Great Walk Around Lens

The Sigma 18-200 3.5-6.3 lens is a great all around lens. Some have denounced superzoom lenses as lower quality. The truth is that an all-in-one lens has tradeoffs (lower image quality and color aberrancy) for ease of use.

I recently got a Sigma 18-200, and compared it to my Nikon 18-55 & 55-200 duo. The Nikon pictures are definitely a little sharper (i.e. you can see the details of a brick better with the Nikons) and color is better (i.e. the Sigma is a little cool compared with the Nikkors). The good news is that you can adjust your camera to shoot with a little more vividly and the pictures come out equal. More importantly, the images are very close. I've put them on a webpage:
http://www.speakeasy.net/~yeh/Sigma/Sigma.html


Another thing that people have said about the Sigma is that it tends to have less depth of field at longer distances (i.e. 200mm). The truth is that the Sigma does lose depth of field if focused on an object that is not at infinity. I've demonstrated it on my webpage as well. What happens is that at distances less than infinity, you do lose DOF. Focusing on objects at infinity, the DOF is the same as the Nikon 55-200.

The benefits of the lens is that it has decent 'macro' abilities. You can focus on an object that is less than 45 cm (17.7 in)--which is Sigma's reported minimum distances. However, I've been able to shoot items in focus at about 8-9 inches with the lens at 200mm. To me, this 'feels' like a macro. The pictures are in focus and great color, contrast, and quality.

One thing noted by Canon owners appears to be terrible low light focus trouble. With my Nikon D50, I have had fairly good experience. Although, I have to admit that with low light situations, I noticed the lens occasionally having to hunt. However, that's ONLY with pictures of objects that are uniform in color (i.e. solid red, solid white, etc). If the object has different colors/shades/contrast, then the lens is flawless. I've also noted that if I boost the ISO up to 1600, the lens can focus perfectly even pointed to that same object which caused trouble at 200 ISO. Additionally, when I use the autofocus light (AF-S mode), the camera hits the target each time. The focus speed is just about the same as the Nikon 18-55 & 55-200 combination.

Some people have also complained about the motor being 'loud'. To me it sounds fairly quiet...but definitely not whisper levels. More like a cellphone or pager in vibration mode. Is it intrusive? Not at all...afterall EVERYONE has a cellphone which makes all sorts of noises every second of the day.


My main reason for buying the Sigma 18-200 is the absolute joy of being able to shoot pictures of my kids at school plays/dances, AND have the versatility of shooting events from the stands. With my old combination 18-55 and 55-200, I'd have to waste time (and possibly get dust inside my camera case) swapping lenses.

Overall, the Sigma 18-200 is a great, great lens for the price. I got it for $293 delivered from Prestige Camera in Brooklyn. Note- I dont work or have any affiliations with them. I've read the few complaints about Prestige, but the lens arrived within 2 days of the order. Some have had trouble with them, luckily, my lens came brand new without ANY trouble whatsoever. YMMV.

For what its worth, I'm selling my Nikon 18-55 and 55-200 as I dont see any possibility of switching back...the miniscule improvements in image quality doesn't offset the benefit of this lens.

8/3/06
Glad to see so many liked the review. I have some sample pictures that I shot with the Sigma 18-200. It's really quite a nice lens, as I get to use it more, I find the lens can take great pictures nearly all of the time. The only caveat is with low light situations, as expected for a relatively slow lens, you'll need a flash.


8/22/06
I've taken some great pics with this lens since reviewing it:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/19/dsc6391qk7.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3045/dsc6370mc4.jpg

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3092/dsc5877bp5.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/231/dsc2378el6.jpg

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3418/dsc1819ek4.jpg