Well, I think I found a new
perfect vlogging lens for the GH5.
I mean, it really just takes vlogging
to a whole 'nother level. I mean, look at these shots!
Just perfect.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What is happening, everybody?
I'm Gerald Undone, and because I've been neglecting
all my lovely Micro Four Thirds fans for a little while now
because of all this Nikon talk,
I figured it's the perfect time to take a look at
the new 56mm f/1.4 lens from Sigma.
First, though, I've got to give a quick shout-out
to Camera Canada for providing me with this lens.
Camera Canada is definitely my go-to store for lens shopping,
and it's where I get all my Sigma glass.
So, if you're looking to get your mitts on
this nifty little Sigma, make sure you check out
their links in the description below.
Alright, so let's go open up this box
and take a look at the lens.
[intense, propulsive music]
♪
So, my first impressions of the lens are that it's tiny.
I was expecting it to be bigger because the other Sigma
contemporary lens that I have is quite a bit bigger.
Right now I'm using the Sigma 16mm f/1.4,
which quickly became my favourite GH5 lens
and I use it pretty much every day,
but it's-- I would say double the size of this lens.
The second thing you'll notice right away
when you pop it on your camera
is how tight the angle of view is.
Because this is a 56mm, that's going to be
a 120mm equivalent for full frame,
which means you're gonna have a 28.5 degree angle of view.
Now, when it came to creating some tests
for this lens, I wanted to choose things
that would be logical and practical
based on the inherent strengths and weaknesses
of this focal length. So, as I joked about
in the beginning of this video, this is not a vlogging lens
by any stretch of the imagination.
And because the reproduction ratio is only 1:7.4,
it's not really gonna be suitable
for any kind of macro work, either.
And the lens isn't stabilized.
I actually did some handheld pans and tilts with it,
and I was pretty impressed with the results, I would say.
I was expecting it to be much worse.
Now, a lot of this is probably
due to the stabilization on the G9,
but I do think that the design and the weight distribution
has something to do with that.
It's actually pretty well-balanced.
But anyway, the test that I thought
that would be more practical for a lens like this
would be checking out the sharpness and focus performance
when taking tight portraits, because I think that's probably
the number one intended use for this lens.
And with that, we'll take a look at
the bokeh, because this is essentially
the contemporary version of Sigma's Bokeh Master.
And then with video, we'll set it up as
sort of a tight B-cam second angle for closer coverage
and check out its focusing capabilities and clarity.
I'm not gonna bother with any side-by-side comparisons
because there really isn't another lens similar enough
to this one to test it against, so let's just look at it
for what it is and see if it's worth the price.
The price, by the way, is pretty compelling,
at $480 US, or $620 Canadian.
Alright, so let's look at some portraits.
[laid-back music]
♪
Alright, so first up when it comes to focusing,
testing it on the G9,
it focuses as quickly as you would need it to
for a portrait scenario. It didn't struggle at all for me,
and I was pleased with the results.
I tested it in a few different scenarios,
and each time the focus was sharp and accurate,
which I guess you should expect from
a contrast detection-based system.
The lens produced a nice, clean image with terrific sharpness,
as you can see here. Focusing on the eye worked well,
and I'm really pleased with the outcome.
If we jump in over here at the lights in the background,
we can take a look at the bokeh.
Now this is pretty subjective, because everybody
might like something different, but obviously I would assume
that you're going for some kind of level of bokeh balls
if you're gonna buy a lens with this focal length and aperture.
But for me, I thought the result was decent.
There's a minimal amount of onion-ringing.
The shape is a little bit oblong, but not too bothersome.
When we put it together with the overall composition,
I think that the result is quite pleasing.
I've also got some test shots here
to check the corners and also check for aberration.
I used the Sony logo here
because whenever I take photos of it,
it always seems to have some kind of colour fringing.
So, if we take a look here and turn off the Lens Corrections,
you can see that there is definitely some green
with a little bit of yellow action going on here.
That was relatively easy to fix,
I only had to bump up the amount to about five
and then shift the green hue down a little bit more
to the yellow and it came off,
but there is a little bit of that fringing.
But that level of fringing on lenses like this
seems to happen pretty regularly, so...
you know, take that to mean what you want.
It's easy to fix, but there is a little bit there.
Once again, this is what it looked like with it off.
