Sigma 210101 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Lens for Canon - Black

Product Information

As I said earlier, there are two ways to look at this lens. Before examining those, however, let me first say that this is undoubtedly one of the finest crop specific lenses out there. APS-C has received relatively little development dollars from most manufacturers and as a result APS-C lenses tend to be budget options with variable apertures. This lens is as lovingly designed as other Sigma ART series lenses, and thus it is the Cadillac of crop sensor zooms. I’m happy that such a lens exists. It does indeed exist…should you buy it? Impressively bright constant f/1.8 maximum aperture is well-suited for working in low-light conditions and also provides greater control over the focus position when using shallow depth of field techniques. yeah but that's what you not getting about being "bright enough" if your shooting on a crop body, your sensor is already capturing 1-2 stops LESS of light than you would be on a FF. So putting this lens on a crop body doesn't give you any more light, if just helps you match the same amount of light you can capture on a FF sensor with a f2.4-2.8 lens. So no gain is being made just like I said above, where as if you just got FF off the bat, and the "light gain" you talk of would be in the body sensor, and it would be across ALL lenses and just not 1. The lens is initially available in Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts, as tends to be the case from Sigma. Sony and Pentax models will appear later.

Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Review - Digital Photography Review Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Review - Digital Photography Review

The 18-35mm is remarkably sharp even wide open at F1.8, and in the wider half of its range (18-24mm), there's no measurable increase on stopping down (i.e. the lens is effectively diffraction limited). At the longer end (28-35mm) there's a slight improvement in sharpness on stopping down to F4, but in practice it's unlikely to be especially noticeable. For an F1.8 zoom, this is little short of astonishing. The 21mm-wide zoom ring has a pleasant, fluid movement. It glides smoothly without any play and feels correctly damped, giving a real impression of quality. It rotates 50 degrees from 18 to 35mm, with additional markings at the 20, 24 and 28mm positions.

The filter thread is 72mm, and doesn't rotate on focusing. It's surrounded by a bayonet mount for the petal-type lens hood. The Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 Di VC USD is probably the best value fast 'normal' zoom for full frame cameras, and like the Sigma 35mm F1.4, we had no hesitation in awarding it a Gold Award in our recent review. Not only does it offer built-in image stabilization, optically it comes as near as makes no difference to its Canon and Nikon counterparts, which are both much more expensive. The lens seemed to do best within about 8 feet, but in the crucial portrait window of 8-15 feet (for full body shots) the focus accuracy dropped dramatically. This reveals one of the problems I (and others) have experienced with the lens. You can set an effective microadjustment value for a certain distance, but that value may not be the right one for other distances.

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART review: best Canon R5 video lens? Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 ART review: best Canon R5 video lens?

Unlike a prime lens with a single focal length, the Sigma is variable. You may zoom in-and-out without physically moving your camera setup. This offers greater flexibility, speed and creative control when composing a shot — especially when mounted on a tripod. Image quality is next to perfect, bokeh, speed aperture yeah just about everything about this lens is almost perfect. It even works like a stabilizer due to its sheer weight and length that even with GH4 i could do 1/5 second SHARP handheld!! The Canon EOS R5 is, however, smarter than the 5D. The R5 recognizes the Sigma 18-35mm’s crop factor and automatically changes its Cropping/Aspect Ratio setting to “1.6x (crop)”. APS-C lenses automatically enable “1.6x (crop)”. All other options disabled.

