Sigma 40mm F1.4 DG HSM Art For SONY SE Fit Black 332965

Product Information

While a 50mm lens used (on a full-frame body) is modestly too wide for tightly framed headshot portraits (a too-close perspective is required), this angle of view is excellent for wider portrait framing. This lens's about 3 stops of f/1.4 corner shading are not unexpected, but this shading is noticeable. Furthermore this Voigtländer is optimized for portrait distance and is a worse performer at minimum focus distance and infinity at wider apertures. crops from center, A7rII, because of focus shift (see corresponding section) I refocused for every shot

The sharp-ribbed, rubber-coated focus ring is large and, being raised from the lens barrel behind it, is easy to find. So, let's dive in, starting with the predecessor Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens, shown below to the left of the DN version.If you’re unsure of how big the differences between 50mm, 40mm, 35mm and even 28mm focal length are, here is the angle of view that the Sigma 40mm f1.4 Art covers on a full-frame body compared to the Sony 35mm f1.4 ZA:

Wide open there is noticeable light falloff of roughly 2.2 EV, stopped down to f/2.0 this improves to 1.7 EV, stopped down to f/2.8 it is 1.1 EV and further improves to 0.8 EV at f/8.0. You can either correct this in Lightroom or directly in camera. Still, Sigma has a clear market strategy now, and it seems to be serving them well. The 40ART represents one of the more uncompromising lenses that I’ve reviewed (outside of the Zeiss Otus series); it makes no pretenses to moderation in its size (3.46 (W) x 5.16″ (L) / 87.8 x 131 mm) or weight (2.6 lb / 1.2 kg). This is a 40mm prime lens that weighs nearly as much as a 70-200mm F2.8 zoom (it actually outweighs Canon’s soon arriving RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS). As you can see from the photo above, it dwarfs the typically-sized Canon 35mm F1.4L II. But what the 40ART does have is a lot of Sigma’s wizardry in building high end Cine (cinematic lenses for video) that demand the very best in performance. This is also a fantastic focal length, with a slightly narrower angle of view than 35mm (good for portraits) but wider than 50mm (easier to use for general purpose). Does that outweigh the disadvantages of size, weight, and price? Read on to find out… That weight comes from an additional three glass elements over the 35mm, for a total of 16. That’s one fewer than the 28mm Art, yet the 40mm is about a pound heavier than that lens. Mounted to the rather large 5D Mark IV DSLR, it didn’t make for a comfortable travel kit. That’s not what the Art series is about, of course, but remember that if travel is in your plans. Daven Mathies/Digital Trends Samyang/Rokinon/Walimex has a 35mm f1.4 AS UMC manual focus lens from 2011 that’s also available for Sony E-Mount (around 450 EUR / 400 USD). Plus there’s a newer version from 2017 for E-mount only that can autofocus (550 EUR / 530USD).Sigma has been delivering excellence in their DN Art lenses, and it is great to see the DN Art lineup bolstered with the 50mm f/1.4 combination. In the end the 40mm Art’s bokeh is not as smooth as that of the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art, but it does come pretty close and is certainly smoother than that of many other Sigma Art lenses, like e.g. the Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art. Sunstars Sony A7rII | Sigma 40mm 1.4 Art | f/11 For portraiture it isn’t so important how flat the field is, it is more interesting to see what the sharpness is like when focused at different parts of the frame to take field curvature out of the equation. When testing a lens like the Sigma you can’t help wondering whether or not it would reach a new resolution record. Officially the old one wasn’t broken because the maximum result of the new lens, reached by f/2.8, amounted to 49.8 lpmm - still a bit lower than the record of the Sigma A 1.8/135. On the other hand it is by 0.1 lpmm higher than the result of the former record holder, the Sigma A 1.4/85 so it would be difficult not to gush over the image sharpness provided by the tested lens.

In this case, the just-over one-stop of corner shading showing at f/1.4 may be visible in select images, primarily those with a solid color (such as a blue sky) in the corners. The Sigma 40mm 1.4 Art does feature a floating elements design and the performance at the minimum focus distance can be described as decent at f/1.4, good at f/2.0, and excellent at f/2.8. Across frame performance is really good, there is only minimal field curvature visible. Flare resistance Sony A7rII | Sigma 40mm 1.4 Art | f/11 This button also functions as a custom button to be programmed to a desired function using the camera's menu. The only real downsides are flare resistance and even more noticeably size and weight. For some this will surely be a reason to stay away from this lens, while for others this won’t be an issue at all.

The Sigma 40mm F1.4 DG HSM is a wide normal-length prime lens for full-frame and APS-C DSLR cameras. It offers the equivalent angle of view as a 60mm lens on an APS-C system (depending on the exact crop factor). The focal length is the first consideration for lens selection, and with a prime lens, you get only one angle of view. In addition to reducing camera shake, the stabilized imaging sensor provides a still viewfinder image, enabling careful composition. The focus ring is very smooth, has nice resistance, and, when turned slowly, the 875° of MF rotation adjusts focus at a rate enabling precise manual focusing even at close distances. This Samyang is the cheaper version of the Sony FE 35mm 1.4 ZA in many ways: similar size, similarly high CA, similar questions regarding sample variation. No button or aperture ring and according to some reports the manual focus experience is really bad with this lens.

To me this is good news, as coupled with the nice resistance of the focus ring this gives a nice manual focus experience, only the rather short focus throw of 90° spoils the game slightly.

Filter-thread: 82mm, so you possibly need new expensive filters. The Sony ZA takes smaller/cheaper 72mm filters, the Zeiss Batis 67mm. [0] Instead of summary let me show you a graph comparing the performance in the frame centre of the Sigma Art 1.4/35, 1.4/40 and 1.4/50. Do you need anything more? Close focus performance is an area where the smaller fast lenses like the Voigtlander 40mm 1.2 E or 50mm 1.2 E struggle, as they don’t feature a floating elements design.