My New Lens- Sigma DC 18-50 EX Macro

With the impending arrival of a new member of the family, we added a new lens to our photographic gear. It basically serves as a replacement to the kit lens that came with the camera.

Here is a review from Popular Photography
http://www.popphoto.com/Reviews/Lenses/Lens-Test-Sigma-18-50mm-f-2.8-EX-DC-Macro

While this review seems quite good, owner reviews were mixed, as the quality control of Sigma products is somewhat questionable. Basically, the lens did not focus to the right depths in hte earlier model. This is the updated version to this Sigma lens, and hopefully they have that worked out. The Nikon version of the lens comes with a usm drive to focus it faster.

The EX series of Sigma lenses is supposedly their high end product. This would be like being the tallest short person in the room. However, Sigma products are very competively priced, costing about $800 less than the comparable Nikon lens, with better lab tests.

A few other comments, as I'll leave the real testing to the professionals. I find that when used in wider angles, the camera really has no idea what to focus on, while my 50mm prime subject would occupy a larger portion of the screen and the camera would be better prepared to focus on the subject.

The lens is very heavy, and that is because of the sturdy EX construction and the fact that a loom lens like this has many elements. This lens probably weighs twice what my kit lens weighs and maybe 3x what my 50mm prime lens weighs. It does have a sturdy and durable feel to it.

The lens focuses faster than my 50mm prime lens, but not as fast as a usm lens would focus. This is one of the reasons that I purchased this lens because focusing was far too slow with my other lens.

I purchased this from Adorama. When you purchase from Adorama, they had an option for just the lens, or the lens with a filter and cleaning kit for the exact same price. Make sure you get the free filter and cleaning kit. The downside to that is that the filter is a wide angle filter (so it is thin and won't get in the way when used at wide angles- a good thing, but it is so thin that the lens cap will not stay attached- definitely a bad thing as a lens cap will cost more to replace than the free filter).

Another thing to keep in mind is that with the 50mm (on a DX sensor), you can pretty much hide your surroundings and blur out anything you want. With a wide angle, there is minimal bokeh and it shows much more, so you'll have to pick up if you want to take pictures.

Lastly, the macro function is handy to have. You can keep this as your carry around lens, though you might still want to use a different lens if you want portraits or extremely low light conditions. My 50mm f1.4 is actually 3 stops faster than this 2.8 lens, so you can get by with 1/8th as much light.

I'd recommend getting this lens instead of a kit lens, because they are completely redundant together. As I'll show in my next post, you really wouldn't choose this lens as a portrait lens, even though most wedding photographers will carry a similar 24-70mm lens on their full frame cameras. There simply isn't much bokeh for use in portraits, so it can't replace all your lenses.