Sigma 210101 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Lens for Canon - Black

Product Information

The HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) ensures a silent, high-speed AF function. Optimizing AF algorithm, smoother AF is achieved. It also enables full-time manual focusing capability which allows sensible focus adjustment by simply rotating the focus ring. Wide-to-normal zoom is designed for APS-C-format Canon EF-mount cameras and provides a 28.8-56mm equivalent focal length range. I tested the sharpness of this lens in a number of situations, and found it to be pretty consistent and sharp at all focal lengths and apertures. Yes, it is most certainly sharpest between f/5.6 and f/7.1, with the best image quality at a wide angle produced at f/2.8. However, it still performs pretty well at f/1.8, just maybe not quite as good as many of us were hoping. It certainly is softer than the 35mm f/1.4, but is markedly better than any other variable focal length kit lens in this range that I have used. The Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM impressed us hugely when we reviewed it at the end of last year, and is probably the sharpest 35mm F1.4 prime on the market. When tested on the same camera, the zoom may be just fractionally less sharp at large apertures, but you probably wouldn't see any difference in real world shooting. The zoom also has slightly higher vignetting and distortion, but lower chromatic aberration. From this data, you'd be hard pushed to see any meaningful differences between the two in side-by-side shooting. Remember this is the 18-35mm's weakest focal length. Compared to Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 Di VC USD At 35mm F1.8 things are slightly different- if you shoot a flat scene straight-on you'll see a gradual drop-off in sharpness right across the frame. But this mainly due to curvature of field, so if you shoot something three-dimensional then objects in the extreme corners will look sharp if they happen to be in focus. The lens shows practically no chromatic aberration at 35mm, either, which means that the images look very clean indeed. Overall, this kind of image quality is remarkable coming from an F1.8 zoom. Autofocus accuracy and consistency

Fstoppers Reviews the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens Fstoppers Reviews the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM Art Lens

With a minimum focusing distance of 28cm and a maximum magnification ratio of 1:4.3, this lens is excellent for close-up photography. What makes a standard lens ideal for you? Certain important qualities are required, such as fast maximum aperture, versatility for snap shots, portraiture and indoor photography plus a good combination of a wide range of focal lengths in a compact design. SIGMA 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM is the first zoom lens ever to achieve a maximum aperture of f1.8 throughout the zoom range. It is a wide aperture, standard zoom-lens for digital single lens reflex camera´s with APS-C size sensor´s. *1The lens has a focal range equivalent to 27mm - 52.5mm in a 35mm format and it can cover the angles of view of multiple fixed focal length lenses. This wide aperture, standard zoom lens enables the photographer to expand creative possibilities on any occasion. The R5 is effectively cropping the image for you. That’s more convenient than how the Canon 5D Mark IV functions, but the net result is still a low resolution image (18 megapixels instead of 45, the native resolution of the R5 sensor).

Overall though, this level of chromatic aberration is impressively low, especially considering that we're looking at an ultra-fast zoom. It's no worse than we'd expect to see from fast primes, either. Flare Lateral chromatic aberration is visible as colour fringing towards the edges and corners of the frame, and as usual is strongest at wideangle. It tends to be most obvious when the lens is stopped down a bit, which brings the fringing into sharpest focus. It's relatively easy to correct in post-processing, but will be visible in most cameras' JPEG output (although many Nikon SLRs will automatically remove it). In this set of evaluations, we’ve compared the Sigma zoom with the highest performing full-frame primes of the same focal lengths – 18mm, 24mm and 35mm. While it might seem a little unusual, the lenses (all high speed models) reflect the state of the art in that format and when mounted on an APS-C DSLR offer the same angle of view (at each focal length) as the Sigma.

Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM ART Review - DustinAbbott.net Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM ART Review - DustinAbbott.net

But because the R5 can shoot 8K video, Movie Cropping applies a 1.6x crop to an 8K image. This creates a 5.1K image, which is then downsampled to 4K. This is what Canon calls “4K Crop” video. The lens also has a very useful .23x maximum magnification (nearly 1:4 life size) meaning that you can get close to things and produce reasonably pseudo-macro results (macroish?). This compares very favorable to a lot of 50mm lenses and their typical .15x magnification. Even better is the fact that the lens continues to produce very sharp images at its minimum focus, although you probably will want to stop it down a bit for maximum sharpness and appropriate depth of field to your subject (f/1.8 is very shallow at minimum focus range).

The Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HCM is a technological marvel, because it is the first zoom lens in history with such a wide / fast aperture. On top of that, Sigma used many high-end features and components that are usually only available on pro-grade full-frame lenses. First, the lens comes with a hypersonic motor (HSM), which provides silent and fast autofocus. NIKON D800E + 18-35mm f/1.8 @ 20mm, ISO 100, 1/800, f/5.6 The 21mm-wide zoom ring has a pleasant, fluid movement. It glides smoothly without any play and feels correctly damped, giving a real impression of quality. It rotates 50 degrees from 18 to 35mm, with additional markings at the 20, 24 and 28mm positions.

Sigma, 18-35, 1.8, DC, HSM, Art, Canon EF - HDEW CAMERAS

Every time I review a Sigma lens I will be closely looking at the AF (autofocus) performance. I’ve rarely had a problem with HSM motors when it comes to sound or speed (they are amongst the quietest focusing lenses that I’ve encountered and generally quite fast), but I have major concerns when it comes to AF accuracy and consistency. The Sigma 150-600mm Sport was the first Sigma lens that I walked away completely satisfied from when it came to its AF performance. I’m afraid the 18-35mm ART didn’t impress out of the box. My review body is a Canon EOS 70D, and trying to use my typical AFMA program ( Reikan FoCal) produced such variation that an automatic calibration simply didn’t work (the program gave up). I did a semi-automatic calibration using my own eyes, and discovered why. Just when I thought I had a value zeroed in, the results would jump around. The focus peak looked like a yo-yo. I’ve never had such a difficult time calibrating a lens before. The Sigma can focus down to around 12cm in front of the lens - making the 18-35mm a pretty flexible all-round lens. Photo by Barnaby Britton

Vignetting

I had a weird issue with my lens and Sigma says that they haven’t seen this before: while in auto-focus, my camera did not beep to alert me that an image was in focus. As soon as I switched to manual focus, the camera beeped as usual. It only affected the lens while in auto-focus mode. I know many people turn the beep off to begin with, so it’s not going to be a big deal to them. The viewfinder still flashed red when an image was in focus, I just got no auditory alert. For wildlife photographers who need additional reach, or photographers who only publish images online, 18 megapixels may be enough. But for me, 18 megapixels is a big drop in resolution, so I would not use the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 for my own still photography.

Sigma 210101 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Lens for Canon - Black

I really loved the bokeh out of this lens. It's smooth and fluid, and makes the shallow depth of field really beautiful. Thumbs up here.

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Oversampling 5.1K to 4K is apparently less taxing on the camera than 8K to 4K, so the R5 does not heat up or require periodic cool downs as it does when shooting “4K HQ” video. The only limitation with “4K Crop” then is the R5’s 30 minute record time limit, which is standard in all their non-cinema cameras. Downsides of the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Convenient handling is achieved by incorporating internal focusing and zooming which prevents any change in the length of the lens when focusing and zooming. It is possible to use a specialist filter, such as a Circular Polarizer, as the front part of the lens does not rotate. Overall the 18-35mm F1.8 is a really intriguing product, and we applaud Sigma for pushing the boundaries of lens design ahead of the more conservative camera manufacturers. But can an F1.8 zoom really deliver good results? Let's find out. Headline features