Comments about Sigma Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM AutoFocus Standard Lens for Maxxum & Sony alpha Mount Digital SLR's:

[Using on a Sony a200.]This lens is actually approximately 45mm in terms of a regular film type 35mm SLR. This makes it the old fashioned normal lens that used to come standard on most film cameras (45 - 50mm). This lens therefore makes images very close to the same scale that you see by eye. That is, depth of field and so forth are about the same as the human eye, and, what you see is what you get.

The first noticeable thing after mounting the lens is that the viewfinder is considerably brighter than with the standard zoom lens. the next noticeable thing is the lens autofocuses very fast and quietly. The lens does not have a tendency to 'seek' when focusing: it goes straight to the focus point. And then, the images are sharp.

Some things learned by use:

1. The lens comes with a good hood. It is cup / bowl shaped, with a couple notches to allow you to get your fingers into the filter(s). Even so, getting my fingers to my circular polarizer with the hood on is difficult. I tend to remove the hood and adjust the polarizer, and then put the hood back on.

2. The lens hood will mount backwards for easy storage when you don't need it, or for when putting the camera away in your kit bag.

3. The lens is excellent for snapshot type photography. Such as pics of your pets,kids, grand kids, and so forth. No flash is usually required.

4. The lens is great for taking travel photos, taking some pics when going to the park, and so forth.

5. The lens really excels for people pictures. Such as candids when walking around town. The fast focus really helps. For taking more serious portraits and semi-portraits, its great also.

6. Taking close-ups of, say a flower, can be done fairly easily. If very close and using f1.4 - f2.8 or so, you may find some of the image blurred out because of limited depth of field. So, you might need to step back a bit when using a wide open f stop.

7. Using inside in a dark church (or similar) can be done easily. Makes the headache of doing candids for a wedding much easier. Again, no flash is usually needed.

8. For landscapes, you will need to move your two feet, since there's no zoom. For some shots, I wind-up mounting the standard Sony zoom.

Overall, a great lens.

Comments about Sigma Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM AutoFocus Standard Lens for Maxxum & Sony alpha Mount Digital SLR's:

[...] Ill just get to the point. This is a very unique lens. The highlight of this glass is the fast aperture of f1.4. But this is no ordinary f1.4, it gives a wicked look to photos. The bokeh and color is like no other even when closed down a bit, its very difficult to describe but there are many sigma 30mm f1.4 lens enthusiasts on flicker. It is very difficult to manually focus wide open but thats to be expected with any lens with features like this. One thing to note is that this lens has extremely low edge resolution but makes up for it in very very sharp center resolution. Even when stopped down a bit it is still noticeable that the edges arnt that sharp but once stopped down to maybe f4 and up, it gets far less noticeable. Many people the soft edges a downfall however many people like me find it wonderful. Infact that’s the reason I bought this lens, for its soft edges and extreme sharp center. Its so much more fun and feels more real when you have a lens that optically creates theses effects rather than the computer, I believe this will help spark creativity. The sigma 30mm is very rugged and looks nice when paired up with the a700 but I am sure it will look just as nice with any other camera you attach it with. It makes for a very compact setup however thats if you use it with "out" the lens hood. That lens hood is almost the length of the entire lens itself, and its a absolute must if you plan on shooting where the lighting will almost guarantee glare. Very tough construction. The focusing ring is very smooth but I wished it had alittle more resistance feel to it. Hmmm what else, o yes, the when you focus, there is no increase in the outer dimensions and there is no rotating of the threads, so filters are easily attached.All in all, a wonderful lens, I have heard that Sigma is rather a company that has problems with quality control and I believe it. I find many people complaining about how there lens won’t work right and have to return it to get one that actually works like it should. In this case I got it working right from the box. But don’t let peoples complaint stop you, I was well aware of them when I purchased it, in my mind I said "if it comes to my house and it is defective I will just keep returning it until I get a good one". I know it sound silly but I fell in love with the image quality and how amazing this lens is. I almost forgot to mention, when you photograph a person close up wide open, it has this wicked effect of making that person look like a doll, no quite literally look like a plastic doll, amazing! But if you don’t want to do that you could just stop down to like, o I don’t know f2.8 and up and it will look quite normal.