Lens finder

If you find the content of this site useful, please purchase your lenses and accessories from our partners through this site. Thank you for your support!

$189.95
with EF mount
with F mount
with K mount
with A mount
with S mount

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC

see the whole gallery in large	APS-C sized image Lenses that create APS-C sized image are designed for digital only. They cannot be used on cameras that have image sensor larger than the APS-C format. These lenses are not suitable for film cameras either. No Ultrasonic AF Lenses with ultrasonic focusing mechanism tend to be quiter and faster than traditionally focusing lenses. One or more Low Dispersion lens element is used Low Dispersion lens elements help to reduce chromatic aberration. Not stabilized Image stabilization helps to reduce blur caused by hand shake, especially at high focal length or in low light situations. Image stabilization can give 1 to 3 stop advantage over none stabilized lens, based on the reciprocal rule. Metal mount Cheaper lenses are usually equipped with plastic mount, while more expensive, professional lenses have metal mount. In general, metal mounts are more durable, and a good thing to have when lenses are changed a lot. When a camera is used mainly with one lens, the material of the lens mount is not that important. Internal Focusing Internally focusing lenses don't change their size while setting focus. The front lens is fixed The fixed front lens is not rotating during zoom and/or focusing. This allows the photographer to use petal shaped lens hood. Fixed front lenses also make the use of polarization filters a lot easier. No drop-in filter support Drop-in filters are used in those lenses where either the front lens is too large, or the field of view doesn't permit the use of traditional filters at the front of the lens. Usually bright tele and ultra-wide angle lenses support this filter type.
This high zoom ratio lens is exclusively designed for digital SLR cameras and capable of covering a wide range of focal lengths from wide-angle to telephoto. Two Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements and two hybrid aspherical lenses offer the utmost correction for all types of aberrations, and enables this extended range super zoom lens to be housed in a compact and lightweight construction of 70mm (2.8 inches) diameter, and 78.1mm (3.1 inches) in length, and weighing just 405g/14.3oz. The new lens coating reduces flare and ghost, which is a common problem of digital cameras and also creates an optimum color balance. This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm (17.7inches) at all focal lengths and has maximum magnification of 1:4.4.

see the whole gallery in large

This high zoom ratio lens is exclusively designed for digital SLR cameras and capable of covering a wide range of focal lengths from wide-angle to telephoto. Two Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass elements and two hybrid aspherical lenses offer the utmost correction for all types of aberrations, and enables this extended range super zoom lens to be housed in a compact and lightweight construction of 70mm (2.8 inches) diameter, and 78.1mm (3.1 inches) in length, and weighing just 405g/14.3oz. The new lens coating reduces flare and ghost, which is a common problem of digital cameras and also creates an optimum color balance. This lens has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm (17.7inches) at all focal lengths and has maximum magnification of 1:4.4.

Datasheet
Reviews
Owner Reviews
Accessories
Sample Photos

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Specification

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Specification
Available mount(s)	Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K, Sony / Minolta A, Sigma
Application(s)	Portrait, Landscape, Wildlife, Architecture
Category(s)	Standard zoom, Tele zoom
Multiplier	1.5×
Stabilizer	no
Focal length	18 - 200 mm (11.1× zoom)
Lens construction	15 elements in 13 groups
Angle of view	35mm: N/A digital: 76.5-8.1°
Number of blades	7
Maximum aperture	wide: f/3.5 tele: f/6.3
Minimum aperture	wide: f/22 tele: N/A
Minimum focusing distance	45 cm
Magnification	0.23×
Filter size	62 mm
Size	∅ 70 × 78.1 mm
Weight	405 g
Notes	At December 19, 2007, the Sigma announced a new version with built-in AF motor allowing autofocus with all Nikon APS-C DSLR cameras. The size of this model: 70 × 75,6 mm, and the weight is 395 g.
AF speed	0.8 sec. (from close up to infinity)
AF sound
Internal focusing	yes
Internal zoom	N/A
Fix front lens	yes
Mount type	metal
Weather sealed	N/A
Drop in filter	no
Ultrasonic AF	no
APS-C sized circle	yes
Low dispersion lens element	yes
Hard case	N/A
Soft case	N/A
Lens hood	LH680-01 printable lens hood
Tripod adapter	N/A

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Reviews

Other reviews

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC review at www.cameralabs.com (English)
Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC review at www.ephotozine.com (English)
Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC review at dc.watch.impress.co.jp (Japanese)

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Owner Reviews

Most useful owner reviews from Amazon

Great Lens for the Price!

