SIGMA 56MM 1.4 REVIEW // The BEST Portrait Lens For Sony APS-C & MFT?!
What is up people Dunna here and today we get to complete the trilogy of Sigma
lens reviews for the contemporary series with the tiny tiny and fantastic bokeh
master the Sigma 56mm f1.4 this lens is the 3rd in the contemporary
series following the stunningly sharp 30mm f1.4 and the
wonderfully wide 16mm f1.4 if you want to watch my reviews for
either of those lenses I'll leave links in the description all three of these
lenses have been released not only for Sony aps-c e mount but also for Micro
Four Thirds like your panasonic g series for the most part i'm going to be
talking about my experience with the sony version of this lens but for the
micro four-thirds shooters out there watching make sure to stick around
because i got a special treat for you so here's what we're gonna go through some
of the good things about this lens some of the not so good things about this
lens what this lens is good for i'm gonna show you guys photos and videos so
you can make up your minds for yourself and as always i reached out to you on
social media to ask what you guys wanted to know so everything i'm gonna talk
about today is based on questions that you submitted ok let's start with the
build of this thing right away when i took this out of the package i was blown
away with how small it is this lens is super compact at about half the size of
the 16 millimeter from the same line and approximately the same size as the sony
50 millimeter f1.8 however even with the small footprint it still
has a good weight to it and it feels like it's built really well the focus
ring is incredibly smooth and it has a nice resistance to it it does have
weather sealing and they claim that it's dust and splash proof so maybe not a
waterfall or a heavy rain but it should be ok for a little bit of moisture and
some dust the size and weight of this lens pairs really nicely with my sony
a6500 it balances well and it really does honor the idea of the mirrorless cameras
being nice and compact easy to carry around
now what about image quality Sigma boasts that this lens has image quality
to rival their art series line of lenses and while I didn't do any direct
comparisons to the art line I will say that the image quality out of this thing
is fantastic I took my first couple of photos without really thinking too much
about it just trying to get an initial impression and right away I was so
impressed with how amazingly sharp this lens is the colors and the contrast
really do remind me of what you see from the more expensive art line it's
definitely got that Sigma look to it the 30mm f1.4 from this
same line has been DxO marks sharpest aps-c sony e-mount lens that you can buy
since it came out so I was really eager to see if the 56mm could beat
it and in my testing I do think that the 56mm is slightly sharper than
the 30mm which is really amazing considering how sharp that 30mm
already was I also tested it against the Sony 50mm f1.8
for aps-c and the 56 millimeter basically blew the Sony out
of the water wide open at 1.4 this lens is
tack sharp in the middle and although it's not perfect it's still pretty sharp
all the way out to the corners and if you just stop it down to even F 2 or F
2.8 you're getting pretty much a sharp image all the way through I did notice a
small amount of color fringing on high contrast areas but it really wasn't a
whole lot and it's really easily fixable with a couple of adjustments in
Lightroom so on a practical level that doesn't really bug me now everybody
always wants to know about these third-party lenses and how they do with
focusing on the Sony bodies and at this point I'm pretty convinced that Sigma
pretty much has it figured out the 56mm focuses is really well using
the a6500's autofocus features to their fullest for photography I found
the speed of the autofocus to be great with very little hunting even in some
really challenging low-light situations at F 1.4 with that shallow depth of
field when shooting portraits with this lens using the eye autofocus feature was
a snap and the accuracy was great in video mode I found the autofocus to be
smooth and accurate it played really well with the settings that I have
dialed into my a6500 basically the same quality that I would expect from a Sony
lens now with manual focusing although I think they do keep getting better with
every lens that they put out it's still that fly-by-wire system so it's never
gonna feel as good as an actual physical focusing system that being said as
someone who's pretty used to the manual focusing being all focus by wire on
these type of lenses I do think that they've
done a nice job with this one now let's talk about that focal length and that
beautiful F 1.4 aperture 56 millimeters might seem like a weird focal length
when you first hear it but if you take into account that 1.5 x crop that you're
getting on the sony version you're actually getting an 84 millimeter
equivalent lens which is right in the wheelhouse of that 85mm length
that so many portrait photographers have come to love and with the super fast F
1.4 aperture you're going to be able to get some beautiful looking smooth bokeh
in the background of your shots it seems pretty obvious to me that this lens is
intended for portrait shooters so if that's something that you're really into
I think this is actually a really great grab it's only $479 US or $649 Canadian
which if you were to compare that to some of the other great portrait lenses
that are out there the bokeh masters if you will this is actually pretty
