Sigma 56/1.4 - aperture opening/closing is slow

MarBa said:

Hi everyone,

I just bought Sigma 56/1.4 for my A6700. I like the size and overall handling, it's sharp and the bokeh is nice. .. but the aperture is quite slow! Anyone else noticed this?

When you stop down the lens (even F5.6) .. it takes significant amount of time to close the aperture from the wide open "live view" when you have press the shutter button. It's also quite "loud" compared to other lenses.

This slows you down a bit when shooting at higher apertures .. as the lens is constantly opening and closing the aperture and it takes a while. It's the first lens that I noticed this.

Is there a way to set the camera so that the "live view" is with the closed aperture all the time? Or .. to set the camera so that it does not "stop down" when half-pressing the shutter button?

Thanks!

Best,

M

Click to expand...

dgsjsj said:

MarBa said:

Hi everyone,

I just bought Sigma 56/1.4 for my A6700. I like the size and overall handling, it's sharp and the bokeh is nice. .. but the aperture is quite slow! Anyone else noticed this?

When you stop down the lens (even F5.6) .. it takes significant amount of time to close the aperture from the wide open "live view" when you have press the shutter button. It's also quite "loud" compared to other lenses.

This slows you down a bit when shooting at higher apertures .. as the lens is constantly opening and closing the aperture and it takes a while. It's the first lens that I noticed this.

Is there a way to set the camera so that the "live view" is with the closed aperture all the time? Or .. to set the camera so that it does not "stop down" when half-pressing the shutter button?

Thanks!

Best,

M

Click to expand...

You need to check the lens firmware version. At the same time, the camera firmware version.
To fix compatibility issues with the a6700, the fourth version of the lens firmware was released in November 2023.

Ver.04 2023.11.16

In combination with the Sony α6700, an occasional issue of instability in operation has been corrected.

https://www.sigma-global.com/en/support/firmware/c018_56_14/?mount=sony-e&os=windows

If all firmware versions are up to date, then the lens is faulty.

Click to expand...

MarBa said:

Hi everyone,

I just bought Sigma 56/1.4 for my A6700. I like the size and overall handling, it's sharp and the bokeh is nice. .. but the aperture is quite slow! Anyone else noticed this?

When you stop down the lens (even F5.6) .. it takes significant amount of time to close the aperture from the wide open "live view" when you have press the shutter button. It's also quite "loud" compared to other lenses.

This slows you down a bit when shooting at higher apertures .. as the lens is constantly opening and closing the aperture and it takes a while. It's the first lens that I noticed this.

Is there a way to set the camera so that the "live view" is with the closed aperture all the time? Or .. to set the camera so that it does not "stop down" when half-pressing the shutter button?

Thanks!

Best,

M

Click to expand...

lehill said:

MarBa said:

Hi everyone,

I just bought Sigma 56/1.4 for my A6700. I like the size and overall handling, it's sharp and the bokeh is nice. .. but the aperture is quite slow! Anyone else noticed this?

When you stop down the lens (even F5.6) .. it takes significant amount of time to close the aperture from the wide open "live view" when you have press the shutter button. It's also quite "loud" compared to other lenses.

This slows you down a bit when shooting at higher apertures .. as the lens is constantly opening and closing the aperture and it takes a while. It's the first lens that I noticed this.

Is there a way to set the camera so that the "live view" is with the closed aperture all the time? Or .. to set the camera so that it does not "stop down" when half-pressing the shutter button?

Thanks!

Best,

M

Click to expand...

This post rang a bell in my head because I had a similar problem with slow aperture actuation.

If you've messed around with AF/MF settings, check the "Aperture Drive in AF" setting. If set to "Focus Priority" try "Standard" instead. In low-light conditions (indoors) "Focus Priority" may reveal if a lens has an aperture that doesn't change very quickly.

The details of what this setting does are described in DPR's A7R IV review > Autofocus and Performance section > Aperture Drive in AF. In this section, DPR calls it "shutter lag" but it's better described as lens aperture lag.

In my case, my granddaughter was walking quickly across a room in the house. I got a focus lock and then full-pressed the shutter button but the photo wasn't taken until she made it halfway across (perhaps one or even two seconds after full-press). This wasn't the first time it happened. Switching from "Focus Priority" to "Standard" fixed things for me.

Click to expand...

MarBa said:

Thank you! Turns out, I had both FW (lens and camera) up to date ... so question now is .. is my lens somehow out of specs .. is it slower than what it supposed to be, or is it normal ...

Any idea how to find out before sending it back?

Do you have the lens?

Best,

M

Click to expand...