[Sigma 10-20 EX DC HSM] An absolute dream to use
By L. Otto (Surrey, England)
When I bought this lens, my mate said to me “this is one of those lenses that surprise you. You start using it and you wonder how you ever got by without it…” How true this is…I’ll briefly go through a few of the technical details on this lens as well as a few experience related finds.
Build quality:
This lens belongs to Sigmas ‘EX’ line of lenses, which are their flagship standard, optically and physically they are very well made and this lens is no exception. It is very compact, and quite heavy, giving it a tank-like build, you could probably drop this lens quite a few times and not have a problem. When zooming, the barrel extends by maybe 1cm, and the autofocus is really silent, manual focus isn’t really used because most things tend to be in focus at 10mm anyway.
Optical Quality:
Very good. Very sharp, especially when stopped down to f/8 or so. There is sometimes a bit too much flare when there is a direct light source to the lens, but CA is well controlled and details are very sharp. One important thing I’ll just point out is that this lens is NOT fisheye, and in fact lines are kept very straight all the way to the outer edges where they begin to curve, so this is a suitable lens for architecture and images can be post processed to look perfect. Colour rendition is brilliant too, and skies are always wonderfully deep. It does take some practise to get the exposure right because you get so much into the frame the sky/land balance can be tricky sometimes.
Extras: You get a Sigma EX pouch for the lens, which is durable and good quality, and you get a lens hood which in my opinion is absolutely useless. It’s only to protect from light at the extremest angles, which isn’t a lot of the time for me…
