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Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG IF HSM Aspherical Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens for Pentax and Samsung SLR Cameras | List Price: $779.00
Discount Price: $779.00
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Brand: Sigma
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Ultra wide angle zoom lens offers 122 degree view along the diagonal axis
- 12-24mm focal length
- f4.5-5.6 maximum aperture
- Super Multi Coating reduces flare and ghosting
- Internal focus ring
Good enough. Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG IF HSM [Posted on 2008-03-10]
I have had this 12-24 wide zoom for a while now and my opinion of this lens is improved. It is growing on me. The review I wrote below is true enough, but it is pretty understated. I must say I'd give this lensanother star after using it for a while. You could invest in the Pentax 14 mm and 21 mm wide primes and the 16-45mm Pentax Lens to try to cover this range with something optically superior, and that might improve on the images you can get some of the time. You would lose the convenience of the zoom below 16 mm and you would give up the range below 14mm entirely. You'd gain a stop in light gathering ability for sure, but you'd need to be a juggler and you'd need wheels on your camera bag to haul it all around. I am finding this almost fisheye zoom range is addictive, I get the shots I need with this. They are everything they need to be to use in the marketing materials that most of my images are destined for.
Original review:
I was torn between the Sigma and the Pentax zooms at this focal range. they both seemed to offer to adequately provide the wide angle range that I needed to do the everyday shooting of building interiors and exteriors. Both were wide enough and seemed optically good enough. The test images I saw seemed like they might be sharp enough, and they were surprisingly free of spherical distortions for lenses that wide. Both lenses were reported to be prone to some bad optical flare effects from direct sun on the lens. It's all true for the Sigma at least. It could be sharper. It is, however, good enough if you're using your shot nearly full frame. If you're needing to crop much of the image the sharpness may not be there to get a good large print. the Sigma was about a hundred bucks under the price of the Pentax so I went for it. I have nothing to go on to compare the Sigma to the Pentax 12-24 zooms, except the sample images posted on Amazon and in other reviews on line seemed on close reading to favor the Sigma. I think they both are nothing to write home about in the sharpness department when you zoom way in. But they are still darned wide zooms and reasonably free of spherical distortion for a lens that wide. I'm getting good enough images and prints to use at 8X10, (without photo shopping any distortion out) provided I'm careful to frame the shot close to the way I want to print it.
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