Lens body elements

On smaller, lighter entry-level SLRs such as the Canon EOS 650D, the overall balance becomes more front-heavy, meaning you'll often find yourself supporting the camera by cradling the lens itself. Frankly, these models tend not to have hand-grips that are comfortable to hold for long periods anyway, so this encouragement to support the lens is no bad thing. Size compared When I saw the above, I changed the setting on my Nikon D800E to switch to DX crop mode when the lens was mounted on it. Autofocus Performance and Accuracy The lens is available for both Canon and Nikon cameras, but there are two different versions of this lens (one for each brand and mount) so it is important that you ask for and choose the right version when bying the lens. Every time I review a Sigma lens I will be closely looking at the AF (autofocus) performance. I’ve rarely had a problem with HSM motors when it comes to sound or speed (they are amongst the quietest focusing lenses that I’ve encountered and generally quite fast), but I have major concerns when it comes to AF accuracy and consistency. The Sigma 150-600mm Sport was the first Sigma lens that I walked away completely satisfied from when it came to its AF performance. I’m afraid the 18-35mm ART didn’t impress out of the box. My review body is a Canon EOS 70D, and trying to use my typical AFMA program ( Reikan FoCal) produced such variation that an automatic calibration simply didn’t work (the program gave up). I did a semi-automatic calibration using my own eyes, and discovered why. Just when I thought I had a value zeroed in, the results would jump around. The focus peak looked like a yo-yo. I’ve never had such a difficult time calibrating a lens before.

Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Review - Digital Photography Review

And further are samples taken at the exact same distance as the images above, but at focal length 35mm also at f/1.8, 2.8, 5.6, 7.1, 11 and 16.

Our final comparison, ironically, has the new Sigma up against the firm’s new 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM A, the best performing full-frame 35mm lens in our database. Although it’s easier to make a high-speed 35mm than either a 24mm f/1.4 or a 18mm f/3.5, the Sigma 35mm is without doubt a superb performer optically and yet the new Sigma 18-35mm zoom comfortably achieves a higher DxOMark Score. The new zoom also has slightly higher levels of sharpness and has the edge in uniformity. Less important perhaps is the superior transmission score, while the differences between distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration are practically negligible. What makes a standard lens ideal for you? Certain important qualities are required, such as fast maximum aperture, versatility for snap shots, portraiture and indoor photography plus a good combination of a wide range of focal lengths in a compact design. SIGMA 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM is the first zoom lens ever to achieve a maximum aperture of f1.8 throughout the zoom range. It is a wide aperture, standard zoom-lens for digital single lens reflex camera´s with APS-C size sensor´s. *1The lens has a focal range equivalent to 27mm - 52.5mm in a 35mm format and it can cover the angles of view of multiple fixed focal length lenses. This wide aperture, standard zoom lens enables the photographer to expand creative possibilities on any occasion.

Fstoppers Reviews the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens Fstoppers Reviews the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens

At 18mm full-aperture sharpness is excellent from corner to corner, though sharpness in the outer field drops slightly through the zoom range to 35mm. For most focal lengths and apertures, though the sharpness differs by 5% or less across the frame. Although it is unlikely a user would buy several full-frame wide-angle lenses specifically for an APS-C format camera, the fact remains that the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM is an outstanding performer optically. Overall though, this level of chromatic aberration is impressively low, especially considering that we're looking at an ultra-fast zoom. It's no worse than we'd expect to see from fast primes, either. Flare In shooting with the lens, I found that it shows a lot of detail, but most of the super fine detail is only visible at the sweet spot apertures between f/5.6 and 7.1-8. One of the great things about the 35mm f/1.4 was the super fine detail that just seemed to pop out of the lens at any aperture. Though the 18-35mm does perform admirably, it doesn’t really give us those amazing details that I personally am used to seeing with the top-of-the-line Sigma glass. I suspect micro ghosting is the culprit. This issue is made more complicated by the less sensitive and smaller APS-C sensor. It’s hard for me to really be able to judge the lens on its own merits because of the limitations of the sensor.Convenient handling is achieved by incorporating internal focusing and zooming which prevents any change in the length of the lens when focusing and zooming. It is possible to use a specialist filter, such as a Circular Polarizer, as the front part of the lens does not rotate. Vignetting is remarkably low for such a fast lens, reaching just 1.3 stops wide open at all focal lengths. It also essentially disappears by F2.8. Overall it's unlikely ever to be problematic in real-world use.