Sigma 30mm F1.4 Art DC HSM Lens for Canon

First off, I will say I am an armature photograph and see photography as a hobby rather than a career. For my purposes, this lens is fantastic.To start, the build quality of this lens is amazing. I upgrade to this lens from a 40mm Canon pancake lens with a max aperture of 2.8. Compared to that lens, it's weightier and larger, however I love that about this 30mm. The 40mm felt toyish to me and was constructed of plastic; this Sigma is made mainly from metal. To me, that's not a huge deal because like many of you reading this review, we take good care of our equipment, however the Art lens feels more professional and if you were to take it out on the trail, it could withstand a bump or two. Compared to other Sigma lenses I own, this is by far the best constructed; I also own the 10-20mm and the 18-250mm. The 10-20 feels well built and hefty, but 18-250 is frankly cheap feeling, however you should have no concerns about this 30mm.What I love the most about this lens is the fantastic depth of field it provides. The bokeh of the lens is smooth as silk and allows the subject of the image to be captured brilliantly. It isolates the subject and forces the viewer to examine it, rather than what might be behind it. Also, if there is light behind the subject, the bokeh of it is spherical and not at all angular. The 1.4 max aperture is a great feature and the low light performance is incredible. It makes taking photos with friends and family at gatherings much more enjoyable and less frustrating. Since the lens lets in more light, you can capture your photos with a shorter shutter speed making your images less shaky and crisper when their on screen. However, there are other lenses out there that are cheaper and also shoot at f/1.4, (even the Canon f/1.4 50mm is cheaper than this), so why look at this lens?Compared to other f/1.4 lenses on the market, the 30mm obviously lets you capture more in the frame. On a crop sensor, this is huge. Almost every crop sensor Canon makes has a multiplier of 1.6, so really this 30mm lens is the equivalent of a 48mm on a full frame camera. I love this focal length. Even with aforementioned 40mm pancake lens I had, I found myself clearing a path as I constantly had to back further away from my subjects to capture the entirety of what I wanted. At times I was roughly 12 feet away from a group of four people if I wanted to fit them all in... and that was on a 40mm... I'd be even further away from subjects on a 50mm, which really led me to this lens.What if I wanted to shoot a small subject and wanted to fill the frame? The 30mm would be disadvantageous in this scenario right? Well... not really. The lens has a minimum focusing distance of only roughly a foot. If I did want to get an isolated image of a still, I could shoot it closer with this lens, filling the frame to a distance which is close to that of what a 50mm lens would achieve with a minimum focusing distance of 1.5 feet.There have been complaints about front focusing / back focusing with this lens... I have had no problems with this. Even so, Sigma does make a USB mount for Art lenses where you can adjust them on your computer. I do understand though that when you spend close to 500 dollars on a lens, you should not have to buy another accessory to perfect it; luckily I don't have this issue, but it's nice to know that 5 years from now if I am noticing discrepancies, I could correct for it.The video quality seems fine - I rarely shoot video - however the main issue that I have is that its noisy when auto focusing. The mic does pick it up and it is off putting when viewing videos. For me, not a big issue as I mainly shoot stills.As an armature photographer, I am very happy with this purchase and upgrade from my 40mm pancake. At the end of the day, this lens takes super sharp images, is extremely versatile (more so than a 50mm), adds great DOF to images, performs fantastically in low light, and is built strongly enough to serve you well into the future. There is really not much more a hobbyist could ask for.

I think it’s a pretty amazing lens paired with a Nikon d3300. I’m just a beginning photographer and I’m happy with the low light results

By way of background; I am very much a novice when it comes to photography, but want to make it a serious hobby. Since I'm new to this type of high aperture lens, I am still trying to figure out the right f stop and ISO settings for various conditions. So please take my image quality impressions for what it's worth. I have owned my 60D for about two years and have been using the Canon 18-200 lens exclusively. This purchase is a result of an instructor's recommendation during one-day DSLR class and a LOT of internet research.My first impression of this lens is very high quality based on the materials and general look. I am very surprised how small the actual glass is considering this lens is designed to take in a lot of light. The first time i used it, I thought it didn't work because the focus ring didn't move and there was no motor noise. I later realized the focusing is silent and the ring doesn't move when focusing. This is a noticeable difference when comparing it to the Canon 18-200.So far, my close up outdoor shots look amazing (subject is about 1 to 5 feet away). You would think a professional took them! The focused subject is extremely sharp and the background is blurred perfectly - almost has a 3D look to it. All pictures were taken between 1.4 and 3.0 f stops.However, my indoor shots, especially with lower lighting are not so good. They are either out of focus or too dark. Further, when I focus on a distant object inside or outside, the picture doesn't seem very sharp So far, I am attributing these problems to user inexperience - anyone have advice here? At my daughter's birthday party today, I actually switched over to my reliable 18-200 to insure that I'd have good pictures. This also made me realize how much more real estate the 18mm gave me in tighter spaces. After downloading today's pictures to iPhoto it turns out most of the Sigma pictures came out good - looks like I'm starting to figure it out by day 10. I think this part will just take a little more time to perfect these indoor shots.