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Paulius
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Registered: Oct 4, 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 16
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Review Date: Jan 18, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Built, focus, IQ, aperture, focusing ring, nice rendering.
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Cons:
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focus sometimes hunts
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This is my only lens now and by no means i feel "limited". The IQ it delivers - very good. It is nice and clear at 1.4 and at f2.5 in self portraits i can see facial defects that was not aware of...I still have to learn to control it better, due it has a slight learning curve.
For street, portraits and walk around - very good, if you like 50mm perspective 
I still have to learn to control it better, due it has a learning curve.
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 Jan 18, 2010
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edwin_ac
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Registered: Dec 31, 2009
Location: Philippines
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Dec 31, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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A great normal lens in low light conditions, without using any flash.
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Cons:
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Dec 31, 2009
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CyranoB
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Registered: Nov 8, 2009
Location: France
Posts: 0
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Dec 13, 2009
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SMP_Homer
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Registered: Aug 23, 2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Oct 21, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $300.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Light, fast, quiet, nice and sharp wide open
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Cons:
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No complaints here
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I was ordering an 85 1.8 when I noticed I'd get free shipping if I spent a few $$$ more... so I ordered this lens... it then sat unused/untouched for a few weeks. Once I mounted it on my 40D, I fell in love. It's by far my favorite prime, and my most used lens.
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Oct 21, 2009
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gusetee
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Registered: Sep 7, 2009
Location: Spain
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Oct 2, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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low light performance, sharpness wide open, fast and quiet AF, sturdy built, bokeh, low vignetting, price
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Cons:
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extreme corner sharpness, little too much distorsion, coma
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This is a very good normal lens, design to be shooted in poor light conditions, to be better at the center than corners and to last a long time.
I have several lenses than include Nikon 50mm 1.4 AF-D, 50mm 1.8 AF-D, 28-105mm, 80-200 f/2.8 ... and the Sigma 30mm is by far the one I use most. Is better than the two 50mm in the center wide open and a little worst in the corners. Despite of it's defects is a very hard to beat tool in low light and a very good lens used in the rest of situations, perhaps except landscape photography if you shoot at f/5.6 or wider, because of corner softness.
It has neither visible flare or ghosts, nor the typical purple fringe you can find in the Nikon 50mm 1.4 and 80-200 both used wide open.
Color rendition is very similar to Nikon 50mm 1.4, while 50 1.8 shows a soft green cast that dissapears stopped down to f/2.0.
My biggest complaint is related to distorsion. It's, in my opinion, too much for a fixed focal lens. The good news are that is very simple to correct.
I find it a very good value for money, absolutely recommended.
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Oct 2, 2009
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MRS Fotografie
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Registered: Aug 15, 2009
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Aug 15, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Bokeh, contrast, low light performance
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Cons:
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Chromatic aberration, build tolerances (tight lens barrel = friction and AF issues)
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Whether on a day trip or vacation and no matter how many lenses I carry, this lens is always part of my kit. I use it on a 40D and find that as a general purpose and/or low-light prime on APS-C it cannot be beaten. Its unique focal length is just right and the pictures it delivers always have a unique quality to them, regardless of the amount of light available. CA's can be visible and the edges get very soft at wide open apertures but the lens more than compensates for these shortcomings in other areas. This lens really does some fantastic magic with back-lit subjects and delivers superb colors and contrast and the creamiest bokeh ever. Sometimes when I'm stuck in a photographic rut, I'll leave this on and let this lens take me out of it.
I had some focusing troubles with my copy of this lens for a long time until I traced the problem to a too-tight fitting lens barrel. Having found out through the use of MF that it was not an optical problem I eventually (carefully!!!) put a little PTFE lube on the outside of the lens barrel using a cotton bud (the barrel moves in and out a few mm but never touches the UV filter) and this reduced the friction enough to solve the problem. This minor application of PTFE lube also reduced the slight scraping noise the lens barrel sometimes makes and AF is now tack on. I'm glad I endured and didn't swap it for a different lens alltogether because I surely considered it many times.
I would give it a 10 but the lens loses 1 point to the lens barrel friction problem and 1 point to CA's that can be visible in high contrast situations. Considering price, performance and creative potential however, this lens is a jewel.
