Sigma DN Lenses | Sony E-Mount | First Look | 4K

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to take a look at another series of lenses for
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Sony's mirrorless systems and in particular for their APS-C line, either the next or in this case
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the, you know, a6000, a6300 and then what I'm reviewing on the a6500 here
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Now, previously I spent time with Zeiss' lineup of Tuit lenses for Sony's APS-C mirrorless
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And so I thought I'd take a look at Sigma's line. And these are designated as Sigma's DN lenses for mirrorless bodies
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And so they are designed specifically for Sony APS-C. And then also many of them come also in a micro four thirds mount
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So I've taken a look at three different lenses that are a part of the Art series and all share a maximum aperture of f2.8
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They come in a 19mm, a 30mm, and then here I've got the 60mm f2.8 lenses here
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And then also there's one kind of fourth lens that is newer and a little bit of a kind of a departure from the earlier designs
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in that it looks more like, ironically, it looks more like Sigma's Art Series, but it's actually a contemporary lens
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It also has a larger maximum aperture like Sigma's Art Series lenses of f1.4, but it is a contemporary lens as its designation
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And so it is the largest and the most expensive, and it is the only one of the four that is not in the Art Series
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A little bit of irony for you there. But as we take a look at these here today, we're going to look at them hands-on and take a little more detailed look at the build and the design of these
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And so for some of you, they may have flown under the radar because they've actually been out for a little while
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Meanwhile, Sony's A-series of mirrorless APS-C bodies has gotten a lot more popular
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And so anyway, I want to take a little look with you here today. So we're going to jump in and look at them hands-on
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So like basically all Sigma lenses with very few exceptions, they come in really nice little padded cases which is certainly great for transporting them and helps if you're packing them along
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And so that's certainly a big plus for these lenses. Now of course I am relatively new to Sony E-mount and these lenses are not necessarily new
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So I wanted to give you kind of an idea of a visual comparison of size
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And so Canon's 50mm f1.8 STM is one of their smallest non-pancake lenses
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And so you can see, for example, that these lenses compare somewhat favorably to that
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However, they are a little bit more narrow in their circumference. And so a little bit small, a little bit more compact than what that is
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So these are definitely very, very compact lenses. Now, in a bit of a quirk, as you can see, there are three that are very similar, and
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then one of these is not like the other, and that is the 30mm f1.4, which of course has
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the widest aperture, and ironically, it is the most familiar looking of the lenses in
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terms of its build, design, its construction. It looks very much like a Sigma Art Series lens
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However, this is the only one of these four lenses to not be designated for Sony's art series
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And so a little bit of a quirk in that the most premium of this series and the most expensive this one comes in at The rest of these are really right around the mark with the 60mm f2 being the exception at But obviously all of them are significantly cheaper than what this lens is
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They're smaller, they have a smaller maximum aperture, but for some reason all three of these
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are designated as art series lenses, whereas the most art-like of the group is designated as a
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contemporary. So I'll let you chew on that and draw your own conclusions. So we have two 30
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millimeter lenses here in this series. We have a 30 millimeter f2.8 and it's this compact little
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lens right here. And of all these, they share similar construction. They can be had both in a
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black or a silver mount, depending on what your preference is. And so in this case, I've got the
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19mm F2.8 in the silver, the 30mm F2.8 in the black, along with the 60mm F2.8 also in the black
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So we'll give you a look at, you know, kind of the way that these, since these three share a
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similarity of design, we'll take a look at just one of these for you. And so as you can see
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it actually, there is, you know, Sigma's thermal composites that are part of this
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some definitely some metal in the construction these feel like nicely constructed lenses and
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they've managed to build them nice and sturdy without them you know really coming in at too
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heavy a weight and so the 60 millimeter f2.8 is the heaviest at 6.7 ounces or 190 grams
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it is followed in terms of weight actually by the 19 millimeter which weighs in at 5.6 ounces or
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160 grams. The lightest is the 30 millimeter f2.8. It's only 4.9 ounces or 140 grams. But all of them
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of course, range within 50 grams of each other. They're all nice and compact and nice and light
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They really, they balance very nicely on the Sony a6500 body that I'm using to review them on
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Now, there isn't any weather sealing here, but frankly, I don't know that I've seen weather
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ceiling yet on any of the mirrorless lenses that I've personally used or reviewed for either Canon
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or also for Sony's mirrorless systems here. And so, but, you know, little metal lens mount that
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it's constructed on. And so then as we look here, it's somewhat unique in that the focus ring here
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is entirely smooth, which, you know, a more typical look is a rib design like what this is here
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And so I don't know that I'm necessarily crazy about the idea, but because basically the focus ring occupies a good part of the barrel and it's consistent in terms of where it's placed, it's not all that hard to find
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And, you know, frankly, you know, while you can do things like, you know, direct manual focus, you know, people probably won't often employ that on these
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But if you do, they focus fine. Like most mirrorless lenses, this is a focus by wire system, which means, as you can see here
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I can just spin this freely and so what has to happen is it has to be on the body
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It has to be the camera has to be powered on and then if you're actually in a manual focus mode
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the input that is made here will be routed through the circuitry of the lens through the camera and
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the focus motor itself and so then and only then will that actually change any kind of movement of
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the elements. I'm not crazy about focus by wire but that seems to be part and parcel with the
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mirrorless approach to focus. All of these have a pinch caps and obviously
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they're they're very compact in terms of their front element size and
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fortunately that these three lenses all share a common 46 millimeter front filter thread And to that I say bravo because unfortunately most of the mirrorless lenses I previously
