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Derek Kraft photo
Viet Nam, Clarksville
1 Level
718 Review
50 Karma

Review on Sigma 18 35Mm EF Mount Bundle Tabletop by Derek Kraft

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Ideal for night shots

My husband gave me this lens for my anniversary and Mother's Day for my (very old) Canon Rebel T2i. I photographed Comet Neowise with the lens kit that came with my camera but found I needed a better night lens. I bought this f/1.8 Sigma lens and am very happy with it. Although the comet was already past its peak when I convinced myself to spend the money on this lens, I still managed to play around with it and get some night shots. To capture the comet with my old lens, I had to increase the shutter speed to 10 seconds or more. With this lens, I immediately captured the disappearing comet (circled in blue in the third image I posted). This lens can seriously make night look like daylight if you get the parameters right. The fourth picture I posted shows what looks like daylight. There was a full moon in the sky adding atmospheric light and the lens was able to make it look like day (I experimented with the Av settings to achieve this just to see what the camera could do). (You can see the stars at the top of the image - these are the same settings as my other three example photos I posted). This is a fast lens, although it's heavier than I expected. Unlike the Canon lenses I own, the length of the lens doesn't increase as you zoom in or out - it all seems to be happening internally. That's neither good nor bad - just different from Canon. I love this lens for wide angle night shots which is why I bought it. The lens comes in its own zip case, which is very convenient. The rest of the package was all a bonus. The lens alone would have cost the same in a regular shop so everything else was a bonus. I needed 3 filters as the Sigma lens is larger than my Canon lenses and doesn't support filters of the same size. A table tripod comes in handy for indoor shooting, and a wrist strap and cleaning supplies also come in handy. What I was really happy about was the memory card slot and 2 extra memory cards, which I already used before testing the lens. A memory card reader is also useful. My camera is old enough to take larger memory cards and my computer is new enough not to read them! Therefore, a card reader that can read multiple types of cards comes in handy every time I take photos. with Sigma. At f/1.8 I was even able to capture a bit of the Milky Way (my neighbors have bright lights so I may have to go elsewhere to capture them in the dark), but that was a bit of my age. the lens could not. I didn't test the lens for daytime use as I didn't buy it for that, but for photos I took with my kids etc it seems on par with the Canon lens I normally use.

Pros
  • OPTIC. The lens consists of four aspherical elements and five special SLD (Low Dispersion) glass elements to minimize aberrations and distortions throughout the zoom range and deliver sharper, clearer images. Super Multi-Coating has also been applied to lens elements to reduce surface flare, flare and ghosting for images with higher contrast and color fidelity.
Cons
  • High price