| Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

Good gravy! What a lens!!, Wednesday, 17 March 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.5
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		4.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		5.0

I think this has to be the best lens I've ever purchased. It's not as quiet as, say, the Canon 18-55mm kit lens or something comparable but it's a fine and INEXPENSIVE (a relative term in photography) replacement to Canon's model.

Very durable, clean, and I have no idea what people are saying about distortion. Vignetting has not been noticed. Amazing!!

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

Excellent lens!, Friday, 05 March 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.8
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		5.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		5.0

I love these lens! Great for landscape photography!Will recommend my friends to get this cos' it only costs half as much as the Nikon ones.

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

Sigma WIDE Angle Lens, Sunday, 21 February 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.5
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		4.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		5.0

This is a good lens. Let's get that right out there in the open. It's a good lens.

The price is right on. For 500 bucks, it's tough to beat. It's a great budget lens, and being able to shoot 10mm is something I wouldn't be able to afford at the professional level. The lens includes a hood, the build is pretty tough, and it's Sigma, so it's probably gonna be reliable (my experience with Sigma has been really good so far).

I was originally shopping for a 10 or 15mm prime lens (prime meaning it doesn't have any zoom, it's just one lens "size"). I couldn't find one, but I'm glad I couldn't. While 10mm is a great wide angle, I'll admit it's nice to have the option to go a little tighter without swapping lenses. (I want a 10-500mm f/1.4 lens, someday...) Plus, I don't mind any loss of possible aperture: with a 10mm lens, I won't be doing many portraits. In fact, I bought the lens for landscapes and cityscapes, and if I was anything in focus, I'll be shooting much higher than f/4.

Speaking of shooting, it's an average lens in terms of focus and noise, perhaps a little below average on focus speed. The photos feel a little soft in terms of focus, but again, this is more of a budget lens than anything pro-pro-fessional. There's some distortion/pin cushioning at 10mm on the edges of the photos, however it's not terribly rampant and can be ignored if you're not on location for National Geographic.

The last time I photographed Lake Tahoe was with a 24mm zoom lens, so my experiences here were very different this time around. I enjoyed the lens and the results I got, and I think it's an improvement from either my 24 or 18mm lenses. For fun, I swapped in my 50 prime and took a photo, and the differences are huge. 50 suddenly felt like a telescope for viewing Saturn. But back at 10mm, I was photographing the whole lake, and I loved it.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Great glass, Sunday, 07 February 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.5
Sharpness		5.0
Build Quality		4.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		4.0

This is really a fabulous Lens. You can read all about the technical stuff somewhere else.

A word of caution when ordering through amazon though. If you need it right away, make sure it's being shipped by Amazon, and not a third party.

I had ordered this, an paid for expedited shipping. It was still almost a week before it arrived.

If you need it the next day, get it from B&H

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

A breath of fresh air for DX DSLR owners., Thursday, 04 February 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		5.0
Sharpness		5.0
Build Quality		5.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		5.0

First words? "Wow."

Second words? "Why did I wait this long?"

From 2004-2008, I owned a Nikon D70. From 2008 on, I've owned a Nikon D90. Both DX bodies, both great. My widest lenses through all of those years was always an 18mm. That was usually "wide-enough" for me, but there were occasions where I couldn't *quite* frame the photo the way I wanted. Couldn't *quite* fit it all in the frame. As this lens has been out for a few years, I've toyed on and off with buying one. I finally recently did, and I'm blown away.

I should have bought this lens 4 years ago. This lens has opened my eyes to how restrictive 18mm on a DX-body can be. You don't understand "wide" until you've shot with a lens like this.

I'm generally a Nikkor guy. I love my Nikon bodies, and I generally like to use Nikkor glass. But I've got to say, this is my second Sigma lens, and both have greatly exceeded my expectations. The build-quality on this thing is great. Zero regrets. And for half the price as Nikkor's 10-24mm, it's a good deal. Optically and mechanically, it seems flawless. Sharp, contrasty, and not a lot of distortion for as wide as this is.

