Astonishing true 12mm full-frame field of view; lack of distortion; price; build; HSM motor (if you need it); performace at f/11-f/16

no front filters; a little soft wide open; slow; check for sample variation.

Sigma are pioneers in the manufacture of superwide zooms. In the late 1970's, I used one of the first, a 21-35mm on a Contax body. That lens suffered quite badly from ghosting, but it was fine for holiday snaps. Sigma have come a long way since then. I purchased the 12-24mm for use on my full-frame Kodak 14nx digital SLR. The other 12-24 offerings from Nikon and now Tokina are not for full frame cameras, so the Sigma was the only choice for me. I have tried the Sigma alongside my trusty Nikkor 17-35 F2.8 AF-S, reputed to be one of Nikon's finest zooms. I must say overall I am impressed by the Sigma. The Nikkor 17-35 has slightly higher contrast, and therefore seems a little sharper, but this is easily rectified with a dash of USM in Photoshop. Also, the Sigma is a little soft at the corners at wider apertures, but at F.11 it is sharp, and maintains performance well in to al but the very extreme corners - but remember I am testing the lens on full-frame camera. On a crop factor DSLR, the corners would not be an issue at all. Most impressive is the lack of distortion. At 12mm, there is only a hint of barrel distortion. In comparison, the Nikkor 17-35mm has a lot more barrel distortion at 17mm. Around 15mm, there is essentially zero distortion on the Sigma. There is a little pincusion distortion at 24mm. Another plus for the Sigma is the almost complete lack of chromatic abberation. Getting rid of CA is problematic, as most solutions are either time consuming, or affect sharpness. This is a great result fot the Sigma, showing they have designed this lens with digital camera users very much in mind. Overall build quality is typical of Sigma EX lenses - tough, perhaps a notch below the marque lenses, but nice and solid. I confess I dislike the sparkly EX finish used by Sigma, but I can live with it. The zoom and focus rigs felt just right. For my purposes - mainly landscape and architecture on a tripod, the need to stop down is not a major problem, and I regard the Sigma as a better lens in many respects than the highly rated 17-35mm Nikkor. Be aware of its quirks, and the Sigma 12-24mm is a rewarding lnes with an astonishing field of view. As such, I believe it earns 5 stars.

Customer Service

not tried

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor 17-35mm F2.8, other wide angles

sharp sharp sharp sharp...colours..no distortion at 12 mm!! wauw-ø'and fast fast fast--= HSM ..and light...(thanks Sigma..

none..maybe OUT of focus probs..but who cares?*LOL* make a change..or refit a new chip at sigma adn get adjusted to Your cam especially"!(super service..at sigma..call them=)

A fine lens,IF you got a Good sample,at first i did not,then i wrote to adorama and they agreed to give me a new sample,and then i found the truth;this little lens is a fantastic good performer,let me tell you that i have had some serious work to find a product for my 3 cams Drebel(Cult camera in black)D10 (a gem) and my new D20(genius) in fact i got three cams for ones price or less actually!(= D1 mk 2) and wanted a serious wide angle..at first i tried the new 10-22 from Canon..but i wasnt too good ! so i dropped the idea..bought the Sigma..and was dissapointed..had it changed and oh boy!! now its my most used Lens at all!! its ver sharp from F5,6 and up...and extremely excellent and beats the Canon 10-22 side by side comp.!..in sharpness and distortion!! its very good..absolutely recomanded!

Customer Service

yep..and they DID a super service! yep

Similar Products Used:

canon 10-22..Tokina 12-24(good to!)

good build quality but designflaw "popeye". Stopped down twice its an ok performer. distortion (second most important if used for architecture) almost no CAs (no wonder, slow lenses dont have probs there) Price Useable on crop and FF (most important advantage)

popeye flare ghosting not as fast I'd expect from HSM (not really important on WA) heavy and bulky compared to the Nikon 12-24DX

Protect the front element, lol. This popeye design seems to search for scratching when used as walk-around. 2nd drwaback is, it likes to flare and ghost a lot. Sharpness is good if stopped down 2 times. But I found it lacks contrast and colors. Distortion is good on a crop camera (no wonder). My first example was a really bad one. The second one was better but was de-centered so I had unsharp images parts to the left. It is a good lens for architectual work on a tripod from f11 on. But I missed the ability to use it as walkaround, 18-36mm makes a nice walkaround in cities, on parties etc, but the need to stop it down makes it unuseable there (for me). After 6 weeks I gave up and bought the 2 times as expensive Nikon 12-24DX.

Customer Service

exchanging the lens was no problem, but I am to unpatient to exchange a lens more then once to get a good copy.

