Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM Nikon fit lens
Posted by Notcot on May 31, 2010 in Photography |
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Third party lens manufacturers are usually best given a wide berth if you want really good glass. This offering from Sigma is awesome. I use this lens professionally and regularly produce twenty inch wide prints. Chromatic abberation is minimal far less than expected from a lens offering this angle of view (15mm equivalent on 35mm). Barrel distortion is there at 10mm but this is no drawback after all the results from this optic are meant to be dramatic. I simply cannot fault the resolution from its use on my D200. Save money go for the Sigma over the Nikon equivalent you wont be dissapointed.
Rating: 5 / 5
Get a good one and this lens will give anybody great results. Bit of vignetting wide open and it has occasional flare issues (comes with a hood, so use it!), but other than that it has massively impressed me. Tested it alongside a Canon 10-22mm and the Sigma beat it for sharpness at almost every point. I use a Hama 77mm circular polariser on the front.
Great value lens!
**UPDATE** Been using this for well over a year now with no problems whatsoever. It remains almost permanently attached to my 400D and I’ve taken thousands of pics with it. It’s a joy to use: sturdy, smooth and fast focusing. The matt finish that Sigma use on their lenses is my only gripe. I’ve thought about upgrading, but came to the conclusion that I’d need to go to a 5D with a 17-40 or 16-35 to see a noticeable difference in quality, and that’s one expensive upgrade! My favourite bit of gear.
**FINAL UPDATE** I was right. I ended up buying a 1Ds (in preference to a 5D or 5DII) and 17-40 and I am now seeing better results than my 40D and 10-20 combo. An expensive upgrade for results that certainly aren’t night and day better. The 10-20 has found a new home and the chap I sold it to loves it as much as I did. A brilliant lens and fantastic entry into the world of UWA.
Rating: 5 / 5
Anyone looking at this will know the technical stuff so i’m not going to bother with that!
I bought this for a trip to San Fracisco, Yosemite & the Grand Canyon. I am so glad I did. It is a fantastic lens, quick, responsive, quiet and above all the photos are sharp!
At it’s widest setting there is a a good deal of vignetting if the lighting isn’t spot on, but once you get used to it, it’s fairly easy to overcome. I am using it on a Canon 350d and have been really impressed with the results.
I have had a canvas made from a photo of the Golden Gate bridge at sunrise and a photo at sunset taken at Rossnowlagh beach in Donegal, Ireland.
I would recommend purchasing the Sigma EX 77mm circular polarising filter as it works wonders on this lens.
The picture in the gallery was taken mid afternoon (not always the best for photos) at 10mm, F/9, 1/200sec.
Rating: 5 / 5
First up let me say that I am not a professional photographer or even a very experienced amateur. I might not know all there is to know about photography but what I do know is that I LOVE what comes through this lens.
I was pleased with the build quality (as I have been with all my Sigma EX series lenses) and initial testing showed the autofocus to be fast, accurate and VERY quiet. This might not be surprising to those of you with a bag full of Canon L USM lenses but coming from consumer grade lenses this was a revelation.
I was seriously taken aback by just how wide 10mm is on a 1.6 crop camera (Such as Canons xxD and xxxD ranges). I could stand almost on top of subjects and still manage to get them all in. The extreme angles involved creates some distortion effects but these add to the pictures in my opinion.
The real joy however was when I returned from my first outing and began sorting through the pictures. The colours were fantastic, the images were, without exception, very sharp and the creative possibilities on a lens this wide made the photos stand out far more than the usual “snapshots” that a photographer of my calibre produces.
The ultra wide zoom made by Canon may well be better and I’ve no doubt that a full frame camera with professional grade lenses might yield better results but for this price I cannot find fault with Sigma’s offering.
Rating: 5 / 5
When I bought this lens, my mate said to me “this is one of those lenses that surprise you. You start using it and you wonder how you ever got by without it…” How true this is…I’ll briefly go through a few of the technical details on this lens as well as a few experience related finds.
Build quality:
This lens belongs to Sigmas ‘EX’ line of lenses, which are their flagship standard, optically and physically they are very well made and this lens is no exception. It is very compact, and quite heavy, giving it a tank-like build, you could probably drop this lens quite a few times and not have a problem. When zooming, the barrel extends by maybe 1cm, and the autofocus is really silent, manual focus isn’t really used because most things tend to be in focus at 10mm anyway.
Optical Quality:
Very good. Very sharp, especially when stopped down to f/8 or so. There is sometimes a bit too much flare when there is a direct light source to the lens, but CA is well controlled and details are very sharp. One important thing I’ll just point out is that this lens is NOT fisheye, and in fact lines are kept very straight all the way to the outer edges where they begin to curve, so this is a suitable lens for architecture and images can be post processed to look perfect. Colour rendition is brilliant too, and skies are always wonderfully deep. It does take some practise to get the exposure right because you get so much into the frame the sky/land balance can be tricky sometimes.
Extras: You get a Sigma EX pouch for the lens, which is durable and good quality, and you get a lens hood which in my opinion is absolutely useless. It’s only to protect from light at the extremest angles, which isn’t a lot of the time for me…
Rating: 5 / 5