Sigma 18-200 C, anyone?

Englischdude

Senior Member
Have just clicked on the order button and a new Sigma 18-200 from the new contemporary line should be here next week. I am looking for that walk-around all-in-one that can also do a little close up work. It will also cover the tele focal length which is currently missing from my lens line-up. I would be interested to know if anyone has had any experience with this new lens? Apparently the performance is quite impressive for a superzoom.

18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM | C | Sigma Corporation of America

It should also be noted, that this will be my first third party lens, should I decide it to be a keeper!

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Regards
Martin
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
Good luck with it, and keep us posted. I'm always interested in a good walk around lens with that range.

will do. weather permitting I will be posting some first shots after I get back from Hungary next week. Feels a bit strange to be jumping the nikkor ship, I hope I will be pleasantly surprised. I see you have a Sigma telezoom. Are you happy with it?
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
will do. weather permitting I will be posting some first shots after I get back from Hungary next week. Feels a bit strange to be jumping the nikkor ship, I hope I will be pleasantly surprised. I see you have a Sigma telezoom. Are you happy with it?

First, you will love Hungary. It is the place of my birth. Born in Budapest 1961. Left in 1974 . My parents snuck me and my little brother across the border to Austria. Triscirhen (maybe wrong spelling)..then in 6 months we landed at JFK, to be met by my uncle who left Hungary during the '56 revolution. But enough about my life story.

Yes I'm happy with the Sigma telezoom. Just wish it had some vibration control. At least on the long end. It renders colors nicer then my Nikon 55-200. It took a long time to warm up to it. At first I really didn't like it at all. Hard lens to figure out.
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
the lens has arrived, the first impression is extremely positive. the look and feel is of a very well made lens however I think I have come across the first snags.

1. the lens does not seem very sharp, regardless of the FL. Further tests to follow
2. the OS does not seem to be very effective at the longer FL compared to other stabilized lenses I have used.
3. the OS is always on! is this intended so or could it be a fault? If it is intended so it is a real battery drainer!

further results and pics to follow.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
the lens has arrived, the first impression is extremely positive. the look and feel is of a very well made lens however I think I have come across the first snags.

1. the lens does not seem very sharp, regardless of the FL. Further tests to follow
2. the OS does not seem to be very effective at the longer FL compared to other stabilized lenses I have used.
3. the OS is always on! is this intended so or could it be a fault? If it is intended so it is a real battery drainer!

further results and pics to follow.

I find my first few times with a new lens are often disappointing,if the OS is like my sigma it does not drain the battery much.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
I'm still leaning towards the 18-140 for a walkabout lens, but I still hav a few weeks left before I can buy one, so I'll just keep an eye on this thread in the meantime.
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
so, i think my previous post was a little premature. have now spent a few hours with the lens and I think some of the points I mentioned were imagination. Ill start afresh:

the lens has a really solid feel. it feels like a quality product, looks like one also. hood is supplied with the lens, no bag however.
THe OS problem I thought I had is not present, the problem is that I was comparing it to the NIKON and tamron stabilization systems which both are really good. The sigmas stabilization, although COMPLETELY silent, is more subtle. what you dont get however is the frame jumping when panning, which makes this lens much easier to use if needing to slightly recompose the image.
AF is silent, accurate, but does not break any speed records. The manual focus ring has a distance scale (no instant manual focus override), the extended barrel even has a macro scale. The focus ring however only rotates about a quarter turn making fine adjustments, especially at the long FL difficult. Therefore probably not the best lens for video.

Distortion is definitely visable at the wide end but easily fixable with one click. I use darktable for raw processing and although the new 18-200 C is not part of the standard lens correction package, the previous 18-200 sigma is in the list and corrects the distortion just fine.
Flare and CA are well under control, even wide open! This really surprised me.
So now a few pics:


FAR.
18748734rb.jpg


NEAR.
18748760ex.jpg


BOKEH soft, will of course depend on many factors, aperture, FL, qualities of background components etc.
18748773uw.jpg


Sharpness, both pics lightly sharpened in Darktable.

18748777cm.jpg


18748778qs.jpg



Colour rendering is wonderful, "Macro"= acceptable to good performance for this kind of lens:
18748843sp.jpg


18748844od.jpg


18748845kf.jpg



more to come. stay tuned!
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
so here a few more pics, and afterwards my verdict....

18755984xh.jpg


18755988wv.jpg


18756005lg.jpg


18756008bo.jpg


18756010bd.jpg


18756013on.jpg



+ compact and light
+ solid build, quality feel and appearance
+ great focal range for an allrounder
+ colour rendering is fantastic, probably the best of all the lenses I own. required little adjustment in post
+ zoom ring resistance is perfect for my feel
+ price/performance is OK
+ AF accurate and silent. OS also silent.

- images very soft at the wide and narrow end
- strong distortion at the wide end.... to be expected
- OS

The OS is my biggest gripe with this lens. It offers moderate stabilization which does not seem to be of much use above the 100mm FL, which kind of defeats the purpose. I need a good OS for the long FL. I will send this lens back and get a replacement, if the replacement is not better then I will leave this lens. I can spend 200 euros less and get a similar lens without OS, so why spend the extra cash for a lens where the OS only offers moderate stabilization. Hope this helps anyone considering this lens. Ill post my finding about the replacement when it is here.
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
ordered the replacement lens today, the first one is packed up and ready to be sent back. Man oh man I REALLY want to love this lens, I hope there is some improvement with the replacement.
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
so the replacement has arrived, i also ordered a tamron 18 270 pzd to compare. The OS is the same as the first unit I ordered, however the lens is considerably sharper at the extreme FL's, comparing the same shots to the tamron the sigma is also considerably sharper. The lens will probably be a keeper however when checking the lens today on my D3100 i noticed some considerable backfocusing on some shots, as well as large variations in the exposure. I will be investigating this further during the coming days in order to establish whether this is a lens, camera or user issue! Here a couple more pics.

18828085ks.jpg


18828087lg.jpg


18828088ql.jpg


18828089lw.jpg
 

Englischdude

Senior Member
DAMN! This lens is also going back. I was wondering why, while using this new lens my delete-quota has increased so much. Have just tested the lens on both the D7K and the D3100, and it has varying focus according to the FL. At the wide end there is strong frontfocus, on the narrow end back focus. The backfocus is so extreme that even -20 on the AF fine tune does'nt bring it back.

Am I correct in assuming this is the lens, it is the same on both cameras. Just to compare I also did the same test with the stock 18-55 nikkor....... no problem!
 

stmv

Senior Member
I am always torn with the walk around general purpose lens,, convenience to quality tradeoff. I use an 18x200 Nikkor on my D7000 walk about,,

and yes,, it is definitely softer than any prime or higher end Nikkor zooms or even some of my older Nikkor zooms,, but,, darn convenient, and
has produced plenty of keepers,,

I think we do get over concerned,, with lens focus, when the composition, light, and subject matter tends to win the photo front, where
the lens is just an incremental gain.

glad you seem to be liking your new lens. now time to get up at sunrise,, and capture some wonderful light.
 
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