New toy

Shoei · 21 Sep 2007 at 22:36

Well happy, my Sigma 30mm F/1.4 arrived today. On the D80 with FOV crop factor i now have a 48mm equivalent. A quick play at lunch time show it to be pretty sharp.
Feels pretty well made as well. heavier than the 18-70 kit lens, and doesnt have the AF/MF switch as well.
Pics to follow once ive had a good play.

sunlitsix · 22 Sep 2007 at 01:05

look forward to some examples, it looks like an interesting lens

Shoei · 22 Sep 2007 at 13:55

Here's a few pics from this morning. Took a bit of getting used to fixed focus lens after using the 18-70 for nigh on a year.

And here's a 100% crop with no sharpening added.

ful size of the crop can be found here

robertgilbert86 · 22 Sep 2007 at 13:57

Looks great man, I was thinking about getting one of these for gig photography. Let me know how it copes in low light.

Shoei · 22 Sep 2007 at 14:04

robertgilbert86 said:
Looks great man, I was thinking about getting one of these for gig photography. Let me know how it copes in low light.

thats tomorrows test. My daughters birthday party is at one of these indoor play centres, so will see how it does. Might leave the SB600 at home and try and shoot with out using the onboard flash or with it turned right down.

gt_junkie · 22 Sep 2007 at 14:59

Shoei said:
thats tomorrows test. My daughters birthday party is at one of these indoor play centres, so will see how it does. Might leave the SB600 at home and try and shoot with out using the onboard flash or with it turned right down.

Very intersted in this too!

I have Canon's 50mm f/1.4 but would love a little more width on my 30D's cropped sensor. The 50 gives me an 80mm equivelent.

Looks like you have a sharp copy there too my man!

gt

Shoei · 22 Sep 2007 at 15:36

gt_junkie said:
Very intersted in this too!

I have Canon's 50mm f/1.4 but would love a little more width on my 30D's cropped sensor. The 50 gives me an 80mm equivelent.

Looks like you have a sharp copy there too my man!

gt

Cheers.

Thats why i went for the 30mm, tend not to use the long end of my 18-70 if i can help it and so a 50mm would have been a waste.

Shoei · 23 Sep 2007 at 15:59

Didnt get much chance to shoot with out flash, since the indoor play area was so dark.
But here's my daughter charlie and cake!
This lens is going to be a serious learning curve due to the Depth of Field or lack of that it can produce.

1/80 @ f/1.4. ISO100. Built in Flash with -0.3 dialed in.

still early days but well impressed. quick to focus being HSM, plus the manual over-ride on the nikon is good, just like AF-S lens, in that you dont have to flick a switch, just use the focus ring.

robertgilbert86 · 23 Sep 2007 at 18:06

Shoei said:
1/80 @ f/1.4. ISO100. Built in Flash with -0.3 dialed in.

For the above shot with not kill the flash and use ISO 800?

Shoei · 23 Sep 2007 at 18:31

robertgilbert86 said:
For the above shot with not kill the flash and use ISO 800?

Its the old film side of me, that im finding hard to overcome, plus ive cropped the image to remove the big window behind her, so i needed some fill-in due to her being pretty well back lit.

Keep the iso as low as possible to stop any noise.
I know that at ISO800 noise shouldn't be a problem.
This is another thing i need to play with, which i shall try over winter. Doing some high iso shots with the 30mm.

Messiah Khan · 23 Sep 2007 at 19:01

Good to see your pleased with it. This is likely to be my next lens. The other option was the Nikon 28mm f1.4, but as it goes for silly prices, this Sigma is a much more likely purchase. Will be uysing it as a walkabout lens, but mainly for portraits.

robertgilbert86 · 23 Sep 2007 at 20:33

Shoei said:
Its the old film side of me, that im finding hard to overcome, plus ive cropped the image to remove the big window behind her, so i needed some fill-in due to her being pretty well back lit.

Keep the iso as low as possible to stop any noise.
I know that at ISO800 noise shouldn't be a problem.
This is another thing i need to play with, which i shall try over winter. Doing some high iso shots with the 30mm.

The whole point of big apertures for me is the need not to use flash in low-light. I find ISO 800 is fine after a bit of processing. Until I get a big flash I'm going to hate using the on-board, so I avoid it at all costs. Even if it means ISO 800 over ISO 200.

Shoei · 23 Sep 2007 at 20:49

robertgilbert86 said:
The whole point of big apertures for me is the need not to use flash in low-light. I find ISO 800 is fine after a bit of processing. Until I get a big flash I'm going to hate using the on-board, so I avoid it at all costs. Even if it means ISO 800 over ISO 200.

Ive got an SB-600, but decided not to take it, esp with lots of little kids running round. Granted life would have been easier.
Now i have the lens i can play and see what its like when i push the ISO in low light. Only had the thing 3 days and ive been so used to shooting with the 18-70, having to rethink composure again.