Customer Reviews

Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5-4.5 EX DG IF Aspherical Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens for Nikon SLR Cameras

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

 

 

This lens is very sharp especially at 15mm f8-16 which is the aperture we use for landscape. It can be used on 35mm film and it will be really really wide at 15mm. It can also be used with digital camera. I used with D70 and love it. It is much sharper than sigma 12-24 if you check the mtf chart at sigma web site.
It is my favorite lens.

Ideal for DX, but not so good on FX.
Normally, when you shoot wide angle, you're interested in the whole image sharpness and not only the center. This lens did not quite work out for me on my D700 because of the corner softness. I ended up replacing it with the new Nikon 14-24mm.

Great wide-angle lens for the money. Little fall-off in corners, especially at f8 and above. I would recommend this lens to anyone who cannot afford to buy the Nikon lenses. The only complaint (?) is that the zoom ring takes a bit of effort to turn. The focus is fast and accurate, and pictures are crisp.

I purchased this lens because I did not want to drop a grand for the Nikon 12-24mm f/4G. After reading professional reviews, I'm glad I saved my money. This lens performs almost identically to the more expensive Nikkor option, at a third the price!

I've used this lens in several very different shooting environments, including ambient light interior shots on a tripod, in harsh sunlight over snow, and for night photography. It performed exceptionally well across the gamut, producing contrasty, sharp images that were everything I could have hoped for.

The lens focus ring doesn't move during auto focus, which makes holding the lens during shooting a bit easier. Manual focus works well: smooth and precise.

A few dislikes:

As others have noted, this lens is bulky! It is over 5" long, and weighs about a pound and a half. It is not a 'walk around' lens.

You cannot use filters with the lens because of the curvature of the front element.

The flare guard is permanent. I would have preferred to be able to take it off, if for no other reason that saving space when packing the lens into my carry bag.

Save your money and get this lens over the Nikkor 12-24mm lens.

i got my copy used off of craiglist for $160. the lens had been well-used, like a divorcee with excess alimony. still, she was clean, with no scratches or dust, and she had a gleam in her eye -- or was that flare? anyway, this lens has already paid for itself a few times. its really wide on FX. center sharpness seems the same at every aperture, except maybe wide open. it's fairly sharp, renders detail well, and has natural colors and good contrast. i usually shoot it at f/6.3-8. corner sharpness isn't great, but i shoot more urban pics than nature landscapes so i could work around it. if you are a discerning nature photographer or guy who shoots real estate interiors for a living, you want the nikon 14-24 or tokina 16-28 instead. you'll also pay a lot more. if you can find a used copy for a good price it's a winner on FX. if i had paid what it's going for currently--about 6 bills--it might still be worth it to get a new copy. if you want an UWA with no distortion and imperviousness to flare, this ain't it. if you just want a wide FX option that wont cost an arm and a leg, check it out. i shot a massive graffiti wall and some location pics with it that got published. i did some long exposures at twilight; they turned out really good. 2.8 aperture would be nice, but a non-issue with a D3s. especially because for a long exposure, you'll be using a tripod anyway. if you know how to use an UWA, you can make this work for you. it doesnt take filters, but neither do the other bulb-type UWAS. if you want filters, you can't get as wide, 16-35 at most. that lens also has a fair amount of distortion at the widest setting and costs a lot more. the nice thing about the 15-30 is that from 24-30mm on FX, it's a decent people lens. good for PJ applications where you might want wide one shot and semi-wide the next. it has a place in my bag, for sure. maybe one day i'll get the nikkor or tokina, but my main FX lens is the 24-70, so it didnt make a whole lot of sense to pay too much for a specialty lens. as long as it makes good pics, can't really complain.

Used this lens first with a Fuji S2 Pro for 2 years and then with a recently purchased D200 for shooting a lot of interior automobile shots. Good lens for this application especially when shooting a full dash. Lens hood is integral which is not a problem for me and the overall lens size is well balanced on both cameras. Pics are crisp and clear with minimal distortion at the fringes. This lens just does what I need it to do. Don't hesitate to purchase one.

I bought this lense for the purposes of taking wide angle shots during vacations. First of all, the lense takes good pictures. I am an amature and not a pro. I am shooting a Nikon D50. I was able to take pictures that I normally wouldn't have been able to. With that being said, I was surprised at the size of the lense. From looking at the pictures of the lense online, I was not expecting the lense to be so big when it arrived at the house. The lense is bulky and not something that I would want to lug around on a vacation. The reason why I bought this was because I had bought a 55-200 VR lense recently and wanted to add to it. But after lugging it around for a week in Mexico, I think I'm better of spending the extra money and buying the 18-200 VR lense instead. If I was shooting a wedding and had another camera, then this would be a great lense to have on that second camera. Despite that, the lense did what it advertised, I just was aware of the size of the lense.

I like this lens, the pictures are sharp, and with very good colors, the autofocus is fast, you can cacht a lot of complete buldings, like churchs, stadiums, big houses, etc with the 15mm. altough the corners looks with a little distortion, but you can fixed with software, even I like how look those pictures, also you can't take good landscape pictures, and excellent portraits. The minimal focusing distance is 1 ft, but I had taken closer pictures in manual mode with good results.

Thera are tow things i Don't like about it.
1 the size: is a huge lens and bulky.
2 you can't put a uv filter to protect te glasses, you can use some special filters but they have to be between camera body and the lens, but I like to put a protective filter to my lens to avoid damages.
Any way, you will have fun taking shots with this lenses. it worth the money

THE BEST LENS FOR NIKON AND VERY GOOD PRICE,II HOPE BUY 1 MORE ,I RESEFT IT VERY FAST

Well it does not auto focus on Nikon D5000 even though the manual say it does. It is very hard to focus this lens manually. The resulting picture always come out somewhat fuzzy and color is weird. No regular filters would work on it. If you have Nikon D5000 the stock lens work much better then this one. I would not recommend this to a friend.