Digital SLR Reviews Blog

Posts Tagged ‘55mm’

Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15 1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3 Inch LCD and EF S 18 55mm f 3 5 5 6 IS Lens EF S 55 250mm f 4 0 5 6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens 430EX II Speedlite Flash and 2400 SLR Gadget Bag

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Sigma 18 250mm f 3 5 6 3 DC OS HSM IF Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

The Sigma 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM lens incorporates Sigma’s original anti-shake compensation
function, with a 13.8 times zoom ratio. For cameras that have anti-shake function in the camera body, this
lens’s Hybrid Optical Stabilizer provides not only anti-shake function for the camera body compensation,
but also the function to compensate the image shaking in the view finder. Incorporating four Special Low Dispersion glass elements
and three Aspherical lens elements provides excellent image quality throughout the entire zoom range.
This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 17.7 inches (45cm) at all focal lengths and a maximum
magnification of 1:3.4 reproduction ratio, making it ideal for close-up photography. An inner focusing
system also eliminates front lens rotation, making it suitable for use with circular polarizing filters and the
supplied petal-type hood. The super multi layer coating helps to reduce the ghost in the backlight
photography.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Best bang for your buck
Very minimal nuance with my Canon L lens if you ever notice it at all. No wonder this is the Best Entry Level Lens: Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM and has a TIPA award for 2009. Quick AF and razor sharp pics!!!! Anyone now can become a playboy photographer.

4 Stars Excellent but slightly heavy
I bought this lens before a recent trip to Australia. I’ve been using the 18-55mm that came with my EOS and a Canon 22-200mm. The 18-55mm suits 80% of my needs normally but I find that I use the telephoto a lot when traveling. So this lens replaces them both. I still brought the 18-55mm with me but 90% of the time I had the Sigma on the camera. It worked very well. The zoom is smooth and the autofocus worked well. The few times I needed to use manual focus I found the focus ring fell right at hand and worked well. I took 2000 pictures in a variety of conditions and the images look great. It was especially handy for wildlife shots.

One downside is that it’s a relatively slow lens (f-stop). I can’t really call it a complaint because I knew what I was getting and a faster lens is quite a bit more expensive. The 10% of the time I used the 18-55mm lens was in low-light situations where f/3.5 just wasn’t cutting it.

The image stabilization seems to work well. I have not tried any comparisons with it on or off yet–I left it on the entire trip. However I did take several hundred pictures during a whale watch cruise. The seas were rough and the boat was moving and I was at maximum zoom taking photos of whales breeching. Everything worked a treat. Of course some were blurry but most were razor sharp.

The only ‘complaint’ is that the lens is heavy. There’s a lot of glass in it, so that’s understandable, but it gets to be a pain in the neck (literally) after a while. I’ll be looking for a better strap next. When carrying the camera, the lens ends up hanging down. After a while it loosened up enough that it would extend on its own. I started using the zoom lock and have begun to build up the muscle memory to unlock it when I bring the camera into position. Unfortunately, the lock button is very close to the autofocus button and on several occasions I flipped that while trying to lock or unlock the lens. Not a big deal, though.

Overall I’m very happy with the lens and the pictures it took and the price was quite reasonable.

5 Stars Great All-In-One SLR lens
We got the Sigma 18-250mm lens for our Nikon D40 and it works great without any problems. It is a great all-in-one lens that can go wide and zoom pretty far in, has optical stabilization features, and even has a zoom lock function that isn’t even on Nikon’s current 18-200mm lens (the replacement model has one, though). Focusing does not rotate or extend the barrel of the lens so it won’t throw off polarizing filters or accidentally hit objects that are close to the lens like when taking pictures through a window. While its visual quality won’t match that of the more expensive Nikon lenses, you do get more bang for your buck and you probably won’t even notice the difference. The only drawbacks I see with using this lens are that it is a little on the heavy side, and that its length will create a shadow when using your SLR’s built-in flash at the widest focal length, but zooming in to at least 24mm or using an external flash will solve that problem. The f/6.3 aperture at maximum zoom might also cause problems for some, but it’s a compromise you have to live with given this lens’ price.

