The super wide-angle capability of the 10-20mm zoom makes it a very powerful tool for both indoor and landscape photography. It is specifically designed to optimise results with digital SLR cameras encorporating APS-C size image sensors or smaller. Aspherical lenses provide maximum correction for distortion and various aberrations; high image quality is displayed throughout the entire zoom range. The HSM equipped models makes fast AF speeds and quiet shooting a reality, and it is also capable of full-time manual focus. It has a minimum focusing distance of 24cm (9.4”) at all focal lengths. It is also equipped with an integral Petal-type hood to block out extraneous light.
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10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens allows enjoyment of super wide-angle photography making it a very powerful tool for indoor and landscape photography with APS-C size image sensors of digital SLR cameras. Offering an ultra-wide Angle of view 102.4 - 63.8 degrees ( when used with a Sigma SD camera)
Most Appropriate Coating for Digital SLR Cameras The new multi-layer lens coating and lens design reduce flare and ghosting, a common problem with digital cameras and also creates an optimum colour balance through the entire zoom range.
SLD and Aspherical lens elements Three SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements ensure ulta-high Resolution and sharpness. One glass mold and two hybrid aspherical lenses offer excellent correction for distortion, as well as all types of optical and colour aberrations.
Inner Focus System This lens incorporates an Internal Focusing system, which eliminates front lens rotation, allowing the use of a petal-type hood and also minimize fluctuation of Aberration caused by focusing system.
HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) The HSM equipped models ensure a silent, high-speed AF function as well as Full-time manual focusing capability for Sigma, Canon, and Nikon-D mount lenses.
Minimum focusing distance of 24cm (9.4”) at all focal lengths This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 24cm (9.4”) throughout the entire zoom range.
Despite costing less than half the price of the Nikon and having sharp and excellent Contrast, the Sigma feels robust and has silent HSM autofocus. The Sigma 10-20mm is particularly good at tackling the Chromatic aberration problems that beset this sort of lens, keeping colour fringing to a minimum. Optically, this lens is very impressive, producing consistently sharp and crisp results which betray its focal range and price tag. Designed for SLRs with APS-C-sized sensors, rather than full frame, the 10-20mm is available in Canon, Nikon, Sony/Minolta, Pentax and Sigma. Overall, it's one of the best specific purpose lenses for APS-C format digital SLRs,'Solid build quality, great autofocus and a rock bottom price all make the Sigma 10-20mm a desirable lens.'
Why should you care what I think?
My relationship with this item: Editor review Where did you buy this item?: May 08 Price paid: 350 When did you buy this item?: Focus
Conclusions at a glance
Would you recommend this Item: Yes Pros: Price, build quality Cons: give slight chromatic aberration on the corners
Last updated: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
User Lens Reviews
Average user rating from: 144 user(s)
Overall rating (weighted)
4.2
Sharpness
4.2
Build Quality
4.2
AF Speed
4.3
Value for Money
4.2
Add new review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic!, Thursday, 12 August 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
5.0
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
I have a Nikon D90 with the 18-105mm kit lens. The 18-105mm was adequate for most applications but for indoors and wide-open landscape pics, it can be a challenge. So, I started researching on wider angle than 18mm. With a budget of around $500, it came down to this Sigma, Tokina 11-16mm and Tamron 10-24mm. Based solely on the reviews here in amazon.com and a couple of other reputable online stores, I quickly ruled out the Tamron. Back then, the Tokina was $200 more than the Sigma (now I'm seeing a store listing it for $599). The Tokina is a f2.8 - very tempting offer but for me, I forsee most of my applications requiring both width and DEPTH, so f2.8 is nice to have but not a real deal-breaker.
The Sigma has the 10mm and 17-20mm range advantage over the Tokina's 11-16mm. Eventhough there were a few reviews about bad copies of Sigma, I went ahead and bought one, knowing I can always exchange it until I get a good copy. I bought mine here(but not sold by amazon.com - it was 47th St Photo).
I can say I am very impressed with the build, material and image qualities of my Sigma. In fact, all 3 qualities were better than my Nikkor 18-105mm kit and to be fair in my comparisions, all pics were taken in the 18-20mm range on both the Sigma and Nikkor.
Read dpreview before you buy, Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
3.8
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
Mechanically well constructed. Come with pinch-type lens cap and hood, as well as boxy carrying case you can thread onto a belt or rigging.
