Product Description
Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary Overview
An especially sleek portrait-length prime, the 56mm f/1.4 DC DN is part of Sigma‘s Contemporary series of lenses, and is designed for use with APS-C-format Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras. The lens is characterized by its bright f/1.4 maximum aperture, which suits working in difficult lighting conditions and also offers improved control over depth of field for isolating subjects and working with selective focus techniques. The optical design utilizes two aspherical elements and one SLD element, which help to reduce both spherical and chromatic aberrations for greater sharpness and clarity. A super multilayer coating has also been applied to suppress flare and ghosting in order to achieve more contrast and color accuracy when working in strong lighting conditions. Complementing the optics is a stepping AF motor, which suits both photo and video applications due to its quick, precise, and near-silent performance.
Ultra-Fast f/1.4 Aperture
The bright f/1.4 aperture excels in low-light scenes and creates stunning background blur, giving portraits depth, clarity, and artistic subject separation even in challenging lighting.
Superior Optical Precision
Two aspherical elements and one SLD element minimize distortion and chromatic aberrations, ensuring edge-to-edge sharpness, high contrast, and true-to-life color accuracy in every shot.
Ideal Portrait Focal Length
Designed for APS-C cameras, the 56mm focal length delivers an 84mm full-frame equivalent, producing flattering compression perfect for portraits, fashion, weddings, and expressive close-ups.
Smooth & Silent Autofocus
The stepping motor autofocus system delivers fast, accurate, and near-silent focusing, making this lens ideal for both photography and professional video recording applications.
What Comes With the Lens
Designed for everyday shooting convenience, the Sigma 56mm F/1.4 DC DN includes essential accessories that protect your lens and enhance usability, ensuring durability, safe storage, and consistent performance wherever your photography takes you.
Accessories List
- Front Lens Cap
- Rear Lens Cap
- Lens Hood
- User Manual
Professional Portrait Results
Capture expressive portraits with beautiful background separation, sharp facial details, and natural colors, making this lens ideal for studio, outdoor, and creative portrait photography.
Low-Light Confidence
Shoot confidently in dim environments using the bright f/1.4 aperture, preserving detail and clarity without sacrificing image quality, even when natural light is limited.
Reliable for Video Creators
The silent autofocus and balanced design make this lens perfect for video work, delivering smooth focus transitions and stable handling for cinematic footage and professional content creation.
Smooth, Pleasing Bokeh
The rounded nine-blade diaphragm produces smooth, natural bokeh, allowing photographers to create visually striking images with soft background highlights and refined depth of field control.
Compact Power for Serious Creators
Balancing compact design with exceptional optical performance, the Sigma 56mm F/1.4 DC DN is built for photographers and videographers who demand portability, precision, and stunning image quality in every creative situation.
Kshitij SrivastavaKshitij Srivastava –
The go-to APSC portrait lens
Amazing lens. If one did their research, they’d know that this is the one and only go-to and budget portrait lens for APSC right now. I won’t write about the features here as it’s all there on multiple YT videos. I’m instead going to focus on who should get it and why one should get it over/along the kit lens – because I’m not a professional and have spent quite some time wondering whether I should shell my money on extra lenses as an enthusiast.Who:Doesn’t matter if you’re a professional or an enthusiast. If you take a lot of portraits, or like street photography, or mostly go out shooting in evening/low-light conditions, go for this lens.Why:1. If you’ve spent your money on expensive cameras like a6400/a6600, you’re not doing them enough justice with the kit lens.I have the 18-135 kit lens and although it’s an amazing all-rounder, it just falls short in certain areas. Kit/zoom lenses are engineered to accommodate a range of focal lengths and that is achieved with some trade offs like vignettes, softness over the higher focal lengths, significant barrel distortions at the narrow and wide end, etc.2. The F1.4 aperture of Sigma is wide enough for low-light photography and beautiful portraits with good subject separation. If you’re pulling your camera out at an event, those pictures better be good :)Cons:1. There is a slight barrel distortion but it’s a little trade off for what this lens has to offer at this price.2. Focal length difficult to work with in tight spaces like rooms, etc.—I have attached full/cropped pictures for side by side comparison of images taken on the sigma and the kit lens to give a perspective on the differences. The pictures have been taken at minimum focal distance possible and I’ve tried to keep the images similar for better comparison.Update (after few months of use)————In love with this lens! I must admit that it’s a little difficult to work with in tight spaces (indoors in general) but I keep finding my self reaching out for this instead of the kit lens whenever I’m heading out. This one’s a no brainier for portraits, food, and objects in general given you have a little space to shuffle around. It’s even good for street photography if you want to keep a safe distance from subjects and don’t want to stick your camera into people’s faces.Attached few more pictures from the lens.
