Sigma supports Sony APS-C with 56mm f/1.4 portrait lens: pricing confirmed

First announced at Photokina 2018, Sigma’s new 56mm f/1.4 prime lens offers an effective 84mm focal length on mirrorless Sony APS-C cameras including the A6000, A6300 and Sony A6500, while on Olympus mirrorless cameras like the OM-D E-M1 II it’s effectively a 112mm f/1.4. It's an interesting development for Sony APS-C mirrorless fans, who are still waiting for more news on the rumored new high-end Sony A7000.

In both cases it makes a perfect wide aperture ‘portrait’ lens for low-light shooting and attractive background blur. The best news is the price, which has just been announced: in the UK the Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary will go on sale at £399.99 and will be available from November 2018. In the US it’s on pre-sale at $479.

That’s pretty good value for a premium-quality f/1.4 prime, and although it’s part of Sigma’s ‘Contemporary’ range, the company says its “remarkable” optical quality rivals that of its premium ‘Art’ lenses. It comes with a 9-bladed rounded diaphragm, a dust- and splash-proof design and a smooth AF system well suited to video.

Good news for Sony fans

Sony and Olympus were pretty quiet at Photokina. Sony is saying nothing about its plans for its APS-C camera system, which seems like it’s in the doldrums, while Olympus is sticking with the Micro Four Thirds format despite its long-time technology partner Panasonic stepping into the full frame market.

But Olympus is defiant about the relevance and importance of its sensor format and we’re hearing rumours about a new high-end Sony APS-C camera that could see this format revived.

Sigma certainly has some faith in Sony APS-C E-mount, as the 56mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary is the company’s third fast-aperture prime lens for this format, following on from the original 30mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary and later 16mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary. Sigma has now completed its line-up of portable wide-angle, standard, and telephoto lenses for the Sony APS-C E-mount system.

READ MORE:

The best Sony lenses in 2018

The best portrait lens

The best Sony cameras for 2018

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Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com