Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM: Review

Posted to Lenses 2009-08-20

Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM Review:

The 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM Lens is a new ultra-wide angle zoom lens from Sigma, available with mounts for Sigma, Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Sony. The lens features a maximum aperture of f/3.5 throughout the zoom range, an angle of view of 102.4-63.8 degrees and a minimum aperture of f/22. The lens is constructed using 13 elements in 10 groups.

The lens has a minimum focusing distance of 9.4 inches throughout the zoom range, a maximum magnification factor of 1.6:1 and uses 82mm diameter filters. It features a 7-bladed diaphragm, measures 3.4x3.5 inches and comes with a petal style lens hood. It uses 2 ELD (Extraordinary Low Dispersion) and 1 SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements. In addition, it features Super Multi-Layer coating to reduce flare and ghosting and an HSM (Hypersonic Motor) for smooth and fast autofocusing with the full-time availability of manual focus.

Rating:

4.0 out of 5

Value

The 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC lens provides a good value for the money. It's a bit pricey, but then good glass for SLR cameras has always been pricey. This lens features a very useful ultra wide-angle zoom range and produces excellent images throughout the range. It features excellent build quality, is fast enough for indoor shooting and is fairly small in size. The HSM ensures that it is quiet and smooth as well.

Features

This lens does well in the features category, particularly because of its ultra-wide zoom range, fast maximum aperture and excellent construction. The use of SLD and ELD glass, along with the Super Multi-Layer coating, provides for excellent quality images throughout the zoom range with little ghosting or flaring. Chromatic aberration is mild, and distortion throughout the range is what one would expect from an ultra-wide angle lens (barrel distortion is prominent). The exaggerated effect is one of the reasons for using an ultra-wide angle lens.

Summary

If you can afford it, and you're looking for an ultra-wide angle lens, the Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC lens makes an excellent choice. It's available for most mounts (notably not Olympus's and Panasonic's four thirds), and produces excellent quality images. It has a truly useful range, making it the perfect lens for indoor and outdoor architectural shots, and the build quality is excellent, too. All in all a very good offering from Sigma.

Pros

10-20mm zoom range
F3.5 maximum aperture from 10-20mm
82mm filter diameter
Angle of view 102.4-63.8 degrees

Cons

not available in 4/3's mount