Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 EX DC HSM Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras with APS-C Sensors

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It isn't all roses though. You have be very careful about strong lightsources that may cause flare. This lens is easily prone to lens flare especially at night (and it isn't pretty when it does). I had a light source just left of my frame and the flare came in looking like water spots. Fortunately I could see them in my LCD viewfinder and I recomposed my image. Lenshood doesn't help much to combat this. The lenshood is pretty much pointless, and do be careful with it, for some reason the version I had was very loose and it was very easy to lose the hood in the reverse position. In the active position it wasn't so bad, but either way, it is a pointless accessory. The 10-22 shows less flare at the wide end, but both have noticeable amount of flaring at the longer focal lengths. It will be marginal for stopping low light action, but much better than the f/5.6 apertures found at the max focal length of some of the alternative wide angle lenses.

10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM - SIGMA Corporation 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM - SIGMA Corporation

The Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM Lens is also a good option - I especially like its extremely wide angles of view. First things first, compared to the F4, it has slightly less distortion at the widest end. Now I should qualify this a bit. The F4 had a unique distortion at the very edges. I would say that the distortion on the F3.5 is more gradual with to me is more desired rather than the abrupt distortion on the F4. This probably has something to do with the larger front element. I can't confirm this, but I might have to see if I can get a copy of DxO's testing software to determine what kind of distortion I'm seeing in my photos compared to my F4 versions. If I was to guess, I would say about half or less the amount of distortion. Naturally there should be some proportion of good samples, but I've never had anything as bad as that before or since. Since the lens is designed to be used on a camera with smaller sensor ('APS-C') the focal length will be equivalent to16-32 mmif you have a Canon camera or15-30 mmif you have a Niko camera. I honestly cant think of anything that should be considered as a con, enough of a con to stop someone from buying this lens, who wants a wide angle for an APS sensor at this price, really this lens competes with the best of them, so I should say any price.It's worth pointing out that this lens isn't terribly compatible with the on-board flashes found on DSLRs; most of these only cover an angle of view equivalent to using an 18mm lens. At wider angles, the flash will give uneven frame coverage with darkening towards the corners, coupled with shadowing from the lens itself in the lower centre of the frame. This is absolutely normal for a wideangle zoom; if you really want to use this lens with flash you'll need to invest in a suitable external unit. Autofocus Macro performance is, not surprisingly, poor. Magnification is 0.15x, though minimum close-focus distance is 24cm (around 8 inches). The Tokina is sharper at similar aperture and focal length settings, has less vignetting - even stopped down - and does not extend.

Nikon 10-20mm, Tokina 11-20mm, or Sigma 10-20mm: Nikon SLR Nikon 10-20mm, Tokina 11-20mm, or Sigma 10-20mm: Nikon SLR

If I could change anything about this lens, I'd make the maximum aperture faster. But considering all of the positives about this lens, it is tough to consider that a con, since after all, you can't have everything. Like most APS-C lenses, the Sigma 10-20 f/3.5 shows some peripheral shading on APS-C DSLR bodies at its wide open apertures.

The overall shape of this lens is smooth with slightly smaller ribs on the focus ring than on the zoom ring. Good news is that I am finding the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM Lens to perform well in this regard.

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens Review Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens Review

This issue is obvious in the above comparisons where the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 lands in last or near-last place in all comparison settings Note that the specific Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM Lens I reviewed performed much worse on the left side of the frame than on the right. Here we show the maximum and minimum apertures reported by the camera at the marked focal lengths. Focal length I'm not a big fan of Sigma's lens finish (others love it), but the rubber-covered zoom and focus rings consume a significant portion of the lens.The Sigma 10-20 f/3.5 shows slightly less flare, shows slightly less vignetting at wide open apertures, has the fixed max aperture advantage, has a smaller (and included) lens hood and costs less. In the 10-20mm range, OOF details generally remain tiny, but this 7-aperture-blade lens does not produce especially nice blur quality. If you like ultra wide perspectives and you can live with the distortion signature and the small aperture you should give it a try. Stopping down the aperture by one stop provides little change in sharpness over most of the range, though the mid-frame area gets sharper at 14mm f/8.

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC Interchangeable Lens Review Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC Interchangeable Lens Review

Unless you are using manual focus, focus accuracy is very important to final image quality - and focus accuracy is the biggest problem I have encountered with 3rd party lenses.I've liked the Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens since it became available - it remains one of the best choices. Both the Nikon and the Tokina are much more difficult to focus manually due to focus shifts when changing the focal length.