Customer Reviews

Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG IF HSM Aspherical Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens for Nikon SLR Cameras

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sigma has been much maligned by the Nikon-brand lens snobs, and not without good reason. The build quality and optical clarity of the average Nikon lens easily trounces the average Sigma.

This particular Sigma lens has been in my bag since 2004 (three years now) and has performed flawlessly in dusty, humid, and rainy conditions. I can't say that about every Nikon lens I have owned.

Don't get me wrong-- this is not a flawless lens. It is weather sealed enough, but I doubt it would survive being dunked in water the way some (but not many) Nikon lenses would. It focuses faster than many Nikon lenses, but slower than competing Silent Wave Motor Nikons. It is quieter than any non-SWM Nikons, and almost as quiet as SWM. It focuses as well as any Nikon f/4.5-5.6 lens in similar lighting conditions.

Now for the flaws. It has more chromatic aberration than Nikon's 12-24mm DX and 14-24mm FX lenses. It isn't as sharp, especially near the edges. But if your maximum print size is 8x10 you'll likely never notice.

UPSIDES: Even though it works at full frame (important for those of us that still shoot film as well as digital) it is much cheaper than Nikons 12-24 f/4.5-5.6 DX lens-- a lens that is only good for DX-sized sensor digital Nikons. It is less than 1/3 the price of the recently released FX (full-frame) 14-24mm f/2.8 Nikon lens.

Granted, the professional Nikon 14-24mm lens is clearly the best of the bunch, but most of us can't afford that extravagance. When I bought this lens it was the only 12-24mm lens available, and given the offerings from Nikon and other third-party lens makers, I can't regret this purchase for one moment.

While I'd like to own the new professional Nikon 14-28mm f/2.8 lens, that won't be in my budget in the foreseeable future. My buying advice: take your camera to a good local camera shop and try this lens (and its competitors) for yourself. I'm confident many of you will agree that the Sigma, while it is not the best lens, is good enough and the best compromise-- given the price.

Cheers.

The Sigma 12-24 is an excellent ultrawide. It is very sharp with very little barrel or pincushion distortion. It is a true 12-24 fullframe with a film SLR (love it with my Nikon N80) or full frame digital slr, and effectively an 18-36 with an APS-sized sensor digital SLR. Excelleent ultrawide for architecture, landscapes etc. At 12mm though, it is so wide that you must be careful of distortion introduced by shooting off-level. This is not to say this particular lens is faulty and distorts, but would be true of any ultrawide lens with this wide degree of coverage. While I have heard much talk of supposed poor Sigma quality control, I have no qualms at all about this lens - It is sturdy, tough, smooth and has performed flawlessly for me for years.

I use this lens on a full frame camera (D700) - so the review is geared for full frame users. There are wider choices (with relative advantages / disadvantages) on the cropped sensor side - don't get this lens for DX.

Pros:
- the widest rectilinear lens for full frame. The difference in coverage between 12 and 14mm (the next closest candidate, at least for Nikon) is HUGE (from looking at it - at least 15% - 20% more on 12mm).
- vibrant color rendition. I don't know why this is - but compared at the same settings with the 24-120 and a 50mm 1.8, the reds rendered by Sigma are deeper and more vibrant.
- relatively light - only a pound (compare at an arm breaking 2.1 pounds for Nikon 14-24)
- good build construction.
- relatively inexpensive.

Cons:
- Horrible vignetting. The corners are significantly (2+ stops) darker than the center.
- Corner softness at any aperture (just horrible wide open)
- Overall image sharpness. I compared sharpness from this lens with my Nikon 24-120mm VR zoom, which itself is not supposed to be a benchmarch of image quality. The Sigma image is significantly softer throughout the image. Both lenses tested at 24mm, stopped down at f11. It bears to say that the difference in resolving power is greater the closer I placed the lens to the test subject (a textured wall).
- Very flare prone, especially at night with multiple light sources.
- Front element protrudes - so no filters.

I can live with the cons for now because honestly for full frame, there's not much alternative this wide. The closest competitor (Nikon 14-24mm) does not go as wide, it's twice as heavy and twice as pricey. While reports are that the Nikon 14-24 has amazing image quality, it is also not a walkaround lens.

as i researched for this lens i saw people comparing this lens to the tokina 12-24 f/4 or even the tokina 11-16 f/2.8 and sigma 10-20. people say those lenses are half the price with wider f/stops. people should realize that all other wide angle lenses are dx they are not full frame. this is the widest full frame zoom there is (as of date) it is wider than the beast 14-24 f/2.8 nikon by only 2mm s but at those angles even 2mm s matter.

if you ask me which i would prefer the nikon 14-24 or sigma 12-24 of course the nikon no question but the nikon is more than twice the price and even though people call it the sharpest wide angle there is i do not know if the difference would be worth the price. f/2.8 is nice to have but this wide it does not make too much of a difference. most of my shots with this lens are night photography or landscape and for both it is better to use a small aperture. mostly i go down to f/32.

this lens is extremely sharp and on my d700 it focuses really fast. and i am talking about night time so literally no light i shine a flash light to where i wanna focus and bam it is focused. i have taken a night photography class everyone including the instructor was shocked how wide this thing is and how sharp the pictures are.

i consider myself a tough grader but this lens earned the 5 stars. yes it glares but look at the pictures of the lens there is a half a sphere on the front end of this thing how wouldn't it glare.

i put 2 pictures of the lens and 14 of some of the night pictures i have taken with it on amazon. [...]

I've been using this lens for about 3 years now and wanted to upgrade so I read all good things about Tokina (since I could not afford the Nikon). I purchased the 12-24mm Tokina and returned it because of horrendous camera flare which the Sigma does not have. Granted there is "some" flare issues with most wide angle lenses but the Tokina was totally unacceptable. I didn't see any major differences in picture quality either. Both lenses must be used at F/8 for the best sharpness. I am keeping the Sigma and buying a Nikon D300 instead.

I got this for my Nikon D700 when looking for a wide-angle lens that wouldn't break the bank and had a large wide angle view.

Wow, was I surprised by the quality of this glass. It is the widest you can get for a full-format dSLR, and it is sharp across the entire focal range. I won't go into a detailed review here of the the glass -- you can google the reviews and the technical specs.

This is a fine wide angle lens for landscape shooting. It's a bit heavy and large, but the D700 is a great home for it!...One note: there is no way to put a standard filter on this lens, though there are workarounds. Still - with photoshop you can go back and create the filter effects you might have wanted. For purists, you will need to read about how to attach external filters if you need to use one.

I owned a D80 at the time and wanted a wide angle lens, so ordered a Tokina 11-16mm, but it got back ordered so could not get it in time. So i thought what the heck, i was thinking of going full frame for a while any way and since i could not afford the Nikon variant went for this one,also bought an used Nikon N90s(film). I was amazed by the quality of pictures it produced, very nice colors. It has good build quality too, being an EX series lens, also comes with extended five year warranty, if bought from authorized dealers.Granted it has some chromatic abrasions, but still i do not think this can be beat for the price. If you are going to go full frame this is the widest rectilinear lens available (PERIOD). So by all means get one and enjoy.

I got it because I intend to use it on both my film and my digital bodies. For ultra wide angles I'll use it with film (Nikon N-80) and for more conventional wide angle with my Nikon D-200. It's one of three lenses I'm taking with me on vacation to the mountain states. The others are a Nikkor 28mm - 85mm and a Nikkor 70mm - 300mm with 2X Tamron SP doubler. Since I don't yet have photoshop or similar I wanted to be able to take real wide shots without having to paste them together.