Nikon D7100 & Sigma 18-35 1.8 (over a month experience, my thoughts)

Steliosfan · Aug 26, 2014

Dear all,

Recently I bought a sigma 18-35 1.8 lens, mainly because I shoot in low light without any flash and instead of buying 3 Nikon lenses (18 - 28 - 35) and pay a fortune, I chose this one. For the 50mm I have a second body and a 50mm 1.8G Nikon lens.

One thing I have to say is that this lens is outstanding. Sharp, low distortion and nice colors.

If you can make it focus correctly then the quality will blow your mind.

Recently I was shooting a wedding event. I shot entirely without flash as the inside of the church had great light (it was 6pm on a Greek Island). I must admit that 40% of my shots were back focused. I always shoot in manual mode, af-s and single sensor.

Especially in distances greater than 2m, the lens was way out.

So this is what I did to solve it

I used Focal to see the percentage of AFMA needed on every distance for 18mm 24mm 28mm and 35mm and wrote down the values. (all values ended up being -4 and greater, which confirmed the backfocus issue).

Then, I used the sigma usb dock to enter the values into the lens (BE CAREFUL, the values given by Focal are different from the ones in sigma dock. In my experience Sigma value should be the half of Focal Value. i.e. if Focal gives you -4 then in Sigma you should enter -2).

After rewriting the firmware, I re-tested the lens with Focal and everything was spot on.

Hope this helps someone. Apologies for my poor English. Its not my native language.

All the best,

Stelios

UtenteMac · Aug 27, 2014

Thank you Stelios, especially for the FoCal<>Sigma ratio.

kay4401 · Aug 30, 2014

Good info to know as I am thinking about getting this lens. Say, if you're wiling, post some pics of the wedding. I would love to see what this lens can do, and the background of a Greek island sounds beautiful!

Siberian Patient · Sep 4, 2014

Thanks Steliosfan!

Can you further describe your experience with D7100&Sigma 18-35?

D7100 have plastic front-plate, Sigma 18-35 is rather long and big weight lens...

Is it any small deformations of the D7100 body with 18-35 without any external supporting device for lens?

I still not have this combo, but I have a fear that some stills may be partly out of focus due to tiny body deformations...

Can you post some fullsize jpegs from this D7100 & Sigma 18-35 combo?

Thanks in advance!

stuntmonkey · Sep 4, 2014

Siberian Patient said:
Is it any small deformations of the D7100 body with 18-35 without any external supporting device for lens?

I still not have this combo, but I have a fear that some stills may be partly out of focus due to tiny body deformations...

I've used this combo briefly. Theoretical long term repercussions could be as you say, but in practical terms if you are holding the body/lens properly thne you should have a problem. The 18-35 f/1.8 is heavy, but so is the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8, or the 70-200 f/2.8 for that matter. My experience with the lens was similar... focus consistency seemed to be not as tight as with a more conventional standard-zoom, but you make up for it with the sharpness and contrast.

rhlpetrus · Sep 5, 2014

stuntmonkey said:
Siberian Patient said:

Is it any small deformations of the D7100 body with 18-35 without any external supporting device for lens?

I still not have this combo, but I have a fear that some stills may be partly out of focus due to tiny body deformations...

Click to expand...

I've used this combo briefly. Theoretical long term repercussions could be as you say, but in practical terms if you are holding the body/lens properly thne you should have a problem. The 18-35 f/1.8 is heavy, but so is the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8, or the 70-200 f/2.8 for that matter. My experience with the lens was similar... focus consistency seemed to be not as tight as with a more conventional standard-zoom, but you make up for it with the sharpness and contrast.

stuntmonkey · Sep 5, 2014

rhlpetrus said:
stuntmonkey said:

Siberian Patient said:

Is it any small deformations of the D7100 body with 18-35 without any external supporting device for lens?

I still not have this combo, but I have a fear that some stills may be partly out of focus due to tiny body deformations...

Click to expand...

I've used this combo briefly. Theoretical long term repercussions could be as you say, but in practical terms if you are holding the body/lens properly thne you should have a problem. The 18-35 f/1.8 is heavy, but so is the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8, or the 70-200 f/2.8 for that matter. My experience with the lens was similar... focus consistency seemed to be not as tight as with a more conventional standard-zoom, but you make up for it with the sharpness and contrast.

Click to expand...

Nimec · Sep 5, 2014

I have decided that I am going to take my 18-35 back. Tomorrow is the last day I can return it to the store, and unfortunately the USB dock did not arrive on time to try testing it with different firmware settings.

Honestly for just over $1000 CDN with tax, this lens is too hit or miss for me to keep. When it works it is no doubt beautiful -- TACK TACK SHARP, but there are a ton of situations (especially in darker areas) the camera seems to backfocus with this lens.

