Conclusion
Pros:
- Extremely sharp lens even at maximum aperture. Stopping down yields good edge-to-edge sharpness.
- Excellent contrast and good color gives images a lot of pop
- Good control of lens aberrations like CA, distortion, flare and vignetting
- New metal clad design looks good and feels nice in the hand
- Small and lightweight
- Extremely affordable
Cons:
- Autofocus is a little pokey
- Build quality, while decent, could be a little better
- Prone to fingerprints and light scratches
The Sigma 30mm f/2.8 is one of the very best bargains in the photographic industry. It’s a very inexpensive lens ($199 retail, on sale at the time of this writing at $169), but packs serious imaging capabilities. The lens is small, light and puts out images with very high levels of detail right from f/2.8. Stopped down a bit yields excellent cross-frame sharpness and high contrast photos. While there are a few small things like a bit of barrel distortion and a not-so-fast autofocus system, overall, it’s hard to get a better lens for the price. Frankly, in many ways, it’s hard to get a better lens for three to four times its price. Sure, it’s not the fastest normal focal length lens in the world, but if you are OK with an f/2.8 aperture, it’s worth your money to get this lens. A simply top-notch effort from Sigma.
Sample Images
Click on an image to enlarge.
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