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 15-30 (was very much better) Nikon 12-24DX (another class in quality and price)

Very good price: almost half of the price of Nikkor 12-24. Very good distortion correction, on the whole focal range. Robust Sigma EX style. Good HSM focusing.

Sharpness: not excellent. F5.6 at 24 mm. Heavy light fall-off on corner when used on a 35 mm film camera. Weight. It's a "G" equivalent lens.

I bought this lens to extend my focal range on the wideangles on my Nikon D100. I had to give back my Nikkor 18-35 f3.5-4.5. I needed to change my first 12-24 because the first one had a side totally out of focus. Howevere my dealer replaced it in one day. I choose it because I hate DX lenses from Nikon, and I still use my 35 mm film camera. Moreover, Sigma 12-24 has a price lower than Nikon 12-24. It was a big surprise to find a lens with nearly no distortion at 12 mm. It focuses very fast, due to its HSM motor (not so fast as AF-S, but better than traditional AF). Only gelatin filters can be used.

Customer Service

Excellent: it changed my failed first 12-24 in one day.

Similar Products Used:

Nikkor AF-D 18-35 f3.5-4.5

Very wide. Sharp Very wide. Quiet. Very wide.

Can't use built in flash on 10D when lens is wide open.

One thing people sometimes forget about when then look at focal lengths is that a few mm at the low side is completely different than a few mm at the high side. 12mm is a lot different than 15mm or 17mm. In that vein it is like weather, you can only take so many clothes off in hot weather and you can only backup so far. Wide matters. In cold weather you can always put more clothes on and you can always crop an image (although not ideal) if you lack a little reach on the telephoto side. I bought this lens primarily to shoot house interiors. I also like the interesting perspective it can give other shots. First job was a small house I have for sale. The camera arrived and I flipped it on my 10D and quickly shot away. I dumped the images into Photoshop expecting to have to use the Panotools plugin to correct it (like I did with my Nikon 990 with a wide adapter). Much to my surprise, I didn’t have to use the plugin at all. I used the image straight away, because they were straight right away. Little house doesn't look so little when shot wide http://edina.info/modules/gallery/4425 Great lens.

Customer Service

Unknown.

Similar Products Used:

None.

Lack of distortion wide open Very good quality for the price Technologically advanced No chromatic aberation (or very minimal)

Some vignetting towards 12mm Cannot use filters (unless prepared to use gelatin filters) or lens protection

I disagree with some of the reviewers that this is not a sharp lens, mine is sharp; sharper than the 18-55mm which came with the digital rebel (Canon 300D). It is certainly sharp stopped down to F8 or F11 (best/sweet spot) but it is not at all bad wide open. There is some vignetting at the wide end with the corners a little dark but this actually looks quite nice to me, it is not extreme. I love the lens, it is fairly fast to focus but the depth of field is large so using it on manual focus is easy. It feels great with the camera and is not too heavy or bulky. I have actually just bought a Canon 10 35mm body on eBay to use with this lens at the 12mm end and avoid the 1.6x multiplier effect from my 300D: the lack of distortion at 12 mm is amazing. This lens is great fun and good enough for a keen amateur like myself. It is so different from other lenses, and it increases the versatility of my photography so much, that I am very pleased I bought it.

Customer Service

No experience

Similar Products Used:

None

Real wide angle on DSLR Good build quality Quiet

Soft Very difficult to use with filters

I purchased this lens to get some real wide angle out of a digital SLR. It is really the only game in town. Unfortunately, in direct comparisons with the Kit lens on the digital rebel, this lens always loses. I tested both lenses at 18mm, note this is full wide angle on the kit and right in the middle of the range for the sigma. The sigma was still not a sharp as the kit. I assume this is due to the difficulty in making extreamely wide angle lenses, but I had hoped to at least match the kit in sharpness. On the plus side, this lens has good build quality and quiet operation.

Customer Service

None needed.

Similar Products Used:

18-55 kit lens.

Extremely well corrected for this focal length. Sharp 2/3-way out at f/11 (digital folks) Sharp out to edges at f/16 (full-frame folks). HSM is very quiet and just good as far as AF speed. Build quality is very good. I'm happy all around with this purchase.

You can't use P-filters on a Full-frame, but I knew this when I purchased this lens -- so ignore this comment.

