[Music] Greetings again everyone now one of my Favorite things in the world is testing Sigma's i-series lenses whenever they Come out their premium design quality is Quite addictive for photographers with a Little bit of money behind them and it's About time we saw a 15 millimeter one so Here is the Sigma 50 millimeter F2 DG DNC for L Mountain Sony e-mount full Frame or absc mirrorless cameras its Price will be 620 pounds here in the UK Or about 650 dollars in the US I think I'll confirm their prices in the Description below so it's definitely on The expensive side for a 50 millimeter F2 but this thing is clearly intended to Be premium quality and there's Definitely a market of photographers who Want a smaller lighter 50 millimeter Lens but without any compromises I'd Like to thank Sigma UK for learning me a Copy of this lens for a couple of weeks For evaluation although as usual this is A totally independent review There is something about a smaller 50 Millimeter F 1.8 or F2 lens that I Really love sure F 1.4 and F 1.2 is even Better and a brighter but those lenses Tend to be huge and eye-wateringly Expensive and F2 lens can be much Smaller more affordable and feel less Conspicuous for well whatever you're Using it for as well as getting you
Nicely out of focus backgrounds in your Images till particularly on a full frame Camera I long ago ran out of Superlatives to describe the beautiful Build quality of the sigma I series Lenses the way they look and handle and The quality of workmanship behind them Is out of this world metallic solid and Ruggedly handsome in my opinion anyway This is the kind of lens you might keep On your desk just to look at and touch Occasionally for stress relief its Weight of 350 grams is not heavy but you Certainly feel it on your camera I Should also mention that the lens is a Little bigger than some 50 millimeter F 1.8 lenses I've seen in the past but Then again it's not some Cheapo 50 50 And it's more complex Optical formula Needs a bit more glass inside than your Typical double gauze design the rear Mount is where they're sealed and sigma Advertised the lens as being dust and Moisture resistant at the rear there's An autovacus control switch and a lovely Aperture ring which turns with clicks Every third of an f-stop some other Sigma lenses have switches to lock their Aperture rings in or out of auto mode or To toggle whether they click or turn Smoothly unfortunately we don't see Those here then comes the focus ring Which turns incredibly smoothly and Works very responsively with the Focus
Motor if you own this lens on L Mount Then you can customize that Focus ring To work in a linear way which can be Useful for video makers and you'll need Sigmund's USB dock in order to do that Talking about video work the lens does Display quite a lot of focus breathing Here so if you have a more modern Sony Camera you'll want to turn on reading Correction for video work the lenses Autofocus is silent accurate and quick In single shot mode it'll hunt for a Moment before locking onto your subject But if you shoot an auto Vegas Continuous mode you get a major speed And confidence boost as you often do on A Sony camera the lenses front filter Size as a small 58 millimeters and as Well as a normal lens cap it comes with One of sigma's neat magnetic caps too They're not for everyone though it also Comes with a beautifully machined metal Hood the lens does not have image Stabilization overall it's gorgeous Build quality here although its size and Weight are certainly a little greater Than cheaper 50 millimeter lenses and I Do also wish there were a lock to keep The aperture ring either in or out of Auto made anyway more important than all Of that is image quality let start by Testing it on a full frame camera by 42 Megapixel Sony a7r III in camera Corrections are turned on for this test
At f2 we see ridiculously perfect Sharpness in the middle Corner image Quality is just a touch softer but it Still looks fabulous and contrast Remains unusually high there at F 2.8 Sharpness brightness and contrast to Become absolutely perfect now from Corner to corner to stop down to F16 or F22 for softness to creep in to do Diffraction but overall on a full frame Camera this is stupendous image quality Now if you're shooting on an aps-c Camera then this lens would also be very Desirable although there are smaller Dedicated aps-c lenses available but Here are some test results on an aps-c Camera my Sony a5100 for you with its 24 Megapixel sensor again no results are Pretty simple here razor sharpness in The middle and almost razor sharpness in The corners turning it into actual razor Sharpness there at F 2.8 so that's a Spot on performance on aps-c also okay Let's go back to full frame turn off in Camera Corrections and look at Distortion and vignetting the lens shows Almost no Distortion but at f2 there's a Lot of corner Darkness let's stop down To F 2.8 or F4 to see it go away so You'll definitely want to correct for Corner shading here but Distortion is Just fine the lenses minimum Focus Distance is a distinctly average 45 Centimeters I was hoping for better here
Close up image quality is rather soft at F2 a touch better and F 2.8 good and F4 And very sharp at F 5.6 so things aren't Quite so Rosy when shooting close up how Does the lens work against bright light Well no problems here contrast remains Very high and a bare minimum of flaring Is visible and how about coma levels Again even from F2 there are no problems Here right point of light in image Corners look very sharply defined let's Zoom out now and look for sun Stars Nothing really tangible here I'm afraid Evens topped down to F-22 sunstars leave A lot to be desired okay let's move on And look at this lenses blocker those Outer Focus backgrounds look lovely to Me no outlining no weird substructures Just a lovely softness as well as a Little unwanted cat toy shape to your Corner highlight and finally Longitudinal chromatic aberration at f2 As you can see here it's very high Unfortunately it's still there at F4 Although it's at 5.6 is finally mostly Gone so there's another little fly in The ointment there overall well I'm in To mind whether to highly recommend the Lens or not simply because of its price Which is really quite high for a 50 Millimeter F2 and I wish it's close up Image quality were better that's Something important to me for my own Style of shooting and its longitudinal
Chromatic aberration is high also so I Think it has to miss out on being highly Recommended this time but apart from Those niggles the lens is pretty Flawless not to mention ridiculously Sharp and also seriously enjoyable to Use also if you're quite a tactile Person like I am then I can't over Emphasize how lovely that build quality Really is so if you want this level of Quality you simply have to pay for it so At the end of the day this thing Definitely does come recommended Seriously now this is kind of one of my Favorite 50 millimeter lenses that I've Ever tested I think I loved it to be Honest even though it's not totally Perfect but then again I've handled so Many at this point I'm kind of losing Track of them anyway thanks for watching Everyone and to my patreon supporters Thank you so much for helping me keep These freelance reviews Trucking on Check it out in the description below Patreon supporters get all kinds of Bonus content and early access to my More interesting reviews ciao for now Everyone
