SIGMA 30MM 1.4: OPTIMUS PRIME
This prime lens is nothing short of a transformer. It’ll make your ordinary subject stand out with a beautiful creamy bokeh (background blur). It’s well-weighed, doesn’t seem plasticy, and gives you the right balance with the Sony a6300 body. If you’re thinking of getting a first prime lens for your Sony A6000 series of cameras, you basically have four options. The Sigma 30MM 2.8, Sigma 30mm 1.4, Sony SEL35mm 1.8, and the Sony FE28mm F2.0. On paper, the 2.8 is the sharpest, but it falls back on the bokeh and there is some amount of purple fringing (purple haze). If you plan to get the Sony SEL35mm 1.8, I’d say go ahead. It’s ultra-sharp, very light and comes with OSS (Optical Steady Shot) – essentially, it’s a stabilized lens. The Sony FE28mm 2.0 is primarily made for the Sony A7 series of cameras, which are full frame mirrorless cameras. So effectively, on a crop sensor, the focal length changes to 42mm. It’s a decent lens, but then what made me go for the Sigma?
STREET REP
Some say that 50mm is the right focal length for street photography, so by that logic 35mm x 1.5 is the closest that comes to that. But with the 30mm focal length, you just get that extra view. And that little bit extra, lets you set a context to the image. Think of environment portraits for a few seconds. Imagine you’re clicking a portrait against this beautiful backdrop. Now a portrait lens will give you a beautiful face, but with little or no background visible. A wider prime will still focus on the subject, but will bring to light the beautiful backdrop. The same applies for street photography. Think you’re taking a photograph of an old man sitting on the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette. What a wider focal length will do is give you that same shot, but with a backdrop of a street market. Suddenly, your picture is now telling a story. With the Sigma 30mm, I get exactly that. The joy of sharp subjects and the context of where they are.
CREMA @ 1.4
What makes for a great bokeh? Is it just a bigger f.stop? Or is there something more? The construction of the glass determines how the bokeh is rendered. It’s not just how blurry the background is, but how creamy and seamless it is. Even the colour reproduction is important. So, while the background is blur, the saturation and true colour rendition goes a long way in making the subject stand out. At 1.4, yes, the bokeh is dream-like. Velvety, creamy, all while having natural tones to the subject in the foreground. The Sony 35mm throws a yellow cast on the faces, while the Sigma stays true to tone. A straight-out JPEG looks natural and pleasing to the eye, somewhat like the Fuji lenses.
LOW LIGHT MASTER
The bigger f-stop means more light can come into the lens. And this is a boon in lowly lit scenes. Take a dingy restaurant or some alleyway with just the street lights, the bigger f-stop ensures you get usable, noise-free photos at a not-so-high ISO, say even at ISO 3200. It’s ultra-fast to focus as well, so very rarely, say one in a hundred, the focus will hunt, but the other 99 times, it nails it. I’m amazed at the amount of sharp details the lens can capture even at failing light. It’s astounding!
Not many go for the Sigma. But if you look closely, you’ll find gold. It’s an excellent well-built, bokehlicious lens. It aces most scenarios; portrait, landscape, street photography and even low-light situations. This little prime is a performer. Hell, it’s a transformer.