Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM for Pentax Fit

I wanted a zoom lens to replace the 18-55 kit lens on my Nikon D5100. I also have the Nikon 35mm 1.8g, but in practice I tended to use the zoom lens more despite the lower image quality. I was looking for great image quality and sharpness with effective stabilisation. The wide constant aperture was a bonus rather than a necessity. This lens was recommended to me by a wedding photographer who chose it instead of a mega-expensive Nikon. I chewed over this for ages - I considered Tamron equivalent both without VC (cheap) and with (not as cheap but not as good?), also the bargain Nikon 50mm 1.8 for image quality. The Sigma is very expensive in absolute terms for an enthusiast like me, but in the end the reviews swayed me. I had some reservations about what I had heard regarding variations between samples, but I decided that I would test the lens extensively on arrival. If there were any shortcomings I would simply use Amazon's excellent return system until I found a good one. After the 30 day mark there would be Sigma's 3 year guarantee to fall back on. I am pleased to report that this has not been necessary - it's a good 'un. The lens arrived in great condition - it is solid and heavy and feels like a professional item should. In use the weight helps dampen vibrations and is a positive thing. It resembles my Sigma 10-20 EX in looks and feel. It takes good images! I have compared it in "blind" tests with my other 2 lenses at 35mm on a tripod. As expected the Sigma wins with the 35mm close behind. In particular the Sigma is much better than the 35mm at controlling CA. Although worthy, the kit lens is beaten hands down, especially towards the edges of the frame. The AF works very well, I tested this and found it was bang on - more accurate than my manual focussing skills. I would give this lens 5 stars if it was less expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for. This lens ticks all the boxes - great build and image quality so far, with stabilisation and useful zoom. I think however that if you can adapt to framing without zoom and have steady hands that a couple of Nikon prime lenses could do some of the job, possibly for less money. The Sigma gives good results at the 17mm end, which I find useful. I am very happy with this lens and would buy it again.

I have been using this lens non-stop for the past 3 years for both photography and film making and I have to say for the price and performance it’s one of the best lenses to use for an APC-S camera body. I was so confident in my initial choice of the lens I bought two, which I use for different functions and it satisfied my needs during those times. Just so you are aware I use a D5500 body along with it, which is known for having 1.5 x crop factor. With that in mind here are the pros and cons. PROs: - It’s versatile as an all-round photography lens. The 17-50mm on APC-S is the focal equivalent to a 24-70 on a full frame camera. At 17mm It is awesome for landscapes/wide angle shots, whilst the 50 mm will behave quite like a 70mm prime for portraits. - Uses a 77mm thread for filter which is common for most fixed aperture lenses - Between the 35-50mm range the lens offers great bokeh for portraits. - Having a fixed f/2.8 aperture is brilliant for low light photography and filmmaking and it feels like you have multiple prime lens. It allows plenty of light onto the camera sensor to keep the ISO & shutter speed at low values. - The auto focus is fast and silent on the D5500 at all focal lengths, and the optical stabilisation is great for capturing sharp images that are stationary or moving. 6. Focusing is pretty accurate on wide to medium shots and is useful for manually focussing at infinity if landscape photos are your niche. 7. The addition of a lock mode is great to eliminate any breathing when in use or aiming down. 8. At f/4-5.6 the images and video produced is super sharp, which is where you should be working from most of the time. CONs: 1. The lens is a lot heavier and bulkier than other kit lens to compensate for the fixed aperture. 2. The build quality takes a hit due to price reducing. Some people might like the finish others won’t. 3. You can feel and hear the internal components move around if you shake the lens and the supplied lens hood can easily fall off. 4. The zoom and focus rings are arranged opposite to normal NIKON lens, which can be jarring to new users. 5. The manual focus range is extremely limited especially in close up shots, so be aware of the minimum distance you can rack focus to whether in manual or auto. 6. At f/2.8 on all focal lengths you can notice the image sharpness gets a bit soft and there is a subtle vignette at the lower focal length range. 7. The focal length zoom is an external rather than internally function which isn’t great for filming unless the camera is station at all times. Considering most people who are looking at this len probably are starting out with either/both the 18-55 Nikon kit lens and Tamron 70-300 VC, this of course is the natural progression to advancing your photography. Along with the NIKON 35 mm and 50mm prime lens this would be among my go to lens if I started again from scratch. As a film maker or vlogger, I will admit it might not tick all the boxes and that’s in part due to the negatives addressed. If you really are on a tight budget by all means go for it, but if you’re going to do it professionally I’d often recommend saving the money and getting the sigma art 18-35mm f1.8 and future proof the investment. Regardless of the negatives I still love this lens as it is overall a good purchase, it’s ideal for travel being an all-around lens and can produce truly stunning images with minor issue being fixable in post. I absolutely would recommend this.