Jun 25, 2005

I disagree with the previous poster. I think this lens is pretty great.

The quality is exceptional for a lens of this price and range.
There seems to be a controversy regarding how focal lengths of lenses are measured; from what I've read, the lens does go to 200mm if measured at infinity.

In the real world, the lens takes fine pics as long as you have enough light. The size and weight is perfect for a walk-around lens. My Rebel XT with this lens (and the Hakuba hand grip) is a perfect fit, and feels great to carry around and shoot. To get better optical quality at this range, you would need to get a few lenses that each cost a lot more. There is nothing quite like this, except for Tamaron's 18-200, which I hear doesn't compare favorably to the Sigma.

It seems that Sigma has quality control issues, so I would buy
the lens from a local dealer that has a return policy. Test the lens, and if you don't think it's up to par, return it for another.

THE 'one and only' travelling lens.

Sep 25, 2005

3 stars because of:
1) soft corners at 18mm (f3.5)
2) vignetting at 18mm (f3.5)
3) lens creep (self extension of lens barrel while walking) if not retracted/lock at 18mm

This lens has the most useful range one can possibly have. It has become my only lens for short travelling trip when I don't want hassel of changing lens. I took only this lens with my Canon XT to Amsterdam (5days) without missing my other lenses at all. Here are some photos taken with this lens in my website:
http://www.theteh.com/html/london_street_.html
http://www.theteh.com/html/croatia.html
http://www.theteh.com/html/index1.html

For this price range (other than the Tamron 18-200) there is no other lenses that can compete!

My choice for traveling

Jun 30, 2006

I got this lens a day before taking off for an eight day trip, and shot over 1800 photos with it. Though not the fastest lens out there, it did everything I wanted it to, both in the wide angle and the telephoto. I think I put it through a pretty thorough test over that week, and have these comments:
1. If I can only take one lens, this would be it.
2. I missed not having a macro feature, but I got close enough with the telephoto to make up for it in some cases.
3. The auto focus works fine in normal and bright lighting, but in dim lighting (like in a museum) it became confused and I used the manual focus option instead.
4. This is my third Sigma lens, and I haven't had any quality control problems with any of them.
5. I have no experience with high end Canon lenses for my Canon DSLR so I can't make a comparison, but I'm fully satisfied with the optics of this lens.

Excellent value and versatility.

Love the zoom range! And, the photos are sharp!

Mar 14, 2007

This lens is not perfect, but for $350 dollars it is a great bargain!
I love my L lenses but I get frustrated having to switch lens all the time.

With this lens, I only have to carry my camera. Not the heavy camera bag. I love being able to use wide angle and then immediately switch to 200mm (300mm on the Rebel XT) within a second! The lens is light and is a pleasure to carry around all day.

It has a hard time focusing in low light so it is best to use outside when you have a decent amount of light.
I don't like that you cannot override automatic focus. That is one feature I really enjoy on my L lens. If the camera isn't focusing correctly you have to switch to manual before you can manually focus.
I am very surprised on how sharp the photos are. I wasn't expecting anything great in such a low priced lens. I am pleasantly surprised. I may be carrying around this lens a lot more than my 70-200 L and 17-40 L. I have missed many good shots due to the time it takes to change lenses. Also, every time you change a lens you take a chance of adding more specs (dust) to your photos.

It is kind of slow at the long end of the zoom range. (6.3 at 200mm) But, I don't mind it when there is a decent amount of light available.
It is an excellent walk around lens. It is so nice not to be carrying around a bag full of lens all day. My shoulder is thanking me already. Since it is so light, my neck doesn't hurt at the end of the day.
If I need the utmost quality, I will of course use my L lens. But, in the mean time this lens will suffice. I am having a lot of fun with it. I will post some shots soon.
I was kind of surprised that there are only 7 sample shots available here on Amazon. I promise I will add more so people can have a better representation of what this lens can do.