And then I also have some images of a grid layout here,
which, again, if we have Lens Corrections off,
this will help us look a bit at the corner sharpness as well.
If we take a look down in these bottom corners--
let me zoom in a little bit-- you're gonna see
a little bit of that purple-blue action happening.
Then if we take a look at the top here,
we can also see it here, but, again,
this came away pretty easily with just Lens Corrections.
All I had to do was drop the Defringe up to three
on the purple, and I didn't even have
to adjust the positions of the hue.
Now, while we're in here, let's just take a look at
the sharpness across the frame, which is quite good, actually.
This is gonna be the bottom left-hand corner.
We're losing a little bit. There's a little bit
of a droop-off here towards the left,
but it's not too bad. And again in the right.
But if we look at it maybe just a little bit zoomed out,
we can see that overall, the sharpness is maintained
pretty well right across the frame.
One more image to look at the corners with.
This is it zoomed out. We have a grid,
so we would see if there was any, you know,
warping in the corners or any lack of sharpness.
If we go to sort of more of a midfield kind of thing,
this is the sharpness that you'd expect
right in the centre, right at the focus point.
So, you can see, it gets just a hair less sharp,
but it's not a big deal.
Even all the way down to the corner,
it maintains sharpness corner to corner really well.
Look at the image collectively, there doesn't seem to be
a weak spot unless you really pixel peep.
That's a great aspect about this lens.
Alright, so for this next test,
we're gonna take a look at it as a bit of a B-cam
for a tighter coverage kind of angle.
So, I've got it set up over here.
I would say it's about five or six feet away,
and probably at about a 35-40° angle
off from the A-cam here. [chuckling]
And right away you're gonna notice
that it is extremely tight.
And this is kind of a recurring thread, obviously,
of this video, is that the focal length is really tight.
Now, in here-- I'm using it in a small studio,
so this is something to consider if you have a similar situation.
It's just not workable in this size of space.
Now, there's nothing wrong with it,
and I'm running on face detection right now, too,
so we can use this as a bit of an autofocus test
to see, you know, how the face detection's performing,
and it looks like based on the screen that it's doing OK,
but we'll see, obviously, when we load it up.
So, it performs well,
and it does what it's supposed to do, it's just...
is this what you want it to do?
So, that's a consideration, obviously,
that you're gonna have to make. It's a lot closer.
The 16mm lens that I'm using the GH5 right now
is just over an arm-length away.
This one's beyond two arm lengths away,
and it looks like this.
I also did some autofocus tests.
I have them in photo mode and in video mode.
In photo mode, I just put it on AF Single
and jumped back and forth between two targets
and saw how quickly and reliably it focused,
and then for video, I put it on AF-C
with sort of a wider box and just saw how it transitioned,
and I also gave it some pop-in tests and some tracking tests.
♪
So, for a little bit of a summary...
do I like the lens?
Well, in terms of its performance
and its sharpness, the answer is yes.
I think it focuses quite nicely.
I like the build and construction of it.
It's balanced well, and I think even for smaller cameras,
smaller ones than the G9, I think you'll still be able
to maintain quite a decent balance.
And when it comes to the sharpness of the image,
I think it's great. Corner to corner looks good,
I was pleased with the results. I like the bokeh, I think--
I think it's great for what it does.
But if the question was, do I like the lens
from a practical standpoint, or rather,
do I like the focal length, the answer is no.
I don't really find it that useful for video
for the reasons that I already mentioned.
I think that if I wanted that tighter coverage,
I would opt instead for a telephoto zoom
and just trade off having a smaller aperture.
And when it comes to portraits, the thing that I think
it's intended for, for me personally,
I actually prefer more, like, the 85mm focal lengths--
so that would be 42.5 on Micro Four Thirds.
That's a field of view that I'm a bit more comfortable with
when it comes to portraits. And, with that,
even though the price is quite compelling on the Sigma,
I think that there's better options for the money.
You've got the Panasonic Lumix 42.5mm lens, that's an f/1.7.
So, sure, it's a little bit slower,
but it's a little bit cheaper as well,
and it has image stabilization.
Now, when I compare those two lenses,
I do have to give a little bit of credit to the Sigma,
because the build quality is quite nice,
and I would say maybe better than that 42.5 f/1.7.
And it's also weather-sealed, which is kind of surprising
because a lot of Sigma lenses aren't weather-sealed,
but these contemporary ones are.
