AskMaddiLenses for Astrophotography
On the criteria astrophotography leans on — Coma, Optical Performance, Vignetting, Chromatic Aberration, Distortion, Color Rendition, Filter Thread, Build Quality and Handling — here is how the reviewed lenses compare, with the sourced evidence behind each position. We don't crown a winner; we show the fit and let you decide.
Ranked on the evidence
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Coma.
- Coma+57%9▲ / 1▼ of 14 · low (thin evidence)
- Optical Performance+65%68▲ / 10▼ of 89 · medium
- Vignetting+41%16▲ / 4▼ of 29 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration+69%19▲ / 1▼ of 26 · medium
- Distortion+60%7▲ / 1▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence)
- Color Rendition+78%8▲ / 1▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread-12%2▲ / 4▼ of 16 · medium
- Build Quality+50%12▲ / 2▼ of 20 · medium
- Handling+57%14▲ / 2▼ of 21 · medium
"Now, also improving upon that, we do have an 11-bladed circular aperture which is really nice for getting that nice creamy background blur and really nice looking sun stars." — Thecamerastoretv Why This
Strongest reviewer support on Coma and Optical Performance.
- Coma+75%6▲ / 0▼ of 8 · medium (thin evidence)
- Optical Performance+63%60▲ / 8▼ of 82 · medium
- Vignetting+40%18▲ / 6▼ of 30 · medium
- Chromatic Aberration+17%9▲ / 6▼ of 18 · medium (contested)
- Distortion+31%6▲ / 1▼ of 16 · medium
- Color Rendition+72%13▲ / 0▼ of 18 · medium
- Filter Thread+11%5▲ / 3▼ of 19 · medium (contested)
- Build Quality+61%16▲ / 2▼ of 23 · medium
- Handling+31%16▲ / 6▼ of 32 · medium (contested)
"up as a whole a marvel of engineering and an incredible performance optically if i could describe the way this lens performs it's just effortless beauty appropriately named this really is a work of art when radiant perfo…" — Stefan Malloch
Strongest reviewer support on Coma and Optical Performance.
- Coma+61%32▲ / 1▼ of 51 · low
- Optical Performance+53%49▲ / 11▼ of 72 · low
- Vignetting+27%7▲ / 3▼ of 15 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration+25%5▲ / 3▼ of 8 · low (thin evidence)
- Distortion+37%24▲ / 8▼ of 43 · low
- Color Rendition+86%6▲ / 0▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread-21%6▲ / 13▼ of 33 · low (contested)
- Build Quality+81%13▲ / 0▼ of 16 · low
- Handling+67%17▲ / 1▼ of 24 · low
"Finally, I couldn't shoot this lens without including some astrophotography." — Adorama Tamron
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Handling.
- Coma+7%2▲ / 1▼ of 14 · low (thin evidence)
- Optical Performance+44%68▲ / 20▼ of 109 · low
- Vignetting+19%15▲ / 8▼ of 36 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration+25%5▲ / 2▼ of 12 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Distortion-9%10▲ / 14▼ of 43 · low (contested)
- Color Rendition+55%14▲ / 3▼ of 20 · low
- Filter Thread+60%6▲ / 0▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality+42%14▲ / 4▼ of 24 · low (contested)
- Handling+61%20▲ / 3▼ of 28 · low
"but there is one condition that I would recommend being careful and that is lowlight photography so I wanted to test this lens with some astrophotography which is probably not the recommended use case for a 35mm lens lik…" — Anthony Gugliotta Canons Sharpest
Strongest reviewer support on Coma and Optical Performance.
