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Sigma 16 mm f/1.4 (C) AF DC DN Lens for Canon EF-M X Mount, Mirrorless

£203.375£406.75Clearance
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To test, I turned Digital IS on and off for both lenses and shot comparison footage to see how they compare. The aperture mechanism has to obey Sony’s stepping down slow actuation, but does it almost silently and faster than most Sony originals. So, the 16mm DN is getting some in camera help, but the good news is that the end product is pretty excellent. There are 9 rounded diaphragm blades, aimed at making the aperture as circular as possible for improved bokeh.

16mm F1.4 DC DN - SIGMA Corporation Support | 16mm F1.4 DC DN - SIGMA Corporation

I thought that the Canon might have a slight edge over the Sigma (because third party lenses sometimes don’t perform as well), but thankfully that wasn’t a problem.There are no hard stops at both ends of the range, making it more difficult to set focus at infinity. It's also a very quiet performer, thanks to the built-in stepping AF motor, which makes this lens well-suited to video recording. That puts it in the territory of being anything from a seriously wide-angle prime to an ideal lens for street photography, landscapes, architectural interiors and more besides. Stopping down to f/2 or smaller essentially eliminates the issues, and, as a result, there is a big difference between f/1. DC DN C lens, Sigma employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades, which has resulted in quite nice bokeh in our view.

Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary Review | PCMag Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary Review | PCMag

Please take note, you Micro Four Thirds naysayers, this is smooth, creamy bokeh and a shallow depth of field achieved with a wide-angle lens! I’ve seen some modern lenses with a bit of a color cast/bias to them or that deliver somewhat flat colors, and there are some other lenses (usually with Zeiss attached to them) that have a extraordinarily beautiful color rendition that is both vivid and accurate. These aspherical elements are also said to help minimise the ‘onion skin’ effect in bokeh and keep sagittal coma flare in check, which will be good news for those wanting to shoot astrophotography images. In most cases, the lens does well, however, and stopping down will help reduce apparent aberrations a bit.Benefitting the optical assets, this lens also sports a stepping AF motor for quick, quiet, and smooth focusing performance that suits both still photography as well as video applications. There are 16 lens elements, two of which are SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, and three are Sigma’s FLD (Ultra Low Dispersion; one can only guess why they used F and not U in their acronym! Meanwhile, the smaller sensor used by Micro Four Thirds cameras gives the lens a narrower field of view, equivalent to a 32mm lens on a full-frame camera. This lens combines a compact design and comfortable operation while prioritizing outstanding image quality. As a note, the road does slope slightly downward as you move from left to right, so I relied on the camera's built-in level on two axes for this shot rather than leveling along with the road.

Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN | C review | Digital Camera World

With only a few minor exceptions, all of SIGMA's manufacturing, including molds and parts, takes place under a single integrated production system in Japan. The usual test of shooting a tree against an overcast sky reveals that there is a hint of purple fringing and its reduction. It’s that kind of small attention to detail that impresses someone like me who sees a lot of lenses. Perceptually it is slower than a more premium lens, lacking that virtually instantaneous snap that you get from top-of-the-range optics, but that is not to say the lens is slow. ISO had dropped all the way down to 200 — far lower than what the Canon 11-22mm could ever dream of achieving.We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included several 100% crops for your perusal.

Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN review | Cameralabs Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN review | Cameralabs

It is constructed using a sturdy Thermally Stable Composite (TSC) material, as Sigma describes it, and is also weather-sealed. I ran the Sigma 16mm and the Canon 11-22mm lens through a low-light test to see their relative ISO performance. Sigma now have a new offering in their expanding range of CSC lenses for Micro Four Thirds (MFT) and Sony E APS-C format cameras.This optical system minimizes optical aberrations and ensures outstanding resolution at wide-open aperture and throughout the aperture range. Unlike lateral chromatic aberrations, which often appear near the edges of the frame as green and purple fringing on both the top and bottom of things like, say, tree branches or other high contrast subjects, axial CA (LoCA) occurs when not all colors focus equally. SIGMA lenses with “DC” in the name are designed for optimal performance on cameras with APS-C image sensors. The lens has the now standard nine rounded aperture blades that I’ve seen on most all the Sigma lenses I’ve reviewed in the last 4-5 years. SIGMA's Super Multi-Layer Coating reduces flare and ghosting to help photographers produce sharp and high contrast images even in backlit conditions.

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