Product Description

This high zoom ratio lens is exclusively designed for digital SLR cameras and capable of covering a wide range of focal lengths from wide-angle to telephoto. Two Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements and two hybrid aspherical lenses offer the utmost correction for all types of aberrations, and enables this extended range super zoom lens to be housed in a compact and lightweight construction of 70mm (2.8") diameter, and 78.1mm (3.1") in length, and weighing just 405g/14.3oz. The new lens coating reduces flare and ghost, which is a common problem of digital cameras and also creates an optimum color balance. This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm (17.7") at all focal lengths and has maximum magnification of 1:4.4.The lens design incorporates an inner focusing system, which prevents the front of the lens from rotating, making it particularly suitable for using circular polarizing filters and petal shaped lens hoods. The overall length of the lens does not change during focusing, ensuring convenient handling and ease of use. A zoom lock switch eliminates 'zoom creep' during transportation, a convenient addition when traveling.

Product Details

• Brand: Sigma
• Model: 777-306
• Dimensions: 3.10" h x 3.10" w x 3.30" l, .85 pounds

Features

• Exclusively designed for Nikon Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras
• 18-200mm focal length; 11:1 zoom ratio
• f3.5-6.3 maximum aperture
• 2 Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements and 2 hybrid aspherical lenses
• 17.7-inch minimum focusing distance at all focal lengths

Customer Reviews

A good piece overall....
I purchased a Nikon D70S in August and decided on the Sigma 18-200mm lens instead of the 18-35mm Nikkor kit lens. It really boils down to how one uses this lens as to whether you like it or not. With the 1.5 conversion factor of the D70S, this lens operates as a 27-300mm. I do an ocassional wedding and senior photos throughout the year but I shoot more landscape/nature photography than anything. Unless a person requires a super fast lens, this piece does a very good job overall for the price. Since the majority of my work is off a tripod, the 3.5 max aperture has not been a problem even in very low light situations. Since it's the only Nikon based lens I own, its like having several lenses in one and I never have to worry about dust getting on the sensor during lens changes.

The 27mm is not as wide as I would have liked, but I have had no problems in making due with it especially doing group shots at weddings and has been quite sufficient for most landscapes.

The autofocus is quite fast when needed and it does quite well for my use as a portrait lens. Its 300mm capability really lets you bring in distant objects.

Color accuracy is quite good on both people and landscapes, and works acceptable with neutral density and circular polarizing filters.

My biggest complaint with this lens however, is a bit too much barrel distortion when shooting linear subjects and lens flare when shooting into the sun at sunrise or sunset. The flare problem may be as much the fault of the digital sensor as it is the lens, but I have been told by more than one pro that it's more the lens than the sensor. Therefore, that's why I gave it only 4 stars instead of 5. I have used Sigma lenses on my film cameras for many years and not had this kind of flare problem. However, this lens is built especially for the smaller digital sensors, which may result in magnifying this problem. Both of these faults can be corrected with imaging software most of the time. It just takes time to have to mess with it.

Keep in mind, this is a general purpose lens, and will do a more than acceptable job for all but the most discriminating work. It is light and compact and has a quality about it which looks good on the camera. Overall I have enjoyed the lens, and can recommend it as a good piece overall for the money.

Great all around lense
I bought this lense a year ago to go with my Nikon D50. I have been very happy with this lense. I researched quite a bit before I purchased this lense and had read many user reviews both good and bad. The negative reviews were mainly from Canon users related to an autofocus problem. I have not had any focus issues at all on my D50. Focus is fast and accurate providing incredibly sharp photos. I have my D50 set to focus on the center of the frame which is the way I typically use a camera.

There is some audible auto focus noise since the Nikon version of this lense does not have an internal focus motor. The lense relies on the auto focus screw driven by an internal motor in the D50 body (or any Nikon DSLR body except the D40 which doesn't have one). The noise heard is not the lense but the stepper motor in the D50 body. The identical noise is heard when I use my Nikon 50mm f1.8 lense which also relies on the autofocus screw/motor in the D50 body. Other Nikon AFS lenses are super quiet since Nikon includes a very quiet Silent Wave focus motor inside the lense which disables the DSLR body stepper motor.

[...]

[...]

You will notice the barrel distortion at the 18mm setting with photos of linear objects (eg. buildings or anything with straight lines). Keep in mind that even the Nikon 18-200mm lense at more than twice the price also exhibits the same percentage of barrel distortion as the Sigma. When covering this wide of a zoom range a compromise is made by the design engineers.

Another complaint I've read about, and is also an issue with the Nikon and Tamron, is that some people claim the 200mm zoom setting isn't true 200mm. Well this is correct when you're focusing on an object that the camera has not focused to infinity. In other words the closer the subject the less magnification is achieved. This is normal for any lense covering this zoom range. As an example I performed a test and focused on an object bout 50 feet away at full telephoto and achieved about a 9x magnification over the wide angle setting. When I performed the same test on an object that was a couple of hundred feet away I did achieve the full 11x magnification range. [...]

The bottom line: This is a great lense for the money. Certainly the Nikon 18-200 VR is a better lense but costs more than twice as much [...]. If you're a Nikon DSLR owner (except the D40 which does not include a focus motor and screw) and if you don't want to spend [...] on the Nikon 18-200mm VR than this is your lense. It is compact and light and has a great quality look and feel. It provides super sharp photos and I'm very happy with it. [...] Also with such a zoom range you'll almost never take this lense off your Nikon which also will minimize dust getting into the camera body.

My only other suggestion is to wait for the Sigma 18-200mm OS version of this lense which is not yet available. It will include an optical stabilization feature not included in the base Sigma 18-200mm [...] and most likely there will be a waiting line once it's released sometime in 2007. Assuming the OS version has equivalent optics the OS feature will be an added bonus making it similar in performance to the VR feature of the Nikon 18-200mm.

Great Lense
I did quite a bit of research before finally settling on this lense and I think I made a great choice. I was previously using my old 35-80 and 100-300 lenses from my film camera, but this lens allows me to have a much wider angle than I was used to and almost the same telephoto all without having to change lenses.

This lense is not as quite as a comperable new nikon lense, but it also much less expensive, and is much more quite than my old nikon lense. I have not noticed any prolems with the colors or image quality. As an average camera user I am extremely happy with my choice.