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Sigma RF 18-50mm F2.8 DN RF Review: The Best APS-C Option on Canon?
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Aug 5, 2024
Finally! Third party lenses are starting to come to Canon RF. Find out how one of Dustin's favorite little zooms - the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN - works on Canon cameras! | This video is sponsored by Fantom Wallet. Visit https://store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 to get 20% off | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DN @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3Gg9IZB | Adorama https://howl.me/ck5oQ2442bK | Amazon https://amzn.to/3GihcLS | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4bnwh | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/47sScxb | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3MWksjO | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/47veOgI Purchase the Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DN @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3trIvzW | Adorama https://howl.me/ckJBf7z5Gn5 | Amazon https://amzn.to/3tk39Cj | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/496aq | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3ZIeTuc | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/46yjaDr | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3Q66UUG Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: =============================
View Video Transcript
0:00
So after years of resisting any kind of third-party development for the Canon RF
0:15
mount, Canon is finally starting to let the third parties in, though into a very
0:20
specific and narrow window. I lamented earlier this year when I did a review
0:24
of the Canon R50 APS-C mirrorless camera that there was almost no decent options
0:31
available for lens selection. Basically all of the lenses were slow zooms with
0:37
maximum apertures of f6.3 or 7.1 and so just really really unappealing in my
0:43
mind and that made the platform less appealing. I think Canon has recognized
0:47
that and clearly they're not going to invest the energy into APS-C right now
0:52
so it seems to me like they're letting Sigma and Tamron in through the gate
0:56
essentially to provide some decent options for APS-C on their cameras because they're still not allowing any kind of full-frame RF lens development
1:04
at this point. The good news is that the lens I'm looking at today, the Sigma
1:09
18-50mm f2.8 DN, it's a lens that I've looked at now this is the
1:15
third time. Previously, about three years ago, I reviewed it when it first came out
1:19
to Sony E-mount. Last year when it came to Fuji X-mount I reviewed it there and
1:23
in fact I liked it so much that I purchased one for myself. I find an
1:27
extremely useful lens and I think on Canon RF this is going to be maybe the
1:33
most kind of broad appealing lens that is available for the platform now
1:38
This is a lens that has at least a weather sealing gasket at the lens mount so it
1:43
has some kind of weather sealing. It has a better build quality than the RFS
1:47
lenses. It includes a lens hood. It has a constant aperture of maximum aperture of
1:53
f2.8. It has very strong close-up performance so it's a very versatile
1:57
little lens and it has, as I found, great autofocus on RF. So at a price tag of
2:03
about 600 US dollars it's not necessarily cheap but I do feel like
2:08
this is a lens that has a lot of bang for the buck and I think it should jump to the top of your list. We'll discover why right after a word from our sponsor
2:15
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2:59
to check out. Now the first thing I want to talk about when it comes to the build
3:05
and handling is that there is a slightly different zoom range in terms of the
3:10
effective focal length here because Canon's crop factor is 1.6 times whereas
3:15
Sony and Fuji have a 1.5 times crop factor. So while on Fuji or Sony this was
3:21
a 27 to 75 millimeter equivalent, full-frame equivalent zoom range, here on Canon it is a 29 to 80 millimeters so not quite as wide but a little bit
3:32
longer. Still incredibly useful though obviously not quite as wide as what we
3:37
maybe would prefer it to be. Now the size is very slightly different and I
3:42
did some direct comparison to the Fuji X-mount version that I have here. The
3:47
primary thing that you're going to see is that because Canon's RF mount is so
3:51
much bigger than either Sony E-mount or Fuji X-mount, the lens itself has a
3:56
little bit different design where it has a very abrupt flare to the actual lens
4:00
mount and so whereas this lens is under 62 millimeters in diameter on you know
4:06
Fuji or Sony it is actually 68 millimeters so over six millimeters
4:12
wider to accommodate that flange for the wider lens mount. I actually found side
4:17
by side that the length was just a hair shorter than the X-mount version so if
4:22
the X-mount measures in at about 76.8 millimeters I would guess this to be
4:28
something about like 75 millimeters in overall length. I also found that
4:33
probably because that extra extra diameter at the lens mount it was very
