I was asked to compare the Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Lens to the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Lens on a crop factor camera such as the Sony a6700 to see if there is a significant enough difference between the two to justify using the Sony 55mm over the Sigma 56mm…
Well, I think you will surprised at the results to say the least… One thing to keep in mind of course is that the 55mm lens is made for the full frame camera’s, so it’s value is a lot more in my opinion than a crop factor lens, but with that being said if using on a crop factor camera that goes out the window…
Used prices for both these lenses are significantly less than retail, and the Sigma you can find for around $300 US vs the Sony for around $450 US or so on Ebay…
So just to get it out of the way, the Sigma is cable of a f/1.4 max aperture, so here are the two f/1.4 shots from the Sigma lens which the f/1.8 max aperture Sony can’t do…
Sony vs Sigma
The Sigma has a very slight minimum focus distance advantage, so you can see the quarter is a tiny bit larger for those shots. For the larger view shots the camera was in the same exact spot for both lenses as reference.
Please Click on the images for a larger view….
Conclusions…
So as you can see the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 is a fantastic crop factor lens option when compare to the full frame Sony 55mm f/1.8 Lens… The faster f/1.4 aperture yields a better bokeh rendering in this lab test environment when compared to the f/1.8 Sony lens and has a lot less fringing…
As far as sharpness goes, the Sigma is sharper in the center area @ f/1.8, but not near as sharp in the corner areas. In addition the Sigma has significantly more distortion which you can see in the upper left corner area on the dollar bill.
Contrast and color wise they are very close and it’s hard to say which one looks better in this particular lab test.
As far as fringing goes, the Sigma does a way better job for sure as well. The fringing cleans up on the Sony as you stop down, and in the real world as I said in my review it’s not that bad in my opinion.
Final Thoughts
So what I did not cover in the lab test comparison is the real world results which can be highly subjective. So I encourage you to look at the real world sample photos I have for both lenses in there respective reviews linked below.
So if it were my money being spent I would go for the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC DN Lens when using a crop factor camera over the Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA T* Lens…