- Coma+50%8▲ / 2▼ of 12 · low (thin evidence)
- Optical Performance+28%42▲ / 22▼ of 72 · low (contested)
- Vignetting+5%6▲ / 5▼ of 22 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-22%4▲ / 8▼ of 18 · low (contested)
- Distortion+44%4▲ / 0▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence)
- Color Rendition+12%4▲ / 3▼ of 8 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Filter Thread+12%2▲ / 1▼ of 8 · low (thin evidence)
- Build Quality+18%4▲ / 2▼ of 11 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Handling+64%8▲ / 1▼ of 11 · low (thin evidence)
"such a great versatile focal length welcome back we're here in front of my bamboo wall of sharpness plus three and i've had a chance to look at some of the photos let's talk about the stuff we're missing now first off we…" — Dpreview Tv
Strongest reviewer support on Vignetting and Build Quality.
- Coma-9%4▲ / 5▼ of 11 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Optical Performance+24%33▲ / 14▼ of 78 · low (contested)
- Vignetting+50%6▲ / 1▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Distortion-11%3▲ / 4▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Color Rendition+20%5▲ / 3▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Filter Thread+0%0▲ / 0▼ of 3 · low (thin evidence)
- Build Quality+100%13▲ / 0▼ of 13 · low (thin evidence)
- Handling+78%7▲ / 0▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence)
"oh you still get them 2018 when tony was 18 years old he saw his first sun star it was magic now they're gone we're at tony eight do we have any motion blur abilities i have no idea but that's the one advantage if you do…" — Camera Conspiracies Fuji
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Coma.
- Coma+25%2▲ / 1▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Optical Performance+37%47▲ / 15▼ of 87 · low
- Vignetting+0%4▲ / 4▼ of 14 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-60%0▲ / 6▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence)
- Distortion+44%5▲ / 1▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence)
- Color Rendition+45%6▲ / 1▼ of 11 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread+50%2▲ / 0▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality+55%13▲ / 2▼ of 20 · low (contested)
- Handling+53%23▲ / 4▼ of 36 · low
"The sun star capabilities of this lens are not great even at F/16 you can see that there aren't really strong lines coming out." — Scott J Waldron Photography
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Coma.
- Coma+36%10▲ / 2▼ of 22 · low (contested)
- Optical Performance+50%52▲ / 14▼ of 76 · low
- Vignetting-5%5▲ / 6▼ of 20 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-50%0▲ / 2▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence)
- Distortion+0%10▲ / 10▼ of 25 · low
- Color Rendition+70%8▲ / 1▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread-33%4▲ / 10▼ of 18 · low
- Build Quality+40%8▲ / 2▼ of 15 · low (contested)
- Handling+47%11▲ / 3▼ of 17 · low
"the dark let's look at coma levels due to heavy cloud cover Astro photography wasn't really an option for me this time but you can see some bright points of light in the corners of this image here and thankfully we don't…" — Christopher Frost
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Coma.
- Coma+27%13▲ / 6▼ of 26 · low
- Optical Performance+40%65▲ / 23▼ of 105 · low
- Vignetting-6%5▲ / 6▼ of 18 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-20%1▲ / 2▼ of 5 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Distortion+8%10▲ / 8▼ of 25 · low (contested)
- Color Rendition+50%1▲ / 0▼ of 2 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Filter Thread-15%3▲ / 7▼ of 26 · low (contested)
- Build Quality+43%7▲ / 1▼ of 14 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Handling+22%13▲ / 7▼ of 27 · low (contested)
"the Sun stars on this G master you can see examples here whether it's shooting 12 millimeter or 24 millimeter get nice clear defined edges and I think if you like to make that part of your landscapes you're gonna enjoy t…" — Dpreview Tv
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Color Rendition.
- Coma+0%2▲ / 2▼ of 5 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Optical Performance+64%42▲ / 7▼ of 55 · low
- Vignetting-50%0▲ / 2▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-14%3▲ / 4▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence)
- Distortion-14%1▲ / 2▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence)
- Color Rendition+100%2▲ / 0▼ of 2 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread+40%3▲ / 1▼ of 5 · low (thin evidence)
- Build Quality+33%2▲ / 1▼ of 3 · low (thin evidence)
- Handling+33%5▲ / 2▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence)
"right now the blooming of these lights are very tamed that is a very great feature because a lot of people don't like to have the flares and the blooming and chromatic aberration like this lens is pretty much perfect whe…" — Moment
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Color Rendition.
