» Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Macro Lens for Nikon DSLR

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM Macro Lens for Nikon DSLR Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulous lens if not for the front-focus and random overexposure problems...
Comment: I purchased this lens in spite of the possibility of receiving one of the "faulty" lenses I'd read about in other reviews. Unfortunately I seem to have bad luck.

I kept the lens for nearly a month, hoping it was my camera (I have a Nikon D40) but I tried it on a Nikon D200 and got the same disappointing results. If one were to merely glance at the photos, they would probably not notice anything wrong. But as I looked closely at almost every picture with a narrow depth of field (pictures taken wide open at f/2.8) the area in focus was just in front of the area that should have been in focus (in a portrait, the tip of the nose would be perfectly sharp but the eyes would be a little soft and blurry).

The other frustrating malfunction was a tendency to randomly grossly overexpose. This also occurred only when the lens was wide open.
Otherwise, this would have been an awesome lens and I'm sorry that it had these problems. I still managed to take some great pictures but it required that I compensate on every shot for the front-focus problem. Total bummer.

I finally decided to just return the lens today. I think I might try Tamron's version, or just purchase the Sigma lens in a local shop so that I can try it out first.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Issue with connectivity
Comment: I liked the photos I took with this lens. THe macro is just fantastic. After a week I started having problems when the camera would not fire and the display would show F-- . The lens metal connectors were not sitting right on the camera connectors. It had to be twisted a little to connect with the camera body connectors otherwise it would not fire. I returned it to Amazon.
Just to make sure I have no faulty camera body I tried the original Nikon lens and it works perfect.
PS: I used this on a Nikon D50

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Sigma front-focus problem
Comment: I've owned Sigma before and this is yet another lens from them that has the front focus problem. I used this on the D200. I own the Sigma 24 1.8 and I had to send both the lens and camera body to Sigma to fix the focusing problem. I just don't want to bother with that any more so I returned it. The Sigma 18-50 has the potential to be a good lens but focusing issue causes images to be extremely soft (especially at 50mm). I borrowed a friend's Tamron 17-50 and it focused perfectly on his D80 and my D200. The pictures on the Tamron 17-50 were much sharper (because it focuses correctly). The Sigma has HSM which is nice but focusing was not quicker than the Tamron's. Also, the focus ring turns during autofocus which is annoying since you have to be careful of your hand position. Tamron has just released the 17-50 with an internal motor so that should be equivalent of the Sigma with better sharpness. Go with the Tamron for the same price.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent lens
Comment: This lens is great. It's incredibly sharp through the entire range. It's a fantastic purchase and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best inexpensive lens in my collection!
Comment: Wow! I have 10-20mm Sigma that was pretty good (better sharpness than Nikkor 50mm 1.8), but this 18-50mm F2.8 is simply outstanding. Good optics, focus and zoom operation, working "crazy" macro, compact design, well built , light weight. What else to ask for? May be, I just got a good sample - who knows, time will tell...

The truth is: If it is working - you will like it a lot. If it does not impress you - do not give up and try exchanging it, it could be your lucky ticket.

Good Luck...

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