56mm F1.4 Dc Dn Contemporary

[Agata Schweiss]

The 16mm, 30mm and 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary lenses are the perfect trio if you own a crop sensor mirrorless camera. These are great lenses for street photography and excel in low light conditions."

SIGMA's DC DN lenses are made exclusively for mirrorless, and are designed primarily for use with crop sensor cameras. All DC DN lenses are available for Sony E-mount, L-Mount and FUJIFILM X systems, while our 16mm, 30mm and 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary lenses are additionally available for Nikon Z, Canon EF-M, and Micro 4/3.

All SIGMA lenses come with a 4-Year Warranty in the US, but only if you buy from SIGMA America directly or a SIGMA Authorized Dealer. Grey market importers undercut legitimate retailers, deceive well-intentioned customers, and sell products that are ultimately not eligible for warranty service. Make sure you are buying from a trusted source so your lens is covered!

I would also be remiss if I neglected to mention that prime lenses are what SIGMA Ambassador and pro concert photographer, Anabel DFlux, recommends when shooting music photography. The vast majority of my pre-show research came from her webinar with Adorama, which covers everything from her favorite lenses, to how to configure your camera, to concert photography ethics. She also penned an article for SIGMA that outlines some of her favorite full-frame gear for concert photography. Check them out below!

After getting there early enough to check out the venue and scope out potential shooting angles, I found myself mostly standing at the edges of the stage early in the set to get a couple forward-facing shots of the band, typically using the 56mm to hone in on each member of the band at least once. When things began to ramp up, I would move side-stage, away from the crowds to snap shots of the drummer or of the band looking out towards the audience.

Michael Dioguardi is a writer, heavy music enthusiast, and fan of all things fantastical. Born and raised on Long Island, Mike likes traveling and trying new things, which can be seen as he takes his first steps into photography alongside his various roles at SIGMA.

In addition, the 56mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary lens comes with a lens hood as you can see in the photo below. I tried it for a few days but for the most part, I shot without one for nearly the entire time that I had the lens to review.

I personally prefer to walk in the city with a single camera lens combination and avoid taking additional lens with me. ( this is a specialty true is a large city as NYC) . For this reason, I am not sure that a 56mm is the correct angle of view for a city walk.

When Sigma announced their new Contemporary series of lenses for the Fujifilm-X series of cameras on 21 Feb 2022, many users were excited at the prospect of another experienced lens-maker supporting Fujifilm X-mount.

Though Sigma also announced the 16mm f1.4 DC DN and 30mm f1.4 DC DN, all from their Contemporary series, to me the 56mm f1.4 holds the highest potential for consideration due to the closest being the now pretty aged Fujifilm XF56mm f1.2, the slower XF50mm f2, and maybe.. the XF50mm f1 (my review here).

The time-tested optical performance of the Sigma 56mm f1.4 may not be as great as 2014 released XF56mm f1.2, but it provides excellent value by demanding half the price with an aperture range larger than the XF50mm f2 and is definitely worth considering for enthusiasts or those with a tight budget.

The lens takes 55mm filters, measures φ66.5mm 59.8mm, and weighs 280 grams. For easier reading, the Sigma 56mm f1.4 is only 69% the weight of the XF56mm f1.2 and 52% cheaper in comparison. There is no mention of weather-sealing; hence hold on with the plans to take this lens out to shoot in adverse weather conditions.

One interesting piece of information I learned was that as Sigma refreshes the optical formula for the same lens model across the years, Sigma actually stamps the year of the optical design directly on the lens body itself.

Lastly, there is no physical aperture ring on this lens series. Therefore any aperture adjustments have to be made using the front/back dials on the camera body. Fujifilm cameras, in general, come out of the box set up to have the front dial work with aperture adjustment, but these can be mapped under settings.

The Sigma 56mm f1.4 handles very well with its compact size and weight of only 280 grams. A pretty well-made hood with rubberized ends was provided (nice job with the hood Sigma). I believe this lens will balance well on most Fujifilm bodies.

The lens will not be (bleedingly) sharp at the widest aperture; however, it quickly gets plenty sharp. A practical point is that most people do not go to 100% or 200% when sharing or printing their photos.

Of course, the lens will flare if you try hard enough, and having the hood on does help. The lens performs and handles well as long as one can work with using the camera front/back dials for aperture adjustments.