- Coma+0%4▲ / 4▼ of 11 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Optical Performance+38%50▲ / 18▼ of 84 · low
- Vignetting+0%7▲ / 7▼ of 22 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-10%6▲ / 8▼ of 20 · low (contested)
- Distortion+8%4▲ / 3▼ of 13 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Color Rendition+30%5▲ / 2▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Filter Thread-11%2▲ / 3▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality+29%9▲ / 4▼ of 17 · low
- Handling+6%7▲ / 6▼ of 18 · low (contested)
"bright light spectacularly well actually even when uh right in your picture at f1.4 we see just a slight Haze but almost no flaring while we're working in the dark let's take a look at coma levels bright points of light …" — Christopher Frost
Strongest reviewer support on Color Rendition and Distortion.
- Coma+0%3▲ / 3▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Optical Performance-4%31▲ / 34▼ of 72 · low (contested)
- Vignetting-38%4▲ / 10▼ of 16 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration+14%3▲ / 2▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Distortion+33%2▲ / 1▼ of 3 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Color Rendition+35%10▲ / 4▼ of 17 · low
- Filter Thread+14%3▲ / 2▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality+20%4▲ / 2▼ of 10 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Handling+21%8▲ / 5▼ of 14 · low (thin evidence)
"in the dark let's look at coma levels as we can see this lens exhibits very little coma smearing on bright points of light in the corners of your images even at f1.4 stop down to F2 and anything that was there is now gon…" — Christopher Frost
Strongest reviewer support on Color Rendition and Optical Performance.
- Coma-20%1▲ / 2▼ of 5 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Optical Performance+31%36▲ / 17▼ of 62 · low
- Vignetting-25%2▲ / 4▼ of 8 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Chromatic Aberration+11%2▲ / 1▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Distortion-61%1▲ / 12▼ of 18 · low
- Color Rendition+100%1▲ / 0▼ of 1 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread+29%4▲ / 2▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality-20%1▲ / 2▼ of 5 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Handling+6%6▲ / 5▼ of 16 · low (contested)
"be seen here but they are very transparent while we're working in the dark let's see about coma levels and Sun stars at 16 mm and f2.8 there's no real coma smearing to be seen here in image Corners everything's looking g…" — Christopher Frost
Strongest reviewer support on Optical Performance and Color Rendition.
- Coma-62%0▲ / 5▼ of 8 · low (thin evidence)
- Optical Performance+40%15▲ / 5▼ of 25 · low
- Vignetting-75%0▲ / 3▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence)
- Chromatic Aberration+25%2▲ / 1▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Distortion+50%2▲ / 0▼ of 4 · low (thin evidence)
- Color Rendition+57%4▲ / 0▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence)
- Filter Thread+33%4▲ / 1▼ of 9 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality+0%8▲ / 8▼ of 20 · low (contested)
- Handling+33%9▲ / 4▼ of 15 · low (contested)
"light yeah everything seems to be in order here too flaring is kept to an absolute minimum even at the brightest aperture of f2.8 and while we are working in the dark let's take a look at coma smearing good news yet agai…" — Christopher Frost Tamron
Strongest reviewer support on Coma and Handling.
