Large aperture zoom lens designed specially for use with digital SLR cameras and includes a minimum focusing distance of 20cm.
This lens is specially designed to suit the characteristics of digital SLR cameras and provides a high level of optical performance. It has a large aperture of F2.8 throughout the entire zoom range, offers superior peripheral Brightness as well as a compact and lightweight construction. A maximum magnification of 1:3, makes this lens ideal for close-up photography.
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A Minimum focusing distance of 20cm and maximum magnification of 1:3 This large aperture standard zoom lens, with close-up ability, is ideal for all types of photography including portraits, landscapes and snap shots.
Large aperture of F2.8 throughout the entire zoom range The constant large aperture enables easy confirmation of focusing through a bright viewfinder. This lens is perfectly suited for low light conditions indoors or at dusk.
Excellent optical design Special Low Dispersion (SLD) and Extraordinary Low Dispersion (ELD) glass elements provide excellent correction of colour aberrations. This lens produces an exceptional level of optical performance.
Compact and lightweight lens Its design incorporates both glass-mold and hybrid Aspherical lens technology which offers a compact and lightweight construction.
Reduced Ghosting and Flare This lens has excellent correction for Vignetting, a common problem with large aperture lenses. Its new design ensures superior peripheral brightness. The super multi-layer lens Coating reduces flare and ghosting. High image quality is assured throughout the entire zoom range.
Inner Focus System The lens is equipped with an Inner focusing system. The non-rotating front lens element makes the lens suitable for using its petal-type lens hood and circular polarising filters.
I shoot a Canon 50d and have been using a 70-200mm 2.8 is lense for most everything. I wanted a wide lense for shooting groups of people without having to stand back 50 yards. This is a great lense for the money. Im learning to use it and learning to use it where its good. Indaviduals and groups of people its amazing...wide scenery shots its very good. Highly recommend it
I do portrait photography of children and families and this lens works perfectly for me. I used to shoot primarily with my 50mm f/1.8, but found I was running back and forth because it was fixed. With the 18-50mm, I have versatility. The lens is fast and takes beautiful, clean shots. I can't find anything to complain about. For the price, it is the best you'll find.
Great lens for a great price, Thursday, 29 April 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
4.0
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
An f/2.8 lense for less than $500? Of course this is a great buy and fortunately it's a great lens too. The HSM motor isn't as fast or as quiet as the Nikon version, but the sharpness of the lense and the niceness of the bokeh is on par.
I've tried two copies of this lens. Both have significant front focus problems between 30-50mm focal length. It makes the close up "macro" functionality useless. Portraits at f/2.8 are useless because nothing looks like it's in focus. This is a huge disappointment. This is the only lens that I know of in this price range with a 2.8 constant aperture and HSM. A comparable Nikkor is $1400. The second copy is going back and I doubt I'll try a third. Sigma says it can take about 3 weeks for a Calibration, which pushes me awfully close to the return policy from Amazon. I don't want to send it to Sigma because if the repair process is delayed, I risk getting stuck with a bad copy that I can't return.
I've tried three copies of this lens. Two from Amazon. Both have significant front focus problems between 30-50mm focal length. It makes the close up "macro" functionality useless. Portraits at f/2.8 are useless because nothing looks like it's in focus. This is a huge disappointment because this is the only lens that I know of in this price range with a 2.8 constant aperture and HSM. I've sent both copies back. I also went to the local camera store in SF here, Calumet. They had one in stock. I tried it out and it front focused as well. It was definitely the closest one to being correct though, but still not acceptable. I'm giving up on this lens and saving up for the Nikon 17-55. Sigma says it can take about 3 weeks for a calibration, which pushes me awfully close to the return policy from Amazon. If it gets delayed for any reason and I can't return it to Amazon I'll be stuck with a bad lens. Luckily Amazon is very helpful with returns.
Got this lens couple of months ago for my D90 body. Absolutely love it!!! Build quality is great,price is reasonable,heftiness just about balanced with a D90.Having a blast taking close-up pictures of my kids with that 2.8 aperture. Only thing that needs getting used to is the opposite rotation of the zoom lens compared to Nikkor lenses.Otherwise this lens is highly recommended!
A good lens, but after 1.5 year just died, Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
3.0
Sharpness
3.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
3.0
Value for Money
3.0
I bought this lens 1.5 years ago, and it was my main lens. Used it a lot, traveled a lot with it. but suddenly my camera (nikon d90) started to show the "F--" error and now this lens stopped to work.
Sad I live in brazil and I forgot to register mine for the extended warranty.