It's weather-sealed reasonably well.
And I just think, you know, you're getting--
for that little bit of extra money
that it costs over the Panasonic,
you can feel it when you hold it.
You can feel the extra money in your hand.
But again, I find the field of view
on that Panasonic to be a little bit more practical.
So, for me, I would rather save the money and get that.
If the money wasn't so much of an issue,
there are two other lenses that are kind of like
a best-of-both-worlds scenario,
and that's the Panasonic Leica 42.5,
which is an f/1.2, and Olympus also has a 1.2,
it's a 45mm, part of their PRO line.
And these lenses are excellent. Like, just...
amazing lenses,
probably some of the best, if not the best,
on the Micro Four Thirds system,
but they cost, like, two to three times more
than these lenses. So, for the money, though,
you're actually getting a pretty good value
with the Sigma when you compare it
to those more expensive models,
if you can find a use for the focal length.
But sadly, for me, I could not.
Now, there is an exception to everything I just said, though,
and that's if you're buying this lens for Sony.
If you guys didn't know, these contemporary lenses
from Sigma-- like the 16mm and 30mm--
they also come out for Sony
and are intended for their crop cameras.
And on those cameras, the focal length is a lot closer
to that 85mm comfort zone that I'm in.
Because of the 1.5x crop on Sony,
the 56mm is about an 84mm equivalent.
So, a lens like this with that performance
and that sharpness at that price tag,
and being in that 85mm wheelhouse
that I like so much, I would say that's
a terrific purchase for a Sony Alpha shooter.
But rather than theorize about this stuff,
my YouTuber friend Dunna from his channel Dunna Did It
also picked up one of these lenses for his Sony a6500,
so I'll let him tell you about it.
Hey, Gerald, thanks for having me on.
I've got the 56mm here on my trusty a6500,
and I'm really happy with it.
I've been really impressed with the quality of this lens.
Like, straight out of the box, I took a couple of photos
just of, like, some people at work, and was just right away
blown away with not only the sharpness of it,
but also the autofocus and the bokeh in the background.
My big question for the 56mm is whether it would stand up
to the conquering 30mm, which previously was named
the sharpest lens that you could buy
for the Sony E-mount APS-C system,
and from my tests, I'm pretty sure that
this thing is actually sharper than that.
The other thing that I wanted to test it out
against was the Sony 50mm, and, again,
this thing just blows it out of the water.
The only downside that I had to it is very similar
to what you're talking about.
I'm not used to shooting on something
on something that's this zoomed in.
I typically shoot on either my 16mm or my 30mm,
and I even shoot most of my portraits on 30mm.
So, going to a 56, which is an 84mm equivalent,
it's really zoomed in, and in my tiny studio at work,
and in my small space at home here, the 56 is...
really tight. Now that being said,
I do think it's more about getting used to
the focal length than it is to it not being good.
A lot of people swear by that 85mm focal length.
I know you love it. And the more that I use this,
the more I really have been loving it.
I did some shots with my wife
at one of our favourite spots, and they turned out fantastic.
And that was, like, trying to
deal with the Sony app and everything like that,
and they're just still sharp as a tack.
Just a really fantastic lens for Sony,
highly recommended by me for sure.
I'll send it back to you. Thanks again.
So, I think that just about does it for the things
that I wanted to talk about when it comes
to this lens, but I also want to thank Dunna
for providing his perspective on the Sony.
I'll put links to his channel in the description
and at the end of this video.
I highly recommend that you check him out.
He makes high-quality content, is a pleasure to listen to,
and he's just generally a nice guy.
Overall, I think it's a great lens.
It's kind of a niche focal length on Micro Four Thirds.
But I know there's lots of you out there
that like shooting portraits at this focal length,
and I'm sure there's others still for whom this lens
would fill a rather specific need brilliantly
that I didn't even consider, and at a fantastic price point.
Niche products are hard to review
because they're not for everybody,
It's not a lens where you can just say,
"Everyone's gotta buy this!"
That doesn't make the lens any less good.
The best part about niche products is when they finally
find their perfect application, they tend to perform better
than anything else possibly could.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video helpful, or at least entertaining.
If you did, make sure you leave it the old thumbs-up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
If you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the dislike button twice.
Alright... I'm done.
♪