Anyone try the new Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC?

[golfnut]

Sounds tempting at roughly $500 considering the range and speed. I haven't seen any reviews yet, so I thought it would be good to check with the board in the meantime.

Your thoughts?

[slejhamer]

Nice lens!

There is some light falloff at the corners when used wide open, esp. at the shorter apertures. This is a little disappointing, but probably common in "digital sized" lenses. Only really noticed if you shoot pictures of blank white walls. :)

The corners get blocked (vignetted) at shorter apertures if you stack a polarizer on top of a UV filter. This is a PITA, in my opinion, and the only major annoyance.

It appears to be very well built, and auto-focus is reasonably quick albeit noisy (it is not an HSM lens.)

At f4, it is sharper than the Canon 17-40 lens that I returned (which may have been a bad copy.) It also focuses better (quicker and more accurately) in low light than the Canon did.

It's a little soft at 50mm, but I use the Canon 50mm f/1.4 for that focal length.

All in all, it's a very nice walk-around lens if you are willing to accept something that will only work with APS-sized sensors.

[Bodog]

I've had mine since last November and am very pleased with it. Sharp, contrasty and very smooth zoom and focus. Noisy? I've never heard mine. The "in focus" beep is louder. It does vignette slightly wide open at 18mm, and there is some flare with the sun in front of the lens. It's now listed on Photozone and there a couple reviews on Fred Miranda's site.

[MrChad]

The corners get blocked (vignetted) at shorter apertures if you stack a polarizer on top of a UV filter. This is a PITA, in my opinion, and the only major annoyance.


I discovered the same thing putting the Tiffen UV filter and polarizer on my Sigma 18-125mm DC. But in reality how many filters do you want on your lens at once? At least I'll never fuse my UV and polarizer together. :lol: I've done that before.

[slejhamer]

But in reality how many filters do you want on your lens at once?

Just those two! ;)

I know, in theory I should be taking the UV filter off before putting on the cir-pol to reduce the risk of flare, but in practice it has not been a problem for me. But with this lens it is necessary if I'm using the wide end.

That brings up and advantage this lens has over a full-size wide angle zoom lens: 67mm filters! The full-size sigma wide zooms take 82mm filters, which cost quite a bit more.

I can share one relatively inexpensive cir-pol between this and my 70-200 f/4 L ! :D