Finally, consider getting a precision matte focusing screen for use with this and other bright lenses. I just put an EF-S screen in my 40D and found out immediately that it is vital to check DOF and correct focus with lenses f/2.8 and faster, something that will surely add to the enjoyment of my L-zooms and of course this litte 30 mm.
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Aug 15, 2009
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shinji_45
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Buy and Sell: On
Registered: May 24, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 24
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Review Date: Jul 24, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $300.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Fast, light, i like the rubberized finish on the lens, beautiful colors, sharp on the focus area, beautiful bokeh.
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Cons:
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None for me, but for others might have AF issues.
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Got this used from Craigslist. For the price that i paid, this is a superb lens. I love the bokeh and the huge apeture, and most importantly i love the colors that it captures. I have the Canon 70-200 f4 non IS, and i love this lens more that that; dont get me wrong, the Canon lens is also sweet. I like the rubberized finish on the lens as well, but that is just my opinion.
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Jul 24, 2009
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brunyan
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Registered: Mar 29, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 46
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Review Date: Jul 5, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Relatively small for an F1.4 optic. Good contrast and high apparent resolution. 30mm focal length fills a real void for APS sized cameras!
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Cons:
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None so far.
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I bought this lens to fill a void in my arsenal of lenses, namely for something fast that may prove valuable in many shooting situations. Having owned a few third party lenses in my day (but generally preferring Nikon), I was familiar with Sigma and am usually fine with the optical and build quality of their more serious lenses. This lens has not disappointed. I've seen complaints of edge sharpness when shooting wide open. If you're looking for a flat field or copy lens then this one (as nearly all general use lenses) may not be for you. But if you want one that focuses fast, accurately, is tack sharp under intended circumstances, that will allow you to use DOF to your advantage, and is cost effective, then this one should get serious consideration!
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Jul 5, 2009
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zergkind
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Registered: Dec 25, 2008
Location: Russia
Posts: 0
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Review Date: May 19, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $600.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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damn sharp in center at 1.4, very fast and accurate AF, very-very-very strong to flares, low weight, compact size, price tag, versatile FL for indoor shooting, lens hood included
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Cons:
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sharpness quickly falls off to corners - not the best lens for full-length portraits, CA (but not much), DC lens
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That was my upgrade out of 18-55 kit lens for canon crop body: sig 10-20 + sig 30/1.4. I bought it especially for shooting my new-born daughter indoors w/o flash. So the lens justified my hopes in terms of 1.4, AF speed and FL: many times I admited that 50mm would be too long for crop body to make a good shot indoors.
When the word 'strobism' started to sound in my ears, I noticed that 30/1.4 is very strong to optical flare. Many of my shots contain direct sun and look pretty well.
The strongest disadvantage of the lens is it's sharpness fall-off. If you shoot a person and the face is not in center of the frame, be sure, that you are stopped down enough: f/4 or narrower aperture. I also noteced a strong field curvature with this lens: when I was focusing on someone's face with central point and then recomposed my image, I got misfocus in hight percent rate. But when I used perepherial focusing points (on 40d they worked just fine) I had significantly better results.
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May 19, 2009
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rnbc
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Registered: Apr 8, 2009
Location: Portugal
Posts: 27
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Review Date: May 2, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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High contrast, very sharp in the center, easy to focus manually and fast to focus automatically. Nice bokeh.
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Cons:
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Some chromatic aberration. Performance does not improve when stopped down: lens clearly optimized for wide open shooting. Infinity mark is not correct.
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First of all you might want to look at 2 test shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnbc/3495743822/in/set-72157603099756613/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnbc/3494928749/in/set-72157603099756613/
So... what do I think? For a f/1.4 lens it performs quite well. It's very sharp and contrasty even wide open in the central region. This is a lens for portraits and street shooting, so corners are not important, but even there the lens performs quite reasonably wide open, as you can see. Please take in consideration I applied no sharpening whatsoever (SPP sharpening = -1).
This lens is optimized for wide open shooting, so the performance will not improve when stopped down. Has some chromatic aberration wide open, gets worse when stopped down. The maximum sharpness all over is probably attained at f/2.0 or so, and from there on it degrades! At f/2.0 the sharpness in incredible, there is moiré all over the central zone, the resolution being well above the sensor.
