Sigma 18-200mm OS Goes on Holiday

pyanez

I recently picked up a Sigma 18-200mm OS lens and had the (fortunate) chance to use it fairly extensively on a trip to Maui.

I'm posting some sample photos taken on that trip, but NO specific comments regarding the lens at this time (I will later). I will say that on the trip I had the following other lenses available: Canon 10-22mm EF-S, Canon 60mm Macro EF-S, Sigma 2X teleconverter, and both the Canon 200mm F2.8 L and Canon 17-55mm f2.8 (on&off as I borrowed it). Had I not purchased the Sigma I would have taken along my Canon 17-85mm.

Of the many, many, many photos I took (I got to work on this ???), I would say that a large majority were taken with the Sigma (maybe 70%) or about 90% in the 18-200mm range (some were with the 60mm macro). In part this was because the lens was new (novelty of it), because it was new (curiosity re the quality), and convenience/portability (one lens does all instead of a big backpack).

If you want, you can see many, many more images taken with this lens by clicking here for my Maui Photo Gallery.

Action (telephoto):


Macro-ish (low light):


Hand-held available light:


Wide Angle Landscape:



Middle Range View:

hgernhardtjr

While your Maui Gallery link works, all others come up FORBIDDEN. So, what do you think of the lens?

pyanez

Sorry about that! The images are now fixed (still not sure why it didn't work before). I'll hold off on any opinions until folks can see the images without me "biasing" their eyes.

ziggy53

Very nice color and contrast. It looks like the OS was working for you as well.

What did you discover about absolute sharpness, especially as compared to other lenses?

Did you find the lens "freeing" in that you had a broad range at your command to compose and frame?

Is the bokeh pleasing at large size?

BBiggs

Nice images! I have been interested in this lens before, and this post continues it. Sometimes when I go out, I would like a single lens that could cover alot and this one could be it.

Tee Why

Yeah, that lens is a nice one lens for travel.
That surfer shot is great and her body looks so sculpted. Wow, what muscle tone.

pyanez

Ziggy,

Lets see...

"Freeing":
yes, very much so! it makes a great one lens walk around solution.

"Bokeh":
mmm, bokeh is a big word for superzoom (or almost any non-2.8 zoom). Overall not bad when compared to my 17-85mm.

IQ:
As other have noted you can break this lens into three ranges...

Wide (18-35mm)
Very good, almost the same as my 17-85mm IS, better than my old 18-55mm (non-IS)

Normal (35-70mm)
Weakest range, soft wide open, corners are never great. Not as good as the 17-85mm. Fortunately this is my least often used range.

Tele (35-200mm)
This was the most surprising, it is quite good in this range. I would say it is almost as good as the Canon 70-300mm IS in this range.

Features:

IS:
Excellent. Every bit as effective as Canon's IS. There is no pan feature though as some of Canon's newer tele lenses have.

Focus:
A bit "buzzy", but reasonably quick and dead-on accurate. Similar to Canon's 18-55mm. If Sigma had made this lens with HSM (USM), it would have knocked one out of the ballpark in my opinion.

Built:
Excellent. Much better feel than anything that Canon does in this price range.

Overall, I'd give this lens an "B+" as an all in one solution.

Photoskipper

I got the older Sigma 18-200 without the OS few years back. It was one of my favor travel lens on the 300D. I like the lens lock with prevent the zoom lens drop in the bag. It is a bit heavier compare to other APS-c lens.

The older version is a very slow but still workable. It is quite sharp but not as good as your OS version.

I still keeping it as there is not so much resale value after the OS version and the 19-300 came out. Just have it in my bag so that I can save my L-lens from my wife's hand (In case she want to use my camera for any unknown purpose)