Find out why Sigma’s 56mm f1.4 is one of the best portrait lenses for Sony e (APSC) and M43!
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Price: $390.00
Thank you for this review
Considering Sony´s 50mmOSSF1.8 is ancient – the oldest crop E-mount lens, it is still an amazing performer … Cheers.
The sony 50mm apsc lens is perfect on the a6000 because of OSS. Now on a a6500 I would go with the Sigma. I use a lot of vintage lenses on my a6000 they seem to work well as long as shutter speed exceeds the focal length. Nice review
Thanks Gordon for comprehensive review.. I have Lumix 42/1.7 on GX9 and used it for both portrait and indoor sport (table tennis and basketball).. I want to have more background blur in portrait, and less noise (or more aperture) in indoor sport.. For both situation, f1.7 is not enough..
I am deciding between Sigma 56/1.4 ($450) and Nocticron 42/1.2 ($1,000).. Price asides, between these two, Nocticron will give me more pleasing portrait (skin tone and Leica micro contrast) and less noise from lower ISO @ f1.2 in indoor sport.. But 56 is appealing too, especially from weight/size/price and reach (for sport).. However, these two lens are not main lens, but mostly for “special occasion” lens, so weigh/size concern is a bit less significant..
And for price, if I use purchased price minus resell value, the different of the two becomes less significant also.. I probably lose $250 for Sigma, and $300-$350 for Nocticron for its lifetime usage..
For these types of shooting, which one would you recommend? Thank you in advance..
(ps> I purchased your book already.. Very useful and interesting book indeed)
Great lens for a great price, a no-brainer if you’re a Sony APS-C owner. I wish they would make their f/1.4 primes (16mm, 30mm and 56mm) for the X mount too. The Fuji lenses are also great but they really need more (budget friendly) alvernatives from third party companies like Sigma and Tamron.
Nice video. Great audio. Good photography. Looks like this lens on the a6500 vs Fuji 56mm 1.2 would be a good comparison. But I don’t know what Fuji body would be the correct one to use for that comparison.
This looks great and nicely compact! Call me silly, but i haven’t been excited on Sigma since the 30mm f2.8. Well, i’m excited again and this lens looks amazing! 16mm and 30mm were tad too big for my liking (and not my preferred focal lengths), but this seems PERFECT! Another lens i’m excited to get is the Laowa 7.5mm f2.0 for m4/3. This one will be bought for APS-C though, since it’s really lacking. M4/3 is already way covered in great small lenses, and the good ol’ Olympus 45mm f1.8 is hard to beat.
When i’ve been testing film lenses, 50mm prime are generally all good. Yet there seems to be something special about the slightly longer lenses, like the 55mm and 58mm… Maybe this lens will catch some of that magic, especially when it comes that slightly smoother bokeh…
You probably know – how does the 55/1.8 compare being the closest to 56mm – as someone who already owns the 55/1.8 but loves the 30/1.4.. do you think I’ll benefit from this?
Now I”m suddenly curious as to how the rendering differences are between the Sigma and the Olympus Pro. That 56mm is kind of tempting, that’s for sure.
6:18 6500 with Sony lens on face focus has much better colors!
Full frame lenses are going to be less sharp on APS-C, compared to lenses that natively cast their image as a smaller patch of light.
Dear Gordon. Why do some lenses need a lens hood and others do not? My X100f and my X27mm do not have them and their front elements do not appear to be any more protuberant than the Sigma 56mm. As ever, cheers and have a peaceful Crimbo.
Excellent content as always, Gordon! I would love if they eventually made this for the Fujifilm X mount. It would be a great alternative to Fuji’s 56mm 1.2 at half the price.
Thanks for this great video review. I suppose the closest rival on the sony system is the zeiss 55mm 1.8, which is also sharp, compact and works great on apsc. It’s just a whole bunch more money. As I have that lens I am wondering whether to dump it and get this instead for my a6500. I would imagine they perform similarly.
Great review as always! Very thorough and informative. Keep up the awesome work. This one may end up on my a6500 and even my a7iii for video.
All we need now is a a7000 body to properly use this new benchmark portrait lens for APSc. A6500 is over 2yr old and a6000 is 4yr+. What were they at Sony thinking?
Great review! advice… going to iceland with the sony a6500, what lenses would you recomend? i was thinking on taking de sigma 16mm and buying this one the 56mm. keep the good work
Ooh, was thinking about getting this.
The 19 & 30mm f/2.8 EX DN really surprised me back in the day (well, for optical quality, build wasn’t to write home about).
The 30mm f/1.4 DC DN really is something else as well. Much cheaper than say a Leica 42.5mm f/1.2, but quite a stunner too.
Expensive month this, will sleep on it some more. 😛 Thanks for the vid!
Hi Gordon and Season’s Greetings, nice and useful tutorial as usual. Thank you
I’m so sad it doesn’t come out for Fuji. And no I don’t have money for the 1.2.
Olympus 75mm vs 56mm Sigma?
Which to choose? Wanted to upgrade from my 45mm 1.8 Olympus
Wow. This makes me want to pick the a6000 over the fuji xt100
One of the most pleasing product reviews I’ve watched!
Too bad that it’s not available for Fuji X even though it was designed for APS-C. It would be a great alternative/addition to the existing Fujinon 56mm F1.2 lens.
Find out why Sigma’s 56mm f1.4 is one of the best portrait lenses for Sony e (APSC) and M43!
Check prices at B&H: https://bhpho.to/2ravbfT
Check prices at Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2BZwnZW
Gordon’s In Camera book at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2n61PfI / Amazon uk: https://amzn.to/2mBqRVZ
Buy Gordon a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/cameralabs
Like Cameralabs? Get the T-Shirt: https://redbubble.com/people/cameralabs/shop
Nice the review we all been waiting for. All 50s..
P.s. will you be doing a video on the DJI Osmo Pocket? 😀
And do you think we might get to see a Pro and Zoom version thereof at some point?
Love the sigma 56mm so far.
Gordon, you been shaking too much your hands… Is everything ok?
Take care please!
Beautiful lens this sigma, excellent review Gordon, thank you so much. Merry Christmas from Canada.
A spectacularly revealing, AND crystal clear review! In a word: perfection! You’ve earned you coffee on this one!
You ever had your hands on a Tomioka (Revuenon/Yashinon/Chinon/Cosinon) 55mm f/1.2?
It’s supposed to be a legendary vintage lens. Wonder how it compares.