Sigma 18-35mm DC HSM mini-review

Sigma 18-35mm DC HSM mini-review and first impressions

First off many thanks to James from Castle Cameras for letting me have a quick test of this lens and of course for being the model. If you want to buy a Sigma 18-35mm I suggest you ring castle cameras and order one. You can also buy the sigma 18-35mm online.

Now we’ve got the how out of the way we have the what to consider. First impressions are the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 is a solid lens, it balances nicely on a 60D and a 5D mark 2 so no issues weight wise really. This is a f/1.8 zoom for a start. The zoom mechanism feels great nice amount of damping just like the focus ring too. Sigma have seriously stepped up their game with the ART range of lenses. I can’t wait to get my hands on a Nikon fit one, but, as I was passing and a Canon one was available I’d be silly not to take a look. You can see all the specs on the Sigma website: List of full specs for sigma 18-35mm f/1.8.

Now I was interested how it would fare on full frame as unlike canons EF-S lenses it WILL mount on the full frame 5D mark 2. The answer is that you do get some pretty extreme vignetting as you’d expect at the wider angles. but after about 28mm or so it’s not that bad – certainly usable in a pinch. Did I mention it is f/1.8 and a zoom! Incredible!

I’m sharing below so resized and sharpened images at various focal lengths on the Canon EOS 5D mark 2, so you can just take a look at the middle if you want to see how it compares on a cropped EF-S body. I’m expecting very little to none on DX/EF-S cameras. Good job sigma!

Hope you find this little review helpful and don’t forget to leave your comments below. Again many thanks to Castle cameras (and to James for modelling)

You can find full size non sharpened images on skydrive here.

All images are taken in Aperture priority mode at f/1.8 at around ISO800.