question about sigma 10-20mm

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ep82

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Hello Everyone

I am looking in getting the Sigma 10-20mm lens for my 400D. I was looking for some info on google and found a photography forum which has discussion about this lens. Most love it but some hated it.


Now, I dont have enough money to buy the canon 10-22mm so I am sticking with the sigma. I have bought a 70-300mm APO DG macro and I found it quite good. tested it at the zoo and got some clear pics and got some stunning shots at a track side @ Japfest.

Now. I need to ask a few things. what is vignetting?? I heard some people suffers from it but some say they havent had this on their 10-20.

Also I heard there is loads of poor qaulity 10-20 ago around as people have sent them back due to bad qaulity and the shop/sites just re sell them again (so it recycles). Most of the poor ones are blurry and have yellow colour.
So if I get this lens. how will I test out if I have a good lens or a poor lens? Do I just take some snaps and see how sharp they are?? Because if I load up a pic taken from my stock canon 18-55mm @ 100%, it's still blurry....:shrug:

1 last thing. I might have to travel 60 miles to get this lens (deal) so is there a way to test out the lens and see if it's a 'good lens' without me coming back home and find out it's poor and have to drive the 120miles round trip to swap for a new one?

Sorry for the long Questions but I really hope someone can answer all of them. and sorry if this has been asked before :help:

Thanks
 
Have you tried camera price buster, as with their discount code Jessops is quite competitive and you can pick it up from a local store. Currently 279.99.
 
How does this site work then?? Do I check out at jessops and just enter the code in?
 
ep82 said:
Also I heard there is loads of poor qaulity 10-20 ago around as people have sent them back due to bad qaulity and the shop/sites just re sell them again (so it recycles). Most of the poor ones are blurry and have yellow colour.

So if I get this lens. how will I test out if I have a good lens or a poor lens? Do I just take some snaps and see how sharp they are?? Because if I load up a pic taken from my stock canon 18-55mm @ 100%, it's still blurry....:shrug:

1 last thing. I might have to travel 60 miles to get this lens (deal) so is there a way to test out the lens and see if it's a 'good lens' without me coming back home and find out it's poor and have to drive the 120miles round trip to swap for a new one?
Click to expand...
Don't worry too much. There aren't loads of poor quality 10-20s out there. You never hear from the 99% of people who buy one and are perfectly happy with it. Sigma might have the odd quality-control problem, but if they were that bad they'd have gone out of business years ago.

The way to test a lens is to take pictures. Some people photograph test charts and examine them at high magnification. Of course, if you do it that way, then technique is critical - you have to avoid camera shake, focussing errors, too-shalllow depth of field, etc. Or you could take some pictures of the kind you normally take, and look at them at the size you normally would, and if they're fine ... it doesn't mean the lens is 100.00000% perfect, but it does mean it will do the job for you.
 
take your camera and a laptop if you have it with you to the shop, ask the salesman if you can try the lens outside, step out and take a couple of test shots of the road using your camera. go back in the shop, set up laptop and insert mem card/connect camera. view images and compare to what your images normally look like. if happy, then hand over the funds, if not, ask for another copy of the lens or walk away.

if your not happy dont buy. hope that helps:)
 
Would it be ok if I get the lens and then take 1 or 2 pics and let you guys be the judge? I am no expert and I might not spot errors unlike alot of you guys/gals can.

Is it best to take any landscape(ish) photo or is there something else good to snap to do a test on. (read somewhere on here to take a photo of a brick wall) Also do I need to use tripod or hand held?

I should be getting this lens tomorrow. :) I cant wait. Oh I have asked jessops about the poor quality control and asked if I can take it back if it's not good enough, they said ''what??? I havent never heard of such thing........ not one of our sigma 10-20 lens have returned as they were so popular''


edit...
Forgot to ask. is there a website that allows me to upload the full res of the photo?? I looked at photobucket and I can only upload 1mb max
 
Vignetting isn't really a problem, you are likely be shooting f/8 or f/11 ballpark and its non-issue.
 
is there a website that allows me to upload the full res of the photo?? I looked at photobucket and I can only upload 1mb max
Click to expand...