Surprisingly good!

Oct 2, 2006

I just did a side by side comparison of landscape images between this lens and a canon 24-105L with a Digital Rebel XT. To my surprise there isn't much difference in image quality when you match the aperture and focal lengths. The Canon L series lens is faster at all focal lengths and has image stabilization, is sealed and comes with a lens hood, but costs about three times as much. The Sigma lens is slower to focus and noisier, but weighs quite a bit less and has almost twice the maximum focal length and is wider as well. So, if you are using a cropped image camera and have plenty of light, this lens ought to give good performance. If I had to choose between the two, I'd definitely take the Sigma for walking around or daylight landscape.

A good piece overall....

Oct 22, 2005

I purchased a Nikon D70S in August and decided on the Sigma 18-200mm lens instead of the 18-35mm Nikkor kit lens. It really boils down to how one uses this lens as to whether you like it or not. With the 1.5 conversion factor of the D70S, this lens operates as a 27-300mm. I do an ocassional wedding and senior photos throughout the year but I shoot more landscape/nature photography than anything. Unless a person requires a super fast lens, this piece does a very good job overall for the price. Since the majority of my work is off a tripod, the 3.5 max aperture has not been a problem even in very low light situations. Since it's the only Nikon based lens I own, its like having several lenses in one and I never have to worry about dust getting on the sensor during lens changes.

The 27mm is not as wide as I would have liked, but I have had no problems in making due with it especially doing group shots at weddings and has been quite sufficient for most landscapes.

The autofocus is quite fast when needed and it does quite well for my use as a portrait lens. Its 300mm capability really lets you bring in distant objects.

Color accuracy is quite good on both people and landscapes, and works acceptable with neutral density and circular polarizing filters.

My biggest complaint with this lens however, is a bit too much barrel distortion when shooting linear subjects and lens flare when shooting into the sun at sunrise or sunset. The flare problem may be as much the fault of the digital sensor as it is the lens, but I have been told by more than one pro that it's more the lens than the sensor. Therefore, that's why I gave it only 4 stars instead of 5. I have used Sigma lenses on my film cameras for many years and not had this kind of flare problem. However, this lens is built especially for the smaller digital sensors, which may result in magnifying this problem. Both of these faults can be corrected with imaging software most of the time. It just takes time to have to mess with it.

Keep in mind, this is a general purpose lens, and will do a more than acceptable job for all but the most discriminating work. It is light and compact and has a quality about it which looks good on the camera. Overall I have enjoyed the lens, and can recommend it as a good piece overall for the money.

Great all around lense

May 28, 2007

I bought this lense a year ago to go with my Nikon D50. I have been very happy with this lense. I researched quite a bit before I purchased this lense and had read many user reviews both good and bad. The negative reviews were mainly from Canon users related to an autofocus problem. I have not had any focus issues at all on my D50. Focus is fast and accurate providing incredibly sharp photos. I have my D50 set to focus on the center of the frame which is the way I typically use a camera.

There is some audible auto focus noise since the Nikon version of this lense does not have an internal focus motor. The lense relies on the auto focus screw driven by an internal motor in the D50 body (or any Nikon DSLR body except the D40 which doesn't have one). The noise heard is not the lense but the stepper motor in the D50 body. The identical noise is heard when I use my Nikon 50mm f1.8 lense which also relies on the autofocus screw/motor in the D50 body. Other Nikon AFS lenses are super quiet since Nikon includes a very quiet Silent Wave focus motor inside the lense which disables the DSLR body stepper motor.

[...]

[...]

You will notice the barrel distortion at the 18mm setting with photos of linear objects (eg. buildings or anything with straight lines). Keep in mind that even the Nikon 18-200mm lense at more than twice the price also exhibits the same percentage of barrel distortion as the Sigma. When covering this wide of a zoom range a compromise is made by the design engineers.

