6 Best 35mm Lenses for Canon in 2024

Thinking about the best 35mm lenses for your Canon camera might seem strange in the days of zoom lenses. But many photographers have constructed impressive portfolios using little more than a 35mm lens. So we’ve looked at the six best 35mm lenses for Canon to help you find the perfect match for your needs.

Our top pick, the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM, stands out for its exceptional low-light performance and beautiful bokeh, making it a top choice for professional photography. We also look at five other lenses, ensuring there’s a fit for every photographer’s style and requirement.

What Is the Best 35mm Lens for Canon?

Selecting the best 35mm lens for Canon involves considering factors like aperture, image stabilization, and build quality. Brands like Canon, Sigma, Samyang, and Tamron offer top options. Each lens was chosen for its unique strengths in professional photography, low light performance, and macro capabilities, ensuring a versatile selection for any Canon shooter’s bag.

Our Favorite 35mm Lenses for Canon

Let’s take a closer look at our favorite 35mm lenses for Canon. From macro capabilities to wide apertures for low light, there’s a lens here to enhance every photographer’s bag.

The Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM lens is a top choice for professional photography, thanks to its wide f/1.4 aperture. This feature is key for shooting in low light and achieving a shallow depth of field, which isolates subjects and creates beautiful bokeh. Its optical design includes elements that minimize chromatic aberration, ensuring images are sharp.

Weighing in at 1.68 lbs (760 g), this lens is on the heavier side for a prime lens. This might make it less ideal for photographers who need to carry their gear for long periods. However, its build quality is excellent, featuring weather sealing that protects it in challenging conditions. The lens’s autofocus is quick and reliable, making it easy to capture spontaneous moments.

Compared to the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A, the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM stands out with its superior weather sealing and slightly better optical performance. However, the Sigma is less than half the price, so might be a better option for those with limited funds. Both lenses offer exceptional image quality, but the Canon’s build and autofocus speed make it a very useful tool for a wide range of photography styles.

The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM | A is a fast prime lens at a very attractive price. The f/1.4 maximum aperture is key for shooting in low light and for creating images with a shallow depth of field. The lens’s ability to isolate subjects and produce smooth bokeh makes it a good option for portrait and street photography. Its optical design, which includes low dispersion elements, ensures sharp images with minimal chromatic aberration.

Weighing 1.46 lbs (665 g), this lens is relatively light, making it easy to carry around for daily shooting or travel. It’s built with quality materials, offering a mix of durability and a comfortable grip for manual focusing. However, it lacks comprehensive weather sealing, so it’s best used with caution in harsh conditions.

Compared to alternatives, the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 stands out for its balance of optical performance and price. Its autofocus is quick and reliable, capturing moments as they happen. While it doesn’t have image stabilization, the wide aperture helps compensate by allowing faster shutter speeds. This lens is a useful tool for photographers who value image quality and creative control.

The Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM is a versatile lens that has some striking features. Its f/1.8 aperture is great for low light and creating images with a shallow depth of field, making subjects stand out with a pleasing blur in the background. However, this lens is not just about capturing wider scenes; its macro capability allows for close-up shots with fine detail, offering a magnification ratio of 0.5x. And it has optical image stabilization too. 

Weighing only 11 ounces (305 g), it’s light and compact, perfect for travel and day-long shooting sessions. Despite its lack of weather sealing, the lens’s build quality is reliable for regular use. The image stabilization system is a big advantage, effectively reducing camera shake and ensuring sharp images in various shooting conditions.

For those exploring the streets, capturing portraits, or delving into macro photography, this lens is a good option. Its combination of portability, image quality, and stabilization makes it a useful tool for both stills and video, fitting a wide range of creative needs.

The Samyang 35mm f/1.2 ED AS UMC CS for Canon EF-M is a manual focus lens that offers photographers a wide f/1.2 aperture, making it excellent for low light situations and creating images with a shallow depth of field. This lens is particularly good for those who enjoy the control and creativity provided by manual focusing. Its optical design, which includes aspherical elements, ensures sharp images with minimal aberrations, making it a strong performer for a variety of photography styles.

Weighing in at just under a pound (454 g), this lens is both light and compact, ideal for photographers on the move. Despite its lack of weather sealing, its build quality is solid, offering a good balance between durability and portability. The manual focus ring is smooth, allowing for precise adjustments, which is especially beneficial for portrait and street photography where detail and composition are key.

For photographers on a tight budget, or those who value a large aperture and the tactile experience of manual focusing, the Samyang 35mm f/1.2 is a very useful option. Its ability to produce high-quality images, combined with its portability, makes it a popular choice for those shooting with Canon EF-M mount cameras.

The Samyang XP 35mm f/1.2 stands as a prime lens that excels in delivering exceptional image quality, thanks to its wide aperture and advanced optical design. Its f/1.2 aperture not only allows for superior low-light performance but also enables photographers to achieve a shallow depth of field, creating images with beautifully blurred backgrounds that make subjects stand out. This lens is particularly appealing to those engaged in portrait and street photography, where its ability to capture detailed scenes with minimal distortion is crucial.

Weighing 2.43 lbs (1.1 kg), this lens is big, reflecting its solid construction and premium optics. Despite its weight, the manual focus ring offers precise control, appealing to photographers who prefer a hands-on approach to focusing. The Samyang XP 35mm f/1.2’s robust build and weather-sealing features make it a reliable choice for shooting in various conditions, ensuring durability and consistent performance over time. It comes at an exceptional price for such a wide maximum aperture. For photographers prioritizing optical excellence and manual focus precision, this lens is a very useful tool, offering a blend of high-quality imagery and build quality.

The Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC for Canon EF is a touch slower than the previous Samyang, but it comes at a very low price. It’s a solid choice for photographers who value sharpness and low-light performance. Its f/1.4 aperture not only excels in dim settings but also allows for creative control over depth of field, producing images with beautifully blurred backgrounds that highlight the subject. This lens is particularly well-suited for street and environmental portrait photography, where its wide-angle captures detailed scenes without significant distortion.

Weighing 1.45 lbs (660 g), this lens is relatively lightweight, considering its large aperture and solid build. It’s designed for manual focusing, which, while not as quick as autofocus, offers precision and a tactile connection to the photographic process. The lack of weather sealing is a minor drawback, but its optical performance, including minimal chromatic aberration and pleasing bokeh, makes it a very useful tool for photographers looking to capture high-quality images with a classic focal length.

Conclusion: The Best 35mm Lenses for Canon

We have pulled together the six best 35mm lenses for Canon, catering to a variety of photography needs. From professional-grade options with superior optical performance to compact and lightweight choices for everyday use, each lens offers unique features.

The Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM stands out as our top pick due to its exceptional low-light performance and beautiful bokeh, making it ideal for a wide range of photography styles. If it’s not quite the right fit for you, then there are others you can consider as well.