The answer to the question posed in the post title, is as far as I'm concerned, a resounding yes. This is the best lens I've ever used on my NEX-7. Its sharper than any m-mount or Nikon lens, sharper than any of the Sony NEX range and yes its sharper than the (somewhat overated in my opinion) Zeiss 24mm.
In a previous post I did some aperture tests and uploaded some raw file samples here. Yesterday it finally stopped raining so that I was able to get out and use it to take some "real" pictures.
Its more or less a general rule, that you get what you pay for. However every now and then along comes something that subverts that cliche. The Sigma 30mm f/2.8 prime for the Sony NEX system is one such lens. For £136 I've just bought a superb lens, one that finally does justice to all those pixels in the NEX-7, a camera I love using, but one that has always frustrated me in terms of the quality of the files it produces. Not any more.
I have for some time been wanting an outfit like this. A small light, very high quality, rangefinder styled camera with something around a "standard" lens fitted to it. The Fuji X-Pro 1 wasn't it, I wasn't able to get a m4/3 combination that quite achieved that and I didn't really want to buy another Leica.
I'm not going into a detailed analysis of this lens. There are plenty of reviews saying how good it is.
However, I would disagree with most of these reviews, but only in that they tend to underestimate its quality. Now that is understandable, since it is somewhat unusual to start asserting that one of the cheapest lenses you can buy for a camera system is one of, it not THE best that you can buy for that system.
However that's exactly what I think it is and I can't think of any good reason why every Sony NEX camera owner shouldn't own one of these and have it on their camera most of the time. I know I will.
N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) below.
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