Cost, build, image quality, opens up a new world.

Slightly slower than Canon counterpart, some variation in copies, Sigma caps!

Once you see through an ultra wide angle lens you perceive things anew. The advantage of this Sigma lies in its lower cost and very good overall performance. Stopped down it allows for corner to corner sharpness. Even though it has some distortion at 10mm it is small and easily fixed. The build guarantees it will last for many years, providing a unique perspective on things.


For a very good guide on how to use an ultra wide angle lens see:

http://www.prime-junta.net/pont/How_to/m_Mastering_Wide-Angle/m_Mastering_Wide-Angle.html

WIDE!

Distortion. Makes sides of the image very wide in landscape shots, whereas portraits become very narrow.

17mm on my Tamron 17-50 wasn't wide enough for a particular shot I wanted, so I researched Ultra Wide Angle zooms for awhile before landing on this one. The reviews say that it's as good as the Nikon, and with a wider 10mm than Nikon 12mm, not to mention much less expensive.

The images produced on my D200 are VERY high contrast. I have to change the satuation settings on my D200 when using this lens. Probably doesn't matter if you shoot RAW.

Images look sharp to me. I don't think an aperture wider than f/4 would be very useful with such a wide angle lens (would be hard to find a focus point), so I like the aperture on this lens.

The only complaint I have is the distortion on the sides of the image. I guess this is normal for a 10mm frame, but I've never used another one so I don't know. It takes a bit of looking around to find the perfect angle to shoot from.

Overall very good.

I debated between this and the Nikon 10.5 fisheye, Nikon 12-24, and Tokina 10-17 fisheye. In the end I decided a non-fisheye would be more useful, and the Nikon was too expensive for what I intend to use such a lens for.

Similar Products Used:

none

VERY wide angle. Very sharp, no CA noticeable, nice and sharp images at f/5-f/8.

Lens flare. The lens hood does a tiny job of preventing this but I often have to use a magazine to prevent any lens flare. A bigger aperture would've been nice. f/4 being the widest aperture makes for a less than desirable lens to use for wide angle shots for low light photography (without use of a strobe).

Great wide angle lens. I'm glad I didn't have to pay so much for a 3rd party lens, but for this Sigma lens, it actually gave me some pretty sharp images. At 10mm though, if you're aiming at specific angles towards your subject, I've noticed that I've had to "defish" some of my pics. Other than that, it's a keeper in my camera bag.

This lens handles flare very, very well. It's a 10mm zoom lens so the included hood can't do much to help (otherwise it would cause vignetting) and it works well even with the mid-day sun in the frame. There will be a little flare and ghosting, but this has always been the case with even the best prime lenses. Zooms have a lot more glass which create more opportunities for problems, but they've done a great job with the design to minimize this. The minimum focus distance is less than a foot, but with the amount of depth of field from a 10mm lens at a moderate aperture, you can get much closer. It also uses very standard 77mm filters. There's a huge difference between 10 and 12mm, and this is the only Nikon option out there other than their 10.5mm prime fisheye.

Most other options (at least in the Nikon system) are 12-24mm. The extra 4mm on the long end of the zoom could be handy a lot of times, and a good amount of overlap with 17 (or 18) to 70 mid-range zooms. I'll take the extra 2mm on the wide end any day though... The Nikon is probably better wide open, but again I'll take the extra focal length range at half the price. I'm not a big fan of variable aperture lenses because they can cause problems with manual metering - but I'll take what I can get. I'd probably choose this over having a constant f5.6 anyway.

Procrastination pays! I held off buying a dedicated DSLR wide zoom while I was shooting both film and digital, and since then this great lens came out. I've always been a fan of very wide angle lenses and used 20mm quite often on 35mm cameras. With this lens, I have an even wider perspective and it's a lot of fun. The price of this lens is very good - about half of the Nikon 12-24 and the performance is quite good. I've never owned a Sigma lens before and won't hesitate to buy from them again in the future.

Customer Service

Not needed.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon 12-24 f4 DX, Nikon 20-35 f2.8, Nikon 20 f2.8.

Angle of view, build quality, price, non-rotating front element

Front and rear lens caps

I finally have a wide angle lens for my dSLR and at a price I can affort. I have a Zenitar 16 fisheye but it is not really that wide on a dSLR. The Sigma 10-20 is a remarkable lens both in terms of angle of view and image quality.

I like wide angle more than tele. It gives me the level of control that I need for landscape. Image quality is very high, although I care more about composition than sharpness. It is certaily way sharper than the Zenitar 16. What is even more important is the resolving power, which is different from sharpness. It is capable of resolving fine details. It is on par with the Pentax FA 20-35, which is an excellent lens. I have no problem with either contrast or color.

Prior to the purchase, I did fairly extensive search for review of this len and compared to only other real competition - the Tokina 12-24. I prefer the extra 2 mm on the wide side.

In terms of build quality, it is actually very high. I do not expect anything less since it belongs to the Sigma EX line. Focus is fast. Zoom ring is reasonably OK, not as smooth as the 20-35. I do have issues with both the front and rear lens caps. They are difficult to put on

Similar Products Used:

Pentax FA 20-35
Zenitar 16 mm fish eye
Sigma 18-50
Tokina ATX 28-70 pro II

- Solid Build
- Compact Size
- Sharpness

- Vignetting (wide open)
- Chromatic Adberation (wide open)
- Stupid Lens caps

My first impression is that this Sigma is very solid and well designed. The outer shell is made from hardened plastic which feels very strong and solid. The zoom and focus rings are made from dense rubber with grip indents. When mounted, the focus ring is located furthest away from the camera body, making the zoom ring closest. Zoom markings indicate 10, 12, 14, 17 and 20 mm.
Zooming is a little bit on the stiff side but this is not a real issue because of the small amount of zoom of this lens (10-20 mm). The focus ring on the other hand is very smooth; there is quite some contrast between the zoom and focus rings.
The filter thread size is 77 mm, which is the easiest size to buy filters for. Especially if you consider that 77 mm is found on most of the professional grade lenses and the EX Sigma design is no exception.
With the plastic lens hood mounted it can be very difficult to remove the supplied lens cap. The rear cap also has problems. Nikon rear caps have three entry points while Sigma rear caps only has one. So putting the rear cap on in the field can be very fidgety. Sigma rear and front caps are of a poor design and I hope Sigma updates this with their newer range of lenses.

