BUY The 18-35mm f/1.8 for CANON here; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/967344-REG/sigma_18_35mm_f1_8_dc_hsm.html/BI/19363/KBID/11419 BUY The 18-35 f/1.8 for NIKON here; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/967345-REG/sigma_18_35mm_f1_8_dc_hsm.html/BI/19363/KBID/11419 BUY The Sigma Dock for CANON Lenses here; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/909813-REG/Sigma_USB_Dock.html/BI/19363/KBID/11419 BUY The Sigma Dock for NIKON Lenses here; http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/967590-REG/sigma_878306_usb_dock_for_nikon.html/BI/19363/KBID/11419 CONCLUSION:OK, time to draw some conclusions about the 18-35 from Sigma, in a nutshell; BUILD QUALITY: It's first rate, built with amazing precision and high quality materials, smooth and well dampened focus and zoom rings, it's really weighty and just reeks of quality, on the downside, there's no IS and it's not weather sealed. Those nits aside, for build we gave it a 9.5/10FOCUS SPEED AND ACCURACY: As we discussed, its not flawless, but it's good enough, as it hits focus accurately most of the time, but there are enough misses in there - especially in low light situations where all lenses tend to struggle - to give me pause. The misses are still OK, but a bit soft, when it hits dead on, it cuts like a razor, it's sharp. But there are just enough misses to give me pause. All in it's a 7/5/10OPTICAL QUALITY AND THE QUALITY OF THE RESULTS: I could heap superlative after superlative on this lens, sigma should be commended for a brilliant optical performance, as for negatives, well, it vignettes quite a bit at f/1.8, but that's about it. The sigma gets a 9.5 out of 10 for both!VALUE: When you bring to market something as challenging to engineer as an f/1.8 zoom lens, then expecations for a quality product will automatically be a bit suspect. Sigma has taken the camera world by storm the last year and a half with some well-built, optically superior, and innovative lenses, the 18-35 encompasses all three of those aspects and all for a very reasonable price - especially for what you get. For value, it's a grand slam, easily getting a 10/10. OVERALL: it's a 45.5/50 - HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE FINAL WORD: as you can probably already tell, I'm more than a bit enamored with the 18-35, and for good reason, there's nothing else quite like it in the marketplace today, and not only that, it succeeds at being something that no one has ever tried before in a mass production lens and for that alone Sigma should really be commended, this is the kind of lens that both Canon and Nikon should be producing for their crop sensor cameras. I've long said that Canon should consider an "L" type lens for their small sensor cameras. Well, we know at least one 3rd party manufacturer is listening - congratulations Sigma, its a job well done!

• published: 12 Oct 2013
• views: 97