Great lens BUT I found some snags I was not expecting. I use this lens on a Nikon D7200 I love... Sharper than anything comparable I could find (see DXO Labs tests for info). Needle sharp at f3.3 wide angle and f2.8 zoom. Good light transmission makes it great for low light photos. Great value compared to Nikon. Sharpish at f11 so okay for landscapes. Not so keen... Can't switch from auto to manual focus durunh a shot without first switching on manual. If hand accidentally touches focus ring then it hinders auto focusing. Zoom ring works opposite way to Nikon lenses which feels odd. Flare can be a slight problem, more so than with Nikon originals where I find a lens hood unnecessary. Focus tracking of a person walking or running towards the camera works amazingly accurately with Nikon lenses but not with this lens. Perhaps the focus motor is too slow. In bright sunlit high contrast scenes with this lens the camera over exposes by about half to one stop which burns out highlights. That does not happen with original lenses. Overall, I am a tad disappointed but still rate it a great lens for the money. One last thought, the lense I received was a grey import with a 1 year warranty instead of the 3 years Sigma UK offer.

Lens is much better than I expected, I initially wanted the nikon version to use at weddings, however I couldn't justify the cost and was a little disappointed that I had to go for this version. After reading so many reviews and doing so much research into this lens the nikon 17-55 and the Tamron version I ended up choosing this one out of the 3. I am so glad that I did, the build quality for this lens is much better than I expected the zoom ring feels very tight and solid and the front element looks very nice. The only thing missing ergonomics wise is the old EX texture to the lens that sigma used to coat there lenses with which I was a fan of, this however doesn't impact the performance of the optics which are simply brilliant even wide open right across the focal range, its certainly an upgrade to any kit lens. I read a couple of reviews stating that is soft wide open, granted all lenses will be softer wide open however this isn't really noticeable and I certainly don't notice the difference if I'm not looking at Exif data. I would like to point out that this was based on centre sharpness. Border sharpness is slightly lower than the centre which is not an issue if you stop down, this isn't really as big a deal as some reviews/people make it out to be as in practice I only shoot portrait wide open and the boarder is usually out of focus anyway (due to depth of field effect) You would naturally stop down for landscape shots anyway thus bringing the entire frame into sharp focus including the boarders. I haven't really taken this off my D90 since buying it as the OS, coupled with the F2.8 constant aperture is very good for shallow Depth of field and low light portraits, so much so that I don't bother with my 50mm prime any more and I have sold it as a result. My only niggle is that Nikons Silent Wave autofocus system has full time manual override whereas this version of HSM doesn't as the focus ring moves on autofocus. All in all thought, this is a surprisingly very good lens which is incredibly sharp, useful low light and an excellent portrait lens I am unable to understand why the Nikon is so expensive when this is as good as it is for the cost (even comparing nikons non VR to cannons IS version threes almost 50% cost difference)

Having decided that I needed a good quality, fast portrait/landscape lens to compliment my telephoto lenses, I spent countless hours reading reviews (both user and professional) on this lens and the Pentax equivalent, the DA* 16-50mm. Whilst the Pentax came across as a 'Marmite' lens (people either loved it or hated it!) the reviews for the Sigma were very consistent ie it's a very good lens. Factor in the £520 premium you have to pay for the Pentax (ok, you do get weather resistance, 2 extra aperture blades and an extra 1mm at the wide end!) and, quite frankly, it was a no brainer. Straight from the box, this lens oozes quality. Taking it out of the padded, zipped case the weight tells you that you have a lot of good quality glass in this lens. Some people may find it a tad too heavy but it balances perfectly on my K50 (it weighs more than my Sigma 18-250mm tele lens!). Build quality seems fantastic for a lens of this price. Though it has a metal lens mount the body is made of plastic. Don't let this put you off as it feels top quality and very well nailed together. The zoom ring turns counter clockwise (not a problem for me as I have Sigma anyway) which some people may find strange but you soon get used to it. It's about a 90 degree turn from wide to tele and the zoom action is very smooth. Autofocus is very quick and accurate (especially on single point af) though as yet I haven't tested it in very low light. Don't take any notice of the minimum focussing distance, as with a bit of readjustment of the focus point and in the right light I've managed to get great quality images at half the recommended distance! When it comes to colour rendition and clarity this lens is truly astonishing. Colours are so accurately reproduced and the clarity of the test photographs that I've taken thus far is incredible. The focal point of close up images just seems to pop out at you. My time spent in PP has reduced dramatically and a lot of images just require a small amount tweaking. In summary, whilst it's early days yet this lens has blown my socks off!

