Sigma 60mm f1.6 - Would You Buy It?

I agree about not needing the smaller depth of field. The current 60 f2.8 has a shallower DOF than lenses like the Olympus 45mm f1.8. On resolution charts it is just behind the Olympus 75mm. It barely seems worth making one, but they will primarily for Sony E mount. I was out last night with the Sigma 1.4 and it was great, but 60 1.4 would probably have been a bad choice for street/casual shooting as everything except your subject will be out of focus, making it a specialist portrait lens.

I guess the most important factor will be what focal length the Sony people want. A quick search shows there is a Sony 50mm f1.8 already, which is only $250. It gets amazing reviews too. But possibly not much else with autofocus or fast aperture. So 50mm seems a weird choice.

Here in M43 land people seem to like 90mm or 85mm eq best (42.5 or 45mm), so maybe it will be another 60mm to make a 90mm eq for Sony. They seem to have a lens that is 85mm f1.8 so 60 seems a decent inbetween.

I hope they then move on to smaller (than the 18-35 and 50-100) fast zooms. A smaller version (with M43 mount) of their 50-100 would probably be better than the forthcoming prime.

My ideal next prime from Sigma would be a 35m ff eq for Sony, which would be 23mm giving us a nice inbetween the 16 and 30, plus a faster focusing alternative to the Panny 20mm. Almost a M43 45mm equivalent. I dont think the Sony apsc e mount has such a lens so it makes sense to me with 35mm being such a classic focal length.

Well good news. Per sony alpha rumors sigma should be announcing the release of the 50-60mm f1.4 soon (probably at photokina in a month). In addition Sigma will also release the first of their e mount zoom lenses. It will be a 70-200 f2.8.

If they made a 60 or 75mm at 1.2 then I would be Excited (VERY) esp for portrait photography......with 60 1.6 just mildly interested since already have 42.5 1.2 and 0.95, 35-100 2.0 and 75 1.8......

I am more excited that Sigma is about to start releasing e mount zooms. I am really wanting a wide angle zoom like 12-24 or 16-35 to compliment my sony 18-105 and tamron 28-75

davidt_man said:

Well good news. Per sony alpha rumors sigma should be announcing the release of the 50-60mm f1.4 soon (probably at photokina in a month). In addition Sigma will also release the first of their e mount zoom lenses. It will be a 70-200 f2.8.

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr3...e-mount-lenses-from-sony-zeiss-samyang-sigma/

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Your link speculates the next prime will be 50mm. Sounds like they are fairly sure too (rating the rumour sr4, I assume sr5 is certain). That would be immense as it would make many vintage lenses less desirable.

I was about to buy a Canon nFD 50mm f1.4 because it is decent wide open. But a Sigma would smash it (I have other old lenses when I want character). Wish they would start selling for FX mount too as 100mm is a bit long for M43 imo. The lens could be a game changer and make me consider going back to Sony.

markus9 said:

Assuming Sigma launched a brighter 60mm lens (f1.6 or f1.8) which was at the same level as the 30mm f1.4 and 60mm f2.8, would you be interested?

I definitely be interested as a portrait lens, especially if they price is closer to Sigma 30mm f1.4, e.g. ~$400. (Sigma 30mm f1.4 is currently sold around $330)

I personally like the 60mm focal length more for portraits than ~75mm.

On Sony, there's a decent amount of competition, but on m43 we're missing a fast 'inexpensive' lens around 120mm equivalent. It wouldn't be small as it'd also be for APS-C, but such a lens wouldn't be a walk around lens.

Thoughts?

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not. Not because it would not be a good FL/aperture combo. I think it would. I own both the Sigma 60 2.8 and Oly 75 1.8. Probably need to sell the Oly as it isn't getting used. I much prefer the 60. Just a much more usable FL.

The 60 is a good FL and the IQ is stellar. Would I pay a lot more money for 1.6/1.8 vs 2.8? Probably a little. If say $200 more it would be tempting. Solely for the aperture. The Sigma 60 2.8 IQ is superb.

It is funny how i get really excited about Sigma 50 f1.4 but then realize I have the 60 f2.8 that I rarely use since i seldom do portrait work. I just received the Tamron 28-75, on my a6500 the IQ is ridiculous. When comparing it to my 60 f2.8 or my 30 f1.4 I have to crop in 200+ percent to see any difference.

What really stood out to me was Sigma was releasing a native 70-200 for e mount. More focal lengths will follow.

markus9 said:

Assuming Sigma launched a brighter 60mm lens (f1.6 or f1.8) which was at the same level as the 30mm f1.4 and 60mm f2.8, would you be interested?

I definitely be interested as a portrait lens, especially if they price is closer to Sigma 30mm f1.4, e.g. ~$400. (Sigma 30mm f1.4 is currently sold around $330)

I personally like the 60mm focal length more for portraits than ~75mm.

On Sony, there's a decent amount of competition, but on m43 we're missing a fast 'inexpensive' lens around 120mm equivalent. It wouldn't be small as it'd also be for APS-C, but such a lens wouldn't be a walk around lens.

Thoughts?

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The way Sigma has been trending, this thing would be the size of a mini bazooka, so not small even by APS-C standards, and it would still only be speced at their "Contemporary" not "Art", level, so wont be stellar performance until probably close to f 2.8 anyway.

No, I'd not buy this on M43. It's not why I'm here.

The Sigma 30 f1.4 is not too large. The 50mm or 60mm whichever it is probably would fall in between the 30 and 16mm in size. Both the 30 and 16 are known for having outstanding IQ. The 30 f1.4 blows the sony 35 f1.8 away at all apertures.

When you shoot the 30 f1.4 wide open the depth of field is so narrow you have a hard time getting the whole face in focus. So yes you do have to stop down to increase the dof

davidt_man said:

It is funny how i get really excited about Sigma 50 f1.4 but then realize I have the 60 f2.8 that I rarely use since i seldom do portrait work. I just received the Tamron 28-75, on my a6500 the IQ is ridiculous. When comparing it to my 60 f2.8 or my 30 f1.4 I have to crop in 200+ percent to see any difference.

What really stood out to me was Sigma was releasing a native 70-200 for e mount. More focal lengths will follow.

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Recently looked on B&H photo at mirrorless lenses. All makes and mounts listed sorted by best selling. Almost the entire first page was nothing but Sony mount lenses.

Sadly m43 has almost no 3rd party lenses that are actually designed specifically for it.

Mostly APSC designs adapted to the mount. In the case of the 60 2.8 that worked out pretty well though.

Still would be nice to have anything close to the support Sony now enjoys by 3rd party manufacturers.

A lot of that was from the past 4-5 years as sony took off with their mirrorless cameras. the other companies could not keep up and this created a gap in the mirrorless lens areas leaving sony at the top. So it makes since that most new mirrorless lenses are marketed toward sony e emount.

I own a Nikon 85mm f/2.0 AI-S lens and when I add on a Metabones 0.71x speedbooster I end up with a 60mm f/1.4 lens. Sure there's no AF, but otherwise it's a nice combination for portraits.