Disclaimer: This review is from a prosumer photographer. I’m by no means a dedicated professional, but I know a thing or two by now and feel confident in sharing my opinion. If you have any questions, just leave a comment. I base my reviews on common sense usage and not on technical jargon. If the images look crappy, the review will be bad!

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This year I spent quite a bit of time (and money) investing in new equipment to build out my inventory. Having had an interest in prime lenses, I got one of these new Sigma 30mm F1.4 lenses. Built for digital, I figure it would be the perfect prime lens for either my Nikon D70 or Nikon D200.

Bottom Line: The Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a powerful prime for low-light situations. Anywhere else, the use is limited.

How I reach this conclusion is really determined by my style. First, I learned to shoot in the zoom lens age. So, I didn’t start with a series of prime lenses. I always had the spoils of a good zoom lens when I learned with my Nikon N70. As such, I didn’t learn the advantages of a powerful, wide open aperture (who spends that much money as a kid on a lens, anyway?). So, this served as another learning experience as I continue to develop my skills.

Like I said, this lens excels indoors in mixed light. My test experiments found that punching up to f1.8 or f2.0 yields superior results to shooting at f1.4 exclusively. I’m not a natural-light freak, but with this lens you’ll find less use of a flash. However, at f1.4 you’ll experience a good amount of soft focus. I don’t believe this is a technical flaw of the lens or its communication with the camera, but rather just my lack of experience with a wide open prime and its extremely shallow depth of field. If you have a subject that is willing to hold still for however long it takes you to focus, you can get some great shots at f1.4 – the pictures below of the cats are all f1.4. Because of softness, they have been sharpened using software. If you can’t work fast or get a still subject, stick to f1.8 or f2.0.

If you go outdoors – forget it. I’d rather use my 18-70 f3.5 Nikon Zoom or my 50-150mm f2.8 Sigma rather than use this. Outdoors = more space to move around and more need for a zoom range – if you are shooting action (kids playing, etc). I haven’t used this for landscapes yet, hopefully I can take it on some leafing excursions this fall and get a more thorough test. It’s very easy to leave this lens wide open when you run outside from inside and start taking some really crappy pictures (as I did, chasing a child from inside to out to grab a perfect shot). Nighttime or sunset? Then you can take this back out.

Recommended Use: If you are shooting an event indoors (wedding, party) and can sacrifice zoom range (perhaps by using two bodies at once), I’d want this lens. Recently shooting an event I had this lens in tandem with the f2.8 50-150 and was quite pleased with the results. If you have a lone body, you may want to reconsider unless you are set on the 30mm range, or it fits your style.

Now the pictures:

More Information:

• Sigma Product Page