Learn How a Nikon Gear Head Went Sigma - And Why You Should Too!

a Nikon has been in my camera bag for more than 10 years now. I started off with a Nikon D70 as my first Digital SLR. I then moved up to a D200, D7000, D700, and now a D800 and hopefully a D5 when it comes out! One of my main reasons for sticking with Nikon is not because of their camera bodies, but because of their lenses. Two lenses I use most frequently are my 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII and the 85mm f/1.8. I do also own a 50mm f/1.4 and used to own the 24-70mm f/2.8. Yep, I said "used to own." Here’s the story behind this little change of heart...

I have been hearing so many great things about the new Sigma Art Lenses. The excitement over the 50mm f/1.4 Art Lens with a cost of $949 vs the $349 version from Nikon has to make you think - people are really willing to spend $600 more for a third party 50mm lens?? The is answer is: Yes they are! I also have been slightly intrigued by the 24- 105mm L Lens from Canon, a very popular, good quality lens. Nikon has the 24-120mm lens (I even owned one at one time) but the build was plastic and the overall quality was average. Then, I hear Sigma is producing a 24-105mm f/4 Art lens for $899, which is $1000 cheaper than the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8. Sure, it’s one stop more light capability overall, but I don’t shoot a lot of low light subjects, and the ISO capabilities of today’s cameras are quite extraordinary.

So with all of this in mind, a friend of mine was upgrading gear from an APC sensor Nikon D7000 to a full frame D600. He was looking for a versatile, good quality lens with a decent focal length. So I went out on a limb and said, “I hear the Sigma 24-105 Art lens is great deal and great quality.”

He ended up getting a copy of the lens and was happily impressed with it. Naturally, I had to get my hands on it. He brought it over the other day, and I popped it on to the D800 and shot a couple of frames in the garage. No big deal – just some text on a box sitting on a table in natural lighting conditions, something like ISO 400 f/4 1/160 of a second. I brought up the image and was dumbfounded. I didn’t really expect to see a huge difference between my $1800 Nikon to a $900 Sigma, but the Sigma quality was hands down crisper and cleaner. I was now obsessed! I had to have it. See sample photos below.

Here are some basic facts on the Sigma 24-105mm lens:

• f/4 throughout the entire range of focal lengths
• HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) for quick and quiet focusing
• OS (Optical stabilization) allows for slower shutter speed hand held 9 bladed aperture for great bokeh
• FLD and SLD glass to knock down chromatic aberration (very nice!)

Pros:

• Relatively inexpensive compared to similar lenses
• Great image quality – lives up to the Art moniker
• Fast and accurate autofocus
• Quiet
• Great build quality – feels solid and not plastic

Cons:

• A little heavy (nearly two pounds!)
• Slight to moderate vignetting at f/4 but goes away at f/5.6 (vignette easily taken care of with one click in Lightroom/Photoshop)
• Zoom is opposite direction from standard Nikon rotation

I haven’t done a lot of shooting with this lens yet, and I will as soon as my copy arrives (it is currently on back order due to high demand). I have done some online research and have seen some other detailed image samples that confirms my overall impression of the lens quality. Also, I reviewed some pretty stringent tests on chromatic aberration to the Canon version of the same focal length, and the Sigma Art was better by far. Overall, I am willing to give up the 1 stop of light with the f/4 aperture and the Vignette for the superb quality image this lens produces. If you're in the market for this focal length standard zoom, I recommend you check the Sigma out.

Lastly, below is a shot from my friend, Alec Amo. It’s of San Diego skyline from Balboa Park. I did some pixel peeping on some of the windows in the background and the quality is so great that you can make out human forms!