I wasn't going to spend extra money for the Canon glass since I anticipate using this lens only occasionally. I figured I'd go with the Sigma over the Tamron because the Tamron is a 77 mm filter while the Sigma shares a 72 mm filter with my main everyday lens. I fully read the review on dpreview about the lens' performance at various apertures, but I wasn't prepared for how soft the picture looked at 10mm F4! Don't rush to return your lens if you're surprised by the poor quality of the test shot, try F11 or F13 where the lens performs the best. This does mean that I'll have to be more thoughtful capturing a landscape than just setting the aperture to F22 and firing away. No quality problems in my copy when stopped down, unlike other mentions here.
This lens is amazing, strong, durable, and makes some awesome picture. I am an amateur photographer and bought this lens for a trip to Wyoming. I have a Nikon D60 but it is a beast and this lens makes my pictures look professional. I have taken some amazing pics of Yellowstone, Devils Tower, and the mountains of Wyoming. The quality of the picture sometimes lacks, but nothing that can't be fixed by photoshop or lightroom and for less than 500 bucks it is one cheapest and best wide angles you can get. You can also take some very interesting close up pics (for example I take close ups pics of my pets) with this lens but you have to have an external flash.
I say this lens is durable because it has been dropped twice. Once on the concrete path at Devils Tower, it got knocked out of my coat pocket while changing lens and the second time got knocked of the car seat and then stepped on by somebody that wasn't paying attention and the filter got smashed into a million pieces. So to say the least it has been through a lot. but it still works perfectly which is a miracle in itself.
If you are like me and don't have much money and want a wide angle lens this is a the way to go and you will not be disappointed. I recommend you buy it a filter for protection (Zeikos sells a 77mm for 8 bucks and it is what saved my lens) and it comes with it's own case so keep it in it's case when not in use.
Bought this lens used from Amazon Warehouse Deals, Friday, 09 July 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
4.8
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
After spending countless hours reviewing the various UWA lenses, I settled on this Sigma 10-20mm lens. It isn't the fastest wide angle out there, but it is the only one at 10mm focal length at it's widest setting. After all, If you are going to buy a wide angle lens, why not buy the widest available (yet still affordable). I paid extra for next day shipping and the lens arrived promptly at 2:00 pm the next day. Although this is an Amazon purchase, I found the copy I bought from Amazon Warehouse deals, sold as a USED lens. The price was $80 less than brand new so I figured I'd give it a try, knowing that I could always return it if it was not in good shape.
When the package arrived, I expected to open the box and see a used lens wrapped in paper or bubble wrap. I was surprised to find that the lens came in the original box with original warranty card still in place. But best of all, this lens appeared to be new in every way. There were a few fingerprints on the front element which I took care of with a lens tissue, but other than that, there was not so much as a hint of wear or handling issues.
But the real test is how this lens works (or not works). I put it on my D90 and it instantly recognized the lens and was ready to go.
So far, I have taken about a hundred test images to be sure I got a good copy of this lens. I was particularly impressed when i took a picture of the front of my wife's Ford Escape at 10mm and about 6 feet away. After bringing the image into my PC, The photo was tack sharp but the real surprise was that I could read the serial number on the small decals of her license plate as if I had used my sharpest Nikon fixed focal length lens.
I am so pleased that Amazon's warehouse Deals had this (used?) lens for sale the day I decided to purchase one. If I didn't know better, and if there had not been finger prints on the front element when I opened the box, I would have sworn that this lens was brand new.
Crap! Go with Canon or Tokina, Sunday, 04 July 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
1.8
Sharpness
1.0
Build Quality
2.0
AF Speed
2.0
Value for Money
2.0
I bought this lens never was happy with the results. Not very sharp and to much distortion. Very nice wide angle, but I did not feel the optics were very good. Recently purchased the Tokina 12-24 and could not be more happy! Only thing better would either be the Canon 10-22 or the Tokina 11-16. Save you money and buy one of these. I use my wide angle more then my kit, and it is worth investing in.
Bought this lense a couple of weeks ago and works like a charm. Great crisp and fast autofocus. The only small problem that I have with it, is that the f stop only goes to 4. Doesnt work that well in low light without a tripode. I have used the Canon equivalent and in comparisson this stacks up pretty well.
I fell in love with the Canon 10-22mm, Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
3.3
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
2.0
Value for Money
4.0
I had high hopes of a good sigma copy but ordered the canon 10-22mm at the same time to compare. I swapped out the lenses taking pictures at the same scenes and noticed some significant basic differences in photo quality just looking at the photos side by side. That was all I needed to fall in love with the canon. Maybe I could have exchanged the sigma until I found a copy I liked, but I am too busy with the canon.