The build quality is quite decent for a ~€400 lens, but my lens has a problem: the infinity mark is way off infinity. This doesn't affect performance of course, and anyway could easily be corrected be opening the lens and relocating the ring with the marks.
One final comment: this lens requires a well adjusted camera! Otherwise it will backfocus/frontfocus. This is never a problem of the lens, contrary to popular opinions: lenses focus to the position the camera commands them to. The AF sensors must be coplanar with the sensor and the focus screen, this can be adjusted in most SLRs with a few screws inside the mirror box.
Some usual shots with this lens:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnbc/2791575980/in/set-72157606913925164/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnbc/2682807324/in/set-72157606254800656/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnbc/2682812200/in/set-72157606254800656/
PS: I just did some comparisons and contrary to some reports this lens is really a f/1.4 in the central zone, but there is some vignetting outside the center (normal at such apertures), so the real aperture in the corners is something like f/2.1 or so.
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May 2, 2009
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Carlo L.
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Registered: Apr 30, 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Feb 21, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Great Build and finish! Sharp! Nice size for 1.4!
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Cons:
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Focusing issues right out of the box but eventually resolved by recalibrating.
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Well, I bought this lens from Adorama for $374 which is why I am giving this lens a great review. The focus was OK on my XT but better on my 30D. It had front focusing issues right out of the box so I had to send it back for recalibration. Thats was expected because all four of my Sigma lenses that I have owned all had focusing issues so I was not surprised. No big deal. Anyways, it came back superb of course. It is sharp wide open, even at 1.4! The contrast isn't there wide open of course but hey, you can shoot in the dark with this thing! Colors are nothing short of spectacular! One thing I should mention is that the left side of the lens is not as sharp as the center or right at 1.4, but that's pixel peeping at 200%. It is not noticeable beyond 2.8 and you would never tell on a print. I shot a birthday party entirely at 1.4 and f2 iso 800 with my 30D under fluorescent lights. I barely had to do any post processing, even the whitebalance was right on.
I personally find that I enjoy using this lens much more on my 30D or 40D because the focusing is faster and there are more focusing points to choose from which in turn makes the lens a more accurate when focusing especially at 1.4 or 2 because of the shallow depth of field. I am not going to compare this to L glass because for $374 what more can you want? (Although it is sharper than my 24-105 but thats a zoom) If you buy this lens, be prepared to send it in to recalibrate the focusing. Send it to Sigma New York, the will have it back in less than 2 weeks and you will probably never look back after that. For the price, you simply cannot get a better deal.
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Feb 21, 2009
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jobodaho
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Registered: Dec 29, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jan 1, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $370.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharpness where it counts, light weight (this is relative), focusing accuracy on my copy, and great bokeh. If you get a good copy you will love it.
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Cons:
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None worth complaining about, it vignettes (correctable and typical for this type of lens), has some CAs (shoot RAW if you care about it), and people complain about corner sharpness, but if you are trying to get corner sharpness at f/1.4 your probably just shooting brick walls and test charts.
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This is a great lens, lets get that out there. Someone mentioned that it is a photographer's lens, and I agree wholeheartedly. This lens is PERFECT for indoor shooting, people shots, and as a general walk around lens. The shallow depth of field for a normal lens on a DX body is awesome, and can really create some beautiful images. You will love this lens if you prefer to go out and take pictures instead of shooting test charts. I don't need a chart to tell me its center sharpness is superb, because it blows away my old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 D. If you are creating beautiful images, then chances are you corners will be out of focus anyways.
People also complain about focusing issues, I can say that my copy is right on the money on my Canon 40D, and being in correct focus is way more important than corner sharpness. The focus is sure footed and pretty snappy, although not quite as quick as my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L, it is more than adequate for all uses.
If you are looking at the alternatives to this lens on the Canon side, like I was, then in my opinion you won't find a better offering for the money. The Canon 28mm f/1.8 and 35mm f/2 are both fine lenses, but share similar or worse image quality and are built worse and about a stop slower. If you have the money to jump to the "L" alternatives then more power to you, as I am sure they are better than this MUCH cheaper alternative, but the price/performance isn't worth it to me on a DX camera.
So in conclusion I have been really impressed with my copy of this lens and I highly recommend it for those seeking a fast normal lens.
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Jan 1, 2009
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