Table of Contents
Conclusion
Pros
- Solidly constructed lens
- Fast and quiet autofocus
- Excellent sharpness at all apertures when shot close up
- Nice bokeh
- Natural color and contrast
- Focuses close up
- Reasonably priced
Cons
- Dramatic field curvature at infinity limits edge sharpness
- Chromatic aberration is quite visible in many situations
- High native distortion that must be digitally corrected
- Flare performance is somewhat weak
The Sigma 30mm f/1.4 is a lens that generally performs well for its price point, but it falls short of the outstanding performance of the Art series Sigma mirrorless primes. If you’re shooting closer up, the lens is very sharp with good bokeh and a nice rendering. It’s also a well-built lens that feels notably better than its $339 price would suggest. If you plan on using this lens mostly for shooting people or for street work, I think you’ll be very pleased with the 30mm f/1.4. It does a very nice job in these situations, producing images with a really nice look.
Unfortunately, it’s less useful as a landscape lens, as field curvature becomes very strong at far focus distances, limiting edge sharpness near infinity. There’s also some chromatic aberration and flare that can show in images.
I think that for a lot of people, the more even performing Sony 35mm f/1.8 will probably be a bit more useful, but if you know you’ll be using that f/1.4 aperture and can live with only average performance at a distance, then you’ll be quite pleased with the 30mm f/1.4. It’s a quality lens for the price, it’s just not the hidden gem that has become almost standard practice for Sigma in recent years.
Image Samples
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