Wide & Fast

Thank you, the same conclusion that I have now come to, it comes down to horses for courses. I actually went into Jessops yesterday and luckily they had a 30mm 1.4 on display, on a Canon though.
However, had a play and the angle of view is just what I am after, like you I do a lot of people, indooor shots, low light. It's a bit heavy but a nice feel to it. The fact that the outer edges are a bit soft, won't really bother me I believe, as I like to play around with the whacky DOF in my images, like the 50mm. The Pentax 30mm LE on the K10 is not going to be a true 30mm anyway and will not be wide enough, so, I think I have made my decison.

Yes, I got a feeling I am going to end up with a heavy bag of primes!

Lilly - when you say heavy (you can tell I'm being tempted here) does it subjectively feel as heavy as the Sigma 10-20 say?

Mike

Mike, it weighs in at 430gm as opposed to 455 for the 10-20 and around 2/3rds of the size of the 10-20. Same build as the 10-20 too.

Just checked this out, may help to decide - a very in depth review of said lens:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/sigma/30mm-f14.htm

I'm not convinced that heps at all! It's a very mixed bag of comements some good some really quite bad. I don't like that talk of not focussing on infinity. I wonder if that's the lens or his techniuqe though.

Tempting lens though - although maybe he's right and a wider lens would be better. I managed for years without a 50mm film lens.

Mike

yes, know what you mean, perhaps when Linus has spare time he can help with a more Pentax objective view...

Can you explain that comment Lilly?

Dan

it will be exactly the same as the sigma, a 30mm is a 30mm.

still if the soft corners don't bother you then the price of the Sigma is a big bonus.

I was under the impression that the Pentax sorry 31mm LE was not a digital lens, am I incorrect, plse advise Daniel.

Whether it is or whether it isn't, makes no difference. Both the Sigma and the Pentax will have a field of view similar to a 45mm lens would with a 35mm film camera.

'Digital' lenses of a particular focal length will have exactly the same field of view as a 'non-digital' lens of the same focal length.

Dan

Well I am utterly confused then, I thought the whole point of Pentax and other makers bringing out 'digital' lenses were for digital cameras to get the true focal lenghth of the lens, as stated on the box.

There's no reason not to use a full-frame or "non digital" lens on a digital camera if you're happy with its physical size and weight, and you will get less vignetting in some cases.

So, let me get this straight you are saying if I buy a Sigma 30mm fixed focal length 'DIGITAL' lens, it will give me a focal range of 45mm?

No.

A lens doesn't have to have such a large image circle for digital, so lenses designed exclusively for digital can be made smaller and lighter while providing the same focal length. Also the coatings can be optimised for digital cameras. In fact in some cases that is the only difference and the lens is still full-frame.

There's really no more to it than that when it comes to the lenses. The field-of-view differences between film and digital is to do with the cameras, not the lenses - specifically the size of the sensor or film.