Sigma 18-200 3.5-6.3; any experience?

Hi, I just wondered if anyone had any experience with this lens (SIGMA 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 DC Aspherical HF)? I thought it may be a good option to replace my kit lens and 28-80 and fill the gap to the longer lens (100-400?) I will buy pretty soon...

I am sure in the right hands it can produce great pics, but I stay away from mega zooms. I have not read any reviews about this lens.

Hyperzooms like this are typically soft, and this one is slow to boot. That's why most people have a two lens combo, such as a Sigma 17-70 and a 70-200 for example.

When looking for a kit lens replacement I considered the 18-200 and 28-200's lenses, figuring it would make a good walk around. But the more I looked into it, the more I felt I'd be sacrificing image quality too much. In the end I decided to get the Sigma 17-70 for a good range as a walk around lens and I just added the Canon 70-300 IS a few days ago for the reach I wanted.. Very happy I broke the range up..

I`ve got a bad copy with focusing problems, it didn`t made me happy at all, but the built quality was OK for this type of lens.

Thanks for all these advices. Seems like I'll have to stay with 3 lenses...

Could a mod merge this thread with https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=213449 which I hadn't seen despite my search ? Thanks!

UPDATE: Sigma just released an OS version of this lens:

If you are interested in keeping just 1 lens on your camera all the time with minimal swapping, go for the Sigma 17-70, this is what I use for all my shots & I love it, its wide enough for good landscape shots, the 70mm is good enough to get closer to detail on buildings etc.. & the lens can focus closer than most other lenses, almost to the point of touching the lens on a flower & it will still take it, so it does away with a Macro lens.

Its pretty much a great allrounder & is perfect for leaving on your camera all day while you walkabout, obviously things like the macro wont compete with a dedicated macro lens, but if you want to travel light then who wants to cart around multiple lenses when this does it all in one with great quality!

The quality on those large zoom lenses can be pretty poor, even when stopped down the edges can be soft, I looked into the 18-200 when I wanted a lens for my 350D but after seeing some test shots it just didnt have the quality I was looking for where as the 17-70 providing you get a good sample is really really sharp!!

Nick

DDA wrote in post #2038767
UPDATE: Sigma just released an OS version of this lens:

wow!

sigma's 2nd OS lens! definitely up for the nikon 18-200mm VR. too bad tamron won't be able to catch up now - though it has also rebranded its 18-200mm to 18-250mm.

DDA wrote in post #2038767
UPDATE: Sigma just released an OS version of this lens:

I wonder if they have improved on the optics though, as it was pretty poor.

I wish they would roll out the OS to all their range.

Nick

I`ll never buy another lens with such a big zoom range. I don`t know if the new Sigma has improved somethig on iQ, ...just added the OS, my opinion!!!

Not that OS on the 18-200 is of interest to me, but seeing it on additional lenses is... I'd love to see them add it to the 70-200 2.8 would be sweet. The lens without IS is of interest, if they had OS I may have bought that instead of the Canon 70-300 IS, depending on the price of course... I'd love to see a 200-500 OS lens as well, but I'm just dreaming now.... =_)

I wish they could make some sort of OS converter for any lens, like a teleconverter you fit on to the camera & it makes any lens mounted on it OS...

Not sure how on earth that would work though, it would probably be lousy.. but a nice idea!

Nick

I'm guessing you'll see IS on the camera body, that would make me very happy. As I understand it, the longer focal lengths don't benefit from camera body IS as much as the shorter ones, but for the longer lenses I'd still get some effect and if I needed better IS I could then get a lens with IS as well... I have no want to upgrade my camera body yet, but if Canon came out with an IS body I'd consider it sooner for sure.