Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai.
Today we're taking a look at this Sigma 56mm f1.4 lens for the EF-M system...
I want to thank B&H Photo Video for helping me out
a little bit with the price of the lens. So I have a link in the description you can
check out their website for the lens. Let's get started!
I've been looking for something decently telephoto that's higher quality. I had
bought the 85 EF lens. It's good in some situations that I was having issues with
autofocus. Hopefully this will do well, and that'll kind of complete my set of
things for the EF-M system... for the moment.
The lens has a nine bladed aperture. I'm going to do a quick look at the aperture
itself through the range...
So of course it goes to f1.4 on the large end and f16 on the small end for the aperture.
Minimum focus distance is 19.7 inches. That is from the sensor...
Considering what type of lenses is minimum focus distance isn't super close,
but we'll see what we can get out of it.
Filter size of 55 millimeters. I do have the 11 to 22mm lens for the EF-M
system. That's the same filter size, so if you have that lens and you do use
filters for that... you can use them on this lens as well. The maximum
magnification of the lens is 1:7.4, so you can't get super
one-to-one ratio or anything like that.
I've used a few Sigma lenses over the years and some of them were older
used... and I couldn't get any support with them. So I was curious. I actually had
another commenter asked me about this in a previous video about Sigma lenses.
I did get a response from Sigma USA about their support: All future firmware
updates will use the camera body to install. There will not be an M-mount dock.
Some of Sigma's lenses have a special dock to update firmware. So in this case
they'll be going directly through the camera if there are firmware updates.
All lenses are supported with firmware and repairs for seven years after they are
discontinued. That is pretty nice. This lens is very new in their lineup, so I can
assume that it'll be out for quite a while. And then tack on seven years to
that. Not too bad...
I'm already getting a handle of the autofocus
with the M5. I thought it'd be interesting to try the M5 first.
Just because it's probably not used as much as the M50, which is more popular.
Let's go for the 56mm's build and design. The lens does not shift when
focusing at all. Compared to the 32mm lens.. the inner barrel shifts
in and out when focusing. The same for the 22mm lens in the EF-M system.
But with this lens it's all internal. I really like that way of designed for
lenses in autofocus. It is my preferred.. basically.. type of lens in general. So I
really like the Sigma for that. The Sigma has a rubber grip material around
the focusing ring. With the other EF-M lenses directly from Canon, it's more of
machined finish on there. Which I actually prefer. Some of them are plastic and some
of them are metal.
You can see behind the focus ring there is a metal material. An area where has
that silver 'C' and some text. That's fixed so you have a nice large grip area
from the back of the lens. There is a good amount of area on the lens to grip
it when you're putting it on or taking it off the camera.
It does have a metal bayonet mount.
Very nice, looks high quality. Well machined...
Around the front element
of the lens there's more text. It's really nice how they did the lettering
that's embedded in there, or I think it's maybe just a different texture of the
same material. So the text isn't super noticeable on the front. I like how
they did that design.
Canon has a type of design philosophy for the EF-M system so far. We'll see how
they go moving forward. But all the lenses that I have directly from Canon
for the EF-M mount are all the same diameter. Now with the Sigma, it's
actually wider on the focusing ring area of the lens. So what that means is when
you put the lens on the camera, and you put the camera flat on a surface it's
going to bump up from the lens because the lens is actually larger. Comes down
below the actual camera itself. Just sometimes you consider when you're using
quick release plates, or anything of that nature. Of course any adaptive lens on
the EF-M cameras will be the same situation. I have the 50 millimeter EF
lens adapted and it juts down about as much
or actually a little bit more than the Sigma...
Another physical feature that actually is not included in this. There's no water
resistance. They actually say on the included paper that you don't want to
get it wet. Looking at the bayonet mount you can see there is no type of ring
seal or anything of that nature. Nice thing about the Sigma, came with a hood.
With the Canon lenses they don't include hoods. It's not super large. It connects
to the camera smoothly. You can do it frontwards or back to the lens itself if
you're trying to travel with it. This works very nicely. I don't see any issues
at all. I did quite a few autofocus tests with the Sigma and the 50mm
EF lens to just compare them. Get an idea of focus speed. Here's a test of
center point photo autofocus with all the combinations...
Here are the test of video autofocus with all the combinations...
So far I'm happy with this Sigma 56mm autofocus. Seems pretty quick...
Especially in some situations. I think it's not as picky compared to the EF 50
combination that's adapted. So that's a very good thing. We'll have to see in the
future as I use it more more...
I don't use lens caps usually, but this one has a nice little feature of it's
got little ridges on the inside. So when you're putting it in with the hood on
the lens it's much easier to lock in to place. Because you can hold it from those
ones on the inside instead of the outside one. So it's pretty nice.
I'm very much looking forward to taking photos of people with this lens. Which was just
the main reason I picked this up... For the cosplay photos that I do. But in general
so far so good with it. Look forward to future videos on it as I get more time
with it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the video on the Sigma 56mm lens.
Scott from Photography Banzai.
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That me out a lot. Likes and shares help out a lot as well.
Thanks again. Also, thanks to B&H Photo.
Please do check out the link in the description
If you are curious about the lens, thanks!