Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Camera

Comments about 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Camera:

This has become a lens I must have with me. Use it appropriately and it is sharp with minimal to no vignetting.

I wish it were f/2.8, but it is already a very large lens; 3.5" across without the hood.

As already mentioned in another review, the lens cap is impossible when the hood is on. I will add that a circular polarizer is similarly difficult without risking fingerprints. I set the polarization angle, then put the hood on and shoot. BTW, at 77mm, the thin circular polarizer for this lens is the second most expensive filter I own.

Being such a wide lens, you can still get flare and light artifacts shooting too close to the sun, even with the hood.

Still, those are nits. I love this lens and the shots I get with it. Using it allows for creative compositions that have an epic feel to them.

I want to take it out to where there are dark skies and try some wide-field star shots.

I have nothing but praise for the build quality, feel, focus speed, clarity, and the technical stuff that can make a super-wide lens funky.

Bottom line, I would buy this lens again without hesitation.

Comments about 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Camera:

When you really need to get it all in view, this is a great lens. Well made lens for the money. No chromatic aborations! Sharp if you use f11-16. Construction is excellent. Nothing negative to say about this lens.

Comments about 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens for Sigma Digital SLR Camera:

It's great for architecture, both interiors and outside. It's great for landscapes and cramped, small locations, like cars. It gives magnificent, super-wide angle and is one of my most powerful tools in my glass arsenal. It's extremely sharp. Its distortion characteristics cannot be described otherwise than outstanding and exceeding far beyond what the competition has to offer. The lines on each sides of the photo are almost straight lines (require only slight lens correction by the well-known software ). It's focusing distance is very small so it gives you tons of opportunities and hundreds of ways to bring some stuff closer to the matrix (and hence to the potential viewer) while leaving everything else far away in space. It's an extraordinary lens for shots in tight rooms, large group photos and journalistic assignments if you can come close to the subject. Grant for close-quarter action (I wanted to say combat). And a real fun to use! I strongly recommend this lens.

Expertise: Professional photographer

Problems Encountered: The front lens cap - when the hood is attached, the cap, due to its squeeze-type release buttons placed on the rim, is almost impossible to be removed (unless you either have thin fingers or long nails ). I almost always need to remove the hood and then the cap (and then put the hood back again). The solution is: don't use the hood, or grow your nails. Beside this, I encountered no problems whatsoever.

Items I Recommend: Nikon D200, MB-D200, Manfrotto 055XProB tripod