Sigma 56mm f/1.4 vs Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 on APS-C

[Pieter]

I've been looking for a better portrait lens my A6000 (now A6500) for quite a while. Even though I generally like the Sony 50mm f/1.8 OSS, it's a bit soft wide open and I really dislike the longitudinal chromatic abberation on it. Been considering the Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8, but from all comparisons I could find, the images from both these lenses are virtually identical. When early 2018 Sigma put a new portrait DC DN lens on their roadmap, they had me interested!

Now LensTip reviewed the Sigma 56mm f/1.4. In the article they are a bit sceptical about the Sigma's edge performance as it doesn't improve much when stopping down. It is interesting however that they also tested the much revered Zony 55/1.8 and gave results on the APS-C edge performance. Both lenses were tested on the A7Rii in APS-C mode so results are directly comparable.

www.lenstip.com/550.4-Lens_review-Sigma_C_56_mm_f_1.4_DC_DN_Image_resolution.htmlw

www.lenstip.com/483.4-Lens_review-Sony_Carl_Zeiss_Sonnar_T*_FE_55_mm_f_1.8_ZA_Image_resolution.htmlI

In essence the maximum center performance of the Zony (at f/2.8-f/8) is just marginally better than the Sigma's edge performance wide open. The Sigma's center performance is better than anything we've seen before, ever. The LoCA-performance is much better than the Sony 50/1.8 and 55/1.8 as well. Sigma really did make a winner for the Sony APS-C system here. For your information I put both tests in 1 graph.

Regards, Pieter

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