An 18-200mm Zoom? Ultimate Lens? The Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS

ShaolinTiger posted this at 4:30 am on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 —

Loads of people have raved about the Nikon 18-200mm VR, the ultimate walk-around lens, having tried one out I can’t say I’m over-impressed.

It’s one thing however Canon users were sorely missing, a lens that hits the whole range from pretty wide indeed to a decent 200mm zoom (Something like an 11.5x zoom in normal terms).

Now Sigma has just announced a similar lens! There’s has been 3rd party 18-200mm zooms before but all without image stabiliser which renders the 200mm quite useless.

The new Sigma has Optical Stabiliser!

Sigma18-200

This high zoom ratio lens is exclusively designed for digital SLR cameras and is capable of covering a wide range of focal lengths from wide angle to telephoto. It is equipped with Sigma’s own unique technology OS (Optical Stabilizer) function. This function uses two sensors inside the lens to detect vertical and horizontal movement of the camera and works by moving an optical image stabilizing lens group, to effectively compensate for camera shake. It automatically detects movement of the camera and compensates for camera shake when shooting moving subject such as motor sports.

Two SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements and two aspherical lenses provide excellent correction for all types of aberrations. The super multi-layer lens coating reduces flare and ghosting. This lens provides superior image quality throughout the entire zoom range. An inner focusing system eliminates front lens rotation, making the lens particularly suitable for using circular polarizing filters and the petal-type lens hood supplied.

I won’t deny it’s a very handy range, the difference between 200-300mm is minimal and 18-200mm is such an amazing walk around range, the quality of SLR with the convenience of a super zoom, you’d only have to change for Macro, Super Wide-Angle (10-18mm) and low light (something with a f/1.8 aperture).

Will be waiting to test this one out, I expect it should be around RM1500-2000.

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3,253 views - Filed under: Equipment,Sigma

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8 Comments »

927

Comment by Albert Ng

October 3, 2006 @ 3:33 pm


It might just be a good grab for those unable to find the elusive Nikkor 18-200 VR. :D

This has got me gaping too. There is no clear literature as to what mounts it supports, since Sigma generally makes for many mounts, but imagine putting that on a Sony A100/Pentax k100d! I wonder how many stops can be shaved in total.

942

Comment by ShaolinTiger

October 4, 2006 @ 8:47 pm


Albert: I did wonder what would happen if you put an image stabilised lens on a stabilised body, would they work together, or counteract each other? Might be interesting, lens stabiliser and CCD stabiliser together. Or it might be a disaster! Usually Sigma releases for Canon and Nikon but they have started released 3/4 mount lenses for some models. Wasn’t that impressed by the Nikon tbh, will wait and see how this performs, if it’s half the price but same performance then it might impress me :)

944

Comment by KY

October 5, 2006 @ 11:53 am


you meant 4/3? :P

945

Comment by ShaolinTiger

October 5, 2006 @ 3:02 pm


KY: Yeah it’s actually “Four Thirds” but I’m lazy to type it :)

Comment by genedavinci

October 27, 2006 @ 2:52 pm


it’s a good alternative for neekon 18-200mm VR. I am expecting the price to be around 2k. the normal sigma 18-200mm is priced at rm1.5k thus i don’t think they will be around 1500-2000 margin. my best bet would be rm1900 – rm2200.

Comment by ShaolinTiger

October 27, 2006 @ 6:21 pm


Gene: Yah I agree, it should be around RM2200 I would guess.

Comment by moo_t

January 10, 2007 @ 4:27 pm


Nikor 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 VR only cost ~RM2600-RM2800. Saving few hundreds bucks for 3rd party lens is not a good idea.

Comment by ShaolinTiger

January 11, 2007 @ 12:30 am


moo_t: Well more like a saving of around RM800-1000 which is quite a lot and enough to get another decent lens with the difference or a flash like the SB-600. Of course that’s only if the Sigma optical quality stands up to the Nikkor. Like I chose the Tamron 90mm SP Di Macro lens over the Nikkor 105mm VR Micro lens as it’s half the price and just as sharp, but without the VR.

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