- Coma+22%10▲ / 4▼ of 27 · low (contested)
- Optical Performance+0%30▲ / 30▼ of 75 · low
- Vignetting-26%5▲ / 10▼ of 19 · low (contested)
- Chromatic Aberration-29%1▲ / 3▼ of 7 · low (thin evidence)
- Distortion-30%8▲ / 20▼ of 40 · low
- Filter Thread+0%5▲ / 5▼ of 13 · low (thin evidence, contested)
- Build Quality-50%2▲ / 8▼ of 12 · low (thin evidence)
- Handling+13%6▲ / 4▼ of 15 · low (contested)
"kinds of stuff so i'm going to take a couple of astro shots with that because even though it's f4 and it's kind of slow i actually really like this lens for astro it does a really good job so i want to see how and it's a…" — Brent Hall
Side by side
| Camera | Coma | Optical Performance | Vignetting | Chromatic Aberration | Distortion | Color Rendition | Filter Thread | Build Quality | Handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art II | +57% | +65% | +41% | +69% | +60% | +78% | -12% | +50% | +57% |
| 2. Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG DN Art | +75% | +63% | +40% | +17% | +31% | +72% | +11% | +61% | +31% |
| 3. Tamron 12 20mm f2.8 | +61% | +53% | +27% | +25% | +37% | +86% | -21% | +81% | +67% |
| 4. Canon 35mm f1.4 | +7% | +44% | +19% | +25% | -9% | +55% | +60% | +42% | +61% |
| 5. Sigma 35mm f1.4 | +50% | +28% | +5% | -22% | +44% | +12% | +12% | +18% | +64% |
| 6. Fujifilm 16mm f2.8 | -9% | +24% | +50% | — | -11% | +20% | +0% | +100% | +78% |
| 7. Nikon 28mm f2.8 | +25% | +37% | +0% | -60% | +44% | +45% | +50% | +55% | +53% |
| 8. Sigma 14 24mm f2.8 | +36% | +50% | -5% | -50% | +0% | +70% | -33% | +40% | +47% |
| 9. Sony 12 24mm f2.8 | +27% | +40% | -6% | -20% | +8% | +50% | -15% | +43% | +22% |
| 10. Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM | +0% | +64% | -50% | -14% | -14% | +100% | +40% | +33% | +33% |
| 11. Sigma 23mm f1.4 | +0% | +38% | +0% | -10% | +8% | +30% | -11% | +29% | +6% |
| 12. Zeiss 35mm f1.4 | +0% | -4% | -38% | +14% | +33% | +35% | +14% | +20% | +21% |
| 13. Sony 16 25mm f2.8 | -20% | +31% | -25% | +11% | -61% | +100% | +29% | -20% | +6% |
| 14. Sony 35mm f2.8 | -62% | +40% | -75% | +25% | +50% | +57% | +33% | +0% | +33% |
| 15. Canon 16mm f2.8 | +22% | +0% | -26% | -29% | -30% | — | +0% | -50% | +13% |
Net reviewer sentiment per criterion (share positive minus share negative). A blank means no reviewer evidence on that axis for that camera — a gap, not a zero.
Not ranked — outside the criteria
- Canon 100 400mm f5.6 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 400; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 5.6
- Canon 100mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 100
- Canon 18 200mm f3.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 200; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 3.5
- Canon 200 400mm f4 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 400; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 4
- Canon 28 105mm f3.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 105; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 3.5
- Canon 45mm f1.2 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 45
- Canon 50mm f1.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 50
- Canon 50mm f2.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 50
- Canon 70 200mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 200
- Leica 50mm f1.4 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 50
- Leica 50mm f2 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 50
- Nikon 16 50mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 50
- Nikon 85mm f1.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 85
- Olympus 60mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 60
- OM SYSTEM 12 40mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 40
- Panasonic 70 200mm f4 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 200; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 4
- Sigma 16 300mm f3.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 300; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 3.5
- Sigma 85mm f1.2 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 85
- Sony 100 400mm f4.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 400; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 4.5
- Sony 100mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 100
- Sony 20 70mm f4 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 70; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 4
- Sony 28 70mm f3.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 70; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 3.5
- Sony 50mm f2.8 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 50
- Sony 70 350mm f4.5 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 350; require max_aperture <= 2.8: got 4.5
- Sony 85mm f1.4 — require focal_length_mm <= 35: got 85
Pending — a spec we're still sourcing
These earned a review card but are held out until we confirm a spec the criteria gate on. That is a data gap on our side, not a mark against the camera.
- Panasonic lumix s 35mm — max_aperture: max_aperture not present on card
- Rokinon 35mm — max_aperture: max_aperture not present on card
Every position above traces to the reviewer claims on each product's card. We don't write opinions — we synthesize theirs, and we present fit rather than a verdict.