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reviewed, there's been zero consistency when it comes to that. And that's very, very true of the Canon lenses for the EF-M mount that have a wide variety
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of front filter thread sizes. Now, that is not true of the 30mm F1.4 contemporary lens that has instead a 52mm slightly larger front element
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Not surprising considering that it has a maximum aperture that is a full two stops faster than any of these lenses here
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The fact that all of these share an f2.8 maximum aperture and a somewhat similar design philosophy means that, of course, they all can share that front filter thread
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And so that's certainly a nice thing if you're looking for a variety of these. So breaking down a little bit further, the 19 millimeter, it has, when you apply Sony's crop factor of 1.5 times, this is an equivalent of 28.5 millimeters
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and so moderately wide, you know, equivalent on full frame. So this is a moderately wide lens that is useful for a number of certain applications
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but of course, if you're looking for a truly wide landscape lens
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this may fall into a bit of a gray area for you and not quite be wide enough
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It's actually a nice focal length for something like what I'm doing right now where I'm trying to get a moderately wide angle of view for recording something like this
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So those that shoot video may find that useful. The 30 millimeter, and this is true obviously of both of these 30 millimeter lenses, it is a full
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frame equivalent of 45 millimeters, which places this right in normal range. It's a very useful
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focal length. And so you kind of have two choices where to go. You can go for cheaper and lighter
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or you can go for the larger 30 millimeter F1.4 lens that is a little bit heavier
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This is 9.35 ounces or 265 grams, of course, compared to the 140 grams of this lens
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And so this is a significantly heavier lens, though not heavy in any kind of absolute sense
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It's obviously considerably larger as well. If we look at the actual length of these two lenses, the 30mm f2.8 is only 1.59 inches or 40.5 millimeters long
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whereas this lens is right under 3 inches, 2.89 inches, and is 73.3 millimeters long
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So in both cases, you're looking at a significant uptick in size and weight of the lens
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but at the same time, you're also getting two extra stops of light in this lens
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And so it kind of depends on what your priorities are. If you're wanting to shoot some low-light situations
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you're wanting to shoot shallow depth-of-field shots, this is probably the better option
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If you're mostly using this as a general purpose lens, maybe some landscape, various things, this lens may be wide enough for you and it certainly is a very nice lens optically
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Finally, there is the 60mm f2.8 and it has an equivalent field of view on full frame of 90mm and so this makes it an excellent portrait lens, very similar to an 85mm focal length
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and so if you're looking for something, a short telephoto for portraits
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this is a nice option for that. And so this is the longest of the bunch
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at 2.2 inches or 56 millimeters, and when I say of this bunch
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I mean the three kind of equivalently designed lenses. We discussed the shortest which is the 30 millimeter Finally the 19 millimeters is still short it only 1 inches or or 45 So all of these are nicely compact and so far I been quite happy impressed with them
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in the way that they function in their operation on a Sony mirrorless body
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And so to give you a breakdown just of the optical designs here, this is nine elements in seven groups, and it has nine rounded aperture blades
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And so it is set apart as being a more traditional wide angle prime from these others
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The rest of them all have, for example, the 19mm has 8 elements in 6 groups
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and so it is a little bit more complex. The 30mm has 7 elements in 5 groups
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And finally, the 60mm has 8 elements in 6 groups. And so none of these really have all that impressive a reproduction ratio 1 to 7 for the 30 millimeter f1.4
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The 19 millimeter is also a 1 to 7 ratio. The 30 millimeter f2.8 is a little bit poor 1 to 8
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And then finally, the 60 millimeter is a 1 to 7 ratio
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And so, you know, most of these are right around a 0.14 times magnification
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So if you're looking for a macro type lens, look elsewhere. These are not going to give you a great amount of reproduction
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So as you can see, all of these lenses are nicely made
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They're nicely compact. Even the largest of these obviously is the f1.4 lens
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and it is a fair bit larger than what the other lenses are, but it certainly is not large by any stretch of the imagination
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It's still a compact lens, and the 19mm, 30mm, and 60mm f2.8s are really compact lenses
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I also found that they're extraordinarily quiet to focus, basically silent in focus
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which on that point makes them to be nice applications for use with video lenses as well
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We're going to look a little bit closer at image quality as well as autofocus
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in the next part, the final part of my review here. But in the meantime, you can look down below for a linkage to my image gallery that I've been adding a lot of images to
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And frankly, you know, not to jump ahead of myself here, but I liked some of these lenses well enough that I've added them to my own little Sony mirrorless kit
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Because I find them to be useful for a variety of different purposes
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And ultimately, I think that what makes them very, very attractive is that they are really quite inexpensive
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And the smaller lens series, the trio of those, are all right around the $200 US dollar mark
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And that makes some really pretty fantastic bargains when you look at their build and their price
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Or I should say build and performance ratio to price. It really is quite impressive
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This lens is a little bit more expensive. But then again, it's also a fairly rare f1.4 lens in Sony's mirrorless system
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makes it as large an aperture as any of the kind of APS-C specific lenses
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And so it's a little over $300 US dollars, but still it is a relative bargain compared to other lenses
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that come anywhere close to both the aperture value and the optical performance of the lens
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So if you'll stay tuned, we're going to jump in again in our next episode looking at these lenses
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and give you a little bit more look at the image quality and the autofocus performance
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In the meantime, I'm Dustin Abbott and if you haven't already you can follow me on social
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media or become one of my patrons. And of course, if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button
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Thanks for watching. Have a great day

Sigma DN Lenses | Sony E-Mount | First Look | 4K

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Sigma DN Lenses | Sony E-Mount | First Look | 4K

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