Sigma 'Fast Prime' Fan Club

[Gdad]

I have this lens and really like it.

Some may remember from my trip report after our last trip to the World. I had the front lens element fall off my 18-135mm lens in the morning while at EPCOT and I ended up using the 30mm f/1.4 almost exclusively for the rest of the day and into the EMH at night.

I've also used it around the house. Its a great focal length on a crop body. On Nikon it has the field of view of a 45mm lens which is very close to what the human eye see's at.

Here are some shots with it:

I found that wide open at ISO 1600 at night or with any image that has a lot of dark parts that I get a lot of extra noise. But at least I can get the shot.

Excellent Kyle- I do remember that trip report. I love the stingray picture.

 

[Gdad]

Great Dance pictures! My daughter is still working on her cartwheels.

 

[Gdad]

One more from the birthday party I thought I would share- in B&W.

Taken @ f2-

 

[Gdad]

Guess what- this lens even works in the daytime.

 

[AndrewWG]

Ok, so the new lens arrived today. Couldn't have been a worse day for it as it was nice and sunny and I was sick in bed. I dragged my butt outside with it and tried some shots. Overall, I am pleased with it, but it will take some getting used to I think. Here are some comparison shots:

f1.4

f2.5

f4.5

f8

f1.4

f1.4

The overall softness of the flowers at f1.4 is slightly depressing, but understood I suppose since I was up close to them and at f1.4. I would inagine that my DOF must have been extremely limited. The f1.4 of my cat and the garden fence area of my backyard both are nice and sharp, I think.

The real test for me will be next weekend when I go shoot a local band again. I did it a couple weeks ago with my 50mm, but I expect better results from this lens. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Groucho]

The softness might be due to depth of field, too... at F1.4, it is razor-thin and you may just have the tips of the petals in focus, which are soft and diffuse normally. You can try getting a little closer and manually focusing on the center of the flower, where there are more details for the eye to notice, and see if that's any better.

No doubt that it is softer at F1.4 than at smaller apertures, but I'd try a few more shots before dismissing it entirely.

 

[Gdad]

Here are a few stopped down to f11- long exposures with a tripod.

 

[YEKCIM]

Jeff-

Those are beautiful - #3, especially. I need to stay away from this thread, though... LL and all that.

~Ed

 

[emmabelle]

Here are a few stopped down to f11- long exposures with a tripod.

I want to try this with my 30mm when I go in August. Do you know how long the exposures were? Did you use a remote shutter release?

 

[Gdad]

I want to try this with my 30mm when I go in August. Do you know how long the exposures were? Did you use a remote shutter release?

I think they were averaging around 20-30 seconds. I forgot my cable release so I was using the timer- but for the same reason to avoid vibration.

 

[wkrider]

Gdad,

Lauren is adorable. I see she likes pink and Hello Kitty, come to think of it what little girl doesn't. Great shots.

 

[emmabelle]

I think they were averaging around 20-30 seconds. I forgot my cable release so I was using the timer- but for the same reason to avoid vibration.

Thanks, that's what I thought for exposure time.

 

[handicap18]

Great shots Jeff. I really like 2 & 3. Excellent work!!

 

[Abby's Dad]

I'm between picking this lens (the 30/1.4) and the Sigma 24/1.8. I tend to like wide, and with the Pentax 1.5 crop factor, the 24 comes in at about 36 mm, towards the upper end of wide angle, and I wonder if that might not be better for night parade shots from the curb, and the like (I realize that I'll give up a third of a stop, or so). Any thoughts on this?

Fred

 

[Gdad]

Just a lil' bump for the Siggy 30/1.4

Tokyo Dining at Epcot

Eel Nigiri- Yum!

 

[SueInBoston]

i don't know GDad, I bought the Sigma based on this thread, somehow my stuff just doesn't look like yours

 

[Craig E Hood]

Hi, thought this would be a good place to post my first message. Been lurking a long time and reading all of the great theads on the photog board. I ordered the Sigma 30mm 1.4 Sunday for my Nikon D40X. It's supposed to be here tomorrow and I am so excited to start playing with it. We are headed to the WORLD June 1st for a week and I am busting to get there. I took the plunge into DSLR about 6 months ago and I have learned SO much from these threads. Thanks to all.

PS - I hope my pics are half as good as the ones I've seen on this thread.

Craig

 

[handicap18]

Welcome aboard Craig.

We like non Disney pics too. So don't be affraid to take some practice shots and post them here.

 

[Craig E Hood]

Thanks, and I will post some pics....when I figure it out. I would like to hear if I am even close to taking decent pictures. I am only using aperture priority and manual exposure modes. Sometimes they look great, to me anyway. Most times not so great. My problem is getting the aperture/shutter thing to jive. But I truly want to learn all I can.

Craig

 

[handicap18]

You have to get yourself an internet photo account (flickr, photobucket, smugmug, etc...) Load your pictures from your hard drive to that account. Then you can link the pic from that account to here.

Before you can add links or pics you have to have a minimum of 10 posts.

Many of the regular folks here that use dSLR's will use Aperture priority. Don't be affraid to use Program around Disney. Things can get hecktick and sometimes its nice just to point and shoot and not have to worry about the settings other than ISO.