23 people found this helpful
Saad Shaikh –
Impeccable performance
Best lens you can buy for Sony A6XXX cameras. It’s so sharp that I had to take away the sharpness and clarity in Lightroom. 10/10 price to performance. You can’t get a better quality lens than this at this price point
Not your average reviewerNot your average reviewer –
Very sharp even at F1.4
EDIT (11-Apr-2021): Added some more sample shotsI just got this yesterday so I haven’t used the lens much and can’t comment on every aspect of it but I’ve attached 2 photos of a table fan along with 100% zoom/crop of certain regions from those photos.As you can see, this lens is tack sharp, even at the widest aperture of F1.4. At F2.0, the image looks the sharpest to me but I haven’t shot many photos to be able to judge this. In my sample shots, you can see every little speck of dust and tiny little cloth fibers as well. These are pretty much invisible to the naked eye unless you look really close at the thing you’re shooting.The images have some barrel distortion but I could hardly notice the difference even after correcting the distortion in Lightroom, except on some images where I took pictures of geometric objects. Be sure to capture RAW or RAW+JPEG with this lens because the lens profile is embedded into the RAW files so you can correct lens distortion and chromatic aberrations with two clicks in Lightroom using the embedded profile. This is not available if you shoot only JPEGs. Speaking of chromatic aberrations, I noticed some purple fringing on the edges of object outlines on a couple of photos that I took with flash enabled. It’s not too bad and Lightroom can correct it if you shoot RAW but honestly, I think the fringing just makes since images look better but that’s subjective.Video autofocus is alright. Good even, but definitely not like a native Sony lens. I think my 16-50mm kit lens does better autofocus. It worked fine for me most of the times but sometimes it’ll just take way too long to focus.One minor downside (for me) is that the focus ring is very smooth and because of that, while screwing the lens onto the lens mount, it’d slip and I’d have to hold the non movable parts of the lens to screw it on. It’s a minor gripe and I’m sure it’ll get easier the more times I do this.Another downside is that it doesn’t have OSS but you knew that already. If you have steady hands, you’re good. If not, just get a gimbal or a tripod. DJI Ronin SC should have gotten cheaper now. I don’t have steady hands but I was still able to take sharp photos most of the time, even while focusing manually.I’m using this with a Sony A6400 and I own the Sigma 16mm F1.4 as well. They’re both great lenses and the 16mm even got a firmware update that makes manually focusing a whole lot easier.I might update my review after I’ve used the lens more but don’t count on it.Cheers!20/10 would recommend
5 people found this helpful
Nitin Tns GreenNitin Tns Green –
Budget portrait photography beast – Read full review below
oh man using it by 2 months in my sony a6400 amazing sharp lens as always from sigma.i have sigma wide angle 16 mm too that’s why i can’t stop my self buying this one too, if you are into portrait photography just go with this lens no regrets – i have done a full unboxing review and test video of this lens on my youtube channel- ” Nitin Tns Green ” just go and watch i’m sure my video will help you more to make your choice to buy or not and yah thanks me later there 🙂
6 people found this helpful
AkiAki –
A Game-Changing Lens 📸✨
SIGMA 56mm F1.4 prime lens is one of the best lenses out there for sony APS-C series.The image quality this lens delivers is truly remarkable. The sharpness and clarity of the images it produces is fantastic, with stunning bokeh effects in my portraits. The low light performance is also great, especially for outdoor nigh-time street photography.I’ve tested this lens in various environments, including rain and wet conditions, and it has consistently performed without any issues. Its build quality and weather sealing makes it reliable and durable.I’ve attached a few sample images to this review to demonstrate its capabilities. You can see more of these images on my Instagram (i_aakashahuja).Cheers!
55 people found this helpful
Giridhar.G –
Genuine product and excellent performance.
I recently purchased the sigma 56mm f1.4 for my A6700. I really worried about the quality or what will i do if I receive a fake or used product. But that didn’t happen. I was genuinely happy about the delivery and the product. The package was sealed with official sigma logo. And the shipper delivered the product 2 days before the actual estimated delivery date. This is a major upgrade from the kit lens and I very happy with the results I’m getting out of this lens. Go for it you won’t regret it.
VishnuVishnu –
Best portrait lens and for street photography
Must buy lens for Sony apsc e-mount.Price-wise- Very reasonable in comparison to native lens.Performance- auto focus response is very fast, Bokeh is mind blowing.Ergonomics- well built, strong construction and balances very well against the camera.Low light performance- Very very capable low light capability.Colorado reproduction- Colours look warm and rich. Tones are beautiful, the jpeg images are itself good enough and won’t have to bother with raw images.Valve for money- I purchased the lens at 26K, it’s competition Sony 50mm 1.8 native lens is just a couple of thousand cheaper. Comparing the two, the sharpness of sigma is remarkable. The Sony lens however has optical stabilization so it may perform better on A6300, A6000 at low shutter speed. If you own a A6500, undoubtedly one should buy the sigma.Cons- no in body stabilization so best suited for A6500.
22 people found this helpful
Dr. ANKUR GOGOI –
Excellent lens with crisp bokeh
Excellent lens with crisp bokeh. Satisfied with the outcome. Purchased for my Sony A6700.
Edwin –
Too good
Bought a crop sensor camera Trust me just buy this u don’t have any regret buying
Abhay HalpatiAbhay Halpati –
Blur And Bookeh
Nice Blur And Bookeh 🤩 Awesome Build Quality. And Fast Autofocus And Sharp Image
2 people found this helpful