reasonable this lens is also great for some close-up b-roll if you're a video
shooter and may be useful if you do product photography although the minimum
focusing distance is nowhere near macro so if you need those super fine details
this might not be the one for you for street shooters the lens is perfectly
inconspicuous and small but I find that that 56 millimeter is just a little too
tight for the kind of street shooting that I like to do and I still prefer my
30mm in fact the biggest thing that I found that's working against this
lens is just that I'm not used to shooting with such a tight field of view
it's not that it's a bad focal length I can see how it would be extremely useful
in the right situations but it's definitely not that kind of all-around
lens that you can just leave on your camera it's more of a niche thing that
you can use for certain types of shots and I definitely don't recommend this as
a vlogging lens what's up YouTube squad fam let's get right into it just like
the rest of the contemporary line this lens has no image stabilization in it
but it's more apparent in this lens because it has that tighter focal length
you're gonna see more of those little handshakes because you're further zoomed
in so if you're using this lens for video you'll have to be more careful
with your handheld shots or you're gonna have to use something like a gimbal or a
tripod to get those nice steady shots speaking of the focal length of this
lens I've only been referring to the APS-C
version of this lens for Sony if you're a micro four-thirds user this is
going to be a 112mm equivalent so even tighter than the aps-c version
but since I'm not a micro four-thirds user invited my friend Gerald from his
channel Gerald Undone to give us his take on how this lens works on a Micro
Four Thirds system let's get undone hey Dunna thanks for
having me on so I got the lens here for Micro Four Thirds I've got it on my g9
right now and I have some mixed opinions on it I like the lens I think that it
performs really well I think that the focus is as good as you know anything
else for the most part on Micro Four Thirds I think the image is sharp corner
to corner is great I like the balance and the weight of it I'm kind of curious
how you like it on your Sony because you're so many bodies a little bit
smaller but I think that it balances really well and I was actually able to
get pretty steady shots considering that it's 112 millimeter equivalent for the
g9 that's a bit tight for steady handheld shots for the most part but
with that tightness that comes the other side that I didn't really like that much
it's a bit too tight for anything that I would personally do with it now I'm sure
there's people out there for whom this will feel a perfect niche and for them
it's probably going to do a better job than anything else would at that price
point and I think for Sony the focal length is probably going to be a little
bit better but I'm curious to see how you like the focal length because the
crop factors obviously reduced but for me I tried in a few different applications
for portraits I thought it was a bit too tight I'm more of an 85 millimeter guy I
know there's people that like shooting 105 120 135 but that's not me for video
I try to use it as a as a B cam as a second angle as some tighter coverage
and then the coverage was just too tight for my studio you need to have this
thing like 10, 12 feet away in order for it to produce a result that you want and
at that point I think you're probably better off with like a telephoto zoom
for more flexibility even though yeah you'd be trading off
some light with the smaller aperture so I think it's I think it's designed well
I like it there's like some weather sealing and that's pretty good great
price point but I don't have any use for it but I think if you do have a use for
it you're gonna love it I think if the 120mm range on micro 4/3 is something
you're after for this price with this edged edge sharpness it's going to be a
perfect product for you and I also think Sony users will like it but obviously
I'm gonna let you handle that Dunna anyway that's it thanks for having me I
look forward to hearing your thoughts nailed it so that's a perspective from
the micro 4/3 side of things huge thank you to Gerald for giving us his
knowledge I highly recommend you go check out his channel and subscribe if
you want a fresh take and a whole lot of amazing information on cameras
photography and videography I'll leave his link in the description
to make it super easy to go spam his comment section I mean to go subscribe
to his channel so to wrap things up here the Sigma 56mm f1.4
is a fantastic lens at 84 and 112 millimeters respectively for aps-c and
Micro Four Thirds if those focal lengths are something that's actually going to
be useful for you image quality wise this thing is fantastic it's really
gonna depend on what you shoot and what you need in your kit so before you buy
this lens ask yourself if those focal lengths are going to be helpful for you
if you are interested in picking up this lens I'll leave a link in the
description as well as links to all my other gear using those links does
support the channel without costing you any extra so thanks in advance as always
I want to turn it over to you what do you guys think of the new sigma 56mm
leave a comment below let's start a conversation if you had fun or
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and I'll see you next time
SIGMA 56MM 1.4 REVIEW // The BEST Portrait Lens For Sony APS-C & MFT?!