Reading mode: Light Dark

Sigma 18-125 after one week.

Go to last post
R

Robert Andrew Bell

Forum Enthusiast
Messages
302
Reaction score
2
Location
CA
Well I've had my Sigma 18-125 for about a week now and have had 2 real oppotunities to use it in the real world, one at the Vancouver Game Farm and once at the seaside town of White Rock in British Columbia. Images can be found here under the Sigma 18-125 gallery, they are nothing spectacular but I'm quite happy with them. They have been post-processed for levels,contrast,colour and a small amount of sharpening.

So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8, so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in October...just hoping for decent weather.

Rob.

http://www.pbase.com/lovernios
 
Hi robert,

I looked at your sigma 18-125 gallery i must say
that your pics looked very sharp. did you do a lot of post processing?
will you post any exif info for the pics in your gallery?

thanks,

Jeroen
Robert Andrew Bell said:
Well I've had my Sigma 18-125 for about a week now and have had 2
real oppotunities to use it in the real world, one at the Vancouver
Game Farm and once at the seaside town of White Rock in British
Columbia. Images can be found here under the Sigma 18-125 gallery,
they are nothing spectacular but I'm quite happy with them. They
have been post-processed for levels,contrast,colour and a small
amount of sharpening.
So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very
little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build
quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which
I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8,
so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup
for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in
October...just hoping for decent weather.

Rob.

http://www.pbase.com/lovernios
Click to expand...
 
Jb1977 said:
Hi robert,

I looked at your sigma 18-125 gallery i must say
that your pics looked very sharp. did you do a lot of post processing?
will you post any exif info for the pics in your gallery?

thanks,

Jeroen
Click to expand...
The only post -processing I did was the usual levels,contrast and colour, then I ran the image through the 10D Finisher plugin. I am finding that I don't need to do a lot of sharpening even though I use the Adobe1998 parameter setting. If I get a free moment the I will post the exif data but most of the shots were taken in AV mode at f8 or f11 using daylight WB, Adobe1998 and centre focus point.

Rob.
 
Jb1977 wrote:
i must say
Jb1977 said:
that your pics looked very sharp. did you do a lot of post processing?
Click to expand...
Even a throw-away disposable camera should produce decent enough images at web size after some good post processing. All images from all cameras are softened by downsizing for the web, and so need USM to look optimal. These shots dont look too sharpened to me, they look pretty good.

The sharpening applied doesnt mean the 18-125 isnt sharp itself... it is, even at 100% size.

Even an L lens should need (or could benefit from) some sharpening after resizing for the web, if im not mistaken.

Dom
 
I have the Sigma 18-125 and the 28-135 IS from Canon. I use the Sigma for wide angle and carry it in my bah, but keep the Canon on the camera most of the time. I found the Sigma is almost indistinguishable from the Canon for a number of situations, but the IS makes a big difference as soon as the lighting is not bright.
 
Dom said:
Dom167916 said:
that your pics looked very sharp. did you do a lot of post processing?
Click to expand...
Even a throw-away disposable camera should produce decent enough
images at web size after some good post processing. All images from
all cameras are softened by downsizing for the web, and so need USM
to look optimal. These shots dont look too sharpened to me, they
look pretty good.
The sharpening applied doesnt mean the 18-125 isnt sharp itself...
it is, even at 100% size.
Even an L lens should need (or could benefit from) some sharpening
after resizing for the web, if im not mistaken.

Dom
Click to expand...
Totally agree Dom. I used the 10D Finisher plugin to sharpen these images even though they were pretty sharp to begin with. I also find the shots from my 17-40 need a little bit of sharpening as well. All in all I'm very happy with this lens, it's not perfect but it's as good as one can expect from this type of zoom lens and it allows me to just grab my camera and go, without having to carry a large bag full of euipment.

Rob.
 
Robert Andrew Bell wrote:
....
Robert Andrew Bell said:
So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very
little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build
quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which
I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8,
so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup
for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in
October...just hoping for decent weather.
Click to expand...
Could you explain how you decided which lenses to sell and which to keep? To play the devil's advocate, you sold the 28-75 which seems to have no back-up in your current kit (a fast standard zoom), and kept the 17-40 f4l, which is almost completely covered by the Sigma (it is about F4 in the 18-40mm range)?