2 Stars Poor All-In-One lens…
The reason I bought this Sigma 18-250mm are probably like most people. I want to replace two lenses I have (18~70mm + 70~210mm) and the Nikon is cost too much. Amazon had this one for Nikon mount priced $509 last month, so I decided to give it a try. After two weeks of ownership, I am disappointed and sending it back. This is my second Sigma lenses. My first one is Sigma 30mm f1.4 which I like it, but this Sigma 18~250mm OS, just cannot serve the purpose.

What I like about this lens:

1. It’s much cheaper than Nikon one and have huge focus range.

2. Solid built and it is “Made in Japan”.

3. Optical Stabilizer does work.

4. Fast auto focus.

5. NO zoom lens creep.

What I don’t like about this lens:

1. Images are not sharp at all. I’ve compare it to my more than 10-years-old Nikkor (70-210mm f/4.5-5.6), it’s not even close.

2. It focuses fast, but I do find it somehow backward focus every now an then.

3. Less contrast and the color are not very saturated.

4. The pop-up flash would cast a shadow at 18~24mm even without the len hood on it.

5. The AF stuck few times. I have to switch the AF button to fix it.

I don’t care much about the weight, HSM and distortion since I have hand strap and shoot more people than buildings. The sharpness is what I care the most. This lens is also useless indoor. I’ve trid turn on the OS, increase the ISO to 800, but none of the images come out what I expected. There are not that many reviews on this lens yet. The one I found is at [...]. The author had it compare to Nikon 18-200mm VR very thoroughly. He was impressive about this Sigma, but I think he return it after owning it for 6 weeks. It works fine on tripod for comparison, but not that great in real application.

While it is not sharp enough for outdoor shots, and useless indoor, I see no reason for keeping it. Others’ reviews are “Great all-in-one…”. I would say “Poor All-In-One lens”.

4 Stars Great everyday lens
This is a great everyday lens. Two lenses in one. I get great clear shots. The only negative I have about this lens is lens creep. It is bad. Any downward angle when using a tripod, it slides. It does not hold its position. Maybe this is true with all lenses of this size, I don’t know. But if it is then I think that is a major flaw that companies can work to fix. Because of the lens creep I give a 4 star rating and not 5 star. I do recommend this lens if lens creep is ok with you.

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Nikon 18 105mm f 3 5 5 6 AF S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Lens has been Factory-Refurbished to perform as new. Includes 90-Day Nikon Warranty. Designed for Nikon D-series Digital SLR cameras, this lens is compact, versatile and ideal for a broad range of shooting situations, ranging from interiors and landscapes to beautiful portraits a perfect everyday zoom. An ED- (Extra-low Dispersion) glass element minimizes chromatic aberration, contributing to superior optical performance. Exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) enables fast, accurate, and quiet autofocus. Front thread accepts 67mm screw-on lens filters. Rounded 7-blade diaphragm renders more natural appearance of out-of-focus image elements. Unit Dimensions – 3.0 x 3.5 inch (Diameter x Length) / 76×89mm (Diameter x Length); Weighs 14.8 ounces / 420 grams

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Excellent lens, very luminous
Simply excellent. It allows a great deal of light in the picture, even taking pics indoors or using the zoom. Love it.

5 Stars Exelent lens
This lens was exactly what I expect from it. With a good zoom rate and an excellent luminosity. The VR is great, REALY GREAT, it is amazing the results with low light.

5 Stars It is a very good entry lens for family use.
Pictures taken are sharp and clear, better than Nikon 18-55mm ones. The range is quite enough for family use. It is perfect for those who are too lazy (like me) to take multiple lenses out for trip.

