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

Product Information

The 50mm is made from high quality plastics but features an external metal finish, whereas the 55mm and 56mm are both predominantly metal – hence the additional weight. The only non-metallic part of the 56mm is the rubber focus ring. All three come with a metal mount. 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) I found the focusing, when paired with the Fujifilm X-S10, allowed me to take full advantage of face and eye autofocus. Images had a lovely contrast with good skin tones, especially when paired with the Pro Neg Standard and Pro Neg Hi Film Simulations. I would recommend the combination as an affordable starting point to anyone starting out taking portraits. Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN C for Nikon Z Mount All things considered, the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 really is an exciting addition to the Sony APS-C lens range. It is around half the price of the Sony FE 55mm f/1.8, yet has a faster aperture and delivers superior sharpness except for at the widest apertures at a long focus distance. The quality of the out-of-focus rendering is a little more pleasant than the two Sonys and the autofocus speed, though not quite as snappy, is fully compatible with Sony’s PDAF system.

At f/11, diffraction starts to inhibit lens resolution and by f/16, they all appear quite soft. f/11 f/16 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. 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. Within the Sony E-mount range, there are already quite a few lenses with an equivalent 70-85mm focal length, two of which are the E 50mm f/1.8 OSS (75mm equivalent) and the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA (82.5mm equivalent). In this comparison, we’re going to be taking a look at how these three primes compare.

Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN C in X-Mount – Richard Sibley

At f/5.6 and beyond, the results look very similar once again. The 55mm and 56mm are still a tad sharper than the 50mm but the differences are barely worth mentioning. The best corner results are found at around f/5.6 with all three lenses. f/5.6 f/11 Sigma doesn't include dust and splash protection in the 56mm, which can be a concern. Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony all offer camera bodies with weather protection that work with the lens. None offer similar lenses with sealing at a close price point, however. Sony has the full-frame FE 55mm F1.8, Olympus offers the high-end M.Zuiko 45mm F1.2 Pro, and Panasonic sells the 42.5mm F1.2, all with weather protection, but also for a lot more money. To achieve such a compact construction, lens design is considered based on the capabilities of the camera body function to correct peripheral light amount and distortion. Moreover, axial color aberration, which is difficult to eliminate by image processing, is efficiently corrected by incorporating an SLD glass element. A compactness and lightweight construction combined with superb image quality is achieved. MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth.

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 This product is developed, manufactured and sold based on the specifications of E-mount which was disclosed by Sony Corporation under the license agreement with Sony Corporation.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. As well as the 56mm f1.4 DC DN C for Z mount, we also get the 16mm F1.4 DC DN and the 30mm F1.4 DC DN for Z mount. These are designed mainly for use with Nikon’s APS-C models like the Nikon Z50, Nikon Z30 and Nikon Zfc. The 55mm features a dust and moisture resistant design. The 56mm is only protected around the mount thanks to the rubber sealing. The 50mm doesn’t feature any weather-resistance whatsoever.

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.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 Ideal for portraiture and still life, the lens combines great sharpness with beautiful bokeh and negligible fringing (Image credit: Matthew Richards)