Those who expect zero compromises will have the XF50mm f1, XF56mm f1.2 (note it does not autofocus as fast) to look at, while at the other end, the Sigma 56mm f1.4 promises to be an excellent consideration for the enthusiast looking to choose between the XF50mm f2 and similar offerings.

Hi Keith, thanks for checking. My lens firmware is 1.00. I contacted Sigma and Fujifilm Netherlands yesterday about this but no response yet. If they respond, I will drop it here. I do hope it can be fixed through firmware.

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Wide open, the Leica is obviously softer than the other two. (I took two separate manually focused shots, along with one AF frame for good measure for each lens). The Sigma however, is as sharp, if not slightly sharper than the Olympus, wide open while being 2/3 stop wider. Impressive.

So, what benefits do any of these lenses have over the others outside of pure sharpness or resolution? Well, the Leica is an f/1.2 lens, which very few lenses in existence can boast, allowing faster shutter speeds in lower light. The Sigma is but a third stop slower at f/1.4 clocking in at a 13.5mm longer focal length and identical minimum focusing distance meaning it can further shallow up the depth of field at that MFD. The Olympus is a stop slower than the Leica, and 2/3 stop slower than the Sigma but has the longest focal length of the three , handy when shooting more distant subjects and wanting to maintain the highest resolution without cropping, but has a disadvantage at maximum magnification while offering up a longer MFD (see below), and is bested by the Sigma in pure sharpness when both are shot at f/1.8 (if not even wide open on part of the Sigma).

I have been using the Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN Lens since February 2019 and I like this small, lightweight lens. I bought this lens for photographing people in low light and for subject separation in my Street Photography.

This lens on my Lumix GX80, GX8 or my Olympus OMD-10 MKII is fast and precise in focusing and other than another Sigma MFT lens I own is the sharpest lens I use.

A few of my photos, all taken at around F1.4 with the Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN Lens can be found here:

A superb and very useful review, the kind on which folk can make reasoned and intelligent decisions. I have lenses all around this one, Oly 45 1.8, Oly 60 2.8 and Oly 75 1.8. At least two can go once this is acquired so it practically pays for itself. Thank you. I look forward to further reviews.

Tyson, great review! I have the GX8 and the closest I have is the Pana-Leica 45mm 2.8 which can be used as a macro or regular lens. Since the focal range is close to the 56mm Sigma, I was wondering if you could share your thoughts about these two lenses, and whether it would seem superfluous to add the 56mm Sigma to my lens collection. Thanks!

I think the 56mm would provide you with a better natural light portrait lens, and just a better short tele low light lens in general being two full stops faster, but the 45/2.8 macro provides the macro capability, which the Sigma will not.

Thanks for the read. The Sigma 56 has continued to be amazing for me. I have it on one of my m4/3 cameras all the time. It has been wonderfully versatile and does an amazing job for portraiture especially.

My question for you is how much do the varying focal lengths of each of the 3 lenses effect compression, particularly for full length outdoor portraits? Is the difference enough to warrant the additional purchase of the 75mm or the 42mm or is it really just a matter of what focal length you want to work with?

Similar to its sibling lenses, the SIGMA 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary produces beautifully sharp images in photo and video. The glass inside the lens has two aspherical elements and one special low dispersion element, which helps reduce levels of chromatic aberration, or color fringing. At the same time, the lens remain light, compact, and solidly built. Autofocus performance is great as well, keeping up with cameras that shoot at 12 frames per second.

The constant f/1.4 aperture of this lens helps crop sensor cameras like the Sony a6500 perform well in low light situations, as well as create beautiful shallow depth-of-field images coveted by most photographers and filmmakers. The rounded 9-blade diaphragm renders smooth bokeh in the background which makes any subject or object in the foreground come to life.

Had enough math? Too bad! Micro four thirds camera systems have a 2x crop factor, so you simply have to double the focal length to get the proper full-frame equivalent. Here is the full-frame equivalent of the SIGMA 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm lenses:

In other words, crop sensor cameras get a much further reach than full-frame cameras. Sporting events, concerts, weddings, and similar events benefit from using crop sensor cameras with longer focal lengths to capture tighter shots. The silver lining with crop sensor cameras so to speak.

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