It's just as good for you to load the whole shot, resized as normal for the web and a few cropped sections, small enough that you can upload them at 100% size.

There are lots of folks out there that have a problem with sharpness of pretty much all the superwide zooms but you do need to do a bit of pixel peeping to see it. For the vast majority of people, a shot of any of these lenses that's well processed will look great.
 
I have a sigam 10-20 and find it very good, only vignetting I have experienced is when I am using a cokin p filter assembly at 10mm
 
TBH (SLAM----YELP! ;))

The sigma isn't particularly great for sharpness full stop. It tends to get quite squishy in the corners especially. Unless you really know what you're doing to test it and what a sharp lens looks like straight out of the camera then I think you'll be hard pushed to see if it's defective or not.

Mine can be a touch soft down the RHS sometimes but it completely depends on the aperture it's used at, the focal length, the camera, the distance of the subject (where it's focused) and the incidence of light hitting it!

e.g. in a room on the d70 it's rubbish but on the d300 it seems to be better most times

Unless you're going to be making huge prints then I doubt you'd notice really anyway.


Also, I think all the guff about retailers recycling the returned copies is a load of toss. They have a reputation to uphold and if they keep on selling trash lenses then nobody will buy them. They will be going back to sigma to be fixed or binned at no cost to the retailer. Unless I'm being very naive! Sigma have apparently fixed the problem with the earlier versions of this lens and they've sold millions of them now!
 
Nixtoo said:
Have you tried camera price buster, as with their discount code Jessops is quite competitive and you can pick it up from a local store. Currently 279.99.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I just tried to buy this lens from Jessop's site and I cant seem to find a place to enter the code. As soon as I press checkout, theres a place to type in Jessops.com voucher code. I tried it there and it doesnt work.

I got as far as filling in my card details and I still cannot see the code section. I backed off in case they processed the order once I filled the card details in.

Can someone tell me where I can enter this code?
 
Make sure you type SUMMER25

When it accepts it in the box, move to checkout and it should have discounted your purchase

Dave
 
dcash29 said:
Make sure you type SUMMER25

When it accepts it in the box, move to checkout and it should have discounted your purchase

Dave
Click to expand...

The only place I can enter code is the Jessop.com Voucher box. and it says ''Sorry, a voucher could not be found for the code specified''

Am I just being stupid or does this not work??

Has anyone tried this code recenlty?

Can someone tell me step by step in how to redeem this code?? I really want this get this lens today :)
 
I have phoned up the 3 local sotres near me and they all say the same thing. ''If jessops has a promotional deal listed on other websites, then they/the website will know about it'' But not a single place knew about this deal. plus it doesnt work when I try it.

Is this a real deal?
 
Worked fine for me late last month.. Maybe the offer has now finished.... shame.

Paul
 
Someone told me they use a 10-20 for weddings. Wouldnt this make people look a bit odd (ok for wide shots of the big group but surely that would be all) :shrug:
 
Janice said:
Someone told me they use a 10-20 for weddings. Wouldnt this make people look a bit odd (ok for wide shots of the big group but surely that would be all) :shrug:
Click to expand...

Could do... You could correct the perspective using Photoshop or a plugin though, with some work.
 
Hello everyone.

I have e-mailed the owner of Camera Price buster website and told him that the code does not work.
He kindly wrote back today and told me that the code has expired but he has given me a new code. instead of £25, I will only get £20. Still saving is saving :)

Anyway. I have read on the this site about people who uses and dont use filters on their lens. I am one who does, purely to protect the lens from getting scratched.

So..... Is there any different between Filter lens?? like the cheap ones on ebay.....UV filter £10 delivered to the jessops £33 UV filter? Should I pay more for the filter or are they all the same? (expect the named ones)
 
I have the 10-20mm for my 40d and love it. Yeah it maybe isnt that sharp but who cares. I mean, is sharpness really the be all and end all of what constitutes a good photo. As for vignetting I personally think it is pretty cool sometimes and I often use the built-in flash on the 40d to create this very effect. I was out shooting at an old rundown croft today and got some cool interior shots with the 10-20mm.
 