And yes, there's a newer version of this lens, a fixed-aperture f3.5 10-20. For me it doesn't matter much as I'm mostly using this lens down around 10mm anyway, where the difference between f4 and f3.5 is nearly meaningless. And it's so wide even at 20mm, that shake issues (due to slow shutter necessitated by f5.6) are mostly a moot point. IMHO, fixed apertures matter a whole lot more for telephoto lenses than they do for wides, and this lens is super-wide.

From a creative standpoint, this lens is astounding. It's not just about being wide; capturing the whole skyline, the whole meadow, or the whole mountain range. It's really about perspective and depth. Even a photo of something as mundane as a soda can on a coffee table takes on a whole new perspective (literally!) when shot with a super-wide like this. Get close. Really close. Closer. Pow! Your photography will never be the same. Just as a telephoto lens compresses distance (distant objects seem closer), wide angle really expands distance. Compose a flower or some other small object up close, with an expansive background landscape, at 10mm, and the resulting photo will nearly leap out at you. Push it further, closer to the foreground object, and the flower will be enormous while the distant mountain peaks are minuscule. Amazing creative potential.

This lens is about as wide as you can go on a DX body. It's probably not an 'every-day' or 'walkaround' lens for most people. Myself included. But I can say that if I could only grab *two* lenses for a day of casual and fun shooting, there's a pretty good chance I'd grab this 10-20 right after either my 35mm or 50mm prime.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Good Lens so far, Warranty Problem Resolved, Wednesday, 20 January 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.0
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		3.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		4.0

I have yet to put this lens through it's paces so I'll rate it 4 stars for now (could be a 5 ??) Like some others, I had a question about the extended warranty as there was no warranty registration card that required mailing back to Sigma shipped with the lens. I called Amazon service, they told me to call Sigma (631.585.1144), no problem, the Amazon guy seemed to think that there should be something I had to mail back to Sigma. I called Sigma, identified the lens as an EX lens, Sigma explained that all EX lenses have extended warranties, no need to mail anything in. If you need service just send them the (non mail in) card that came with the lens, your invoice from Amazon and you will be able to get warranty service from the date of purchase for the next four years.

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

So Far So Good, Monday, 18 January 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.0
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		4.0
AF Speed		4.0
Value for Money		4.0

Following the positive reviews on this site, I purchased the lens. I have used it in several environments and have been pleased so far. It seems well made and the picture quality is fine. I wish I could have afforded a faster lens (I do use this indoors) but it works as expected for the appeture range.

Some day I'll win the lottery and get a really fast wide angle zoom. Action shots from courtside look really cool at 10mm.

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

A good investment in a Wide-Angle lens, Sunday, 17 January 2010


Overall rating (weighted)		4.5
Sharpness		5.0
Build Quality		4.0
AF Speed		4.0
Value for Money		5.0

I waited to review this lens until I returned from our Hawaiian vacation, but I was very pleased with my purchase from the start.

I have a gallery of the test shots I did with this lens, and perhaps that would be sufficient to answer any questions anyone would have about the lens.

[...]

The light was not too great for a number of the shots, but they are still usable for examining the performance of the lens.

I had some misgivings about buying the lens because of reports Sigma sufferes from inconsistent quality (some users having to exchange the lens a few times), however, I did not encounter any of the described problems. I am not a pro, but perhaps qualify as experienced amateur. Still, I can't readily quote all of the lens-related lingo. What concerns me is if I like the shot after I take it, and so far I've been very happy with the lens.

This is the first non-Nikon lens I have ever purchased in the 30+ years of Nikon shooting, but it's not likely to be the last. The cost was about half of a comparable Nikon product, and the performance according to many reviews is better. I cannot offer a direct comparison to other products as I don't have a similar Nikon lens, but I can say this lens is always with me, and I actually look for opportunities to use it.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Great lens for a great value, Wednesday, 23 December 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		5.0
Sharpness		5.0
Build Quality		5.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		5.0

I have had this lens for over a month and I have to say that I am extremely satisfied with the performance. I think this may be one of the most underrated lenses out on the market today. I think there is an inclination for semi-pro and pro photographers to discount Sigma lenses because they are not a Nikon or Canon lens, but I respectfully disagree, you can find gems out there and this is one of them. I have used the lens in two shoots with my Nikon D300 and am happy with the level of sharpness.