I wanted the Tokina f2.8 for my Nikon D200 but they were never available when I would try to obtain one. So, I settled for the Sigma. It doe's it's job well. I don't really use it too often. Only when shooting large group shots or when I want to purposely distort perspective for effect. So, it serves my purposes for it.
Great price, ruined by faulty construction, Saturday, 05 June 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
1.5
Sharpness
2.0
Build Quality
1.0
AF Speed
2.0
Value for Money
1.0
I had read many of the reviews on Amazon and the Net before buying this lens. While most of them were good, a small percentage mentioned that they had received lenses that were soft, or highly distorted, etc. It appeared a small percentage were of poor or faulty construction. I decided to take my chances, as this was an exceedingly good price for a wide angle lens.
When I got it, I put it on my Canon, and took a few test pictures of my wife. Hmm, there was significant distortion, but that was a fact of life with Wide Angles. I then took it with me on a trip to Colorado for three weeks for Business. I took most of my pictures with my new wide angle, trying to get a feel for it. Given that I am a highly amateur shooter, I did not review them until I had returned home and uploaded them on my desktop. When I did I was shocked. Almost all of my pictures were out of focus. But not completely out of focus. A small, circular area in the center was sharp. Everything else around the edges was out of focus. Horribly so. The left side worse than the right. I was landscapes with fairly consistent distances at small F-Stops, so Depth of field was not the problem.
After examining the pictures, I returned the lens. I think I will save up for a Canon 10-22 for my next foray into wide angle lenses.
The service was great, the lens was heavy and felt solid. My only problem was the faulty optics, which, for a lens, is a pretty big problem!
I purchased this lens as I have several Sigma lenses of superior quality that I use for professional purposes. I was very disappointed in the optical quality of this lens. It had all the features, the right design, operation, but in the end, the images were just not sharp. Not at all what I expected from a Sigma product. There were plenty of reviews of this lens and many talked of the poor image quality. I decided to buy anyway, and unfortunately proved the negative reviews to be correct.
I won't bore you with technical details, Simply put, I shot some test images, put em on the computer screen and saw how fuzzy they were, just awful. I did not need to measure or rate anything. My eye ( and my clients would be able to ) see the fuzz without having to enlarge the image. I hate to say it as I have had good success with Sigma, but this lens would be an assignment killer. It reminded me of the cheap Promaster lenses you used to get for $69.00 from Ritz.
Thankfully Amazon has a good return policy so I was able to return it. A week later I got the Nikon 10.5mm prime f2.8 (about $220 more) and found it was worth the extra money. I know I am comparing a zoom to a prime, but the difference is incredible. If your budget is limited I would look to a Tamron or other 3rd party lens, if you have the extra scratch, get the Nikon 10.5mm f2.8 or take a look at the Nikon Extreme wide angle zooms. I assume for Canon shooters, the quality results would be similar, look again to other 3rd party or Canon lenses.
I really wanted this lens to work out for me. I received the lens, took a few test shots, viewed them on my computer and noticed that one side was significantly more out of focus than the other. My first thought was "user error," so I tried again, using a tripod, several different focal lengths and apertures...same result. Amazon generously sent me a replacement, and I repeated the test. This time, I had 2 lenses on hand. The new lens had the distortion on the opposite side. Amazon sent me a third lens. I repeated the test with all three lenses. Each lens had major distortion issues, including CA, in different areas. Each lens was consistent in its results, leading me to doubt that my results were due to user error. I am aware of the distortion caused by wide angle lenses, but this was unacceptable. I am now clearly aware of the quality control issues of Sigma lenses. Each of the three lenses was so different in the location and type of distortion, as well as overall quality of images, that I returned them all. As usual, Amazon was most helpful!
I bought a Sigma 10-20mm F4.5/5.6 EX from Adorama a few months ago and was quite pleased with the results using a Sony A200 camera. Fine color and contrast and very sharp--much sharper than I was expecting. Apart from typical wide angle effects, there is very little apparent distortion if you mind to keep the horizon centered in the middle of the picture frame. A great landscape lens.
My copy seems to be a little decentered, so that opposite corners of photos do not exactly focus in the same place. This just re-enforces my love-hate relationship with Sigma products. This is grounds for sending the lens off to Sigma for repair or replacement--but I have a few years. I'm also mistrustful of auto-focus.
All inherent problems with this lens are addressed to my satisfaction by manually setting the focus (different places for different focal lengths) and stopping down to F10 for 10mm and F14 for about the remainder of the zoom range. One would expect this to cause less-than-optimum image resolution, but the results are superb--very sharp landscape images corner to corner.