The 10 -20 is a great lens for the money. Check out One stop digital. HK retailer but I have used them OK.

Alternatively there are a couple for sale on the forum I think.

Vignetting can be corrected in Lightroom or photoshop so dont fret too much about that,. I sometines add vignetting as it can be used to enhance a pic.

Remember - There are no rights or wrongs to photography. What works for you may not for someone else. Some of the best pics ever taken are blurry!!

Get, have aplay and experiment its a fun lens to work with
 
Hello everyone.

Sorry about all these Questions.

I have finally bought myself a 10-20mm on friday but only had the chance to test it today.

I personall think it gets abit too soft of the edges but I am not sure if this is normal. I have just tested the lens today ( I didnt have time to go out and find a good location) I wanted to get a shots and just upload it to get everyones opinions.

This photo was taken straight from the camera with no touch up. I only cropped them down.
OK. this is the bottom left of the original pic. (I didnt know what to take and realised when I got home that grass is prob not the best)
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/ilghap/sigmatesting.jpg

This is the center of the pic.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/ilghap/sigmatesting2.jpg

And this is the oiriginal but I can only upload 1mb so I used photoshop to scale it down to 2000x1333 pixels. ( not sure if you can see it full 2000x1333 because when my computer finish loading the picture resize to fit on screen)
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b145/ilghap/sigmatesting3.jpg

oh. also got this if this is useful for anyone...
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/250Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
F11
Metering Modes
Evaluative metering
Exposure Compensation
0
ISO Speed
100
Lens
10-20mm
Focal Length
10.0 mm
Image size
3888 x 2592
Image Quality
Fine
Flash
Off
White Balance
Auto
AF mode
One-Shot AF
Picture Style
Landscape
Parameters
Tone Curve : Standard
Sharpness level : -
Pattern Sharpness : -
Contrast : 0
Sharpness : 4
Color saturation : 0
Color tone : 0
Color matrix
-
Color Space
sRGB
File Size
3622 KB
Dust Delete Data
No
Drive Mode
Single-frame shooting

next photo coming up in a few mins..
 
Here are the next 2. I am not sure what the best thing to snap, to do this test so I just tried anything :P

sigmatesting4.jpg


I thought I will show you this one as well as the cow on the front/left seems to be a little blurry.

sigmatesting5.jpg


Thanks in advance :)
 
Looks pretty normal to me.

The reason the cow is blurry is that you're shooting at one thirtieth and it moved its head.
 
Do the brick wall test HERE

When you do 100% crop note soft areas/sides then turn your camera upside down and test again to double check soft areas.

This lens is a sharp lens but some copies do suffer from soft left sides thus requiring replacement or calibration.

After all that your stadium picci does sharpen up the cow one might be soft due to the cow moving?
 
hi all,

I too am thinking of buying the Sigma 10-20mm lens for my Nikon D50.

Could someone please tell me if I can put filters on the lens, ie polarising, or do I need to get a Cokin type adaptor and slot filters in that way? I'd be most grateful for any advice since I'm only learning the importance of filters, and don't want to buy the lens without knowing what kind of filters I would need to get for it.


Thanks, Helen
 
Helen,

the 10-20mm lens has a 77mm filter thread so the filters can get pretty pricey. Check out ebay and the Hong Kong shops, I got two B and W filters for something like twenty pounds each.

The Cokin filters will work with an appropriate adaptor ring and you will need the Cokin filter holder if you are using things like graduated neutral density filters or such for landscapes.

Good luck
 
subseasniper said:
Helen,



The Cokin filters will work with an appropriate adaptor ring and you will need the Cokin filter holder if you are using things like graduated neutral density filters or such for landscapes.

Good luck
Click to expand...

:agree:

hello helen

i use a siggy 10-20 on a D 80 with cokin P type filters ,the normal cokin filter holder ( 4 slots ) cause vignetting but with the wide angle filter holder ( 2 slots ) they work fine from 20 to approx 12 mm without a problem .
wider than that & you do get dark corners.
 
Thanks guys, that really helps me a lot. Really appreciate the trouble you took to reply.

Helen :0)
 
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