Customer Reviews

Sigma 18-125mm f/3.8-5.6 AF DC OS HSM Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

(See my update at the bottom of this review.) After buying my Canon xSi I quickly concluded that I was not going to be satisfied unless I had a zoom of some kind to go with it. For a walk around lens, the modest 18-125mm range that this zoom offered, which is moderate wide angle to moderate telephoto, sounded very appealing. I am not all that keen on sports or wildlife photos, so I eschewed the available super zoom lenses, not just for cost but for weight, size, and image quality issues.

I've done pretty extensive tests on this lens, taking many tripod shots out my window in Chicago, trying different apertures and focal lengths, and comparing them to my two Canon lenses, and found it compared favorably. I found the Sigma's photos to be good looking and always in focus.

The OS works pretty well, and I was able to take two perfectly clear hand held shots at full 125 mm telephoto at only 1/15 of a second, though I had to use my best technique, as I suspect at full tele it's not hard to overwhelm the OS. Two more identical shots taken without OS were both blurry.

I've taken a few hundred shots with this lens so far and have no focus problems. Focus is fast and quiet. I took a number of shots of seagulls in flight at 125mm, a pretty challenging focus situation, and every one was in focus.

At 18mm this lens is a tiny bit less sharp than Canon's well-regarded 18-55mm IS kit lens that came with the camera, but as you zoom in the Sigma gets better, particularly at 50mm. (see update below about this)

The telescoping part of the lens is very tightly constructed, with no looseness or feeling of imprecision at all, unlike the Canon kit lens. It has a zoom lock, but this doesn't seem to be necessary as there is no lens creep. I found this lens to be very well built and solid.

This is not a light lens. At about a pound it is twice as heavy as the Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens. Still, some of the superzoom digital lenses by Sigma and Tamron such as the 18-250mm weigh quite a bit more.
Overall I would say this is a very nice lens and I would buy it again. If you want the option to have one lens you can leave on the camera while traveling around, and if you're hooked on wide angle as I am, and if you also like telephoto but don't need a 200 or 250 mm superzoom and all the image quality compromises that can entail, this is the best and only choice for Canon APS-C digital cameras that I know of at this time, and I would recommend it.

UPDATE: After owning this lens for a year I finally figured out that the reason it tended to be soft at the wide (18mm) end was because it was mis-focusing. I am embarrassed that it took me that long to figure it out, but there it was: Point at a distant object and it was focusing at 2m.(The problem quickly disappears above 18mm) I went to the Sigma site, registered my lens's serial number and it said that I was eligible for the additional two years of warranty coverage (as was originally promised in the Amazon product listing), and that I had 22 months left. So far so good. When the came back the paperwork said "Lens not under warranty" but it also said "Adjusted A.F. data courtesy N/C", which meant they fixed it, no charge. I was probably one of the first people to buy this lens, in June 2008, and it sounds like they may have since updated the firmware that controls the autofocus function. In fact the lens now works better, perhaps much better, at 18mm. I can now take shots at F/4.0 and they are often quite sharp, at least in the center. I can now say that the optics in this lens are in fact capable of taking very sharp photos even wide open, but if yours has the same problem mine had you will have to focus manually to achieve this unless you get this "AF data" update. Hopefully the lenses being sold now don't have this problem. More recent reviews than mine seem to indicate that this issue has been resolved.
I would also suggest that Sigma put more resources into their customer service. Being told on the phone and in writing that the lens wasn't under warranty when their website and their printed warranty clearly said that it should be was a bit troubling.

This is a new lens from Sigma. I could not find any detailed reviews on the net before I bought it. It's a well built amateur lens with a nice focal length coverage that's not available from Canon. It's significantly heavier than Canon's 18-55mm plastic kit lens, likely due to more metal and glass used in construction. The focus is reasonably fast compared to Canon's kit lens and slightly quieter. For those who are familiar with Canon's ring type USM lenses, however, the this HSM lens is not a ring type HSM. This means it's not as quiet or as fast as the true ring-USM. And it does not allow "full-time manual focus". You have to turn AF switch off to manually focus the lens. This was a little disappointment for me for a lens at its price range. Sigma could have used a ring type HSM. Another thing I noticed is that while the OS (optical stabilizer) can be switched on or off, the OS gyroscope seems to be powered on even when the OS is off. You can hear the little noise from the piezoelectric gyro. My concern is that it can still drain battery power when OS is off. Optically, I am not in a position to say much because I have a 8MP camera. It's certainly adequate for me. Overall, I am happy with it and sold the kit lens that came with my camera.

Not willing to spend $600 for the Canon 18-200 IS, but distrustful of the Sigma/Tamron 18-200s that have a max aperture of 6.3 at the tele end, I found that what I really wanted was something like the ol' 28-200 I used to carry on my film cameras.

That's when I picked up the non-OS version of this lens, and loved it. But I couldn't help thinking that the OS would be better for me, so I moved up to this one.

This is the perfect wedding reception/walkaround lens for me. Sharp enough to get the job done, light enough to not kill your shoulder/neck. Yes, the OS makes noise. No, it's not really an issue. No, it doesn't seem to really drain my battery noticably faster.

Canon now has a version of this lens selling for about the same price from some sellers on Amazon, but I'm not taking chances on it. I _know_ this one works for me.

