Sigma Contemporary 56mm 1.4 DC DN

The Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary is an excellent example for how mirrorless lenses should be. It's small and well built with a focus on the optical characteristics where it counts the most while compromising on secondary aspects that can be corrected without too many headaches. Namely the sharpness is very good at f/1.4 and downright superb between f/2 and f/8. The laternal CAs are very low. This can't be said about the original distortion which is on the high side for a prime lens. Vignetting is also very pronounced at f/1.4. However, these two aspects are mostly corrected with image auto-correction either in-camera (with JPGs) or in RAW converters. A strength of the lens is the quality of the bokeh with nicely rendered out-of-focus highlights and a smooth blur in the focus transition zones. Bokeh fringing is present at large aperture but that's rather normal for such a lens. The overall build quality is very good. The lens body is made of metal and the big, rubberized focus ring is both smooth as well as very grippy. It also has basic sealing of some kind. On the downside, manual focusing is way too coarse to be useful at shorter focus distances. The AF is about average for a modern mirrorless lens - thus it's quite fast, noiseless and accurate. You won't use it for action photography though. The sum of its qualities combined with the very reasonable price tag make the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary an obvious choice in its class. Therefore - highly recommended!

The Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN C is a short telephoto prime lens for Micro Four Thirds and Sony E mounts that offers a fast maximum aperture of f/1.4. It joins the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN C and the 30mm f/1.4 DC DN C lenses, completing Sigma's large aperture series of portable wide-angle, standard, and telephoto prime lenses in Micro Four Thirds and Sony E mounts. It offers the equivalent angle of view as a 84mm lens on a Sony APS-C camera and 112mm lens on Micro Four Thirds. The Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN C features a rounded 9 blade diaphragm which creates an attractive blur to the out of focus areas of the image. It has a minimum focusing distance of 50cm / 19.7in and a maximum reproduction ratio of 1:7.8, while the stepping AF motor ensures a silent, high-speed AF function, and it's also usefully weather-sealed.

The Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN C is a short-telephoto prime lens corrected for APSC sensors and available in native Sony E and Micro Four Thirds mounts. When mounted on a Sony or Micro Four Thirds body, it becomes a short telephoto, ideal for events, weddings and portraits as well as general street photography or simply picking out details on tighter urban or natural landscapes. The bright f1.4 focal ratio can achieve shallow depth-of-field effects, while the barrel features a dust and splash-proof design. There’s no optical stabilisation, but many of the bodies it’ll be mounted on feature body-based stabilisation of their own. Ahead of my full review, check out my sample images.

The Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN C is a fast, bright, short telephoto that performs superbly at a great price.