Jared Polin: Before we jump into the review of this SIGMA lens, I am going to remind you
guys that if you haven’t signed up for the FroKnowsPhoto e-mail list, you can do so over
on the website, just look for that orange box, put your name, e-mail address in there,
hit send it, and I will send you a free guide to capturing motion in low light situations.
Jared Polin froknows photo.com and this is a review of the SIGMA 18-35 1.8 but it is
a very sought after lens.
There are a lot of people asking me what do I think about this and that is why I am doing
a full on review of this SIGMA lens.
So who is this lens for, well who did they make it for, first of you can get it on NIKON,
you can get it on CANON, you can get it on the SIGMA Mounts, I’m not sure if you can
do the SONY Mounts, I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but maybe you can.
This is a seven hundred and ninety nine dollar lens.
It’s a lot less expensive than they ever imagined that it would be when it was first
announced.
It’s an 18-35, so it is a short zoom range lens, it doesn’t go very far.
Obviously, a seventeen to fifty SIGMA two point eight, zooms a lot further but this
is a couple of stops quicker in terms of the aperture.
Now I shot this on the CANON T three I, which is a crop sensor camera.
You have to shoot it, or your suppo- it’s meant for a crop sensor meaning that you multiply
on the CANON side by one point six, the eighteen times one point six and the thirty five times
one point six and on the NIKONS, you multiply by one point five to get the thirty five millimeter
equivalent of your lens.
So on the CANON, your looking at almost a twenty nine millimeter lens, now that is not
very wide for a wide-angle lens on a crop sensor camera.
In my opinion, when I used it on the T three, I had a little bit of trouble focussing.
Now it’s not, it’s probably not the lens, it’s more the focusing system in that lower
end body that I was using.
I think my recommendation would be without using it on say a NIKON body would be that
if you wanted a lens like this, one, it would be for a higher end crop sensor camera.
The D seventy one hundred, the D seven thousands, the CANON seven D and the seven DD, also the
sixty D. I feel that the focusing systems are going to be more accurate because you
need to be very accurate at F one point eight.
Remember just because you have the ability to shoot at one point eight, it doesn’t
mean that you should be shooting at it.
Your focal range, your focal distance, it is just so small, so shallow and narrow, that
if you’re focussed on the eye and just somebody moves slightly, then you get the eyebrow in
focus instead of the eyeball.
Now that’s where I like to shoot these lenses at say three five or three two opposed to
wide open.
That is what I do with most of my shots because I know how hard it is and difficult it is
to shoot at F one point eight.
I am also looking for the more accurate focusing eh systems of those higher end DX cameras
or crop sensor cameras.
I think that is something to look at, but this is not a replacement for say a fifty
millimeter one point eight and it’s not a replacement in my mind for maybe the thirty
five one point eight because that is much less expensive.
But who should buy this lens.
Now I don’t think it should be the first lens that you purchase for eight hundred bucks.
I, in my opinion, I think you should have seventeen to fifty, and a seventy to two hundred
as a really good starting point for two lenses, that’s my opinion.
That’s what I would start with them doing, if I am doing wide angles because it gives
me the wide at seventeen and it gives me a zoom up to fifty and then I have a seventy
to two hundred which allows me to do portraits, sports, indoors and outdoors, the eighteen
to thirty five is so limiting, but it does give you close focusing as I saw with my images,
I could get pretty much within a couple of inches of Steven’s face to get shots at
eighteen mill- millimeters and also at thirty five millimeters, but again I don’t think
it’s the lens that you buy right out of the box, I don’t think that you can do as
much as you think you can do with an eighteen to thirty five.
It’s not a huge zoom range and that’s one of the things that, that would leave me
hesitant to purchase it.
Maybe as a third option, maybe if you shoot a lot of concerts and you already have the
seventeen to fifty and a seventy to two hundred and you feel that you need something like
this to get the wider shots.
This is not a portrait lens, it would be a good street photography lens, the thirty five
millimeters multiplied by one point six and one point five is going to give you a nice
little range to get out there and shoot some nice shots, but again no matter how good this
is, I just come back to, man, I wish it was a full frame lens.
Why don’t they have say a twenty millimeter to forty millimeter one point eight full frame
lens?
I understand that would be difficult and more expensive but maybe that is something that
they would work on.
I just have a hard time spending say eight hundred bucks for such a limiting lens on
a DX camera.
I think that you can spend the money more wisely on other SIGMA lenses, the seventeen
to fifty SIGMA or the seventy to two hundred.
Now again, that is my opinion, but that’s what this review is about.
What I think about it?
In terms of the quality of the lens, it does everything that you would think it would do,
it is very, very good.
If you shoot video, it doesn’t have image stabilization built in, but again this lens
shouldn’t have image stabilization built in because it is wider, uh, I don’t think
that you know you’re buying this just for video.
It could do a great job, the pictures look punchy, the pictures look sharp, that’s
what it is all about when it comes to a lens, but I have thrown in there my opinion.
You can download the raw files of the sample images that will be posted and you can make
up your mind for yourself.
So all in all, yes it’s a great lens, it’s just a very small focal range and you have
to be very careful shooting at F one point eight because if, if your going to shoot at
one point eight because it’s a very narrow depth of field and if it’s not tack sharp
and it’s out just a little bit, it’s not a usable image.
So that is my review of the NI- uh the NIKON, of the SIGMA eighteen to thirty five F one
point eight, if you like to pick one up, check out Allens camera.com, they have all your
SIGMA lenses and there you have Jared Polin froknowsphoto.com.
See ya.
Have you subscribed here on Youtube yet, well you can do so simply by clicking subscribe
inside this red box, then go over to manage subscriptions, give that a click and click
right next to my name as well as e-mail me about new uploads, you will receive an e-mail
everytime I upload a new video.
Thank you very much.