1922
by
AzrifelComment by Azrifel: Originally posted by vaxocentric:
how do you like that 30mm sigma lens? i was looking at getting one. is it worth it? how often do you use it? |
There might be more people interested in this, so I'll react here and not trough a private message.
I like my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 a lot.
It has actually become my standard lens, but that is also because I like shooting with primes. With a prime you do not need to worry about zooming and how it will end up perpective wise. When you know your prime you know how it makes pictures look. You just move yourself to fill the frame. Because you move a lot you are interacting more with your subject and that gives far better results than being static and using a zoom lens. You experiment more with it.
For me 30mm was a perfect size on a DX/APS-C camera, it comes close to my old 35mm rangefinder with a 40mm lens. The view does not distort perspective, while indoors or in a street you are not constantly with your back against walls and when you want a close up you really need to come close. You're not hiding in the crowd with a long lens, people seem to appreciate that a lot more.
Another important reason was the f/1.4 max aperture and how sharp it looked at that aperture in the first online tests. I got the lens to shoot in low light conditions without a flash or minimal fill flash. When you are walking trough a city in the morning at sunrise and can take the shots where someone with a F4 lens needs to push up his ISO or use a tripod.
In both aspects the lens hasn't let me down. It is sharp, sharp enough at f/1.4 and very, very sharp from f/1.8 onwards. It already made me capture shots that would be impossible with slower lenses. When you shoot a scene with the main subject at a distance and use f/2.0 for example, you'd be amazed how much dof you still have. It also worked on the streets, I need less room to work with.
Here is an example of a shot I took at f/1.4 and processed for DPC:
//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=211483
Technically; It is very sharp, has good contrast, neutral color, focus is fast and silent with little hunting and good focus lock on the right spot, very little CA.
Downsides: Corner softness, my sample is pretty good, it doesn't bother me at all, but I've seen some complaints here and there.
Vignetting, this is often visible and could be bothersome. But I shoot Nikon NEF and run them trough Nikon Capture, which has a good Vignetting correction tool. So this too is not really a problem.
I wish it had a lens cap like the Nikon 18-70 DX. With the hood on (forwards) I cannot get the lens cap on or off.
The way I can work with it is for me far more important that a bit of corner softness and vignetting. I guess a 2nd place with the very first entry with this lens proves that. :)
Is it value for money? For me it is.
When you want to see some fullsize samples on a D70, check:
//www.pbase.com/azrifel/fullsize
Hope this helps.
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