This was originaly a reply to Steve in the Sigma lens club but thought it should have its own thread. I bought this lens 2 days ago.
Ok first off your probably thinking to yourself, why didn't I get the FA31 instead considering I already have the FA43 and FA77?
Well let me say that the FA31 is still on my list and I will own it (some day), but I wanted a fast lens in the 20mm-30mm range.
And Pentax doesn't offer much (talking about currently in production here) with those needs, so why the Sigma 30mm 1.4?
Most importantly the images I had seen from this lens spoke to me and began to peak my interest...
and for same money of the FA31 new, I can pretty much buy the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and a DA*55 f/1.4 (which is next on my list BTW)
I spent many hours looking at examples from the FA31, Sigma 20/24/28/30 on the forum here and in flickr and at the PPG. Whislt viewing the Sigma 30mm images I noticed that they had a very strong 3 dimensional look to them.Which is something I look for in a lens. Yeah the FA31 had some 3d look too and the 31 rendered it's OOF areas more smooth and creamy but the Sigma 30mm had a more 3 dimensional look to its images. Sure there are lot's of fast lenses that can shoot at f/2.8 or faster as well and many do have beautiful bokeh but to me 3d isolation is something else.
Anyway I quite like this lens, its very sharp from wide open and by the time you stop down to f/4 the levels of sharpness is through the roof literally! Just have have a look at photozones mtf charts. Its sharper(in the center) at ANY APERTURE than the FA limiteds. But border sharpness is quite average and it gets pretty average reviews and a bad rep because it doesn't do very well in the borders. So if you do alot of landscaping photography this lens is probably not the best pick for you. Where it does excel though is in (environmental)portraiture and subject isolation photography,where most of the time the borders are going to be OOF anyway so border sharpness is not important in that regard.
Other thoughts about this lens, its quite fat, but about the same length as my FA77. It does feel well made for a Sigma lens (ive had
sigma lenses in the past and one even fell apart in my hand) but this feel nice, but no where near as good as a Limited Pentax lens.
The focus is quite possibly one of the fastest out of my all my lenses, and it quite accurate even in low light it locks focus fast. Also beware
of bad copy's, Ive read many reports of ff issues and af issues, I tested mine in the shop and outide and the focus was almost spot on and
required +2 fine adjustment in camera to be perfect.(FWIW my LTD's needed more micro adjustment)
For the record I doubt its better than the mighty FA31, and if they were the same price I might have bought the FA31 instead, but for what its worth it sure is a great lens for isolation photography and for enviromental portraiture.
That basically somes up my thoughts on this lens, I'll let my first pictures with this lens do the rest of the talking.
1.4-
1.4-
2.8-
1.4-
I know there are other members on here with this lens, feel free to post some examples
Last edited by TOUGEFC; 11-04-2011 at 11:51 PM.