I use this lens on a full-frame film Canon EOS camera. I shot several test shots wide open at 12mm, 15mm, 17mm, 20mm, and 24mm. It surprised me that this lens remains very sharp in the center of the frame -- even at 12mm! Now, at 12mm WIDE OPEN , the edges suffer about 1-1/2 stops of light falloff. I found light falloff dimenishing at f/8 ON A FULL FRAME 35mm CAMERA. The optimal "Full-frame" aperature seems to be f/16 in order to really clean the edges up good. I expected some difficulties at the edges when used below f/8. I also own the Voigtlander 12mm and founf this already. These SUPER-wide angle lenses push the limits of physics so I am forgiving of the 'Wide Open' performance. On a digital camera, with 2/3-frame, I estimate, from my slides, that f/11 becomes the optimum aperature. On one photo outing I found several blurred shots when hyperfocusing using the scale on the lens. Perhaps the hyperfocus scale is slightly over extended as labeled on the lens. I seem to come home with 100% good outcome while focusing with AF sensor 1/3-distance into the scene. The HSM is quiet and focuses quick enouph for my purposes; although, I'm sure that several AF SPEED NERDS will complain that the HSM isn't as fast as USM! The HSM is slightly slow on this lens but remember, when we purchased this lens, we knew that the maximum aperature isn't very large (it is written on the box) so this lenses' AF works slower with less light. The important thing about the HSM is that it really focuses quietly so that it doesn't interrupt a wedding or party. If someone complains about the sharpness of this lens, then I recommend trying to Manually Focus before just trashing this lens. NOTE: FOR A LENS WITH AN ANGLE THIS WIDE, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU USE A BUBBLE LEVEL TO AVOID "PERSPECTIVE" DISTORTION. This lens is highly corrected and I feel that it almost beats my Voigtlander 12mm prime as far as corrections go. The Voightlander also suffers horrible light falloff WIDE OPEN, as well, so consider this when evaluating this 12mm zoom -- there's no real alternative here. I'm giving this lens 5-Stars. This lens does everything that it's box says that it should do within reasonable expectations. This lens is very, very well corrected. This lens is Sharp--to--Very Sharp (stopped down). This lens is well built. This lenses HSM AF is quiet. I really think it performs equal to my Voigtlander 12mm. Good job, you folks at Sigma!

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

Voigtlander 12mm & 15mm primes Canon 17-40-L; EF 20mm, Sigma 17-25 EX Pentax 24mm f/2

Sharpness Hardly any distortion Practically no CA Can also be used for slr

A little heavier than a dx lens difficulty using polarizer

This is the first sigma lens I have aquired for the D70 , This is an awesome lens , physically and optically . I did lots of comparison testing with other WA primes and zooms before buying it . optically this lens is just top class. It is very sharp from 8 to 16 but seems to have F11 as its sweet point. What pleases me most is its lack of distortion from 12mm, well, it does have some distortion but hardly noticeable and just a small touch in PS corrects it , no vignetting at all unless you place the cap in which case it vignetts upto 14 mm , it does have some flare but quite disappears at 15mm up - I find myself just covering the the lens on top with my hand which is also useful for support. I got this flare when shooting at 12-14 at right angles to the sun . As for CA it virtually has none even at 12mm. color and sharpness is impaccable although very little softness at 5.6 at 12 I think its great advantage is the result of what some people complain about the size and weight , Although I got it for my D70 but as its suitable also for slrs obviously it has to be larger and heavier than a dx type lens,I dont find it to be a problem , the good thing is that it gives almost distortionless results. The only thing I was worried about was its slower glass , that is 5.6 at 24mm viz 4 fo the nikon lens. This is really no problem for me - as I shoot mainly landscapes and architecture, I never find myself using less than F8 at this range,. This is a great winner IMHO

Customer Service

never had a problem

Similar Products Used:

nikons 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 24-85G, 70-300ED

Superwide range Excellent resolution Good color Good contrast

Noticeable light fall-off when shooting wide open; easily corrected by stopping down.

This is an excellent lens for its purpose, and within some design constraints. It is very sharp, and yields good color and contrast. It does suffer obvious light fall-off near the edges of the frame when it is wide open, especially at the 12mm setting. Stop it down one stop or more, and the fall-off disappears. Amazingly, it has almost no distortion -- although it is so short, you have to be aware how much it distorts PERSPECTIVE, but that is what it is intended to do. I have the Nikon version, and wonder why Sigma decided to make it a "G" type, meaning it lacks an aperture, and can only be used with relatively new Nikon bodies. Would it have killed Sigma to leave the aperture in the lens barrel, so I could use it on all my bodies? Within those limits, though, it does an outstanding job as a super-wide zoom, and fills an important niche in my arsenal.

Customer Service

I've only had one Sigma lens fail in 20 or so years, and it was repaired under warranty within a short time. No complaints about service.

Similar Products Used:

Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm Sigma 15-30mm Sigma 15mm Nikkor 16mm Nikkor 20mm