The Fujifilm X Series system is quite popular because of several reasons with one being there is a great selection of lenses to support the cameras. These lenses aren’t just made by Fujifilm but also from other manufacturers as well. For instance, Sigma has recently started producing lenses with X mount, and one of these is the 56mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary. I’ve tested this lens previously in other mounts, so while this review may be a bit more condense, I’ll be focusing more on how it performs with X Series cameras. These lenses were obviously better looking than the homely ones that came before. They forced the whole industry to suddenly pay attention to exterior design. Prior to that, only Leica lenses were designed with attractive appearance as a high priority (i.e. good fonts, no made-up markings, respect for proper abbreviations like “m” for metres and the full word “feet” for feet because “ft” is a non-standard (and ugly) abbreviation, etc.).

I don’t own any of these other lenses anymore, I just have Fuji’s 56mm. It gets out of my way and lets me focus on my shoots.” I am not a fan of 85mm nor 50mm for portraits, unless it if for full body pictures. Faces are still to rounded for my tastes and noses on some look unflatteringly large.

Along with the sturdy design of the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 comes a high degree of weather and dust sealing – another big advantage. It is also an indication why Canon, Sony and Nikon show less interest for smaller sensor sized systems. It is the APS-C/MFT segment that get the biggest hit in dropping sales.

Radiant Photo– Radiant Photo superior quality finished photos with perfect color rendition, delivered in record time.Your photos — simply RADIANT.The way they are meant to be. The L-mount version of the 30mmF1.4 received the basic weather-resistance to bring it into line with the later 16mm and 56mm lenses. ms18, sigma 16, 30, 56mm 1.4 are excellent and affordable. Hope Sigma can make 24mm 1.4 dc dn next and probably native mirrorless 18-35mm 1.8 for those video shooters. Image quality is where this lens really shines! Many people are concerned about sharpness when it comes to a portrait lens and the Sigma 56mm f/1.4 delivers!

It's an unfortunate development, stuff like the Sigma 56/1.8 (or even the 18-50/2.8) is still hard to match size-wise on FF, the Samyang 75/1.8 is the only FF short tele that gets close without trading speed; and Sigma's own 90/2.8 is the only one that gets close while giving up speed, ironically I think it would work just as well on APS-C.

Before we go on, I’m going to make this clear, like we have previously. In fact, I’m going to quote specifically from our Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG DN Art review. Here’s what we said: Initially, three F1.4 prime lenses ( 16mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary, 30mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary, 56mm F1.4 DC DN | Contemporary), which are currently available in four mounts (Sony E-mount, Canon EF-M mount, Micro Four Thirds mount and L-Mount) will be simultaneously released in X Mount, and the lineup will expand in the future. Specifically, the recently-released SIGMA 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | Contemporary lens, currently available for Sony E-mount and L-Mount, is tentatively scheduled for a December 2022 release. When the message “Lens update complete.” appears on the camera display, the firmware update of the lens is successfully over. Follow the instructions on the screen to close the process. After closing it, remove the USB cable from the camera and the PC. The short version is this: if Fuji release a fast prime in the 70mm vicinity, I’d rather have that. But compared to any other long lens available for fuji bodies, this is hands down my favourite option.”

Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN Contemporary Image Quality:

That is a clear indication that smaller sensor sized cameras are going through rough(er) times versus camera's with larger sensors. The boss of Sigma stated in an interview that new lenses will be produced when manufacturing capacity is released by declining demand for existing lenses. Fuji finally opened the doors. Sigma walks through. Fuji folks--who don't care at all about Sony--are excited because whatever else Sigma has done in the past, they're making lenses for us now. We don't want to be told that we're just a worthless afterthought because Sony seems to be moving away from APS-C. Like the 16mm and 30mm before it, the 56mm sports a bright f1.4 focal ratio which can achieve shallow depth-of-field effects, especially with its longer focal length. The dust and splash-proof design features a rubber sealing at the mount and the lens is supplied with a circular hood. The barrel measures 60mm in length, 67mm in maximum diameter, weighs 280g and employs a 55mm filter thread. The optical design uses 10 elements in six groups, has nine rounded aperture blades and a closest focusing distance of 50cm. There’s no optical stabilisation, but many of the bodies it’ll be mounted on feature body-based stabilisation of their own.