Hi Rob, welcome to the forum. Whereabouts in SE Wales are you?

I can't see any zooms listed I'm afraid... For the price of a new DA* 55mm, you could pick up an FA 50mm f1.4 & something like the 35mm f2 or f2.8 limited (or a longer 3rd party macro) on the used market, which will give you a few more options. The FA 50mm wont be as well built as the 55mm & is screw drive not sdm, but in terms of image quality you'll be getting much more value for money. There are obviously other factors & we've yet to see a proper side-by-side test. If money isn't a consideration however then I wouldn't think you'd be in any way dissapointed with a DA* 55mm.

I have one you can try out ( although you can't buy it ) also 30mm & 70mm Sigma Primes. I'm near Pontypridd, but can arrange to meet up somewhere photogenic in nice weather if you'd Like.

Regards, Bob

[shameless plug] Or you could bid on my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 - ebay item number 180337635137 [/shameless plug]

I too would have liked a bit more dof, but I wanted to keep the exposure times low as there were people & car headlights in danger of ruining the shot. I didn't want to bump up the iso as hdr can introduce grain anyway so wanted to keep noise at a minimum.

Ken, I haven't had it long but my initial thoughts are very favourable. It handles very nicely on the K20d. Autofocus is very positive & accurate. Manual focus, whilst not the smoothest is again very positive & has enough throw to make small adjustments.
Finish is standard Sigma EX (matt finish with slight glittery effect) not my preference, but doesn't look or feel cheap, lens cap & hood attach securely. Plus you get a nice big lens case included.

There have been reports of softness in the corners from testers, but I took this with a pinch of salt. Shooting 3D objects at wide apertures is going to mean alot of the image being outside the dof anyway, so unless your favourite subjects are resolution charts I wouldn't be concerned. It's usable at f1.4 & good at f2.
Whilst not FA* 31mm standard, I really like the creamy bokeh & smooth transition in dof. Contrast & colour rendition are not quite up to FA* & DA* standards (from examples I've seen - not personal experience) but are good (better than even a good zoom will be for example)

Your best bet for examples is the Flickr pool for this lens HERE as ever on flickr the standard of photography varies but you'll get a good feel for the lens capabilities.

Cheers, Bob

K20d
Sigma 30mm prime @ f/2
Tripod

Bracketed 5 shots 1.7 ev stops apart (1/5 quickest, 20 secs slowest) to retain both the luminance of sky & foreground detail.
Combined & (gently) tonemapped in Photomatix, contrast & sharpening applied in PS.

Taken one day before this fortnightly competition opened so cannot enter it. But thanks for the vote of confidence

Thanks guys, it kinda saved the shoot for me as I'd driven a fair way out of my way to get there only for the sun to dissapear behind some horrible haze. (Although it was a nice drive through the gower with the top down )

Martin, you're just far too good at cloning.

The sunset had seemed to fizzle out as the horizon was far too hazy. I was on the way back to the car when the colour in the sky became intense, so quickly looked around for some foreground interest. Fence to the rescue ! The ambient light was quite dim by now & I was rushing to compose the shots so I didn't notice the lovely weathered texture until processing the shots at home, an added bonus !

[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/WHfence.jpg[/IMG]

Shot was taken Tuesday evening at Rhossili on the Gower, South West Wales.

Seems the lack of cropping images due to the teleconvertor & the shooting in Tv mode is really working out for you. Some nice shots here.