The down side: vignetting and the f5.6. f5.6 you can overcome with your lighting, but the vignetting although not offensive does exist and is not something you can really compensate for. I tested a colleagues lens before purchasing this lens and I was aware of it going into my purchase. If that is not a concern of yours or you are like me and you embrace it and use it in your photographs, then you will be satisfied.

Overall this was a lens I kept pushing off purchasing for one reason or the other and it was a mistake. I now realize that I could have been using this on other shoots and landscape photography a long time ago.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Disappointing, had to return it, Saturday, 19 December 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		1.3
Sharpness		2.0
Build Quality		1.0
AF Speed		1.0
Value for Money		1.0

I took about 150 images with this lens and had to trash all of them. The images were mostly blurry and the color fidelity was just bad, though all of them were taken outdoors during daytime. I had taken most pics with wide aperture, I had not tried F/11 and smaller. Maybe its better with those, but I wanted to be able to take rich landscape pics and needed the wide aperture.

I have looked through images taken using this lens on different forums and it looks like it works a lot better with Nikon cameras than it does with Canon cameras.

I purchased this through Adorama and it was easy enough to return it. After looking at the comments about variable image quality, I am thinking of getting this again through Amazon and seeing if it works better the second time.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Excellent lens for half the price, Friday, 11 December 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		5.0
Sharpness		5.0
Build Quality		5.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		5.0

Dont get me wrong, I love Canon lenses and have 2 L series lenses, but there are times when a 3rd party lens is just as good or good enough when you are saving so much money.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Great wide angle lens for Nikon DX Format, Monday, 07 December 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		4.8
Sharpness		5.0
Build Quality		5.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		4.0

This is a great lens for Nikon DX format (digital). I didn't expect the sharpness of my nikon 20 mm, or even my nikon 18-35 (both FX full frame), in that case I better go the nikon way (expensive). The most important is that I get back the wide angle I used to have in my FX cameras. I use it with a D70 and pictures look good. Be careful with on camera flashes, mine works only in the 17-20 mm range, you better put an extra flash in order to avoid shadows from the lens itself.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Good for outdoors, bad for lower light, Sunday, 08 November 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		3.3
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		3.0
AF Speed		4.0
Value for Money		2.0

I used this for the last two weeks, and my biggest issue is the poor open aperture performace. F/4 is very soft and not too usable... I found I had to take it to f/11 or f/16 (sharpest) to get good results.

Its nice that it gets super wide, but its just not usable wide open in low light handheld situations. I dont carry a tripod every where I go... if I did this lens would be good, but since I like to handhold I need to open it up to get decent shutter speeds, and that makes it very soft. I knew it wasnt the fastest thing in the world from its specs, but having to stop down to f/11 or 16 really makes shutter speeds much much too long in lower light (like indoors, musuem).

Build quality is very nice, I like the size and heft... but dont expect to use a pop up flash with the large lens.

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful

save to buy a canon lens, Tuesday, 13 October 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		2.3
Sharpness		2.0
Build Quality		2.0
AF Speed		3.0
Value for Money		2.0

Got this lens as a birthday gift, but sadly had to return it as it did not meet my expectations. The zoom range is great (10-20mm), but I either received a bad copy or Sigma does not offer good quality. I shot about 50-60 exposures, and I can count on one hand the number of good pictures I got from this lens. It was slow to focus, it lacked sharpness. For indoor photos this lens will leave you very disappointed. For outdoor photos, you will need great lighting and non-moving subjects.
The positives: Solid built.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

I could not find the Canon lense..... but WOW!, Wednesday, 07 October 2009


Overall rating (weighted)		3.8
Sharpness		4.0
Build Quality		3.0
AF Speed		5.0
Value for Money		3.0

I was looking for the Canon lense that a professional photographer recommended. I stumbled on the Sigma lense and love it. The price was right, and the colors are amazing. I don't think you can go wrong with this lense. I have been a sigma user before as I was building my camera bag and I just wanted a wide lense to get cool landscape pictures. This was the one.

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