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

Product Information

Across much of the frame, the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary lens is sharp. Sharpness does fall off a bit when you look toward the extreme corners of the frame, but even then, if you are stopped down, sharpness and resolution remains good. Weighing in at a modest 380g, without hood or caps, the lens is by no means a burden. It is supplied with a solid petal lens hood that bayonets cleanly into place. This surrounds a filter thread of 67mm.The only other adornment is the wide, electronically operating, manual focusing ring. This is very smooth and probably best switched off in camera if MF is not being used. Otherwise, the natural grip on the lens barrel also grips the ring, which could be accidentally moved. As the MF function works with the AF system this could be an issue for some. However, as the AF is so fast and silent, thanks to the excellent stepping motor used, there is little motivation for manual focus in general use. One exception could be macro photography, where small manual adjustments to the point of focus can be useful. As this use would probably involve mounting the camera on a tripod, there would be no issue with accidental shifting of the focus point.

Despite featuring premium-grade all-metal housing, the 17mm lens is nearly four times lighter than the 16mm, with visibly more compact dimensions. Since the Sigma has a faster aperture and has been designed to cover a bigger sensor, it makes sense that it is larger. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. Perhaps obviously, the biggest advantage that this Sigma offers is the incredibly bright F1.4 aperture. As I expected, the out-of-focus area had a nice creamy feel. Please take note, you Micro Four Thirds naysayers, this is smooth, creamy bokeh and a shallow depth of field achieved with a wide-angle lens! Did the Images Stand Up to Inspection?

Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN C Specifications

Sharpness remains very good across the whole image frame, right into the corners (Image credit: Matthew Richards) The new lens seems to be very good value against these, particularly taking into account the ultra-bright maximum aperture. For more options have a look at the Top 21 Best Sigma lenses, or the Top 28 Wide-angle Landscape Lenses. As for sharpness at a close distance, the lenses continue to perform in a very similar manner at all values except their fastest apertures where the Olympus is clearly sharper. This lens is an absolute beast. It’s just as sharp, has rediculous autofocus (OEM Sony lens, of course) and features incredible G-series build quality.

Now, before we finish up the review, there are some a couple of random things I have to cover. Stabilization? MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. I am impressed by how the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 performs with respect to vignetting. Even when shooting wide open, there is not a lot of vignette and in many real-world situations, it would not be noticeable. What little vignette there is can be dealt with by stopping down a few stops, but exposure falloff is not a concern with this APS-C lens.In the official specifications, Sigma states that the 16mm has a maximum magnification of 1:9.9 (0.1x) but it is unclear whether this is referring to Sony APS-C – the primary system the lens was designed for – or 35mm format. If it is the former, we would expect the magnification to be 0.075x in MFT terms, whereas if it is the latter, it would be 0.05x in MFT terms. The Sigma lens also features a brass bayonet mount that is surrounded by a special sealing to keep dust and moisture out. The 17mm, by contrast, features no weather sealing whatsoever, so it is wise to protect it in anything more than a very light shower. Most of the 16mm’s barrel is occupied by the large fly-by-wire focus ring. The deep ridges give you a good grip on the ring and the fact that it is made of rubber means it is comfortable to grasp even in cold temperatures. Another night shooting situation proved slightly challenging for the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens. You can see that the lens produces some comatic aberration when shooting the night sky. This was not restricted solely to the corners either and was prevalent across much of the frame. 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. In the Sigma 16mm F1.4 DC DN C lens, Sigma employed an iris diaphragm with nine rounded blades, which has resulted in quite nice bokeh in our view. We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included several 100% crops for your perusal.

With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/1.4, there is some light fall-off in the corners. Stopping-down to f/4 virtually eliminates this. With 16 elements in 13 groups, the optical system features a multitude of high-tech and high-end components, including three FLD glass elements, two SLD glass elements, and two molded glass aspherical elements. This optical system minimizes optical aberrations and ensures outstanding resolution at wide-open aperture and throughout the aperture range. In particular, the two aspherical lens elements have ultra-high-precision surfaces polished to tolerances under 10 nanometers, minimizing the onion ring bokeh effect that some aspherical elements produce and ensuring clear image quality throughout the frame. In addition, the structure of the optical system gently bends light to minimize sagittal coma flare and deliver optimal optical performance from the center of the frame to the edges. The result is a smooth, round bokeh effect with ample light volume throughout the frame. In addition, the SIGMA Art line includes three lenses for mirrorless cameras that cover a range of photographic needs: 19mm F2.8 DN | Art, 30mm F2.8 DN | Art, and 60mm F2.8 DN | Art. These lenses require no digital processing to correct for optical aberrations, instead using the optical system to minimize them. The new SIGMA 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 f-number of 1.4. This is the large-diameter wide-angle lens for which mirrorless camera users have been waiting. In the case of both lenses, the best performance is found at f/4 but f/2, f/2.8 and f/5.6 all reach similar levels of sharpness.

Supplied Accessories

So yeah, I really do think the Sigma 16mm F1.4is quite literally the best value wide angle lens for Sony APS-C cameras. Speaking of protecting the lens, the petal-shaped lens hood is massive (as I mentioned earlier) and also does its job quite well at protecting the front element against both bumps and flaring. Weather Sealing? Naturally, there’s not a whole of point in having a fast f/1.4 lens if image quality doesn’t hold up when shooting wide-open. As it turns out, sharpness and contrast are maintained very well at the widest aperture. Another bonus is that the wide aperture and short 25cm minimum focus distance enable a fairly tight depth of field and good bokeh, enabling interesting perspective effects.