--
Misha
 
Good observation, but don't you imagine someone who spends almost as much as the Rebel D to buy a lens that is hardly better than the kit lens is probably going to keep it for the long term in spite of it being a fairly useless, oversized albatross.

That said, all of us have probably gone that route of overlapping lenses over and over again.
misha said:
Member said:
So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very
little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build
quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which
I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8,
so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup
for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in
October...just hoping for decent weather.
Click to expand...
Could you explain how you decided which lenses to sell and which to
keep? To play the devil's advocate, you sold the 28-75 which seems
to have no back-up in your current kit (a fast standard zoom), and
kept the 17-40 f4l, which is almost completely covered by the Sigma
(it is about F4 in the 18-40mm range)?

--
Misha
Click to expand...
--
Dave Lewis
 
Wow very impressive. Is that the new lens that everyone has been talking about? How much did it cost if you dont mind?

What is the Aperture on it? You dont even need the kit lens anymore with that lens....cool.
Robert Andrew Bell said:
Well I've had my Sigma 18-125 for about a week now and have had 2
real oppotunities to use it in the real world, one at the Vancouver
Game Farm and once at the seaside town of White Rock in British
Columbia. Images can be found here under the Sigma 18-125 gallery,
they are nothing spectacular but I'm quite happy with them. They
have been post-processed for levels,contrast,colour and a small
amount of sharpening.
So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very
little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build
quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which
I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8,
so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup
for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in
October...just hoping for decent weather.

Rob.

http://www.pbase.com/lovernios
Click to expand...
 
Great shots of places I recognize!

I haven't started looking yet but I will soon after seeing all these great reviews. Where in the Vancouver area did you get your lens from?
Robert Andrew Bell said:
Well I've had my Sigma 18-125 for about a week now and have had 2
real oppotunities to use it in the real world, one at the Vancouver
Game Farm and once at the seaside town of White Rock in British
Columbia. Images can be found here under the Sigma 18-125 gallery,
they are nothing spectacular but I'm quite happy with them. They
have been post-processed for levels,contrast,colour and a small
amount of sharpening.
So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very
little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build
quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which
I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8,
so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup
for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in
October...just hoping for decent weather.

Rob.

http://www.pbase.com/lovernios
Click to expand...
 
misha said:
Member said:
So far I am very happy with this lens, I have experienced very
little vignetting and am very happy with the image and build
quality. Since getting this lens I have sold my Tamron 28-75 which
I was very happy with and have replaced it with a Canon 85mm f1.8,
so with my Canon 17-40 f4L I think I have the perfect lens setup
for my uses and am really looking forward to my England vacation in
October...just hoping for decent weather.
Click to expand...
Could you explain how you decided which lenses to sell and which to
keep? To play the devil's advocate, you sold the 28-75 which seems
to have no back-up in your current kit (a fast standard zoom), and
kept the 17-40 f4l, which is almost completely covered by the Sigma
(it is about F4 in the 18-40mm range)?

--
Misha
Click to expand...
I thought long and hard about selling the 28-75 but decided that with the Sigma I would only use it for low light and portrait shots which I could do much better with the 85mm f1.8, so far I haven't missed it. As for the 17-40 no way could I sell that, it's my favourite lens. It's sharp edge to edge, has great contrast and flare resistance and produces images that seem to jump out at you. It has a bright image in the viewfinder which makes manual focus a joy to use and autofocus is lightening fast. I love to use this lens for street photography and carnivals where sometimes you need to be quick to get the shot.

Rob.
 
Dave Lewis said:
Good observation, but don't you imagine someone who spends almost
as much as the Rebel D to buy a lens that is hardly better than
the kit lens is probably going to keep it for the long term in
spite of it being a fairly useless, oversized albatross.

That said, all of us have probably gone that route of overlapping
lenses over and over again.
Click to expand...
I would hardly consider the 17-40 a 'useless,oversized albatross', infact I think it is a great lens as do a great many photographers out there. I assume you don't have any experience with the 17-40, otherwise you wouldn't claim it is 'hardly better than the kit lens', I have a good copy of the kit lens but my 17-40 beats it in every area.

Rob.
 
michaelthorne said:
Wow very impressive. Is that the new lens that everyone has been
talking about? How much did it cost if you dont mind?
What is the Aperture on it? You dont even need the kit lens anymore
with that lens....cool.
Click to expand...
I got it from B&H for $269 and its aperture range is f3.5 - f5.6

Rob.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top