The Sigma 18-35mm stayed on my camera nearly the entire time we were at the park because it transitioned from a few semi-posed portraits to candid images of the kids playing together so seamlessly. Half of these kiddos were just about to move across the US, and so I wanted to be sure to take a few photos of them all together for our family. Next, I took the lens to the park with my kids, my nieces, and my nephew. In the case of photographing newborns in unpredictable lighting situations, having a zoom lens with such a fast aperture is a huge asset. While I find this works very well for the comfort of both mom and baby, the one variable that can sometimes be difficult is the available natural light. In terms of newborn photography, I typically shoot on location in the client’s home for newborn sessions. I’m primarily a child and family portrait photographer, so those genres were the first places that I put the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 to the test. I was really pleased with the performance of this lens, and had no issues with its edge-to-edge sharpness, vignetting, or lens creep, in the month that I tested it out. In fact, any vignetting that you see on any of the images in this article was added in the post-processing phase. I also didn’t notice any vignetting even when shooting at small apertures. In this case, I noticed no discernible difference in sharpness along the edge of the image whether I was shooting at f/1.8 or f/16, even when zooming in significantly on the image. When shooting wide open, some consumer lenses have a tendency towards vignetting and/or have a loss of sharpness towards the edge of the image that can be very frustrating as a photographer. I cropped to include only the upper left-hand corner of each image to check for edge-to-edge sharpness. Some third party lenses can have the tendency to feel plastic-y, but this lens is made of Thermally Composite Material, which both looks and feels sturdy and professional.Ĭlockwise from upper left: 18mm at f/1.8 18mm at f/16 35mm at f/16 35 mm at f/1.8. Sigma’s Art line has been getting a lot of buzz over the past couple of years for being high-quality lenses at an affordable price point, and this one certainly did not disappoint.

As an added bonus, it offers a fast constant aperture (f/1.8) that’s practically unheard of in similar zoom lenses. Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 Art Lens offers a focal range that makes it useful for a number of different genres of photography such as weddings, portraits, and family photography. Right out of the box, it was evident that this lens is something special. So when I had the chance to try out the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM lens for APS-C cameras for about a month, I happily jumped on the opportunity to put it to good use! Personally, I have never had a problem with third party lenses, and they make up about half of my current camera bag. Some photographers love them, some photographers choose to only purchase lenses made by their camera manufacturer. In the world of photography, there are several different schools of thought when it comes to third party lenses.

Sigma 18 35mm f1 8