Sigma 351965 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary For Sony E, Black

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In the corners, the 55mm appears to have an advantage over both the 50mm and 56mm wide open. Fastest apertures As we found with the other mounts, image quality is great with a high level of sharpness and pleasing bokeh in out of focus areas when used at the widest aperture of f/1.4. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this lens for Nikon DX users who want an excellent portrait lens, and I’d probably also say it’s worth full-frame users considering it too if they want something more affordable and lighter than Nikon’s closest equivalent. Amy Davies. Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Verdict Chromatic aberrations were also traced along high-contrast edges at f/1.4 when in-camera corrections were turned off. Some mild traces of purple and green fringes of colour were still obvious in shots where the built-in lens profile was applied, so you may find yourself applying some additional manual correction, just as I did. Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN C Resolution, shading and curvilinear distortion Resolution This trend continues until around f/5.6 where the three lenses look much more similar. f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 For this lab testing I was shooting Raw quality and made absolutely no adjustments in Lightroom, so you are seeing exactly what was produced by the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Lens and Sony A6400. I exported the raw files and 100% crops as 1500px jpegs at 75% quality and output sharpening set to screen/ low for reference. Full Scene Test w/ 100% Crops

Not many cameras in this class offer a seal where the lens mount attaches to the camera body but I appreciated this feature since mirrorless camera sensors are already quite exposed without a mirror to protect them. Performance crosses to the outstanding range at f/2 (3,141 lines), and edge performance is close enough to average (2,902 lines) that we won't fret about it from here on out. Images show even more detail at f/2.8 (3,557 lines), and peak performance comes at f/4 (3,878 lines). Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create. It doesn’t take long for the Sigma to sharpen up however: by f/2.8 it looks identical to the 55mm. The 50mm remains the softest of the three. f/2.8

Standard included with the Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary Sony E-Mount

At f/4 and beyond, it is very difficult to tell the difference between the three lenses, although I would say the 50mm is still marginally softer than both the 55mm and 56mm. f/4 f/5.6 f/8 At f/2, the bokeh balls are practically identical. The 50mm’s aren’t quite as round and the 55mm’s continue to display some onion rings but otherwise, it isn’t easy to tell them apart. f/2 A study of our Image Engineering Tests reveals the lens is sharper in the centre than at the edge throughout the aperture range. Centre sharpness (shown by the solid red line) improves considerably by stopping it down from its maximum aperture to f/2 and peaks between f/2.8 and f/4. Corner sharpness (shown by the dotted red line) doesn’t reach the same level as centre sharpness, but does steadily improve from f/1.4 to f/5.6. For the best edge-to-edge sharpness it should be used around f/5.6-f/6.3. Diffraction has the affect of softening images at f/16. Shading A plastic lens hood is provided with all three lenses. (My second-hand copy of the 50mm didn’t come with one unfortunately, which is why it isn’t pictured below.) Looking at the three E-Mount lenses side-by-side, we can see that although the 55mm is a little taller than the other two, and the Sigma is a little chunkier around the middle where the focus ring is, they are all more or less the same size.

The optical construction is 10 elements in 6 groups, with one being SLD (Super Low Dispersion) and one aspherical. The diaphragm comprises 9 rounded blades, intended to improve the “bokeh” of the lens. The overall optical quality of the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 Lens is fantastic in my opinion and very similar to the 30mm and 16mm versions I would say. The distortion is notable, but easily correctable either in camera or in post. I also love the short barrel length of just 2.34 in (60 mm). This is incredibly compact for the capability it offers in terms of focal length and minimum aperture. The build quality is solid and I have no complaints about the autofocus. It’s fast and extremely quite making it really good for video as well as photography. No AF/MF switch on the side of the lens means you have to use the camera menu by default to switch, but this can be easily custom programed to a button if you use that feature a lot.Finally we come to manual focusing. All three lenses feature a fly-by-wire focus ring complete with grooves along the surface to make them easier to hold and turn. That of the Sigma is the most enjoyable to use from a purely tactile perspective, not only because the grooves are deeper but also because its rubberised texture isn’t as cold to the touch. At f/8 and beyond, there isn’t a big difference between the three lenses. f/16 and f/22 are the only values I would avoid. f/8 f/11 f/16