Another complaint I've read about, and is also an issue with the Nikon and Tamron, is that some people claim the 200mm zoom setting isn't true 200mm. Well this is correct when you're focusing on an object that the camera has not focused to infinity. In other words the closer the subject the less magnification is achieved. This is normal for any lense covering this zoom range. As an example I performed a test and focused on an object bout 50 feet away at full telephoto and achieved about a 9x magnification over the wide angle setting. When I performed the same test on an object that was a couple of hundred feet away I did achieve the full 11x magnification range. [...]

The bottom line: This is a great lense for the money. Certainly the Nikon 18-200 VR is a better lense but costs more than twice as much [...]. If you're a Nikon DSLR owner (except the D40 which does not include a focus motor and screw) and if you don't want to spend [...] on the Nikon 18-200mm VR than this is your lense. It is compact and light and has a great quality look and feel. It provides super sharp photos and I'm very happy with it. [...] Also with such a zoom range you'll almost never take this lense off your Nikon which also will minimize dust getting into the camera body.

My only other suggestion is to wait for the Sigma 18-200mm OS version of this lense which is not yet available. It will include an optical stabilization feature not included in the base Sigma 18-200mm [...] and most likely there will be a waiting line once it's released sometime in 2007. Assuming the OS version has equivalent optics the OS feature will be an added bonus making it similar in performance to the VR feature of the Nikon 18-200mm.

Faulty lens?

Aug 11, 2005

Left side of all pictures was soft compared to right side, especially the lower left portion. Exchanged for a replacement.

Great Lense

Feb 6, 2007

I did quite a bit of research before finally settling on this lense and I think I made a great choice. I was previously using my old 35-80 and 100-300 lenses from my film camera, but this lens allows me to have a much wider angle than I was used to and almost the same telephoto all without having to change lenses.

This lense is not as quite as a comperable new nikon lense, but it also much less expensive, and is much more quite than my old nikon lense. I have not noticed any prolems with the colors or image quality. As an average camera user I am extremely happy with my choice.

Excelent!!!

Apr 3, 2007

i have a 18-55 and a 80-200 2.8 nikon lens and this one combines them both, great lens, fast auto-focus, the lock button great. nice colors and great specs.

Garbage - wait for Pentax

Dec 18, 2007

This is the worst camera lens I've ever had the misfortune to use.

I wanted something I could travel with to replace my 18-55mm kit lens (I have a K100D) plus the 50-200mm telephoto zoom. These are great lenses but I was trying to hold down the bulk and weight, so I gave Sigma a try.

Big mistake. This thing is TERRIBLE. Horrible chromatic distortion -- I frequently got BOTH purple and green fringing effects on opposite sides. Depending on the zoom and the angle I was shooting at, I got laughably distorted barrel and pincushioning -- sometimes in THE SAME SHOT. Literally, the extreme barrel distortion would flare back out at the corners. And it won't focus properly -- the center will be fairly crisp but the edges will be completely gone -- not the far edges either, but a mere third of the way across the frame. It vignettes really badly.

This is a CRAPPY, CRAPPY lens. I've seen better on dollar trashcams in the thrift store.

An Excellent Travel Solution

Aug 28, 2006

Admit it, many of you are looking for that one lens solution for the times when you just can't bring all your gear. For me, this is that solution. I have used this lens extensively on my KM5D and find it to be quite usable. Yes, it is a megazoom. Yes, it has problems, but these are compensated for the sheer convenience. I find the lens to be rather sharp and colors to be quite nice as well. The price is certainly reasonable and the build quality is quite good (i.e. metal mount). I highly reccomed this lens, but be aware that it is not "G" (or "L" for you Canon folks) glass. Once you get by that, you can appreciate the lens for what it is. I highly reccomend the PTlens plugin for photoshop to use with this lens to correct distortions, vignetting, etc. Highly reccomended!

Here's a nice shot I took with this lens while vacationing in Northern California.

http://images14.fotki.com/v21/photos/8/896360/3774403/sfb3sm-vi.jpg

Great Lens

Oct 3, 2005

Just got this amazing lens last week and already took over 500 shots. Clarity is excellent and the tones superb with an SD10 Body. The size is also perfect, rather small for such a godo range Zoom. Focusing is fast and easy and locks on the subjet almost instantly. Certainly one of the best for SD10. An excellent choice for travelers.