Review on Sigma 18-125mm f/3.8-5.6 AF DC OS HSM Zoom Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras by Mya Guzman

(see my update at the bottom of this review). Zoom of some sort to go with it. For a versatile lens, the modest 18-125mm range this zoom offers, from moderately wide-angle to moderately telephoto, sounded very appealing. I don't really like sports or wildlife photography, so I've avoided affordable superzoom lenses not only because of the cost, but also because of the weight, size, and image quality. I've done some pretty extensive testing on this lens with a variety of tripods. I took pictures of my window in Chicago, tried different apertures and focal lengths and compared them with my two Canon lenses and found the comparison useful. I found the Sigma photos to look good and always sharp. The OS works fairly well and I was able to snap two perfectly sharp handheld shots with a full 125mm telephoto lens in just 1/15th of a second, although I had to use my best technique as I suspect it's not hard to overload the OS full body. Two other identical shots with no operating system were blurry. I've taken several hundred shots with this lens and had no trouble focusing. The focus is fast and quiet. I took several shots of seagulls in flight at 125mm, quite a tricky focusing situation, and every single one of them was sharp. Camera, but as the Sigma gets bigger it gets better, especially at 50mm. (see update on this below) The telescopic part of the lens is built very tight, with no play or sense of imprecision, unlike Canon's kit lens. It has a zoom lock, but that's not necessary as there's no lens shift. I found this lens to be very well built and durable. This is not a lightweight lens. Weighing around a pound, it's twice the weight of a Canon 18-55mm IS lens. However, some digital superzoom lenses from Sigma and Tamron, like the 18-250mm, weigh a little more. Overall I would say this is a very good lens and I would buy it again. If you want a single lens option to leave on your camera when traveling and if like me you're addicted to wide angle and if you also like a telephoto lens but don't need a 200mm or 250mm superzoom and all the compromises In terms of image quality you might experience, this is the best and only choice of Canon APS-C digital camera that I know of and would currently recommend. UPDATE: After owning this lens for a year I finally found out that the reason it tended to be soft at the wide (18mm) end was the wrong focus. It confuses me that it took me so long to figure this out, but here it is: I aim at a distant object and it focuses at 2m. (above 18mm the problem quickly disappears) I went to the Sigma website, registered my lens -Serial number and it said I was entitled to an extra 2 year warranty (as originally promised in the Revain product listing) and I had 22 months left. So far, so good. When it came back the papers said "Lens out of warranty" but also "Customized AF data provided by N/C" meaning they fixed it for free. I was probably one of the first to buy this lens back in June 2008 and it seems they have since updated the firmware that controls the auto focus feature. In fact, the lens' performance is better now at 18mm, maybe a lot better. I can now take pictures at f/4.0 and they often come out pretty sharp, at least in the center. Now I can say that the optics in this lens are indeed capable of taking very sharp photos even wide open but if you have the same problem as me you will have to focus manually to achieve this if you don't get it that there is a "AF data" update. . Let's hope the lenses on sale now don't have this problem. More recent reviews than mine show that this issue has been fixed. I would also advise Sigma to put more resources into customer support. When I was told by phone and in writing that the lens was out of warranty, despite the website and printed warranty clearly stating that it should be, I was a bit concerned.