Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art DC HSM Lens for Pentax

Great low light lens. Photo was taken with a Nikon D7100

This is my new everything lens. I've got a 70D that I've been using on an off for a year. Recently I just lost my job and began picking up freelance work and I needed a much faster lens for the new work I was doing. I bought this baby and I love it. I'm able to get very good indoor low light shots and still keep a substantial amount of bokeh. It's got a great build quality and wonderful feel. I still haven't gotten used to the lens zoom which is opposite of Canon lenses but its a small problem I'm sure I'll soon adjust to. I'm sure you can find a million reviews on this lens out there better and more in-depth then mine but I thought I'd give my two cents. I've never broken away from buying Canon before and and there are many out there like my old self. If you are one of those people you can't ignore this beauty. It's a GREAT lens and you won't regret picking one up. *Update*: So a few weeks after writing this post I shot a friends wedding and I found that when taking pictures at around 20 feet or so away I had very soft focus. I learned that day there were a few sweet spots with this lens but the further I got from my subject the softer the focus got. I initially thought it was my 70D camera was at fault after reeding that they had an inherit flaw when shooting in apertures above 2.8. I learned later that this did turn out to be an issue with my camera (not all 70D's do this by the way but it's worth checking out if you're in the market for a fast lens). I decided to keep my aperture at a minimum of F2.8 but my images were still soft. I thought I'd always have issues and was contemplating selling the lens then I discovered that Canon recently came out with 80D and I wondered if this might fix my issues... it sadly did not (but don't get me wrong, the 80D did fix the inconsistent autofocus at shots greater then F2.8). I dug back into researching and found a docking device that Sigma sells that allows you to update the firmware of the lens from your computer. I dug a little deeper and found it also allows you to make micro adjustments to the auto focus. Now before you go out and pick on of these up ($60 by the way) let me tell you a few things. It takes FOREVER to micro-adjust your lens. There are a few video tutorials that tell you how to do it but let me tell you now, set aside about 4 hours or more and do it right. You'll need to buy a lens calibration alignment ruler (there is a paper one sold on Amazon for $6 that works fine) and get set up on a tripod with a computer near by. There are 16 adjustments that need to be made on this lens and each adjustment takes multiple times of undocking and redocking the lens from the computer. Also for the infinity shots, find something very very far away like mountains or a water tower you can focus on with good contrast. This one will be a bit more trial by error but do your best and you should get it pretty close to sharp. After multiple times of calibrating. taking a day to shoot, and recalibrating this lens now shoots AMAZING!!! It's like I have a new lens and it's finally trustworthy. It is razor sharp especially in the 2-10 foot range and the images that are coming out of this lens are down-right stunning. I moved my rating from a 5 at first (until I really got to know the lens) down to a 3 as a result of the year of uncertainty it put me through and wedding images I found to be sub-par (glad my buddy wasn't paying me and was fine with the quality otherwise I would of been furious). If you buy this lens buy the USB dock and a lens calibration ruler first thing and get it set right and you'll love this thing until the day you die. I'll add a photo of my dog that I just shot yesterday. This is what I'm getting at F1.8 from about 3 feet away.

The Pros: This is an excellent lens with really good picutre and video quality. I took a few pictures and asked a few of my friends to guess the camera setup and nobody imagined it to be a crop sensor. The wide f1.8 aperture is awesome for bokeh and low light performance. Also the focal length basically covers 3 prime lenses! The zoom and focus rings are sleek with an overall build quality of a boss. This is the closest you'll get to full frame on a crop sensor body. It's crazy sharp! Now for the drawbacks. This lens is very heavy considering. I have the Canon 200d and 77d, and the lens almost feels heavier than both the cameras together. Make sure you have the correct tripod or Gorillapod if you plan to mount it. At times I'm even afraid to not hand cradle the lens as it just doesn't feel right with my hands on the camera body alone. Second is the focus motor, it's not the quietest and a tad slower than the canon stm lenses. In fact, its so loud that I can hear it even with my on camera Rode mic in auto focus. Just something to consider if you shooting an interview or a video where you require auto focus. Shoot in manual focus instead. Thirdly, lack of IS. Yep, no IS. Ultimately it's wide-ish focal length makes it acceptable. Lastly, this lens only works on crop sensor cameras. So for the price, many believe it to be a bit limiting. So weigh your options and decide if you willing to stick to crop sensor bodies. Conclusion: If you willing to deal with the drawbacks like I was, then it's an excellent lens. It's fast aperture with a versatile focal length makes it's almost impossible to pass up if you have a crop sensor camera.

I love this lens. Love it, love it, love it. I own a Canon 24-105, 70-200, a Zeiss 50mm Makro, Sigma 30mm, previously owned a Canon 24-70, Tamron 24-70, and Tokina 11-17. This lens is amazing, built rock solid. Sharp as a prime, and wide enough that it doesn't look super distorted like my Tokina did when filming indoors. The zoom and focus ring are buttery smooth, just like my Zeiss prime. It works fantastic on my 550D as well. If you shoot video - this lens is honestly a must have. I do like my Zeiss more, as it is an amazing lens, but I use this one 10x as much due to the focal length. I wish it had IS - but hey, can't have everything.

I bought this lens mostly for my landscape photography mounted to my Canon 70D. Very impressed with this lens, heavy and I love it.

A very sharp lens, with a very fast and usable large aperture, f 1.8. It is sharp at f1.8 and just gets sharper until f8 when diffraction begins to set in. It is still very usable at f16 for greater depth of field. It is sharp across the field of view, center to corner. It has the focal length equivalent on a full frame camera of 27mm to 52mm. Not a huge range, but a useful one. It is reported to be sharpest at 18mm but it is sharp at all focal lengths. It is a somewhat heavy lens, but very well built. It does not have vibration reduction. But it is very hand holdable in the 1/25 of a second to 1/100th of a second depending on focal length. Higher shutter speeds are of course better. Highly recommended for Nikon and Canon crop sensor cameras.