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Home >> Digital Camera Accessories >> Lenses
Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras | List Price: $489.00
Discount Price: $429.00
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Brand: Sigma
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Designed to fit Nikon digital SLR cameras
- 30 mm focal length
- 2 low-dispersion glass elements; glass mold aspherical lens element
- 45-degree angle of view
- 15.7-inch minimum focusing distance
Autofocus with D40! [Posted on 2008-07-15]
I purchased this lens to replace my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 prime. While the Nikon lens was fine, the lack of autofocus made it too challenging to take photos of dancers or musicians in low light (my primary use for the lens). With this Sigma 30 mm on my Nikon D40 (effectively a 45 mm lens on this camera due to the sensor size) not only do I get a faster lens (wider aperture) but I get autofocus due to Sigma's HSM. My early results (links below) have been good, with no problems.
PROS: fast, great depth of field range, very sharp images, autofocus on D40
CONS: heavy on D40 body, 62mm filters means none of my existing 52mm filters fit
Links to samples:
http://eyedance.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-toy.html
http://eyedance.blogspot.com/2008/07/la-fete-de-marquette.html
Fast, but very flawed [Posted on 2008-08-15]
The Sigma 30mm is a solid lens, and feels like a professional Nikkor lenses in its build quality. It is heavy, has a metal mount and plasticized metallic exterior. However that is where the comparisons to a high quality, professional lens end.
This lens underperforms in several regards. First, it has the at this point well documented focusing issue. In addition, it constantly overexposes pictures on my D80. I am not the only one to experience this problem. (Google Ken Rockwell's review). It is fast, and it CAN produce a great image, but getting there requires me to use manual focus, and set my D80 to a -.7 exposure adjustment. For a so-called professional lens, this is simply not acceptable.
I now use this lens only when I have to: when I can't use a tripod in dim interiors, or at dusk & when I don't need auto focus.
I would not recommend this lens to anyone unless you really have to have the speed and don't care about the focus and overexposure problems.
Honestly, I am surprised there are so many glowing reviews of this lens.
Great little lens. [Posted on 2008-08-28]
This is a very sharp lens and is perfect for low light photos as well as portraits. I use this lens with my Nikon D300 and I am extremely pleased with the results. It is the best Sigma lens that I own.
100% Better Than D50 Packaged Lens [Posted on 2008-08-29]
I recently purchased this Sigma 30mm lens for low light/indoor-No Flash, and general use photography.
It seems, thus far, to deliver in every respect. I can't complain at all.
Perhaps others have experienced quality control issues with this lens, but I haven't. My sample auto focuses accurately as far as I can tell. I made sure I purchased direct from Amazon. My pics are sharp and highly contrasted. This lens kicks butt on the Nikon packaged lens (18-55mm).
I've taken about 450 photos so far - Indoor and out, in many different lighting situations, and even at times with the built in flash firing, and I can honestly highly recommend this lens.
I have several other lenses, all nikon "D" type, and although they are very good, this lens is just "BETTER".
On the negative side, you are limited to the equivalent of a 50mm focal length in the 35mm film camera format - No Zoom - But for indoors, and low light, and relatively close distance people shots, this lens rocks - believe me.
I did a lot of research before I bought this one, and it paid off. If you're sitting on the fence with this one like I was, and you want the performance this offers for the same reasons I purchased it for, wait no more - buy it ......
Inconsistent sharpness makes lens unreliable [Posted on 2008-09-01]
I bought this lens because of all the glowing reviews on here, so I was excited to try this thing out on my D300. At first glance and while viewing the images in camera, they look fantastic, but only after they're uploaded to the computer is when you can find the flaws of this lens. Viewed at 100% it's clearly noticeable that the sharpness consistency of this lens is mediocre at best. As noted many times before here, there's a serious front focus problem and only about 50% of the images I shot were in focus and sharp while in autofocus. As a professional shooter I can't afford to have only half of my images to be in focus, so after trying it out a couple times I had to return it to Amazon.
It's unfortunate that the only Nikon equivalent to this lens (the legendary 28mm f/1.4) ebays for over $4000 sometimes, so I really wanted to like the Sigma, but I have since bought the Nikon 35mm f/2 as the replacement and it's as sharp and reliable as a Nikon lens should be. Even though it's not as fast and wide as the Sigma it's still a better made lens and can be used with more assurance of consistent results.
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