Great lens for the price, Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Overall rating (weighted)
4.8
Sharpness
5.0
Build Quality
5.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
I thought I would write a review today as I purchased this lens some time ago and have had a chance to use it. It has worked out for me quite nicely. It is a fast enough lens for me to do nice indoor shots with minimal light. The quality of this lens is great. Sigma knows how to make a lens!!
I was a little reluctant after reading lots of comments on various sites about this, but I decided to give it a try. The sharpness beat my expectations. I have heard of people complaining about softness and front focusing, but I have not seen either.
I was also surprised the HSM motor. Mine is very quiet and very fast. I have the excellent Nikon 18-200 VR and I would say that the focusing speed is maybe not quite as fast, but very close to it.
I would recommend this lens to anyone who wants a f2.8 lens in this zoom range.
I switched all kind of nikon lenses, and 1st time decided try 3rd lens party, and i don`t regret , its a great lens and f/2.8 make this lens number 1 in price range 420$.
Have a Prime Account - Never received the item!, Friday, 04 December 2009
Overall rating (weighted)
1.5
Sharpness
2.0
Build Quality
1.0
AF Speed
1.0
Value for Money
2.0
Did not receive item! Delivery tracking said "left at front door" but no package was delivered. $80 for Amazon Prime, free 2 day shipping, and no delivery?!?!
great build, a Bit squirrely in AF usage, Monday, 30 November 2009
Overall rating (weighted)
3.5
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
3.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
3.0
A solid lens with decisive focusing, producing crisp warm photos, but in my use was prone to Camera shake and mis-focus.
Attached to my Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens, the lens AF was quick and decisive, and very quiet despite the lack of HSM (Sigma's version of USM). The build is solid and well-made, although the focus ring on the outside of the lens turns during AF (not IF).
As an added bonus, Sigma provides both a custom-fit case and a lens-hood. This is a touch of class that I wish Canon would offer with their EF-S lenses.
But despite my anticipation, all of my test shots were surprisingly displeasing (blurry, misfocused, etc). In case I had just been careless, I did a series of casual shots through the course of a social evening, using different lenses (including the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras, the Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS UD Standard Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras, and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens, and then picked out my favorites without checking which lens made them. Not a single one was from this Sigma. Suspicious now that I might have a bad copy, I did a series of the famous "battery test" shots to look for front/back-focus issues. Those turned out perfectly. So what was the problem?
After some more tests, I figured out that one issue was camera-shake (the battery tests were on a stable surface)-- I might just have an unsteady hand, but this is a short lens, and I hadn't experienced this on my various Canon lenses (both IS and non). A further issue was that even with good Contrast, the AF wasn't picking the center (strongest) focus point. Switching to single-point as I had with the battery test produced the sharply focused images I had expected. This was my first non-Canon lens, so I'm not sure if this is somehow intrinsic to using a 3rd party lens.
The Sigma abbreviations on this lens mean: EX: Sigma's higher build/optical quality DC: Made for digital, smaller/lighter than "DG" lenses (similar to canon's EF-S vs EF) SLD: Special Low Dispersion glass (for sharpness, color correction, minimizing chromatic abberations) ELD: Extraordinary Low Dispersion glass, similar to SLD
If Sigma offered an OS (optical stabilized) version of this lens, I'd be happy to try that. But as it is I really wanted to like this lens but the results were only ambivalent for my uses. If you have a steady hand (or shoot tripod-mounted), and are willing to focus manually (or use only center-point AF), this is a well-built lens that produces decent images at a moderate price-point, hence the four stars.
But for my usage, it wasn't compelling and I never found myself reaching for this one over the other lenses, so it's going back.
A great lens for picture quality and landscapes, n, Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Overall rating (weighted)
3.8
Sharpness
4.0
Build Quality
4.0
AF Speed
4.0
Value for Money
3.0
I am using this lens on a Pentax K7 and happy overall with the build quality and picture quality. I am not a pro but I do take a few pictures. This was to fill my gap on the low side for wider lanscapes and also keep some portrait macro capability. I figured the F2.8 would help in low light but found that a lot of my pictures that were both LL and infinite focus came out pretty blurry, probably because the 2.8 has such a narrow FOV that it would be better to stop up a bit and get better focus. In the future I will probably switch to manual focus in LL situations where I am trying to shoot lanscapes as the results will be much better. Macro focus and AF speed where great in normal lighting situations and I am very pleased with the lens overall. The priciest lense in my bag so far but I am pretty cheap :).
What I like -great optics -scratch resistance I have used quite a bit as I am not great with lense caps. -great landscape lens but 50mm still gives plenty of range to be a multi situation shooter. -nice case, lens hood and caps.
Dislikes -Low light focus speed -A bigger lens for my bag -not weather-proof like my camera
Its a bargain for the features and overall a great buy. It definitely adds some dynamic range to shots.