Focusing is extremely quiet and lightning fast, thanks to the HSM system. I have never had a problem so far when it comes to locking focus in auto focus mode, even in darker scenes. This is also thanks to my Nikon D2H, on a non-professional body however AF performance might be somewhat slower.
Saturation is very pleasant; colours are well rendered and accurate. I wish I could say that the contrast is special like my Nikon 28-70 2,8 but it's not.
Sharpness is very good, although corners are on the soft side. Peak sharpness for me was around 12mm at f8. As said, corner softness is noticeable at the wide end but since apertures smaller than f8 will result in very sharp corner to corner images, this should pose no problem when shooting landscapes.
Viignetting is very noticeable wide open. This is typical of ultra-wide lenses but can be controlled by stopping down. Vignetting can also be controlled very easily with Photoshop or Nikon Capture. I accepted that there would be some vignetting before I even shot one image with this lens and although it was present it was not as bad as I thought it would be.
Chromatic aberrations are more of a issue to me as I prefer to shoot landscapes which is a breeding ground for chromatic aberration. Unfortunately for me CA was present at 10 mm and very slightly present at 20 mm. Luckily it was not a major problem and when I stopped down to f11 it was completely gone, so my landscapes are safe with this lens.
Barrel distortion on the wide end and pin cushion distortion on the long end was present. In my tests barrel distortion was extreme and pin cushion was very slight. No focal length is safe; some kind of distortion is visible at every focal length. If you shoot brick walls for a living don't buy this lens. For the rest of us, distortion will not be very noticeable.
A fun feature about this lens is that it can focus very close (24 cm), making it a very fun and dynamic lens to use.

For less than 500 euro you can’t get much better than this. The lens is both sharp and offers more than acceptable contrast and saturation. Chromatic aberration could be an issue for those who choose to shoot wide open most of the time. Stopping down will control CA somewhat. The same can be said about vignetting.
Its professional build quality and compact size makes this lens a real winner. Be sure to replace the front and rear lens caps with Nikon original caps if you choose to buy this lens.

Customer Service

Have not needed to contact them yet, luckly.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma EX 15-30mm

Image quality, handling, build quality, weight size, price and performance.

Minor niggles: The lens cap has the clips on the outside so can't be taken off with the lens cap in place but this is a 1.99 "upgrade" from 3rd party. If it was stop faster or a constant F4 it might help on interiors but thats only at the higher end and I have a 17-55 2.8 for overlap. It can't be used with full frame or film bodies.

A great quality lens that goes very wide. On a digital SLR this gives a good range to compliment a standard zoom. Its very sharp and given the silly wide end (Nikon primes only go down to 10.5) it has good control over distortion. Silent and fast focusing and it feels very good quality It's very compact and lightweight. It can even take a slimline Polariser without causing too much vignetting. If you use a Lee holder with a W/A mount it's good down to about 12-14 with just darkening of the corners below that. I am a fan of Sigma lenses and I doubt this one will go on to disappoint me. The lens pouch is sturdy and the hood well made and a good fit.

I use it a lot for landscapes, interiors and group shots. it's also good for cars etc.

It's great value and the extra 2mm makes a big difference over the competition at the wide end. If you want a wide angle zoom and don't mind that this is only for digital aps sized sensors I can't think of a reason to get a different one.

Similar Products Used:

None really 17-35 on 35mm

Quality

None

Excellent is the only word that describe its performance.
Although I use it for only 1 month, taken around 150 pictures, I'm impressed with the overall quality of them. Several with the sun into the frame! and No ghost neither flare! The resolution is also excellent.

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 19-35, Nikon AI 20mm

SHARP,SHARP AND VERY SHARP it also has a nice feel to it.

Non that I have found.

After switching over to digital I really missed having an ultra wide lens in my kit. My Tamron SP 17mm was not the same. After reading several reviews in photography mags I went for this lens. I was not disapointed. This lens is SHARP!! and the saturation it gives is supurb. I wont go into distortion and all that stuff suffice to say that with most ultra wide lenses you will have some if your not carefull on how you use it. This lens is great value for money and I doubt that you would see any improvement in picture quality from the more expensive Nikkor lenses.

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 20-35mm AT-X

Fabulous image quality. Relatively low price.

None really. Another stop or two would be nice.

When I went digital changed over from my Olympus OM-2 rig to a Nikon D50 the thing I missed most was my old Tokina 17mm. The Nikkor ultrawides were too expensive! the nice man at Photo and Video said why don't you try the sigma 10-20mm? I did and it is brilliant! I use it as my main lens for travel, interiors, landscapes, family groups. For the money it gives tack-sharp images, it is reasonably fast, and it has a very useful range of focal lengths.

I'd recommend this to anybody who needs an ultrawide lens. If you have never tried one I'm sure this could become your favourite lens.

Customer Service

None needed

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 17mm. The sigma zoom is better.