If you are like me and want a bit more reach than the standard 3x kit zooms (17-50, 18-55, etc) but don't like the price, weight, or optical compromises of a superzoom (18-250) then this is a great lens. The build is really excellent for a lens of this price. It has nice weight and feels solid and well put together and it comes with a hood. Autofocus is great. It is noticeably better than the Canon non-USM lenses, but not quite as smooth and quiet as a ring USM/HSM lens like the 85mm f1.8. It should be more than adequate for most people. Optics are a bit of a mixed bag, IMO. From 18-85, it is excellent - easily beating the 18-55 IS and 17-85 IS and as good as any lens in its price range. Past about 85mm or so, it starts getting a lot softer. I don't mean to say 125mm is unusable, but if you go out and shoot all day at both ends of the zoom, the wide shots stand out as incredibly sharp, while the ones at the long end are just OK.

So quick pros/cons list:

Pros:
Great build
great price
perfect zoom range
Fast AF
Really sharp and contrasty from 18-85mm

Cons:
Focus ring rotates during AF
Just OK optically from 90+

There were several mixed reviews on this product but I went ahead and purchased it anyway. I was replasing a Canon 18-55 IS "kit" lense that I dropped. (which is a great lense. Don't be confused by the reviews of the older model 18-55 that's not an IS. The IS version is a fantastic starter lens.)
I got my lens from 47th St. and received it today. I've taken 74 pictures so far and just now viewed them on my computer. Awesome! I love the color and crispness of them. I'm not even close to a professional photographer. I use my XSI to take pictures of my 16 month old son and that's it so take my recommendation for what it's worth. It seems to me though that if you get a good "copy" you will be extremely pleased. My thought was if I wasn't happy with the quality I would just keep returning them until I got a good one. Maybe I'm just lucky but I got a great copy the first time around.

I have had this lens for a week. It was purchased to replace the factory kit lens on my Canon T2i and am very impressed with the quality of both construction and optics. A great match for the T2i. Lots of fun! It is definitely a much better lens than the older 18-200mm I purchased for my Dad 5 years ago. I am not disappointed at all!

I bought this to replace the 18-55mm kit lens for the Nikon D60. Nice balance on the D60. Focuses fast. OS makes a clear difference in low light. I chose this over the slightly larger 18-200 OS HSM Sigma to keep the size and weight down. Only had one day, so far, to shoot with it. Took it out for a walk in the local park on Thanksgiving morning and, in fact, the zoom range beyond the Nikon kit lens was just the thing that I was looking for in a compact lens. Very pleased so far. I expect that this lens will rarely come off the camera. No more switching out the kit lens to get that little bit of extra zoom.

So I got one of these for my birthday form my parents and as soon as I put the lens on and turn on the camera it starts to emit this uncharitable high pitch squeal. So my first reaction was it was the IS, but I turned that off and guess what? It was still doing it. So I called up amazon and they took care of me real well! Overnight Air mail to my house. So today Is the day I got the new one, this time the lens did not sequel! but made a lot of weird noises when focusing with auto focus, so I switched it over to manual and shot it for about two hours On the side note, the image quality was good! then I got a bit more curious with the AF so I put it back on to do some tests. I turned on all the lights in the room to make it very bright and then put a object on the table. Then I tried to AF on the object, and the camera would just focus in and out very fast and would not stop. Yes I was in focus distance) Then to make sure, I put on a working Sigma lens (efs 17-55mm dc) and it did not make and very loud clanking noises when it focused and it also focused on the target in one try. So Yet again I will call up amazon to try this lens one more try until I switch to another brand.

Update: 3rd time is the charm. After 2x DOB, I actually got a working one. It takes extremely clear shots, since it truly does have great glass on it. So far its working like I expect a lens of this stature to work. I changed it from a 1 star to a 4 star.

The range fits most of my casual needs, and the HSM is fast and quiet. Images are sharp but there's not much in the way of bokeh (to be expected). I've been reading a lot of reviews that complain about the OS "noise", but my copy seems to make very minimal noise -- I can only hear the noise if I put my ear up to the lens and actually try to listen for it. True, the lens does keep its OS on even if you're not using it, but it turns off if your camera auto-powers off. Battery draining isn't much of an issue. The locking feature is nice, but it only works at 18mm.

Overall, I'd say this lens is the Canon 18-135 plus HSM. I do prefer Canon's IS though; Sigma's seems to move ever so slightly even when the camera is still.

After doing alot of debating over what lens to get, (Sigma 17-70, 18-200, 18-250, Canon 18-135, 17-85, 18-200, some Tamron's) I finally decided on the Sigma 18-125mm OS HSM after reviewing a crap load of customer reviews on a myriad of websites. I got this lens to replace a Sigma 28-200mm DG lens, for the wider angle and OS HSM, and to use as a main stay on the camera (Canon T1i) over my 18-55mm IS kit lens. Just got it on the weekend and here are my first impressions:

- Build is great and solid, feels really nice.
- A bit heavy, but i like it so -- doesn't feel cheap.
- Images are okay so far...need to play with it more.
* BUZZING/HISSING NOISE!!!

My only BIGGGG gripe is that the OS makes a constant noise, even when OS is turned off. At first reading reviews, it was mixed, some people said it doesnt matter, others said its annoying. For regular picture taking only I don't mind it....BUTTTT and it's a BIG BUT... IF YOU TAKE VIDEO with your camera, you hear the constant buzz/hiss from the lens in the video! :( -- this is a real big disappointment that the noise can be heard in videos, it's making me second guess my purchase. Maybe i should stick to Canon lenses if Sigma's OS's all make the hissing noise.

*UPDATE*
- This lens drains the battery life QUICK -- due to the OS continuing to running for 1min after u take a picture. Retarded!
- Sigma customer service/technical help -- is not helpful at all.
- Would return this lens if I had purchased it locally. Shipping back to Amazon is a pain.