Sigma 402965 16 mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary Sony E Lens - Black

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Before we round it all off, I’d like to offer two main alternatives for your consideration. Sony E 15mm F1.4 G All in all there is a lot to like and little to criticize here. It’s a nicely made lens that has a premium look and feel to it. Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. This material is so high-quality that we’re also incorporating it into our Art and Sports lenses to provide lightness and thermal consistency." [Sigma] On a slightly unrelated note, the Sigma 16mm F1.4 has also gotten some love from the astrophotography community.

Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens Review Sigma 16mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens Review

Carrying on from the more mass-market standard and telephoto EF-M zoom lenses, this is the obvious choice for anybody wanting an ultra-wide viewing angle. Wide-angle zooms can be notoriously big and heavy, but this one has the same kind of retractable design as the EF-M 15-45mm lens, shoehorning seriously wide viewing into physical dimensions of just 61x58mm. The long-zoom aperture of f/5.6 is slightly wider than in the standard and telephoto zooms, and this lens also goes one better in terms of build quality, with a metal rather than plastic mounting plate. Still, the Rokinon can be a solid choice if you enjoy manual and want to save a lot of money (oh, and it’s the best lens for astro like I mentioned earlier). In any case, the Sigma 16mm F1.4 is an absolute legend of a lens. ConclusionStopping down (narrowing) the aperture is always an option for preventing an image from getting too bright, though stopping down negates the need for the wide f/1.4 aperture, and the subject-isolating shallow depth of field is lost. One nice touch that I’ve seen on some of the ART series lenses and that is included on the 16mm DN lens is a rubberized transition zone on the included lens hood right where you would grip the lens hood to loosen or tighten it. It’s that kind of small attention to detail that impresses someone like me who sees a lot of lenses. When I'm photographing landscapes and architecture with corner sharpness being desired, I'm probably using f/8 or f/11 to obtain enough depth of field for in-focus corner details, and this lens works well for these purposes at these apertures. With Canon now concentrating most of their R&D efforts on their full-frame mirrorless camera range, and on continuing their DSLRs for at least the near future, we wouldn't be surprised if the EF-M 32mm is the last APS-C lens that they release for quite some time.

Sigma 402965 16 mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary Sony E Lens - Black

It also features a ‘hybrid’ image stabilizer, which can correct for x-y shift as well as the more usual angular vibration or wobble. This makes it more effective for close-up shooting although, in full macro mode, it’s no real substitute for a tripod. While most macro lenses top out at 1.0x for their maximum magnification factor at the shortest focus distance, this lens boosts magnification to 1.2x, thanks to a switchable ‘Super Macro’ mode. Taking the testing outdoors, we next look at a series of center of the frame 100% resolution crop examples. For weight, it comes in at about 14.3oz (405g). This heavy-ish weight, combined with the large size, made it feel slightly off-balanced, if I must admit, on my a6400.I shoot with a wrist strap and was able to handhold & carry my setup around for a while without any hand fatigue. The lens looks very nice and has a sleek, smooth design and finish. It pairs quite well with a Sony camera and doesn't look dissimilar from some of Sony's own lenses. The large focus ring has a rubberized finish and feels very nice to use, plus it's wide at just under a couple inches (around 50 millimeters). The lens looks good and balances well with the A6500. Focusing is down to 0.25m, or 0.82 feet. This gives a maximum magnification of 1:9.9, which is about what would be expected of a traditional 35mm or so wide standard lens. Comatic aberrations are something I try to test and look for with any wide angle options that might potentially be used for astrophotograpy (stars) or similar purposes. The wide maximum aperture of this lens only heightens a lot of people’s expectations for using this lens for astro work. Unfortunately this has never been a big Sigma strength in the many Sigma lenses that I’ve tested. They aren’t the worse performers in this metric, but neither are they near the top, either. The same truth applies here. While I didn’t get an amazing astro night during my review period (this time of year brings either overcast conditions or bitter cold conditions, often with a bright moon), I did get one extremely cold (-32 C) night were I was able to go out (briefly) and shoot stars (brrrrr….). Positive is that there is little action that a 1/8000 sec shutter speed cannot stop, but if the subject has very bright or reflective colors, even a 1/8000 sec shutter speed might not be fast enough to avoid blown highlights.

Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens for Sony E (402965 Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens for Sony E (402965

The 16mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary is the world's first interchangeable lens for mirrorless Sony E-mount cameras in the APS-C format to offer a 24mm focal length (35mm equivalent) and F1.4 brightness. The lens for Micro Four Thirds offers a 32mm focal length (35mm equivalent) with the same bright F1.4 aperture. This is the large-diameter wide-angle lens for which mirrorless camera users have been waiting. Now, before we finish up the review, there are some a couple of random things I have to cover. Stabilization? That means you’re getting low magnification (something like .10x I believe). However, close focus distance is actually pretty good at about 10in (25.4cm).With increasing frequency, manufacturers are relying on software over physical lens design to handle geometric distortion. If you are a videographer or vlogger, this lens should definitely be of interest to you. This is a great focal length, in either Super 35 (full APS-C frame – 24mm full frame equivalent) or 30P crop mode (where it frames a little tighter – probably closer to a 30mm full frame equivalent via a roughly 1.8x crop factor), and will give you quality footage with great detail and quality autofocus. The footage is noticeably sharper than average, and I fully expect this lens to be a favorite with videographers. Of course, there are other great features in the optical department besides sharpness. For instance, color and contrast rendering are excellent. There is some vignetting at f1.4, which is to be expected but stopping down does help. By f2.8, most of it is gone. As for flare, I found it to be highly resistant to it, since I didn’t experience much at all while I was testing it. Lastly there is a little barrel distortion but this isn’t something that is out of the ordinary for a wide angle lens.

Sigma 16 mm f/1.4 (C) AF DC DN Lens for Canon EF-M X Mount

The "DC" in the name indicates that this lens provides an image circle wide enough to cover (only) an APS-C imaging sensor, and the "DN" indicates that this lens was designed for short flange mirrorless cameras.

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Otherwise, using the lens with a Nikon camera is pretty much identical in experience to using it with one of the other mounts. Focusing is fast, accurate and quiet, making it well-suited to a range of different subjects. The USPS love stamps shared above have an image area that measures 1.05 x 0.77" (26.67 x 19.558mm), and the overall individual stamp size is 1.19 x 0.91" (30.226 x 23.114mm). The Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary Lens is the last of Sigma's F1.4 mirrorless lens trio being simultaneously reviewed. Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, as coma performance( what is coma?) leaves a lot to be desired. The Sigma 16mm, 30mm and 56mm F1.4 DC DN C are three new, affordable compact standard prime lenses for Canon's APS-C sensor mirrorless camera range.