Weight: 280 g / 9.9 oz. (Sony E, Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X), 285g / 10.1 oz. (L Mount), 256 g / 9.0 oz. (Micro 4/3) Like the 16mm and 30mm before it, the 56mm sports a bright f1.4 focal ratio which can achieve shallow depth-of-field effects, especially with its longer focal length. The dust and splash-proof design features a rubber sealing at the mount and the lens is supplied with a circular hood. The barrel measures 60mm in length, 67mm in maximum diameter, weighs 280g and employs a 55mm filter thread. The optical design uses 10 elements in six groups, has nine rounded aperture blades and a closest focusing distance of 50cm. There’s no optical stabilisation, but many of the bodies it’ll be mounted on feature body-based stabilisation of their own. Each lens has a filter thread at the front to which you can attach ND filters. The diameter is the same for the two Sony lenses (49mm) whereas the Sigma accepts 55mm filters.Naturally, it’s not all about sharpness. When using a wide aperture to gain a tight depth of field, the bokeh, or quality of defocused areas, can be equally important. The Sigma excels here again, with a wonderfully soft bokeh and a nicely smooth transition between focused and defocused areas. An added bonus is that there’s extremely little axial chromatic aberration, even when shooting wide-open. In this respect, it performs rather better than the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 Contemporary lens. Lab tests We reviewed the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary just a few weeks ago so let's move on to its cousin now, the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary. The lens is attractively priced at around 450USD/400EUR as is as such aligned to the more moderate camera pricing in the APS-C/MFT class. In full-format terms, it is equivalent to a fast "85mm" medium tele lens (on Micro-Four-Thirds: 112mm) which is suitable for a variety of use-cases such as portraits, street photography, or other shallow depth-of-field applications. Above, left to right: Sigma 56mm f1.4, Sony e 50mm f1.8, Sony FE 50mm f1.8. All at f4. Crops from right side. Sigma's lenses typically excel in terms of resolution, and the 56mm F1.4 is no exception. I tested it along with the 24MP Sony a6400. At f/1.4 the pair manages 2,629 lines on a center-weighted Imatest evaluation, an excellent result. Edge resolution is decent (2,064 lines), but inconsequential to most images made at f/1.4—depth of field will blur out everything but your subject.

If you have a full-frame Nikon camera, such as the Nikon Z6 II, you can use the Sigma 56mm with it, with your camera automatically diverting to crop mode to give the same 84mm equivalent focal length. You might therefore consider it to be a better priced (and smaller) version of the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S lens for this type of camera. The lens benefits from an open aperture of F1.4 to achieve sufficient amount of bokeh and admirable brightness even with APS-C size cameras which tend to have smaller bokeh effects compared to 35mm full size systems. Its compact and lightweight body is perfect for daily use, capable of capturing various scenes ranging from portraits to snapshots, as well as night view. All three lenses are extremely quiet. In the case of the two Sonys, you can hear the motor whirring faintly if you put you ear close to the lens whereas the Sigma is deadly silent. Now, I’m a longtime owner and fan of the Sony 55mm, but I have no problem saying that I would buy the Sigma in a heartbeat were I faced with buying my first 85mm equivalent lens for Sony APS-C today. The biggest advantage of the 55mm is that it also covers Sony full-frame sensors, so if you are a user of both systems, it is quite the versatile prime to have in your collection. There's also a version for Micro Four Thirds cameras. It uses the same optics, but because the Micro Four Thirds sensor is smaller, the lens nets a tighter angle of view. It's closer to what you get from a 112mm full-frame lens.The short length balances especially well with the compact mirrorless camera bodies it’s designed for. Above, left to right: Sigma 56mm f1.4, Sony e 50mm f1.8, Sony FE 50mm f1.8. All at maximum aperture. Crops from right side. We’ve been using the 56mm F1.4 with the Nikon Z30. It is the smallest of the Contemporary trio and balances pretty well with the Z30, though it’d also be an excellent match for the Z50 and the Zfc. It might feel a little small on a full-frame model, but the benefit of a lightweight option for your kit bag is potentially worth it.