Quite sharp at f/8-11. Wide. Remarkable dof. Accepts front-mounted filters. Well built, and handles very well. Decent price. Recommended!

Slow, dim when looking though the viewfinder. Soft when wide open. This lens really benefits from stopping down to f/8 to f/11, which is what you want to use for landscape anyways. Lousy front and back caps.

Build quality is very good. AF is fast, silent, and positive, almost on par with ring USM. Damping of the zoom and manual focus rings is excellent, they move smoother than my 200/2.8L. Lousy lens cap, and rear cap. Flimsy hood, doesn't attach easily, but hey at least you get one. Lens mount does not fit quite as well onto the body as well as my Canons and Tamrons, just a little bit tight, but it works just fine.

Now, on to image quality. This lens is quite sharp. I tested it against my Canon 20/2.8, the only lens I have within the range. The 20/2.8 is considerably sharper at f/2.8 than the 10-20 at f/5.6. However, at f8 to f/11 the difference becomes minimal, and the 10-20 is almost as sharp as the prime! The edges are a tad softer at f/8-11, but you have to look really hard to see the difference. Sharpness decreases quickly beyond f/16, and f/32 is horrible, avoid. The lens vignettes quite strongly at all focal lengths, even some at f/8, but this is easily corrected. Flare resistance is surprisingly good, better than my 20/2.8. Contrast is good, not excellent, and color is very neutral.

Chromatic abberations. The lens is almost completely free of c/a. At 10 mm, for example, the main image plane is remarkably free of c/a until you get to the very corners where purple fringing suddenly picks up to 2-3 pixels. It does not gradually increase with increasing radius, and as such it is a bit of a pain to correct. If you insist in correcting, you can correct for the corners separately (which will throw out the rest of the image) and then paste the corrected corners into an uncorrected image. However the uncorrected images are usually quite acceptable.

I have't tested bokeh, it is irrelevant for this lens imo.

I paid 640 CAD, the Canon 10-22 lists for about 950 CAD here in town.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

Canon 20/2.8, Canon 15/2.8 fish-eye.

1) Very well made compared to other Sigma lenses I have used, 2) Excellent performer 3) manageable size, 4) W-I-D-E!!! 5) AFS is superb 6) Zoom ring is similar position to Nikon's 17-55 so easy to swap from lens to lens

1) Biggest gripe as with a lot of lenses nowadays: why is a fixed aperture such a rare thing?! 2) Should have a "pinch style" lens cap otherwise taking the cap off with the hood in place is almost impossible, that's it!

After (at last) stumping up the cash for Nikon's 17-55 F2.8 I found there was too much overlap in the focal lengths with a 12-24. So in a single stroke I replaced my Nikon 12-24 and 10.5 DX Fisheye with this little cracker. This is a superb wideangle and really the only player in this game at the moment. Even Nikon's 10.5 can't compete for width as by the time you crop out the (awful) edges it's no wider than a 12mm. I haven't done the "pixel peeper's test" to compare CA though I have long given up comparing lenses under a microscope! This lens gives the results I want with very little distortion (as long as you hold the camera as near dead-vertical as possible of course but that goes with any WA lens). Reasonable at wide open aperture, much better a couple of stops down. A fantastic lens for interiors (use it for selling houses, your rooms will look massive!!!)

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 12-24 (easily up to the Nikon...) Sigma 12-24 Nikon 12-24

Build quality, optical sharpness, price (a much better deal than Canon's 10-22), flare control, fast and quiet focussing, and very rectilinear image (most important IMHO).

I'll let you know after some more experience, but so far none.

I just returned from a trip to the Czech Republic in which I used this lens exclusively due to space restrictions. I have had it only for a short time, but have used many other lenses in the past. I must say that this lens is one of the nicest I have used. I am using it on a Canon 20D and it has performed admirably thus far. On photos of interiors there is almost no perceptible distortion at either end of the spectrum. It is sharp wide open, but I think that it is optimal at f/11 or thereabouts. Flare is very well controlled and CA is minimally present. Focus is accurate, fast, and silent. The build quality is better than any other Sigma lens I have used (it is an EX series). It comes with a nice little case and hood, although the case is redundant for me as I keep my system in a Lowepro bag all together.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Vivitar 19-35, Canon 17-40L

Wide angle view Well built Hood and nice case supplied Sharp when stopped down one or more stops but not bad wide open Good control of distortion Opens up a new world of possibilities for the digital user looking for extreme wide angle

Not really a weakness but wider aperature would have been great but then it would have cost much more. This sort of photography is not for the inexperienced - not a reflection on Sigma but on extreme wide abgle lenses in general For the price no real gripes

I purchased this lens to go onto my D70 and D2X. I needed a very wideangle and this was much cheaper than the Nikon nearest lens. I have taken 100's of pictures with this lens and love it. It's not a point and shoot lens, you need to keep it level or distortion creeps in. I use a tripod and love the extreme landscapes it gives me. It is best stopped down a stop where it gets very sharp. The build quality is excellent for the price and all the controls work well. It is much better than the 12 to 24 as you can fit front filters to this lens and the front element is well protected unlike the 12 to 24. Colour stauration is excellent at both ends. Looks like I have a really good sample. If you don't get good results get the lens changed as Sigma's do seem to vary a lot. I love this lens and really enjoy using it.

