Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN | C Assessment

The world isn’t precisely wanting 50mm lenses for full body cameras, so one would possibly wonder if we actually want one other. Sigma clearly believes we do, and has just lately launched two such lenses in fast succession – this Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN within the Up to date sequence, and a 50mm F1.4 DG DN within the Artwork vary.

Whereas at first this might sound just a little extreme, on nearer inspection we are going to see that the 2 lenses serve fairly totally different functions and are geared toward various kinds of person. The f/1.4 Artwork mannequin is huge, heavy and prices £849, whereas this f/2 Up to date lens is small, half the burden and, at £619, has a considerably extra accessible value.

It’s a while since I used an f/2 50mm lens, as I’m usually drawn to wider most apertures comparable to f/1.2 or f/1.4. These super-wide apertures often include a value premium, however 50mm f/1.8 lenses – or Niffy Fifties – are usually fairly low cost and plentiful in most mounts. It appears odd then that the mannequin on take a look at right here stops at f/2, and comes at a more-than funds value, however I’m hoping that the compromise within the most aperture worth pays us again in picture high quality when the lens is used large open.

Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C: Options

This Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN lens is designed for full body mirrorless cameras, and sits within the vary of Sigma’s Up to date lenses together with eight different mounted focal lengths and three zooms designed for a similar mounts.

Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

The prime lenses within the sequence stand out for his or her exterior design – good metallic barrels, metallic rings and a handbook aperture ring. Their comparatively reasonable most apertures all permit them to be fairly compact, although their in depth use of metallic means they aren’t as gentle as lenses that use fashionable polycarbonate our bodies. So, they’re small, powerful and nice-looking, relatively than merely small and lightweight.

The lens makes use of 11 components in complete and teams them into 9 clusters, with three aspherical components and one Tremendous Low Dispersion component within the development. The iris is comprised of 9 curved blades to create a rounded aperture, and the lens permits us to concentrate on topics simply 45cm from the digital camera sensor. The L-mount unit I used to be utilizing measures 68mm in size and is 70mm throughout at its widest level – the Sony E mount model could be very barely longer – and it weighs 350g (345g in E-Mount).

Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

The lens comes with a hood and a really neat magnetic entrance cap that snaps into place over the entrance of the lens. Sigma additionally features a common plastic cap for these fearful of recent know-how. The filter thread is 58mm.

Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C: Construct and dealing with

The all-metal physique of the lens feels excellent certainly, and the engineering is refined, neat and very properly completed. Steel barrels could be a low-cost possibility for some Chinese language manufacturers with extra agricultural manufacturing experience, however right here it’s used to present us a high quality physique that means it is going to final perpetually relatively than one thing that’s simply huge and clunky.

The aperture ring makes a satisfying click on because it turns, indicating to the ear in addition to the finger every third-stop because it passes. In contrast to with low value lenses, the aperture positions are evenly spaced on the ring and no third-stop is missed.

Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

An unmistakable pause in clicks stands between the f/22 place and the A(uto) mark that permits the digital camera to take management. There is no such thing as a strategy to de-click the aperture ring, so movie makers beware, and no depth-of-field scale is current. The shortage of depth-of-field markings is a results of the free-flying focus ring that responds to all of the customization choices provided by the Lumix cameras I used it on – change of path, linear/non-linear response and many others.

A raised change on the barrel permits us to pick out between handbook and auto focusing, however you may also management the main focus mode by way of the digital camera physique with out touching the change.

Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

The lens isn’t the smallest 50mm I’ve seen however it’s nonetheless fairly compact, and is blessed with one of many nicest designs I’ve seen in a contemporary physique. It’s fashionable, however it has sufficient conventional dealing with touches to make me really feel as if I’m in charge of my photos – whether or not I’m or not. It makes a welcome change from the featureless plastic barrels we so typically see lately.

Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C: Autofocus

A key function of those DN lenses is that they’re designed for mirrorless cameras and thus reply higher to their focusing methods than lenses designed on the again of older DSLR fashions.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/1250s, f/16, ISO200, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

Therefore this lens has a a lot better AF system for the Lumix cameras than the earlier Artwork lenses in L mount do, and I observed instantly that the lens reacts rapidly when the digital camera instructions to it do something.

Each the standing-start time and the monitoring time are a lot diminished. I used to be in a position to shoot topics shifting in direction of me and believe that the image can be recorded with the concentrate on the topic, relatively than the place the topic had been a second in the past.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/8000s, f/2, ISO200, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C: Picture High quality

If you end up compromising on a extremely quick most aperture there needs to be some pay-off, and I’d count on that within the high quality of picture created proper throughout the vary of f-stops. And fortuitously that’s what this lens delivers. I are inclined to shoot wide-open so much, so good picture high quality on the widest apertures, which is hardest to supply, is very necessary to me.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/125s, f/2, ISO400, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

I used to be happy to find that the lens could be very properly sharp at f/2. However not solely is it sharp, there’s additionally solely the very faintest trace of a really minor cyan/crimson chromatic fringe alongside excessive distinction edges which is able to solely be observed by these wanting too intently. I used to be utilizing the 47MP Lumix S1R, notably to present such errors no hiding place.

It’s fairly onerous to say that the center apertures produce definitively sharper and extra detailed photographs than the widest apertures, or that the centre of the picture is wholly higher than the sides, as efficiency throughout the body and the aperture vary is remarkably even.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/80s, f/16, ISO200, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

In technical assessments it’s potential to see, when outcomes are studied very intently, that edge efficiency is barely under the element gathering skills of the center of the body – and that the efficiency at f/6.3 is fractionally higher than at f/2 and f/16. However in sensible use, I feel most customers can be very pleased with their outcomes regardless of which aperture was used or the place the topic is positioned.

Some nook shading is seen in plain backgrounds when the widest aperture is used, however it isn’t critical and it disappears rapidly as soon as we shut down a few stops.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/320s, f/2.5, ISO200, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

Out-of-focus highlights are pleasingly un-distracting, although maybe not ‘creamy’, and the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus is properly clean. There is no such thing as a noticeable curvilinear distortion to be reported, as one would hope with a ‘normal’ focal size lens.

Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C: Verdict

It’s fairly protected to say that anybody who buys this lens can be pleased with it, as long as they’re conscious it’s simply barely heavier than many plastic equivalents. With its f/2 most aperture I can’t let you know it’s an thrilling or dramatic lens, or that the consequences it offers you will make the viewer ‘wow’.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/3200s, f/5, ISO400, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

However f/2 is nonetheless large sufficient to ship a decently shallow depth-of-field impact, and extra importantly you’ll know your photographs can be sharp at no matter aperture you employ. It’s one factor to have super-wide apertures, however one other to have large apertures which might be useable, so I’d relatively have an f/2 lens that I can use at f/2 than a f/1.4 lens that I have to cease all the way down to f/3.5.

The factor that units this Sigma Up to date lens other than a lot of the options is its construct and design. The metallic physique makes it really feel like a high quality product, and the engineering and subsequent dealing with expertise actually backs that up. It’s a very good lens to make use of, and the way in which it feels and handles provides it a personality that many different lenses, of all kinds of focal lengths, simply don’t have.

That doesn’t enhance the image high quality after all, however it does add to the enjoyment of utilizing it – which for a lot of is sort of as necessary because the picture high quality.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/1600s, f/2, ISO400, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/8000s, f/2, ISO200, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

Taken with Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN C mounted on a Panasonic Lumix S1R digital camera, at 1/1600s, f/2, ISO200, 50mm. Picture credit score: Damien Demolder.

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