If you are looking for an affordable walkabout lens that gives you the ability to shoot wide angles as well as zooming in on a subject at some distance the Sigma 18 300 is a lens you should really consider owning.
The lens itself is compact and light, so you don’t need a huge bag to tote it and your camera body around in. When slung from a strap the lens doesn’t add much more to the weight of your camera body so its not all that fatiguing on your neck and shoulders. The Sigma 18 300 lens features a lock that when the lens is retracted to 18mm it prevents the lens from extending while dangling at the end of the camera strap.
Sigma 18 300 – a Convenient, Walkabout Lens
We primarily shoot with Canon 7D MkIIs. One of which has a Canon EF100-400mm mounted to it, my primary workhorse lens. But there are often times when it is too much lens and I really don’t want to lug it around knowing that I won’t be using it. I needed a walkabout lens, one that offers me the versatility of a wide angle with just enough zoom for those times when its needed.
Troubleshooting Auto Focus Issues
Our initial results were good but soon started to notice its auto focusing performance start to degrade. It even quit from time to time requiring turning the camera on and off. This was frustrating to say the least. Fortunately, one of my friends is a Sigma Ambassador and he lent me his Sigma lens dock so I could make sure the software was up to date and tweak the lens’s focusing settings. We saw immediate improvement but the improvement didn’t last. There was something not quite right inside the lens.
Sigma Backs Their Products
Since we were heading to Arizona for a few months, I made arrangements to drop the lens off at C.R.I.S. Camera Services in Chandler, AZ. CRIS is an authorized Sigma warranty repair facility. CRIS Camera is easy to find and they were very pleasant to work with. The process to drop the lens off took just a few minutes and the lens was repaired and returned in about a week to ten days. The lens has been firmly attached to my second camera body ever since and has been performing flawlessly. This unexpected experience does allow me to testify about Sigma’s warranty…they back their products.
PROS
This lens is an affordable and versatile “walkabout” lens for a starting novice, amateur or even Pro. Its compact and light weight is appreciated when traveling, especially when weight and space is limited.
CONS
The lens tends to struggle in low light conditions as you zoom out past the 80mm mark requiring higher ISO and slower shutter speeds which may not be conducive to the subject/situation you are shooting.
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