How attractive is a Sigma 30mm Art?

In recent months, several high-quality, bright lenses with a fixed focus have appeared, like the Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 and the Sigma 50 mm f/1.4. But what if you want to have a more compact, lighter and less expensive (under 500 euro) lens? Then the choice is very limited and the Sigma 30 mm 1:1.4 DC HSM Art in particular shows up. This bright standard lens for APS-C cameras provides a field of view similar to that of a 45 mm lens on an FX or full-frame camera. The ART addition indicates that a lens belongs in the upper segment. The advantage of such a bright lens is not so much working under low-light conditions, but the limited depth of field that you can achieve. Especially users who also film love it.

A standard lens with a large aperture is ideal for low-light photography. We tested the lens in combination with a Nikon D7100 and made use for the practice shots of a D3300 and a D800. This shot was taken with a Nikon D3300.

Construction and auto focus

The base is plastic, about which Sigma remarks that use is made of a special composite with low thermal expansion. Through the use of composite material, the lens weighs very little, and it prevents back focus/front focus problems with temperature fluctuation.

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From the excerpt shown here, it is clear that there’s a complicated optical system with 10 lenses in 7 groups. There is internal focus; the lens does not become shorter or longer when focusing and the front lens remains still. Of course, there is a built-in focus engine. There is no image stabilization, there is a focus ring and (a rarity nowadays!) a distance scale.

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Vignetting

Distortion

Flare

Sharpness

The shot below is made with 1/3200 sec at f/4, ISO 200. Good detail reproduction, no vignetting. The Sigma 30 mm f/1.4 Art has an aperture that is made of 9 rounded lamellae, resulting in a nice bokeh and nice “sun stars” if you are shooting a bright light source at a small aperture.

Conclusion Sigma 30 mm f/1.4 Art test with Nikon D7100

Use the Lens Comparison or look in our list of reviewed lenses to compare this lens with other lenses.

WYSIWYG score: More and more often when designing a lens, distortion, color separation and vignetting are consciously not optimally corrected. As a result, fewer expensive lens elements or exotic glass types need to be used, which ultimately results in a more attractive selling price. The lens manufacturer relies on automatic correction of these characteristics in the camera or in photo editing software. The “jpg-score” gives you for a lens/test camera combination, “What you see is what you get” when all available lens corrections are applied in the camera. 

Pure RAW score: With more expensive lenses, a manufacturer often goes to great lengths in the lens design to prevent lens errors. Neither costs nor effort are spared, which can be recognized by the use of exotic types of glass and many lens elements. The “RAW score” approximates the intrinsic quality of the combination of lens and test camera, with CameraStuffReview attempting to bypass any automatic lens corrections of RAW files. If you use lens correction profiles in Photoshop or Lightroom to convert RAW files, the RAW scores for distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration will be higher or equal to the corresponding jpg scores.

Advantages

• Bright standard lens with a fixed focal point for a DX camera
• Beautifully designed
• Well finished
• Reasonably well priced for a lens with this brightness

Disadvantages

• Optical qualities good, but not as exceptionally good as the Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 Art or the Sigma 18-35 mm f/1.8 Art

The Sigma 30 mm f/1.4 ART lens is beautifully designed and well built, and has a reasonably good price-to-quality ratio.

Anyone who has an FX camera can choose from a wide variety of bright standard lenses with a fixed focal length of 50 mm. If you like to shoot with a bright lens (< f/1.8) with the same field of view, which fits well with what you see with the naked eye, then the choice is much smaller. For the most critical user, both Sigma and Nikon have a 35 mm f/1.4 lens that scores better, but is more expensive. Nikon has no 30 mm lens, but a 35 mm f/1.8 that is less bright and thereby slightly cheaper. The Sigma 30 mm f/1.4 Art is a fun, universally applicable lens with a fixed focal point for the bokeh lover/amateur photographer with a DX camera, which until now had no affordable bright (f/1.4) standard lenses.  

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