It can be auto-focused in D40X and VR feature works fine, which is exactly as I expected.

5 Stars Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

I purchased this lens as a gift for use on a Nikon D-200, as the recipient enjoys taking both close-up botanical photos and portraits. This has proven to have been an outstanding choice, particularly with a tripod and the anti-vibration feature incorporated in the lens.

These allow for crystal-clear photos which can easily be expanded to 14″x 17″ when set to the highest-quality .jpeg setting, (and even larger in RAW), with effectively zero pixelation.

Some of the botanical photos my wife has taken are simply stunning, even with most of the basic settings set to Auto (she is still a novice). The zoom, while not huge, allows for much greater flexibility over a fixed-focus close-up lens and the price is extremely reasonable, particularly for what you get.

The White Box came with a sun-shield, a soft cloth lens ‘condom’ and caps for both ends. I would recommend this lens to anyone, novice, or experienced photographer if portraiture or close-in photographs were their requirements.

5 Stars Great Nikkor Lens Quality
The refurbished Nikkor 18-105mm AF VR Lens has been functioning very well. The lens is used with a D-60 Nikon. Both autofocus and manual settings have been easy to work with. Great results.

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Canon Digital Rebel XTi Black 18 55mm Kit

For a limited time only, purchase a qualifying digital SLR and accessory and save $19.99 instantly. Simply add both items to your Shopping Cart and enter promotional code TQN578F8, and we’ll take care of the rest. (Codes are also listed on individual product pages. Limit one discount per each combined purchase.) These offers apply only to purchases of products sold by Amazon.com between March 18 and March 31, 2008, and do not apply to products sold by third-party merchants and other sellers through the Amazon.com site.

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Sony 50mm f 1 8 SAM DT Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras

50mm f/1.8 standard lens * designed for Sony APS-C sensor SLR cameras * effective focal length of 75mm with APS-C sensor Sony cameras * large maximum aperture (f/1.8) for better low-light shooting and depth-of-field control * minimum focus distance: 13″ * attachment/filter size: 49mm *

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars The sharpest lens in my bag!
Things I like:

1. Sharp and great colors! I’ve been using my kit lens for a while, and I wanted a lens for portraits. The quality of the images make it my preferred lens, and I only resort to my kit zoom lenses during events where I am unable to get close.

2. Light. Agreed that it is mostly plastic, but it is sturdy and looks good. I do not regret this purchase at all due to build quality.

3. Fast! Indoor photos can be shot by hand with natural light due to the large f1.8 aperture. Built in steady shot in every Sony Alpha makes this even better. Shutter speed indoors using just natural light (no flash!) shooting away from the windows can range between 1/8 to 1/120 of a second from ISO 100 to 400. Moving to higher ISO values (which my zooms would have done in order to get similar shots) would probably match the speed, but would have introduced much more noise.

4. Smooth bokeh. None of this hexagonal stuff you see in other lenses.

Things I don’t like.

1. AF/MF switch. I have one on my camera, I don’t need one on my lens. In order to attain full manual focus I need to swith both the lens and body.

2. 49mm filters. Why not the usual 55mm?

3. Not full frame. If you don’t own an A900, and don’t ever plan of upgrading to one – this doesn’t matter to you.

I would recommend this lens to EVERYONE! It is cheap, and the quality of the images are superb! Furthermore, the fixed focal length forces a photographer to be more aware of how he/she is composing photographs. The lazy method of zooming in and out to fit the subject is no longer applicable. You have to move, and take into consideration objects around the subject. So in the end – you will be a better photographer – or a frustrated one due to the lack of zoom.

4 Stars excellent low light indoor lens.
the sony 50 mm takes excellent pictures indoors if you use the A- aperture setting and dial down to 1/8 great sharp pictures without the need for a flash. But everyone should have a 50 mm in their kit. it is also great for portraits as to the wider aperature. Well worth the money and takes great pictures.

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