PaulWog
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2013
- Messages
- 1,153
- Reaction score
- 188
- Location
- Canada
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
But it's 10:36PM right now, so it's too late to go out and play with it! I just did some in-home shots that I won't post.
First impressions:
1) The weight is nice. I like it.
2) It's somewhat large, but not ridiculously large unless if I put the hood on. Inconspicuous enough...
3) The bokeh is very nice, much better than the DX 35mm Nikkor lens.
4) The focus is *SILENT*!!! It's just a slight bit slower on focus than I'd have hoped, but it's still snappy enough. If the focus were just slightly faster, I would be impressed. I'm not dissatisfied, just not wowed at all. I'd prefer a slightly louder focus that is a bit faster, it's damn silent as it is right now.
5) The focus doesn't hunt in low light, but I haven't had enough time to test it. I did have inconsistent focus at 18mm in low light on a small test, but I'll see whether that's focus hunting (it didn't hunt, it clicked in) or requiring some calibration.
6) Sharp!
7) Feels amazing in the hand.
8) The dock (bought separately) feels cheap, and feels like it's going to break the lens when I put it on / take it off the lens. The dock feels super cheap and is super light and doesn't even feel like nice plastic. The software is fine, it offers lens calibration. That's all I bought it for, just in case. Not too exciting.
9) My D5200 almost looks a little silly. But the lens is at home on the D5200 regardless. D7100? It would look really nice. I feel sold on the DX format with this lens... would be interesting to see a 50-135 f1.8 counterpart.
10) Parfocal! Actually really cool. Didn't think that would be a neat feature but I immediately like that.
11) It's just about a macro lens. Does very very close focusing.
12) Pictures look sharp on all my lenses, the 10-20 f4-5.6, 50 1.8g, 85 1.8g, etc. However, video can be another thing entirely for whatever reason. The 18-35 Sigma Art breathes new life into video on this camera... wow. I did a test video and it looks so good. Parfocal zooming with this is so much fun.
13) A lot of people are worried that this lens has too short of a focal range, and that a 17-50 f2.8 is better for that extra 15mm reach. I did do a sharpness test, and it performs well. So, if I wanted an image that looks like what a 50mm f2.8 on DX looks like, I would just shoot at 35mm f1.8 and crop in. I end up with approximately the depth of field, give or take. Arguably, I may end up with a sharper/better image than an f2.8 zoom at 50mm as well. Just food for thought there.
14) One year warranty? That instills confidence! (Sarcasm). I think if I bought locally I would get a 7 year warranty (Canada-only), but that's offered through an affiliated company and not worth it. I read the warranty on my Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6. The fine-print reads that I must pay for shipping *both ways*, and the warranty can be revoked universally for any reason at any point prior to the 7 years being up.
15) I might need a new (larger) camera bag now that this is my walk-around lens.
I'll do an actual review once I've gotten to play with the thing some more. I'll be checking how much (if at all) I need to calibrate the lens first thing when I have time, since I did end up with troubles focusing at 18mm on high contrast targets. It definitely is nice so far.
First impressions:
1) The weight is nice. I like it.
2) It's somewhat large, but not ridiculously large unless if I put the hood on. Inconspicuous enough...
3) The bokeh is very nice, much better than the DX 35mm Nikkor lens.
4) The focus is *SILENT*!!! It's just a slight bit slower on focus than I'd have hoped, but it's still snappy enough. If the focus were just slightly faster, I would be impressed. I'm not dissatisfied, just not wowed at all. I'd prefer a slightly louder focus that is a bit faster, it's damn silent as it is right now.
5) The focus doesn't hunt in low light, but I haven't had enough time to test it. I did have inconsistent focus at 18mm in low light on a small test, but I'll see whether that's focus hunting (it didn't hunt, it clicked in) or requiring some calibration.
6) Sharp!
7) Feels amazing in the hand.
8) The dock (bought separately) feels cheap, and feels like it's going to break the lens when I put it on / take it off the lens. The dock feels super cheap and is super light and doesn't even feel like nice plastic. The software is fine, it offers lens calibration. That's all I bought it for, just in case. Not too exciting.
9) My D5200 almost looks a little silly. But the lens is at home on the D5200 regardless. D7100? It would look really nice. I feel sold on the DX format with this lens... would be interesting to see a 50-135 f1.8 counterpart.
10) Parfocal! Actually really cool. Didn't think that would be a neat feature but I immediately like that.
11) It's just about a macro lens. Does very very close focusing.
12) Pictures look sharp on all my lenses, the 10-20 f4-5.6, 50 1.8g, 85 1.8g, etc. However, video can be another thing entirely for whatever reason. The 18-35 Sigma Art breathes new life into video on this camera... wow. I did a test video and it looks so good. Parfocal zooming with this is so much fun.
13) A lot of people are worried that this lens has too short of a focal range, and that a 17-50 f2.8 is better for that extra 15mm reach. I did do a sharpness test, and it performs well. So, if I wanted an image that looks like what a 50mm f2.8 on DX looks like, I would just shoot at 35mm f1.8 and crop in. I end up with approximately the depth of field, give or take. Arguably, I may end up with a sharper/better image than an f2.8 zoom at 50mm as well. Just food for thought there.
14) One year warranty? That instills confidence! (Sarcasm). I think if I bought locally I would get a 7 year warranty (Canada-only), but that's offered through an affiliated company and not worth it. I read the warranty on my Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6. The fine-print reads that I must pay for shipping *both ways*, and the warranty can be revoked universally for any reason at any point prior to the 7 years being up.
15) I might need a new (larger) camera bag now that this is my walk-around lens.
I'll do an actual review once I've gotten to play with the thing some more. I'll be checking how much (if at all) I need to calibrate the lens first thing when I have time, since I did end up with troubles focusing at 18mm on high contrast targets. It definitely is nice so far.
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