review: Sigma 56mm for micro-four-thirds
published : 2024.12.25
I used this lens for a year and found it a mixed bag. For one thing, it renders nice images with both sharpness and decent "character". But it's a tough lens to keep balanced on the E-M5, and the auto-focus is such a mess -- even on a camera with phase-detect sensing -- that I gave I traded it in after a year. Auto-focus is usually not a priority for me, but I'd bought this to photograph my son at his basketball games so it was a factor in my purchasing this thing in the first place. I will add that in this lens's defense, I found center-cropped field of view on the 56mm a little tight for the kind of photography I do outside of high school basketball. With a fair chunk of change invested in this glass (by my standards) I moved on more because this lens didn't fit the original purpose rather than having *no* place in my camera bag.
images
As usual, I'll let the photos speak for themselves. And boy, I have no complaints about these results.
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- sigma 56mm - micro four thirds
Flare, vignetting, and chromatic aberrations were minimal, which is nice on a third-party lens.
All of the photos above show good focus. What I'm not showing are the countless images taken when the auto-focus had gotten it completely wrong. While always fast, the auto-focus could be wildly inaccurate on some occasions. I found that it had no idea idea where it had been last used and could go on some truly strange hikes in the wrong direction altogether. I lost a lot of photos of my son's games this way. I mean .. a lot.
build and use
I'm using the micro-four-thirds platform because of its small size, low cost, and good-enough images. This lens, which appears to be the same size as the Sigma lenses for larger APS-C cameras, is on the large size for a prime on the micro-four-thirds platform. It's also heavy.
The build is superb, however. While largely plastic, it has a good feel to the focus ring and generally feels solid and weighty without going overboard. The accessory ring is 55mm, which is a older standard that still checks out. I had no complaints about the way this lens handled, aside from the awkward weight on my E-M5.
conclusion
If you don't need sports-grade auto-focus, and can use the mid-telephoto field of view, this might be a decent lens for you. It produces lovely results. But, I do believe Sigma has stopped producing these lenses for the platform, so you might be stuck with the used market. Also, the auto-focus simply can't be trusted and it's neither a small not cheap lens and just as I decided to put my money elsewhere, you might find better investments.
The database is based on the CMS I made for this website. I could weld a user authentication piece to it and make it available for the public, for sure. I'll have a look at that in the weeks to come.
rand()m quote
Build a little, test a little, learn a lot.
—Wayne E. Meyer
2 in 10! what great news. hugs I truly sympathize.
what's the database? anything that can be given out to other sufferers?