4 of Our Favorite 35mm Lenses: One Is a Beautiful Classic!
The 35mm lens is incredibly essential for every photographer at one point or another in their life.
It took me a while to grow out of the nifty 50 idea and into the love of my life: the 35mm lens! We’ve tested so many of them in the past 11 years. Some are better than others, but not a single one of them is bad. Lots of them have a bit of charm, while others boast the clinical perfection some photographers crave. We went into our Reviews Index to look up some of our favorites. Lots of them aren’t new, so that means KEH will have them at a much more affordable price! Here are some wonderful 35mm lenses you’re bound to adore!
Editor’s Note: This is a sponsored blog post from KEH! You can head to their website to snag some of the best 35mm lenses at incredibly low costs.
Sony 35mm f1.8 FE: One of Our Favorite 35mm Lenses
In our review, we stated:
“Portrait photographers, event photographers, travel photographers, and street photographers will all be thoroughly pleased with the results from the Sony autofocus system and the Sony 35mm f1.8 FE lens. Combine this with the quality of the imaging sensors and the fact that the operation can together acquire focusing of moving subjects at f1.8 and you’ll see just how incredible it really is. At this price point, Sony is hitting the ball out of the park. Here are some example images that I shot on the streets with the Sony a7r III.”
Buy Now: As low as $660.68 at KEH
Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art: Saturated Colors
In our review, we stated:
“The bokeh quality from the lens is also really quite creamy. Again, something about it almost reminds me of Mamiya or Bronica lenses that have some beautiful bokeh to them. Because of the fact that there is no micro-contrast in this lens, you won’t see your subject popping out from the bokeh as much as you would on a Zeiss or Leica lens.”
Buy Now: $626.90 at KEH
Pro Tip: Some of these are DSLR lenses. And the fun part about that is that you can adapt them to your mirrorless camera for more fun experiments. We’ve done just this with the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art on the Canon EOS R and the Sony FE system. Getting that classic look with newer cameras is hard to come by with new lenses. For full frame, 35mm lenses hit the spot every time!
Tamron 35mm f1.8: A Practical Choice
In our review, we stated:
“One of the strongest points of this lens is the bokeh. The Tamron 35mm f1.8 Di VC is designed with 9 aperture blades and has a very close focusing distance. It can seriously render better bokeh than almost everything we’ve seen except for the Sigma 35mm f1.4 and Sony’s 35mm f1.4.
Bokeh fiends will really appreciate not only the affordable price and the weather sealing, but also the bokeh that they’ll get. It’s easy to get mesmerized and awestruck in what this lens can do when it comes to out of focus areas.”
Buy Now: $416.77 at KEH
Zeiss 35mm f2 Distagon: A Classic Among 35mm Lenses
In our review, we stated:
“Zeiss could use an update to their 35mm f2 lens to put it against more modern optics, but at the same time we’d be totally wrong if we said that there aren’t those around us that still love the old school lens look–and not the clinical precision looks engineered into modern optics. If you want that old school look and feel without having to apply loads of filters in post-production, then you’ll really digg this lens. However, you’re still paying quite the price for it.”
Buy Now: $682.95 at KEH
Editor’s Note: This is a sponsored blog post from KEH! Head on over to their website to snag some of the best 35mm lenses at incredibly low costs.