I sold my 17-55 f/2.8 thinking this would be the superior lens and I regret my decision. Right now I have the 35mm 1.8 prime and a 70-200 VR2, so I am in an odd place when it comes to the standard zoom range. I'm not really sure what to do.

I took a few more test shots just now to make sure that the lens needed to be returned. My wife will not be happy I posted these two shots of her, but I just wanted to let people see what the back focusing does on this lens quite often.

Sample:

https://imgur.com/5nmHkrL

R Dunlop · Sep 10, 2014

Nimec said:
I have decided that I am going to take my 18-35 back. Tomorrow is the last day I can return it to the store, and unfortunately the USB dock did not arrive on time to try testing it with different firmware settings.

Honestly for just over $1000 CDN with tax, this lens is too hit or miss for me to keep. When it works it is no doubt beautiful -- TACK TACK SHARP, but there are a ton of situations (especially in darker areas) the camera seems to backfocus with this lens.

I sold my 17-55 f/2.8 thinking this would be the superior lens and I regret my decision. Right now I have the 35mm 1.8 prime and a 70-200 VR2, so I am in an odd place when it comes to the standard zoom range. I'm not really sure what to do.

I took a few more test shots just now to make sure that the lens needed to be returned. My wife will not be happy I posted these two shots of her, but I just wanted to let people see what the back focusing does on this lens quite often.

Sample:

https://imgur.com/5nmHkrL

On your test shots the camera has focused on the door behind your subject, the second example however the focus is on the subject. Please explain what you mean by 'back focus', both examples are focused just on different parts of the frame?

SmM · Sep 10, 2014

R Dunlop said:
Nimec said:

I have decided that I am going to take my 18-35 back. Tomorrow is the last day I can return it to the store, and unfortunately the USB dock did not arrive on time to try testing it with different firmware settings.

Honestly for just over $1000 CDN with tax, this lens is too hit or miss for me to keep. When it works it is no doubt beautiful -- TACK TACK SHARP, but there are a ton of situations (especially in darker areas) the camera seems to backfocus with this lens.

I sold my 17-55 f/2.8 thinking this would be the superior lens and I regret my decision. Right now I have the 35mm 1.8 prime and a 70-200 VR2, so I am in an odd place when it comes to the standard zoom range. I'm not really sure what to do.

I took a few more test shots just now to make sure that the lens needed to be returned. My wife will not be happy I posted these two shots of her, but I just wanted to let people see what the back focusing does on this lens quite often.

Sample:

https://imgur.com/5nmHkrL

Click to expand...

On your test shots the camera has focused on the door behind your subject, the second example however the focus is on the subject. Please explain what you mean by 'back focus', both examples are focused just on different parts of the frame?

ggeinec · Sep 10, 2014

Steliosfan said:
... snipped ...

Hope this helps someone. Apologies for my poor English. Its not my native language.

All the best,

Stelios

Since no one else said it - no apologies necessary for your English. It's very good.

rudiebambam · Apr 21, 2015

I'm a little bit confused... How does FoCal's recommended test distance factor in?

Anyway, they seem to recommend 25-50x the focal length of the lens your working with.

For a lens at 24mm FoCal recommends a minimum distance of 1.2m from the target but the scale on the Sigma optimization software doesn't exactly match up nicely for that. I guess that's why you reduced the FoCal recommendations by 1/2? The FoCal documentation does say that the micro-adjustment values can increase a lot when shooting at the minimum focusing distances.

I have the software and the dock is on the way. I was just practicing and at 35mm I fine-tuned (in camera) and it seems to have made a difference.

If anyone else can offer some advice on using these together please let me know.

rudiebambam · Apr 24, 2015

rudiebambam said:
If anyone else can offer some advice on using these together please let me know.

Apologies if responding to my own post is a no-no here. I was once reprimanded for that on another forum. They preferred that I just edit my post.

In any event I am now using FoCal and the Sigma Dock Optimization Software to configure the lens.

I adjusted 24mm to -3, 28mm to -1, and 35mm to -1. FoCal suggested roughly double those #'s.

The before and after results at 35mm were striking - even at -1. I set the lens to f/1.8 and took a before and after photos at 2 meters. I almost thought I forgot to focus for the first image. I might re-write the firmware and try this again. I think it was back focusing because some items in the background which I haven't included in these photos were sharper in the first image than the second.

historianx · Apr 26, 2015

I feel fortunate that, even tho i have the dock, ive not needed to use it as my 18-35's focus has been spot-on since i pulled it new from the box about a month ago. On my D7100s it is fantastic.

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Nikon D7100 & Sigma 18-35 1.8 (over a month experience, my thoughts)

Steliosfan

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UtenteMac

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kay4401

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Siberian Patient

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stuntmonkey

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stuntmonkey

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Nimec

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R Dunlop

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SmM

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historianx

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