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

I have a family and do lots of low light indoor shooting and spent many months trying to track down a suitable f2.0 level lens. There's no zoom on the market that's really right, I considered the nikon 17-55 f2.8 but at £900 its expensive and F2.8 is less than a full stop better than my kit 18-135 wide open. So not much gain there really.

So I bought this, never had a non zoom before so was very hessitant, but I shouldn't have worried. 30mm is a really good compromise focal length, and I can frame shots exactly how I want (okay, I sometimes step back/forward for it, but who cares).

The benefits are enourmous. I can shoot my nikon D80 on auto iso at max 800 and with a really nice narrow DOF, I get just fantastic shots. Shooting at 1600 for me degrates the image quality far too much, 800 is way way superior.

Images are ever so slightly softer at 1.4 than 2.0, so I do find myself shooting on ap priority at F2.0, images are sharper and I still get great shutter speed. if Light is really how, I cut down to 1.4, but really, F2.0 is just great.

Images are sharp, good contrast and colour is very good too.
At 250 odd quid its very very cheap.

>>> Update to this review...
When I first wrote this review I stated that at 1.4 its softer than 2.0. Subsequently, I realised this isn't exactly true, its just that at f1.4, you get such a narrow depth of field, the camera does struggle to focus. Its not the cameras fault, if you set your camera to central zone focussing, even this small area can be over a wide depth of field, so no wonder the camer has a problem.

What I've found is, I do need to take a few shots to get eyes exactly in focus, so its not too much of a problem.

I don't use my 18-135 anymore - even in bright sunny days (when it's not raining ;-) I still get much better shots on this lens.

I bought this lens as a solution to low light photography in situations where space doesn't permit the working distance required for my Nikkor 50mm f1.8 and it does just that.

Since I bought this lens it has been a permanent fixture in my camera bag along with my short tele prime and ultrawide zoom. It's great for when you want a more normal perspective than you can get out of a wide angle, but you need to get more in than a 50mm or 85mm will allow.

Being an F1.4 lens, it also does this in near total darkness. The fast maximum aperture also produces a very bright image in the viewfinder making composition and manual focus a dream.

I'll tell no lie: at f1.4 this lens is SOFT. A little softer than primes tend to be when wide open. But by f2, sharpness is VERY respectable and totally usable. By f2.5 and onwards, the lens is as sharp as any and produces stellar results even in the corners.

Contrast is very good. Not the best prime I have used for contrast but it beats even pro zooms. Colour rendition is slightly warm, which seems to be a common thing for Sigma lenses. But it's not a bad thing and it's easily corrected if necessary.

Distortion is also very minor. A simple +2 correction in Photoshop removes almost any trace of distortion and at levels this small, you'll almost never see it unless you're shooting test charts.

Autofocus is quick and reliable. At least it is now! I did have to apply an Autofocus correction factor of -28(!!!) for this lens on my D300. Yes, that's more than you can technically apply without tricking the firmware. It was a mile out on ALL of my cameras, and I did have to send the lens to Sigma several times (including my camera the last time) to get it fixed. No it's not really what you should spend the first few months of owning a new lens doing but now that it's been properly set up, it works a treat.

Being an HSM lens, focusing is also very quiet and can be overridden by simply grabbing the focus ring at any time with no need to waste valuable seconds with switches.

The build quality of the lens is excellent. It is one of Sigma's pro 'EX' range lenses and you can tell. The lens barrel and mount are very solid metal and the lens has an attractive matt black finish.

The lens sits well in my hands. It balances VERY well on my D300. Although is near doubles the size and weight of my D40. It's still no problem to use though and I have done so frequently.

Overall I would highly recommend this lens. Especially if you're using zooms or your kit lacks a 'normal' focal length lens. Yes it's soft wide open, but don't forget that 'wide open' for this lens is an aperture that other lenses can't even get to and as with any fast lens, you'll find yourself mostly stopping down for extra depth of field anyway.

A 30mm is a lens that you can spend all day with. It's great for general walkabout, kids, landscape, pets, architecture, urban photography and it's EXCELLENT for museums and galleries. And with such a fast aperture, next time you walk into a gallery and the deskclerk tells you that flash is forbidden, you can say 'that's ok, I don't need it'.

One of the nicest things about this lens though is that with 30mm being so close to the angle of view that our eyes take in, it makes photography so much more intuitive and fun. How it's meant to be.

I have a Canon 400D (and before that a Canon 300D) and use this lens as my primary low light indoor portrait lens for snaps of the family / events etc. The 30mm x 1.6 = 48mm (due to small sensor on digital SLR cameras) makes this an ideal standard lens. The optics are amazing with sharpness, colour tone and auto-focus speed are all highly impressive. Highly recommended.