Sigma 885101 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM Lens for Canon, Black

Product Information

At 18mm sharpness in the centre of the image area is outstanding in the centre from maximum aperture, dropping gradually due to diffraction as the lens is stopped down. Sharpness towards the edges is very good at this focal length and remains so until the lens is stopped down to f/8 This design works well in my opinion - it is very easy to find the part of the lens you will use most frequently. The quality of walk-around lenses is currently high enough for a large group of amateur photographers. It surprises me again every time how large the zoom range is and how similar the various 18-200 mm zooms are in terms of image quality and build quality. They’re also getting a bit better, but that applies for the more expensive lenses as well. I was quite surprised how sharp this lens is. I'd say it's comparable with my 17-70 and 70-300. Even at wide open I found the image sharpness ok. Distortion nicely clears out after 24mm and not noticeable after that. Vignetting is bit strong at wide open around 18mm, but it's not an issue for me, most of the case I stop if down and problem solved. Now , Canon's also got this super zoom , so I wanted to buy it for myself and compare it to my Nikon Af-S18-200Vr , I think the Canon lens is a bit sharper , espeically at 200mm it , but the Nikon lens handles CA at wide end a bit better(even without the D300 in-camera CA control tool).

IS - the 18-200 is built better by a long shot, similar range, similar IQ, but the 18-200 is sharper at the far end. The 55-250 performs slightly better overall compared to this lens (and cheaper) Except that I dislike the klunky AF/MF switching and the focus ring trying to turn under my fingers in AF, if I shot Canon, I would have had one of these Canon 18-200mm lenses the day it came out. If you shoot the Nikon 18-200mm VR on a D5000/D90/D300 and compare it to files shot on a ( Rebel T1i and this 18-200mm IS, the Nikon looks worlds better at 100%, but who cares? Only nerds look at images blown up that far. On this Canon, the AF mechanism is far more primitive. It's quite a pain to have to stay clear of the focus ring during AF, and have to move a switch to get to manual focus. Poo. Face it, the vast majority of us won't be shooting test shots under controlled conditions in a studio, and looking for spectacular sharpness from edge to edge, without noticeable vignetting. So, don't get hung up on studio test shots when evaluating lenses.

Note: EF-S lenses handle power much better with longer battery life on Rebel (1.6 factor) Cameras in my experience than EF or non-Canon. I have seen this difference on my XS, XSi, and two X1i's.

Use the Lens Comparison or look in ourlist of reviewed lenses to compare this lens with other lenses.The other switches are to switch OS (optical stabilisation) on or off, and to switch between AF (autofocus) and MF (manual focus). Both of the switches have a good degree of stiffness to ensure that you won’t accidentally push the switches in either direction when you don’t want to. The real minimum focal length is somewhat understated by Sigma, coverage at "18mm" falls almost exactly between the 18-70 Nikkor and my 20/2.8 fixed focal length Nikkor so I would guess it is really about 19mm. With Optical Image Stabilisation switched on, you get a good degree of stabilisation which is particularly useful when shooting at the telephoto end of the optic, helping to keep your images blur-free when not using a tripod. Corner shading is fairly well-controlled in the 18-200mm IS. Wide-angle lenses typically show some form of light falloff, and while we see this phenomenon with the 18-200mm, it's not too severe: the corners are only 3/4 of a stop darker than the center, and only when used at 18mm and at ƒ/3.5. At any other focal length while using the lens wide open, corner shading is only 1/2 of a stop. As the lens is stopped down, corner shading falls to 1/4 of a stop by ƒ/8; when using the lens at a focal length of 80mm or greater, there is virtually no corner shading when the lens is stopped down to ƒ/11 or smaller.

I was going to use this as part of a larger pro system, I'd attach a 72->77mm step-up-ring to convert this to today's pro standard of 77mm, and use a 77mm Hoya UV filter for protection. This is what I really do; I just put on a step-up ring when I get a lens like this and treat it as if it's a 77mm filter thread len as long as I have it. Here we show the maximum and minimum apertures reported by the camera at the marked focal lengths. Focal length Take complete creative control of your images with PIXMA and imagePROGRAF PRO professional photo printers. The lens takes 72mm filters, which will not rotate during focus or zoom operations. The optional EW-78D lens hood is petal-shaped with a bayonet-mount, but we can't comment on its usefulness as it doesn't come with our test sample. I highly recommend this lens as a light weight travel lens for all 50D users if you can get it as a part of the 50D kit.SIGMA has always been producing a high performance standard zoom lens, dedicated for digital DSLR cameras, that covers up to 200mm by reflecting the latest technology. In 2005, SIGMA released 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC as a smallest and lightest all-rounder lens in class that covers from wide-angle to telephoto range. SIGMA, in 2007, incorporated OS (Optical Stabilization) functionality, and in 2011, has successfully made the size of the lens even more compact. Now, this new lens has been redeveloped as the standard zoom lens from SIGMA's new product line, which has higher performance, is even smaller and lighter-weight, and on top of that, includes “the macro feature”. As an entry level interchangeable lens, it is capable of many photographic scenes. Worse, cannot turn this ring for manual focus unless you first move a switch to disengage the AF motor.