Sigma 30 f/1.4 EX DC HSM
I purchased this lens for two reasons: a) to have a “normal” lens for APS-C sensor sized digital bodies, and b) to have a lens with a faster f/stop for low light situations and for depth of field control.
Like with my other reviews, this is a user review, not a pixel peeping review. For some of my equipment I have done serious pixel peeping (usually due to curiosity, or apparent performance anomalies), for others I have not.
For this lens, I have done the pixel peeping test. I no longer have access to the files from the pixel peeping I did with this lens, but the results were moderately disappointing. This lens is VERY sharp in the middle, and falls of very rapidly in resolution as you move away from the center. Moral: This lens would be great for a central subject at wide apertures, at best o.k. for landscape work.
Now for the specifics of my disappointment: This lens’s image borders (border acuity never come close to catching up to the center, even at f/8. As a matter of fact, this lens is not as good as my 18-70 f/3.5-4.5 DX AF-S Nikkors at ANY stop that the lenses have in common. WOW!) The lateral chromatic aberration on the Sigma is also a little worse than on the Nikkor, although acceptable. I intend to write a review of the 18-70 DX AF-S when I get a chance, but suffice it to say that if you find a used one of these (they are no longer made) for the going $150-170, snap it up, because it’s the image quality bargain for Nikon APS-C DSLRs.
Back to the Siggy. Even though This lens has its drawbacks, it will still stay in my bag. Since I am have not made much use of it for narrow depth of field work, I will show some low light work here, where I was quite pleased with the results.
The first image was taken in Linz Austria using the Sigma 30 set at f/1.8 (to bring the borders a little better into line) using my Nikon D200 at ISO 800. There is some image noise evident, especially in the foreground. This would have been a bit better if I’d upped the exposure for this handheld shot a bit. I was trying to strike a balance between correct shadow and highlight exposure (especially trying to not totally blow out the lights in the scene). You decide if I struck the right balance. The image does make a rather striking 9 x 12 in print of good quality.
Linz Shopping District at Night
The second image is also in Linz, but this image was of a very well lit building. Same camera and ISO 800. A 100% crop of this image follows the full image.
Linz Theater at Night
And the 100% crop of the image above:
Linz Theater, 100% crop
I don’t really like this image enough to bother printing it, but the quality is sufficient to make a large print. I would expect that a minimum of 13×19 in should be possible with this type of quality at 100% magnification. Pretty respectable.
The last example I will post was the actual reason I purchased this lens. I knew that on my Europe trip there would be places where I would want to take pictures where tripods and flash were not allowed. The image below is a picture of the ceiling fresco on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy. The fast aperture of this lens made it possible to produce an image of the ceiling with good quality while handholding the camera. The sensitivity used on the D200 for this image was ISO 400.
Pisa Cathedral Ceiling
Conclusion:
After using my Sigma 30 f/1.4 during my Europe trip three years ago, and seeing these results I decided that the lens was a keeper. I do not use this lens every day, but in situation where no tripod or flash is possible that fast lens gives better quality than increasing sensitivity in many cases. The lens is perfect for handheld photography indoors, or in cities at night. I don’t do a lot of portraits (as you can see, I have no examples of these to show), but it is also excellent for those. Due to the HSM internal focusing motor the lens focuses reasonably fast and very quietly. I consider the lens to be a definite keeper, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (about $430 new, $330 used).
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