- Sigma has finally brought a zoom lens
to the Sony APS-C E-Mount universe
and if you're looking to upgrade your kit lens,
you should be excited.
(soft upbeat music)
After absolutely ruling
the prime lens market for Sony APS-C
with their 16, 30 and 56 millimeter f1.4 trio,
Sigma has released their 18-50 f2.8 standard zoom lens
for that Sony APS-C system
and it is absolutely tiny.
Which is totally perfect for this kind of,
leave it on your camera, super versatile, walk-around lens.
But before I dive too deep into the specs
and what I liked and didn't about this lens,
I wanted to give you a practical look
at some real world usage.
So I took the Sigma 18-50 out.
I shot a short video
and a whole bunch of photos
(camera shutter clicking)
along the way so that I could show you.
Let's take a look at the video
so you can see how it performs in that context
and afterwards, we'll take a look at some of the photos
and talk about my experience with this lens.
(energetic music)
The following video was shot entirely
on the Sony a6600 and the Sigma 18-50 f2.8
(mellow music)
(water running)
(grinding sounds)
(glass clanking)
(leaves crunching)
So lately I've been doing a lot
of heading out of town,
going down to the mountains
and getting hiking in and that kind of stuff.
This time I couldn't actually head out of town,
so I decided to try and do a hike in Edmonton itself.
The one that I'm headed towards right now,
my wife and I like to call the sunflower hike,
'cause the first time that we did it
there were sunflowers at the end.
Really beautiful, big sunflowers.
The second time that we did it,
there were different flowers,
but the name kind of stuck, so.
It goes from the north side
of the north Saskatchewan River,
cross down to the south side,
way out to the east end of Edmonton
and then crosses back over the river and comes back.
And it's one of my favorite ways
to get a hike in without having to leave the city.
(mellow music continues)
So the first part of the sunflower hike
is basically just getting out of downtown,
but once you get across,
what I now know is called the Dawson Bridge,
we just always call it the blue bridge,
then you kind of tuck away into the river valley here.
And the rest of the hike
is absolutely beautiful along the water.
I mean, it's almost winter,
so it's like everything's dead right now.
It's beautiful most of the time.
(leaves crunching)
(upbeat music)
(woodpecker knocking)
That is most definitely ice
on the side of the river bank there.
Also, ducks!
♪ I remember the summer ♪
♪ We were just kids living in a dream ♪
♪ Undercover lovers ♪
♪ Lost in your eyes ♪
♪ Swimming in your mystery ♪
♪ Sweet fantasy ♪
♪ Beating hearts like thunder ♪
♪ Feeling so high at the top of this roller coaster ♪
♪ Roller coaster ♪
(ice cracking)
♪ It's our time ♪
♪ You and I ♪
♪ So alive ♪
♪ Young and wild ♪
So I'm just passing the Capilano Bridge,
which is kind of another milestone
on this hike, walk, whatever you want to call it.
It's pretty brown out here.
This is a bit of a departure
from the normal mountain, beautiful glacier lake hikes
that I've been showing you lately.
But one thing that's been nice this year in Edmonton
is that the water is normally, in my experience anyway,
really brown and this year, for whatever reason,
just because of all the runoff from the mountains
or something like that,
it was actually this beautiful blue, green color.
Not something that I think I've ever seen
in the like 15 years I've lived in Edmonton.
So that's pretty awesome.
And the woodpeckers today, they are out in full force.
I think I've seen four of them already.
I had never seen a woodpecker before this year,
as far as I'm aware.
(upbeat music continues)
♪ Feeling so alive ♪
This is the one part
on this little hike
where the path gets
really like up and down
and really skinny
and there are bicyclists who rip down this part.
So you really got to keep your eyes open
and probably not film yourself
for fear of missing someone coming right at yah.
- Excuse me.
(bike whirs)
- Yeah, kind of just, just like that.
(upbeat music)
All right, so we've made it to Capilano Park
and we're gonna go
this way.
(upbeat music continues)
So I managed to get down this
and now I'm starting to wonder
how I'm going to get back up it
because it's very muddy.
(upbeat music continues)
I can see the final bridge
that we're going to use to cross over the river again.
(birds chirping)
It's just too bad. It's still so far away.
(playful music)
(leaves crunching)
Quick break for some coffee and a snack
and then we're in the final little stretch.
We just got to cross this bridge
and that's a, that's the end at Rundle Park.
This is a bit less of a scenic hike
than I typically go on
when I'm like climbing up a mountain or whatever,
but it's still beautiful.
Especially in the summer
when there's like leaves on the trees
or if you catch it in that week in fall
before all the leaves fall off the tree.
Right now, it's all right.
The water looking pretty beautiful.
Seeing the ice on the edge of the water
is pretty cool as well.
But I think it's time to make that final stretch here.
(playful music continues)
Well, there may not have been any mountains,
but this is still pretty epic with the sunset
and this bridge and the river.
And as you can see here,
this is why we called it the sunflower hike.
Because of the imaginary sunflowers
that are planted in this flower bed.
Four hours, nine kilometers, taking it nice and slow.
Definitely not quite the same as what I'm used to
when I escape to the mountains,
but a fun nonetheless.
Hope you enjoyed that.
Thanks for watching.
(playful music continues)
Alright. I hope you enjoyed that a little bit.
Let's talk about the Sigma 18-50.
The obvious competitors here
are the Tamron 17-70 f2.8
and the Sony 16-55 f2.8.
But each of these lenses
bring something slightly different to the table.
Where the Sigma really differs itself between these three
is in the size, the weight and the price.
The Sigma comes in at only $549, U.S.,
compared to the $799 of the Tamron
and the $1399 of the Sony.