This lense is, in a word, incredible. For a fraction of the price of an L range lense, you get beautiful, crisp, vibrant shots. The stabilization is second to none in my experience. The zoom is fairly smooth (not L smooth, as that is a luxury you well and truly pay for), the lens itself is very quiet and easy to use. The zoom and focus to go in the opposite direction of what I'm used to but I have gotten use to it so quickly that I don't think about it. I am by no means a professional, I am an enthusiastic amateur with enough knowledge to get by. I have had the standard 18-55 kit lens and the 'Nifty 50' lens too, but since buying this lens, I don't even carry them around with me anymore. It's simply the best lens for all round shooting I could hope for. It is heavy, be warned. But I think that it makes it feel sturdy as well. The lens cap is great too. I love the idea of gripping the centre of the cap rather than the edges and risk smothering the lens. Again, if you are used to something like the 50mm 1.8 lens, then this is going to be a steep learning curve, but ultimately worth it. If you have the luxury of affording an L lens, then by all means, they are the best out there. But if you want something that is practically the equivalent, for a minute price, then this is the best lens. It's a brilliant all-rounder and will step up the quality of your shots ten-fold.

I bought the lens as a replacement for my 18-55mm kit lens which came with my EOS 550D. This was after deciding what sort of spec I wanted, reading a few reviews, and realising that reviews for this lens were generally as good as the equivalent Canon which costs about £260 more. The lens has good build quality and comes with a lens hood and a zip-up case. Some reviews suggest that the lens hood tended to fall off: but I thought the fitting was good and positive. Mine never fell off in use. At first use the lens seems really heavy, and the zoom ring turns the other way to canon lenses - but I soon got used to this. Focus is fast and quiet, and the image stabilisation seems to work OK. I only had the lens for a couple of days, and didn't get a chance to experiment before we went away on holiday: during which the lens was hardly off the camera. My issues with the lens started when we came home, and I started to examine the photos on a PC. I am not a professional photographer, nor a gifted amateur, I don't spend ages reading about photography, and I'm not sure of all the terminology: but I think I do know a quality image. The images with this lens are pleasing with great contrast, brilliant faithful colours, even brightness right to the edges: but they are all oh so soft. I thought maybe it was a focus issue, so I examined closely a lot of the images I had taken. A few taken in bright sunlight at f18 or f22 and ISO 100 or 200 should have had at least some areas in sharp focus. So I don't think it is a simple focus problem. Others at f2.8 had the same degree of softness. I thought it was me being fussy: but I looked at some images that I had taken with my canon 55-250 f4-5.6 zoom which, in comparison are pin-sharp. So now I feel wholly disappointed in this lens. For the price it should make me feel good about the images. But now I know they are all so soft, and the lens is going back to Amazon. Now I have spent time reading many reviews of this lens, and there are suggestions that some copies do have softness problems. I can't justify the extra £260 easily for the Canon: so when I get the refund I will probably order another copy of the Sigma and start again. In summary, I think this ought to be a great lens: if you get a good one. I'll update or rewrite a review when I get another copy.

I purchased this lens due to my kit lens being old and not working anymore, i thought this would be a good upgrade too. The delivery was good and just a few days before my holiday where i will need it for. I have just received the item today and I first noticed the sigma box within the packaging box was worn and damaged. As I brought the lens out I could hear something rolling around inside the lens, maybe this is normal but it sounds like loose parts inside. However the main point to this review is the fact that it doesn't work. The lens is set to autofocus but will not focus correctly at all through the viewfinder. However if I focus looking through the screen it does focus but slowly. I hope there is a solution to this otherwise I won't have a working lens now for my holiday.