user error or bad lens?..feedback?

MissB · December 21, 2009

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question... I have been doing research on a 30mm 1.4 sigma lens for my canon 50D. I have just started using my sunroom studio as its getting too cold to shoot children succesfully outside. So I will be using this lens mostly indoors and my studio feels a little cramped with my 50mm. I was wondering...

1. would a 30mm give me the extra room I need to get more into the studio shots.. IE: full body.

2. With the sigma reviews that i've heard its a hit or miss with this lens.. A lot of people are complaining about fousing issues with the fast lenses. Im starting to feel like some photogs aren't getting that you have such a minimal focus radius with the aperature wide open...and perhaps its a user error more than a lens issue.. thoughts on this???

Qarik · December 21, 2009

MissB wrote:

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question... I have been doing research on a 30mm 1.4 sigma lens for my canon 50D. I have just started using my sunroom studio as its getting too cold to shoot children succesfully outside. So I will be using this lens mostly indoors and my studio feels a little cramped with my 50mm. I was wondering...

1. would a 30mm give me the extra room I need to get more into the studio shots.. IE: full body.

2. With the sigma reviews that i've heard its a hit or miss with this lens.. A lot of people are complaining about fousing issues with the fast lenses. Im starting to feel like some photogs aren't getting that you have such a minimal focus radius with the aperature wide open...and perhaps its a user error more than a lens issue.. thoughts on this???

depends on the reviewers of course but I tend to think that most photographers can distinguish between DOF and true focus issues. Sigma does have repuation for hit and miss on any given lens. I have had to return a sigma 24-70mm HSM due to back focus problems.

run_kmc · December 21, 2009

For this particular lens, I do know of some people who had bad copies, had them fixed/replaced and are wonderfully happy now. Other people I know who had problems had them because of their technique.

f1.4 is tricky if you're not used to it. "Focus and Recompose" doesn't always work.

MissB · December 22, 2009

got it!! Normall the canon is the more expensive version of the two.. it seems that sigma in the 30mm 1.4 outweights canon in price by about $100. Is canon the lower quality choice in lens this match up?

pathfinder · December 23, 2009

Canon's 35mm f1.4 L is an excellent lens but not cheap at $1400

Sigma's 30mm f1.4 is considerably more inexpensive at $439

Shorter focal length lenses can be used for portraits, usually environmental portraits, but can capture facial distortion unless used carefully. 75-100mm is a more typical usage for studio portraits with 35mm cameras.

craig_d · December 23, 2009

MissB wrote:

got it!! Normall the canon is the more expensive version of the two.. it seems that sigma in the 30mm 1.4 outweights canon in price by about $100. Is canon the lower quality choice in lens this match up?

You don't say which Canon lens you have in mind for comparison, though I would guess the EF 35mm f/2 from your reference to price. Here are my thoughts on the Canon lenses that one might consider as alternatives to the Sigma 30mm f/1.4:

EF 28mm f/1.8 USM: A potentially nice lens completely ruined by the worst CA and purple fringing around specular highlights that I have ever seen on a Canon lens -- even cheap Canon lenses. I had one. Sold it.

EF 35mm f/1.4L USM: Wonderful lens, but expensive.

EF 35mm f/2: Excellent value for money. Great images. The only significant downsides to this lens are a buzzy AFD auto-focus motor and pentagonal bokeh (due to its five-bladed aperture iris). Also, of course, f/2 is a full stop slower than f/1.4. But in my experience this lens is pretty sharp wide open, while the Sigma is said not to be. (Someone else recently disagreed with me about the 35mm f/2's wide-open sharpness, so either he has a bad copy or I have an unusually good one.) Build quality is the same as the original EF 50mm f/1.8 (with metal mount), that is, better than the EF 50mm f/1.8 II but not as good as the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM.

As for the Sigma, I have heard too many reports of focusing problems and people having to return it three times to get one that worked right for me to want to go anywhere near it. It sounds like it might be a nice lens if you get a good copy. A camera body that supports auto-focus micro-adjustment (50D, 7D) would probably help. Also, I no longer buy lenses that only work on APS-C cameras.

user error or bad lens?..feedback?

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