Customer Service

Only ever had to phone Sigma UK once over a technical question when using macro lenses and they were very helpful.

Similar Products Used:

Just about all Nikon bodies Nikon Pro lenses Sigma 50 mm Macro, 105mm Macro, Sigma 50- 500 (fanatstic kit!)

Huge Range of Coverage HSM for silence, fast focus Nicely build and finish Price / Performance Ratio is excellent

It is 4 - 5.6 so not an ideal wide angle at low light

This is a good performer. For the price you pay you get a decently builded lens with nice finish. The focus is fast and the picture it takes is sharp. The range it covers is huge (as of 11/2005, it has the best coverage compare with all other suppliers, including Nikon) This lens really covers a lot of range (on my D70 it is the same as 15mm-30mm [35mm equiv.], so at 10mm your view is > 102 degrees, almost the same as what human eyes can capture, which is normally 120 to 140 degree). So you should expect some disortion at the side, which to me is acceptable and easily correctable at Photoshop. At 20mm the distortion is almost gone. I notice that the Sigma's coating give a tiny little bit more warm yellow color. To me it is a plus but for some it made take them some editing work in PS to cool it down.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon AFS 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 DX Nikkor Nikon AFS 12-24mm f4 DX Nikkor

Excellent contrast and sharpness at all focal lengths especially at the two extremes. Well built with excellent finition.

Some distortion at 10 to 12 mm but not excessive as with all extreme wide angle lenses.

I purchased this lens about a month and a half ago and have already used it for an eight page fashion story for LINEA Magazine. I am impressed with how sharp it is at the two extremes i.e. at 10 and 20 mm. I love how wide it goes. It reminds me of the Canon 16-35 full frame lens. It is extremely sharp stopped down 2/3 rds to 1 stop at all apertures. The construction is robust as is the finition. Purchase an excellent filter for this lens and keep it clean. Dust will show up in the photos if stopped down to F22. I use a Hoya Pro1 UV that stays on the lens at all times. Don't hesitate to purchase this lens. It is a keeper. It can be used on the Canon D1 with vignetting at 11 mm and full frame with vignetting at around 12.5 to 13mm. Not bad at all. One more thing. Being of EX quality, I would go as far as to say that it is comparable to "L" glass.

Customer Service

None needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon 17-40 L Lens

Build quality. 10mm focal length. Auto focus speed. carry bag & lens hood.

Heavy Chromatic aberations. barrel (moustashe) and pin cushion distortions @ 10mm Difficult to correct. Poor resolution. Contrast. Sigma lens cap. manual focus switch.

Summary. You get what you pay for. Long. Not a good lens. Heavy barrel distortions are expected at 10mm with any uwa but the combination of pin cushion as well was a real surprise. Crasy mirrors anybody? This lens has aspherical len's, right? Purple fringing bad enough to show on moderate blow ups with typical plants on o/exposed sky b/grounds scenarios. The real surprise was the resolution. at 17mm f4.5, it was beaten by the kit lens at 18mm f3.5. That is shameful. I guess for 6x4 landscape prints or anything without any straight lines it is good but you can forget any architecture or cars. The car shots I tried made the car look like it needed panel beating!Back to the shop it went and I'll save the extra mulla for the canon 10-22mm. The first bad sigma I have ever tried and in the mean time, ill use the kit lens. The kit lens isn't so bad after all! I must admit though that 10mm is beautiful. The difference between 10 and 12mm is huge and to me, there are only two uwa's available, the canon apc-s and this sigma with the tamron 11mm a maybe.

Customer Service

Excellent. store was happy to return lens for full credit.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 18-55mm kit lens. Sigma 15-30mm. Canon 24-85mm. Canon 28-135 IS.

super - WIDE-ANGLE price/performance HSM crisp and colourful images

none so far

After I bougth it, i took it to mountains to test its wide-angle :) The results were phenomenal. In combination with EOS-20D and the stand the images were sharp and colourful. I meen realy colourful! the vegetation was REALY LIVE GREEN. Similar results to Canon 50mm. With f at 32 the river flow was all i wanted.

Customer Service

didnt needed yet

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 18-125 Canon 50 1.8 Canon 75-300 Canon 28-90