Customer Reviews

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC SLD ELD Aspherical Macro Lens for Pentax and Samsung Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When ordering a Pentax K10D, I didn't want to spend a fortune on a top notch camera and put a 50$ kit lens on it. The Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX is an excellent alternative, several times more expensive and better than a Pentax kit lens and a few times less expensive (and also a class below) than a Pentax zoom lens (Pentax SMC DA* Series 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL IF SDM). So this lens kind of fills the gap between Pentax entry level rubbish and Pentax hi-end super-expensive lenses.

I wouldn't call this a true macro lens, it's rather near-macro. When zoomed to 50mm, it can focus on objects just 20cm from it, which is excellent for a non-specialised default carry around with me lens.

The build quality is as usual for Sigma EX - top notch. This lens is much more compact than the superb lens Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX they used to make for 25mm film cameras. The most annoying feature of this lens is the focus ring which rotates in autofocus mode. The lens is quite small and when holding the zoom ring while shooting, my fingers often touch the rotating autofocus ring. Please note that 18-50 tanslates to 27-75mm in 35mm terms. If you are a wide angle fan like myself, prepare to look for a second, wide angle lens.

I would recommend this lens for a K10D or a K200D. If K20D is in your price range, consider buying a Pentax SMC DA* Series 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL IF SDM - possibly the best zoom lens for Pentax digital out there.

The Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 EX Macro is an absotuley great lens. Is it perfect? No. Is it as good as primes in the same range? No. But it is darn close to those primes. I have seen and used the Pentax 16-50 and if you need that little bit of added width from 18mm to 16mm, and you do not mind paying another $500.00 for it (and the silent focusing, but not any faster focusing), then buy the Pentax.

This lens gives the photographer sharp photos throughout the range and a fast 2.8 to boot. F/4 and above give the sharpest photos, but even at 2.8 the photos are still very good. Well worth the money I paid for this lens. I would but again if I were to lose this lens or have it stolen (God forbid!).

dwj2045
Ventura, CA

If you're reading this, you've probably bought a Pentax camera like the K10D or K100D, or are thinking of doing so. Most likely, you were drawn to Pentax cameras because they offer a good price/performance ratio. You don't want to pay for the biggest names - you want a great camera with which you can take great photographs, on a reasonable budget.

This lens is the perfect accompaniment to that philosophy. It is not the best in the world, but it is the best you can get for $400, and for some way above that. It covers the range required for walkabout photography, and is reasonable convenient for that purpose, despite the wide body required by a 2.8 lens system. It also feels good in your hand and looks great on the front of your camera.

Buy this lens now (perhaps along with the Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED) and make some great pictures.

In 2007 I bought a Pentax K10D with the standard factory 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens. In 2008 I upgraded to the Pentax K20D 14.6MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction (Body Only) and chose to buy this lens separately. A great decision that gave me much better results.

I was worried about losing the extra 5mm of zoom but the lower light f2.8 capability absolutely made this lens the way to go. I'm a research photographer doing work in Khmer temples in Cambodia. My light conditions constantly range from "too much" to "not enough". This lens performed perfectly in all conditions.

Mechanical motions are smooth and didn't change in a recent 9 day temple shoot of 7,000 photos in 9 days. The lens feels solid and performed reliably.

I drove myself nuts researching dozens of lenses before deciding on this one. It seemed to offer the best ratio between performance and cost. I am delighted with my choice.

We bought this lens for a wedding occasion and it performed great!
The lens is very fast and very sharp. It is a little heavy and unbalances the k100D a little. I guess it would be a better fit for the k10 or k20. We love it and are amazed at the photographic opportunities that a faster lens provides. Spend the money... avoid the pentax version because it is not better optically according to many reviews.

I have this lens for two weeks now and have taken more than 200 pictures with it using my Pentax k10d. My working lens so far has been the Pentax 28-105 f/3.2-4.5, so I opted for a wider angle. The choice was between the Pentax 16-50 f/2.8 or this Sigma 18-50 f/2.8. The cheaper price of the Sigma (60% of the Pentax) and relatively good reviews in magazines and on the net made me buy the Sigma.

The first impression is a solidly build lens with quite a heavily dampened zoom ring. The protruding front element had some tiny bit of radial play, however the packaging was slightly damaged on the plane home. Nevertheless, this has no effect on the image quality. The lens is very very sharp. Side-by-side comparison with the Pentax 28-105 shows a dramatic boost in sharpness across the image. Focusing is good and quick, however I had a chance to play with the Pentax 16-50, which focuses quicker due to the HSM in the lens. Shots taken during fishing last weekend reveal the slight distortion of the lens at 18mm, which can be easily corrected in photoshop. However, there is some very slight wave-type distortion, which is nowhere near noticeable in real life but becomes apparent upon close scrutiny in Photoshop after I corrected the first-order barrel distortion. I should stress that the wave-type distortion is very very small. Out-of-focus bokeh is very pleasant for this lens at wide apertures. The colors are vibrant and better than the results I had with the Pentax 28-105. Vignetting is generally not an issue and is only slightly visible at wide-open apertures and can be corrected using Photoshop.

Overall I am very happy with this lens and would buy it again. The cheap price is a major argument for this lens and also its sharpness. I find it is also a good lens to go with the sigma 10-20 without much overlap in zoom range. There are only minor points where it looses out such as the little slower focusing, therefore 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Purchased the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC for use with Pentax K100D Super, mostly for low light photography. Macro and its low light capability are the strongest points of this lens. It also comes with a four year manufacturer's warranty. Great lens. Will recommend.

I bought the Pentax Mount for my Pentax K10D for indoor use, it is bright, sharp and quick focus, nicely built, it feels solid in your hand, not so heavy, it produce nice bokeh shots. BTW, the Macro is a bonus for this lens. Sigma's technology improves a lot into this F/2.8 Macro lens, for the build quality & Price. I would vote for this lens as "The lens of year 2007". Highly recommended.

I am using this lens on a Pentax K7 and happy overall with the build quality and picture quality. I am not a pro but I do take a few pictures. This was to fill my gap on the low side for wider lanscapes and also keep some portrait macro capability. I figured the F2.8 would help in low light but found that a lot of my pictures that were both LL and infinite focus came out pretty blurry, probably because the 2.8 has such a narrow FOV that it would be better to stop up a bit and get better focus. In the future I will probably switch to manual focus in LL situations where I am trying to shoot lanscapes as the results will be much better. Macro focus and AF speed where great in normal lighting situations and I am very pleased with the lens overall. The priciest lense in my bag so far but I am pretty cheap :).

What I like
-great optics
-scratch resistance I have used quite a bit as I am not great with lense caps.
-great landscape lens but 50mm still gives plenty of range to be a multi situation shooter.
-nice case, lens hood and caps.

Dislikes
-Low light focus speed
-A bigger lens for my bag
-not weather-proof like my camera

Its a bargain for the features and overall a great buy. It definitely adds some dynamic range to shots.

I was initially thinking about the Pentax 16-50mm, but changed my mind due to the QC problems they are having with it. I did my research and many, many users highly recommend this one. I took the chance and could not be happier. This lens is fast and the IQ is as good or better than most other lenses.

Highly recommended.