May 2017

THE PERFECT 35MM:

Canon vs Sigma

Oahu, Hawaii

Camera gear is freaking expensive. It's not just a couple hundred bucks, it's thousands of dollars that you are investing into a freaking picture that some might say 'you could take on an iPhone'. And sure, some might take pictures on their iPhone but for the rest of us, we like to carry around super heavy black boxes that hurt our wrists and weigh down our backpacks, and we freaking love it.

Like I said, buying lenses is an expensive endeavor and we have wanted to get a 35mm lens for a long time. We had a 50mm f/ 1.8 for a while but couldn't stand how it seemed to crop just a little to much out of the frame. We love taking pretty pictures in even prettier places and the 50mm just cropped out a little too much of the pretty. So we (mostly Jerry) did all the research but found ourselves torn on whether the Sigma or Canon was right for us. Half of the internet swears by Sigma and the other half swears by Canon. Every time I found one website explaining why one lens was a million times better I found the next link saying the exact opposite. Enter BorrowLenses.

We were so happy to partner with BorrowLenses to test out both of the 35mm before we purchased our own. I will honestly never purchase new camera gear any other way ever again. I have tested other camera gear in a store before but you just end up awkwardly taking pictures of other cameras or strangers in the store, theres only so much you can tell from those few shots. BorrowLenses made it so easy, they shipped the lenses right to my door and I got to test them on my trip and figure out which half of the internet I agreed with. If you're like me and put off buying things because you're too afraid to buy the wrong one, use BorrowLenses.

Okay, so here's what we found about the two lenses:

Quality wise, both of the lenses are exactly the same, beautiful. They are both roughly the same size, with the Canon being just a tiny bit shorter than the Sigma. To be honest, I wish both of them were smaller but it does beat having the 24-70 on all the time. I loved the quality of the images and when I got them on my computer I could hardly tell the difference in quality, they both take unbelievable pictures.

Here are a few comparisons of the images with both 35mm's:

SIGMA VS. CANON
For the next 4 shots We tried to take roughly the same picture with both lenses to see which one we liked best. These next 4 shots shots are all taken at F/2.2.

SIGMA

CANON

Here are a few shots of me walking away from the camera using the Sigma. Same setting, same edit, same f-stop, different distance from me.

Heres a few shots on a hike to Manoa Falls using the Canon, different f-stop, less in focus vs. more in focus.

This is another sequence of photos at Yokohama beach using the Canon. Same setting, same edit, same f-stop, different distance from me.

Here are a few shots from the Sigma, same f-stop, different depth.

The Winner: Canon 35mm F/1.4. For two reasons:

1. Autofocus
2. Post-Processing

1. I can't argue that the quality seemed to be the same but I noticed that the Canon was way faster at autofocusing than the Sigma. I shoot with a Canon 6d which already isn't the best autofocusing camera out there and I had a rough time trying to get the Sigma to focus especially on farther away subjects.

2. Editing is actually my favorite part of the entire photography experience, it really makes the picture come to life. However, I noticed that the Sigma images looked much better in the camera. Originally I really thought I would love that lens more, but once I started messing with both lenses, there is something about the coloring that was way better with the Canon lens. It was impossible to try and match the coloring of the Sigma photos to the style I have developed and fallen in love with over the past year. The Canon images were so much easier to work with and came out so beautiful in the end. Although I eventually got the Sigma files the way I liked them, the time it took and the stress was not worth it at all.

The winner, for us, was the Canon. But as you can tell by the photos above, they are both great, you really can't go wrong with either one.

I hope this post helped you if your struggling to pick out your own lens and feel free to comment on this post if you have any questions about these lenses. I don't always have the answer but Jerry usually does haha.

If you are the same as me and stress about picking the wrong thing use this code.... to get a discount and use borrow lenses to make sure you get the one you love!

*this post was sponsored by Borrow Lenses