After much deliberation, I got the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 lens for $500 + taxes at a local store today.
At f4, the lens is much sharper than some reviews indicate, and the edge / sides of the frame are not as muddy as some reviews indicate. No issues with color rendition either (with any shot, I always use lightroom, so straight-out-of-the-shot perfect colors isn't a big thing).
My only gripe is that the focus isn't bang on with my D5200 under certain circumstances.
Other than the 1:1 example above (on the left, phase detection... on the right, live view).
Below is an example of how darned sharp the lens can be, and it's sharp at further focus distances as well. This shot is at f7.1 and 10mm:
(note, I could show you a 10x resolution file and it would hold up just as sharp, file size/quality got reduced on upload)
At f4, the lens is much sharper than some reviews indicate, and the edge / sides of the frame are not as muddy as some reviews indicate. No issues with color rendition either (with any shot, I always use lightroom, so straight-out-of-the-shot perfect colors isn't a big thing).
My only gripe is that the focus isn't bang on with my D5200 under certain circumstances.
Other than the 1:1 example above (on the left, phase detection... on the right, live view).
Below is an example of how darned sharp the lens can be, and it's sharp at further focus distances as well. This shot is at f7.1 and 10mm:
(note, I could show you a 10x resolution file and it would hold up just as sharp, file size/quality got reduced on upload)