So it's not just like a little bit less expensive.
It's actually pretty significantly less expensive
than the other two.
The Sigma is also only 286 grams
whereas the Sony is 490
and the Tamron being the biggest is 526,
nearly half the weight of the Tamron.
Then when it comes to the physical size of it,
the Sigma is only 75 millimeters long
where as the Sony is 100
and the Tamron is 119 millimeters long.
Both the Sony and Tamron have 67 millimeter threads.
Whereas the Sigma only has a 55 millimeter thread
so it's quite a bit narrower too.
So based on all of that,
it's pretty obvious what Sigma was trying to do here.
Make a cheaper, smaller, lighter lens
that is good for just kind of everyday carry.
And I think they accomplished that,
but the question is,
are there any compromises in that process?
And there are definitely a few things
that this lens is missing.
Like I mentioned before,
it's got a bit of a shorter zoom range than its competitors.
(camera shutter clicks)
Considering that there is a lack of wide angle lenses
in the Sony APS-C lens lineup,
I think that 18 millimeters
(camera shutter clicks)
might be a bit of a pain point for some people
and they might prefer to go with something
that has the full 60 millimeters on the wide end.
That's the difference between
24 millimeters full frame equivalent
and 27 millimeters full frame equivalent.
So if you're someone who does vlogging
and needs to be able to hold the camera
at the end of your arm,
if you don't have big, long arms like I do,
it might be a problem.
(camera shutter clicks)
And also if you're shooting things
like landscape photography
where you want to have that extra wide angle,
it's not a huge amount,
but it might be the difference between
getting the shot that you want
and it being just slightly too tight.
(camera shutter clicks)
On the other end of the zoom range,
I didn't find it as limiting,
but having that extra reach out to 70 millimeters
on something like the Tamron
(camera shutter clicks)
might be nice for you.
In the end, this focal range thing
kind of depends on the way that you shoot
and what else you have in your kit.
Personally, I was only shooting with this lens
and not using any other ones.
So, I definitely felt the limits of that.
But if I was going out with a kit,
I might be able to have something for that ultra wide
or have something that goes
a little bit longer in the telephoto range.
The other thing that this lens is missing
is any kind of stabilization.
Now, luckily I was able to borrow
an a6600 to do this test,
but if you have something like a a6400 or a6100
something that doesn't have the in-body stabilization,
it might become a bit of an issue.
Again, kind of depending on the way that you shoot.
So if you're going to be using this lens
with a camera body that doesn't have stabilization,
you want to make sure that
your shutter speed is high enough
if you're doing photography,
and if you're doing videography,
you want to have something stable
like a tripod or a gimbal,
or even just a neck strap
that you can pull tight against your neck.
Just to add that little bit of extra stabilization.
The build of this lens is definitely feeling
a little bit more plastic-y
than some of Sigma's other offerings.
They're saying that it's a new kind of material
that's supposed to be lighter like a plastic,
but more durable, kind of like an aluminum
and it's supposed to hold up better to harsher temperatures.
The zoom and focus rings
weren't really anything to write home about.
They were reasonably smooth
and I didn't have any problems with them
and the barrel does extend when you zoom.
There is definitely some
weatherproofing going on with this lens.
There's a gasket around the mount, at very least.
When I was out shooting with this lens,
the conditions were pretty clear,
so I didn't really get to like test
the weatherproofing or anything.
(camera shutter clicks)
The auto focus on this lens performed well
with very little hunting.
I found it really smooth and really quick
and I came back with very few missed focus shots.
Now, when I found out that
it was as small and light as it was,
I was a bit worried that they were going to have to
cut corners in the image quality department.
(camera shutter clicks)
But after reviewing the videos and the photos
that I got while I was out,
I'm really happy with how they turned out.
I found that it was quite sharp in the center
and the fall-off as you went out to the edge
was pretty minimal.
Of course, it's not as sharp
as the Sigma Primes that I mentioned before,
but I wasn't really ever expecting it to be.
Those things are crazy sharp.
I didn't run into any noticeable problems
with fringing or flaring,
even though I was shooting in some high contrast situations
and even shooting straight at the sun.
(camera shutter clicks)
And as far as like the overall look of the image,
I never really know quite how to describe it,
but this lens has
(camera shutter clicks)
the kind of Sigma look that I personally really like.
Something about the color rendition and the contrast,
(camera shutter clicks)
I don't know exactly what it is,
but it's something that I quite enjoy from Sigma lenses.
The versatility of
(camera shutter clicks)
that standard zoom range,
as well as the size and weight
made it the perfect walk-around lens
for when I was out and about.
Not to mention that it's significantly less conspicuous
than some of my big, heavy, full frame setups.
So who do I think this lens is for?
Pretty much everyone who has a Sony APS-C camera.
Especially if you have something
with the in-body stabilization
in either the a6500 or a6600.
If stabilization is something
that you're really worried about,
definitely check out the Tamron 17-70.
But overall, I'd say that this is the best value,
fast aperture zoom lens for Sony APS-C
This is a really fantastic
and reasonably inexpensive upgrade
for anyone who has the APS-C kit lens
and want something better in quality,
but doesn't necessarily want to lose
the versatility that a standard zoom gives you.
Not to mention, this thing
barely takes up any more space than that kit lens.
I'll leave a link down in the description
if you want to check out this lens more or pick one up
as well as to all the other lenses that I talked about
in this video.
And as always, I want to hear what you think
so make sure to leave a comment down below
and on your way down there
hit that like and subscribe button.
(computer mouse clicks)
Hit the bell notification.
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So you don't miss out on future videos.
Thank you so much for watching
and I'll see you next time.
(mellow music)