Sigma 30mm f1.4 EX DC HSM Digital Lens For Canon Mount

I wanted a fast lens for interior shots as I absolutely hate flash and in larger interiors it is not always practical anyway. The sigma did not disappoint on my Canon 400D. Autofocus was fast, and worked in all but a a very few situations and the shots never failed to impress.

In the past I have stuck with Canon EF-S specific lenses and a few people have mentioned the Canon f1.8 EF but I found this to be more expensive and preferred the mm of the Sigma on the cropped sensor of the 400D.

After using the sigma I would certainly recommend it and will certainly look at other sigmas in the future.

The lens appears to be well made and finished and comes with a hood and HSM which is fast and quiet and allows manual override in auto focus mode. The 30mm designation equates to 48mm on an APS-C Canon DSLR with a "crop" factor of x1.6 and this makes it roughly the equivalent of a 50mm lens on a full frame camera. The aperture range is f1.4 to f16 and in my opinion the f1.4 is useable and comes in handy for indoor low light situations (I recently took some shots of a new baby and I didn't want to use flash and I'm happy with the results) as well as for shallow depth of field use.

All in all I'm very happy with this lens.

Note though that this is a DC lens and that it's suitable for APS-C sensor cameras only.

To shed some light to what I am going to say for the rest of the review, before buying this lens, I have been happily shooting with a 550D and my sigma 17-70 os hsm. The said lens was my first sigma lens and I only owned the 18-55 IS kit and the 50mm F1.8 MkII before that. My set up alone will tell you that I am far from being a pro so please consider this when reading my babble below. Now on with the product review (sorry about the long intro)...

I purchased this lens after a long and painful evaluation of what I need more - a super wide angle (for this I want to buy a tokina 11-16mm) or a fast lens that is wider than my 50mm F1.8. I decided that the latter will stay more on my camera than a super wide angle lens. I then went through tons of reviews, example photos, pros & cons evaluations by different experts and users until finally took the plunge on the sigma 30mm.

My main reasons for buying this lens are:
- budget
- speed (I've factored in the possibility that F1.4 might be useless and would be happy with good results at F2)
- focal length

As always, the Amazon delivery did not disappoint. The service from Amazon is not the subject of this review. If I have to rate that, I would easily give it 5 stars.

The lens came with the lens hood and the rear cap. It felt solid in my hands which is very comforting. I liked the balance with my 550D when I mounted it on and boy was it fast!

Immediately I took a lot of photos at different F stops. I tried different lighting situations and different angles. The results were not good. I can understand that it will be soft at F1.4 but what I can't accept is the fact that my zoom (sigma 17-70 os hsm) beats the crap out of this prime lens at F2.8 to F5.6 in terms of image quality!... I thought it was just a fluke so I tried them on and on and on again but all subsequent results only pointed to the same conclusion...The colours are more washed out (nope it was not my white balance setting or the exposure) and even at the centre, the images are softer than my other sigma lens at the same setting!

It was such a shame because I was really hoping that this would deliver. I want this lens to work so bad that I hesitated returning it even after seeing the results. I was telling myself, "just imagine how many shots you can take at low light conditions when you cannot step back any further? This might still work. " But when I looked at the images again, I just know that I will have to look for something else.

So why 3 stars?

- build quality is very good for the price (and a lens hood was supplied)
- F1.4 at this price for this focal length is not very often seen
- the images were not total disaster... only that they will leave you wanting for better images (especially as this is a prime lens)

Sorry for the long review but hopefully this has been helpful. By the way, I did return mine and Amazon was fantastic at handling my refund. Read more ›

I got the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens to use an an 'everyday' lens to go with my new 550D. This is an excellent lens for the money (I paid £270 for it). After mainly using a Canon 50mm f/1.8 (which is an excellent lens for £60!) on my 400D for the last couple of years but commonly feeling the need for a slightly wider angle, I really wanted another fast prime lens, and I read a lot of good things about the Sigma - all of which have so far shown true. Compared to the Canon 50mm f/1.8, the Sigma 30mm is much, much more solid lens and 'feels' like a better product. The sharpness is spot on (i'm sure some Canon L lenses are way better, but who really looks at photos zoomed in at 100% anyway) and the f/1.4 has come in very handy. I was unsure whether to get this lens or something like the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 for it's zoom range - but I'm glad I got this little Sigma prime. I imagine it'll be on my camera 90% of the time and so far it's focusing and build quality have blown me away. The weight of the 550D + Sigma 30mm makes for a good solid SLR camera to carry around all day.

I use it on the 550D, and for those who are interested - it works just as well as a lens for shooting video. The manual focus ring is large, comfy and easy to turn which makes shooting even a moving subject with a shallow depth-of-field easy.

All in all I can't recommend this lens enough. If you're looking for a lens to leave on your camera 90% of the time this is definitely a good option. Sure you don't get the zoom range of the canon's kit lens but 30mm on a crop body is a very good compromise for most peoples shooting styles. I promise you won't miss that zoom, and the f/1.4, fast quiet focusing and excellent manual focus make up for any zoom envy you might get.

Bought this from Amazon recently, was really impressed with the quality of the build on the lens, real solid hefty piece of kit yet small enough for me to carry around!
Was testing this out on my new Canon 550D, the video recording on it was absolutely amazing! Crisp quality! Would definitely recommend this to anyone!

The f/1.4 was a real joy to play with and i was thoroughly satisfied with it, the sharpness of my pictures and the background blur was a nice touch which added more emphasis to the subject in focus.

Until i took a couple more shots, and realised the focus appeared to be slightly to be off.

Prior to purchasing this lens, i'd read about the lens having alot of front/back focusing issues, so i wasn't too surprised, but was abit disappointed.
Didn't realise until i tried focusing on certain points, taking picture and upon closer inspection of the image, i'd find that the point of where i intended to focused on, was off by quite a margin. Although slightly disheartened, i am not going to give up trying to find the 'perfect' working model of this lens.

A word of advice, though not guaranteed - check the serial number on your lens/box. Supposedly later batches of the item was less likely to have problems.

A word of recommendation, get the B + W 62mm UV Filter with Multi-Resistant Coating, cheap solution to protect your lens and give you a nicer picture!

Goodluck & Enjoy!