or how pleasing to the eye it is and only care about image quality, read on. This is particularly true for the lens hood: where the Sigma 35mm f/2 is gorgeous and feels amazing, the Sony lens hood is rather boring. However, there is nothing really to be excited about it in its appearance or handling, unlike the Sigma 35mm f/2, which is aesthetically pleasing to look at and hold. At the end of the day, this lens is perfectly nice, and I have no complaints. By and large, one of my favorite features of the lens is the linear focusing mechanism, which makes it very user-friendly when manually focusing. It has an AF/MF switch and one focus hold button, which can be reprogrammed to whatever suits your needs best (mine is set to Eye AF). The lens hood feels and looks decent and clicks into place confidently.

It is built of high-grade plastic that gives off the vibe that it can take a beating and will continue to work as intended. The build quality of the Sony is quite high and on par with other G Master lenses. It’s a natural question, and I hope the review helps settle that for you. At this point, you may be wondering if, given what I have said thus far, the Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM is noteworthy for anything more than being on the bigger, heavier, and more expensive end of things. Though it may not sound particularly good, it is tied for being the third-fastest lens (the second-fastest if you consider only autofocus lenses), so it should come as no surprise that it’s bigger, heavier, and more expensive than the majority of options. In addition, it is tied for having the third largest filter diameter (67mm), tied for being the fourth largest in diameter (76mm), seventh longest (96mm), and finally, it is the seventh heaviest (coming in at 524 g) option among the list of options for 35mm lenses in the Sony system. Out of the 31 total 35mm lenses available for the Sony E-mount system, the 35mm f/1.4 GM is the second most expensive at $1,400, only outpriced by the infamous and beastly Sigma 35mm f/1.2, which comes in at $1,500, a cool $100 more expensive. Let us start by saying that Sony had their work cut out for them. Given such a large list of competitors for the 35mm focal length, this beckons the question: “did Sony manage to produce a noteworthy 35mm lens?” There are 3 other Sony-branded 35mm lenses and 27 other options from third-party manufacturers such as Tamron and Sigma. Given the popularity of the 35mm focal length, many competitors are ranging from other fast options to those with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. The Sony 35mm f/1.4 GM debuted in early 2021, adding to their existing lineup of fantastic G Master lenses.

Sigma 35mm 1.4