There is also a little light falloff (not glaringly so) at image corners, but this is easily corrected in CS3 Photoshop RAW tools. The wide view of this lens is really quite wonderful.
I bought this lens because my wife and I recently began a series of trips to view Civil War battlefields and historical sites in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri related to the "Indian Removal" by the US Cavalry. In this part of the country the two things sometimes overlap because some of the same forts were used as the Cavalry drove the Indians along the Trail of Tears (one quarter of them died along the way). The lens was purchased so I could shoot panoramic views of battlefields and gun emplacements, as well as wide shots of forts, barracks, etc. The lens that came with my K200 Pentax (great camera)--the 18-55 kit lens--has limited wide-angle possibilities, thus the Sigma 10-20. So far I haven't been to any new battlefield sites to test it, but, being a lazy photographer, I have left it on my camera after testing it, taking indoor shots of large paintings and close-ups of items I'm trying to sell on Ebay. Most of the stuff looks as good as it does with the kit lens, although I noticed a lot of blurring when I tried to get a little closer than the lens is designed to shoot (even though my camera is one of those shake-proof jobs). Just yesterday I got a great shot of the squirrel my wife insists on feeding just outside the kitchen window, through the glass. After I cropped it on the computer, out came this very smug little face looking directly at me as though to say, "Ain't I cute? Keep the food coming if you want more of this!" I'm really looking forward to using this lens on our upcoming trips to Civil War sites (there are some stunning panoramic views to be had ... for example at Pea Ridge in Missouri). So far it has worked great on big paintings that are well lighted, which my 18-55 lens makes me view from too far away to get the whole thing in. I'll update this after I try it at one of the battlefields. (Anybody interested in photographing battlefields should definitely not miss Pea Ridge. Other top-rank sites I have visited are the Union memorial at Vicksburg, Mississippi (GREAT views from high above the river where Grant spent more than a month bombarding Southern forces), and, very moving, the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana.) Sorry if this entry is short on lens specifics and long on description.
I must have got a lemon..., Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
1.3
Sharpness
2.0
Build Quality
1.0
AF Speed
1.0
Value for Money
1.0
I really was excited about getting this lens after reading all the reviews. But unfortunately after just a few test shots it was quite clear something was seriously wrong. Firstly the pictures were all overexposed. Sure I could compensate, but still it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. But more seriously not one single picture (at either 10 or 20mm, or anywhere between) looked sharp. I was careful to stop down as had been suggested by reviewers, but nothing I tried made a difference. When I compared the Sigma pictures with the cheap 18-55 kit lens that came with my Canon T2i I could see immediately that the kit lens was far, far sharper. I'm new to the world of digital SLRs, so I'm not sure if the problem is due to incorrect focusing or something more fundamentally wrong with the lens. I've read that others have had to return their Sigma lens a couple of times before they got a "good" one. I'm not sure I want to take my chances so I"ve returned mine for a refund. On the plus side, if there is one, the Sigma seemed very sturdily constructed. The 10mm capability seemed like it would be a lot of fun. It's very disappointing.
I read a ton of reviews before purchasing...just like I bet you are. Canon 10-22mm or Sigma 10-20mm seemed like my only real choices, here is why. I have a canon XSi and a 7D. I have a 24-70mmL and a 70-200mm 2.8L ...so I needed a crop sensor wide angle lens. I plan on a 5D but later. I buy lenses to accommodate a full frame in the future. The lens I needed for wide angle shots in crop sensor is a vastly different animal than a full frame WA lens. This purchase was just for the 7D and XSi. So I rented both lenses and tried them out. As you can see, I'm a canon guy. Never buy anything but, but this time the Sigma won out by great image quality (color and sharpness) and cost. The price difference was a factor in my investment, I figure that eventually I'll get the 16-35mm L when the FF comes and sell this. After using it for the last 6 months...I won't be selling it. My copy works beautifully; I rarely use anything but 10mm and 20mm... rarely caught in between. It is a wide angel zoom so you pay a tiny price in overall image quaility outside the sweet spots, true for any of the available Zoom lenses. Even my beloved "L"'s. I do like the versatility of this lens, it is really it's strong point...at 10mm you can compose a shot to take advantage of a touch of fish eye/Barrel Distortion or go to 20mm for an equivalent 35mm view, nice crisp shots. Outside it great, indoors it's a Bit slow but nothing you can't work with. It captures phenomenal landscape shots, really, phenomenal. I don't think you'll be disappointed in this purchase; it's easy on the pocket and rocks for wide angel views.