4:37
slightly heavier so the Fuji version 285 grams 294 grams this is on my scale for
4:44
the Canon mount so about a 10 gram difference between the two so that is
4:49
10.37 ounces for those looking there. Now other things remain the same we have a
4:55
55 millimeter front filter thread up front the same basic elements are here
5:01
there's no extra features on there there's the zoom ring which by the way
5:04
works really really smoothly it is very well damped it has a premium feel to it
5:09
that you're not going to find on those cheaper RFS lenses and then it has got a
5:14
focus ring here. Now I do find because of the flare out that the focus ring is a
5:19
little bit more compromised I would say on the Canon RF mount because of
5:24
that flare that is right behind that I actually find that ergonomically it's
5:28
not a great ring to get at my thumb feels like it's being pushed away a
5:32
little bit by the the flare out there near the lens mount. So as mentioned no
5:37
features no switches no buttons here there is however a nice thick gasket at
5:43
the lens mount for whatever reason on Canon RF I always find the gaskets are a
5:47
little heavier duty and that is the case here as well as noted it does include
5:52
the hood and the hood is very nice everything fits together very nicely seven rounded aperture blades inside the zoom action is excellent doesn't have
6:01
any tendency towards zoom creep very firmly damped no wobble or anything it
6:05
just feels very very nice in performance. Now the build quality obviously is no
6:10
better than what it was either on Sony or on Fuji but because the competition
6:14
is so different on Canon it feels more premium in this space than what it did
6:18
on Fuji for example where there are a wide variety of more premium options
6:23
available there. One thing that remains an excellent strength for this lens is
6:27
that it can focus very closely on the wide and it can focus as closely as
6:32
right over 12 centimeters and on the telephoto end it can focus as closely as
6:36
30 centimeters. Now on the telephoto end you've got a useful but not incredible
6:40
0.20 times magnification but if you do that on the wide end and you happen to
6:46
be able to get in close enough to your subject to do this you can get as high as 0.36 times magnification. Some kind of a compromise in between there gives
6:55
you maybe a little bit less magnification but a little bit better working distance. Either way I have found in real-world use this is extremely
7:01
extremely useful. So overall I'm really pleased by the handling here. Now
7:06
probably the biggest question mark for me having already reviewed this lens a couple of times is how is it going to do on autofocus. Fortunately I am really
7:16
really pleased by what I see this is probably the best performance that I've seen of any of these three platforms. It has an STM or a stepping focus motor but
7:25
clearly this is a direct license from Canon and not a reverse engineering of
7:30
the algorithms because autofocus is just seamless and it is excellent. Autofocus
7:35
is something that Canon is doing extremely well. I would say that that is probably their greatest strength right now in their current bodies as they are
7:43
great autofocus machines and that bears true here as well. Autofocus as you can
7:49
see is just very very near instant just back and forth boom boom boom. That's
7:53
true indoors it's true outdoors. I also found that eye tracking capabilities
7:58
were very very reliable locks on the eye stays on there and in real-world focus
8:03
results I just got excellent results. Whatever I was photographing whatever the lighting situation I was delighted with focus responsiveness and focus
8:13
accuracy in the end results. On the video side I was also extremely pleased. You
8:19
can see here that the video focus pools they're very confident back and forth no
8:23
pulsing and settling I saw a bit of that on Fuji but Fuji is weak in that
8:28
department and so it is very very confident here. Focus breathing is low so
8:33
that is also a useful aspect there. When I did the hand test to see how it did in
8:38
moving from the subject you know of my face and then being blocked by my hand
8:43
and back and forth I saw very good confidence and accuracy going back and
8:47
forth and then when I just shot video clips I got great focus results and I
8:53
also got great looking footage out of the lens. That doesn't surprise me
8:57
because I was already very familiar with it but I was very very pleased with that
9:01
performance. So let's talk about the overall image quality here. Now obviously
9:06
there is a range of resolution levels 24 up to 33 megapixels on Canon RF bodies
9:16
and so you're going to get some variability of the demands put on the lens but I have already tested it at both a 24 megapixel point on Sony and
9:24
then on Fuji I tested at the extremely demanding 40 megapixels so if it
9:30
performs okay on Fuji it's gonna do just fine even on 33 megapixels on you know a
9:35
body like the EOS R7. Optical design is 13 elements in 10 groups and as you can
9:41
see it has a very good MTF chart. Now I'm not going to do an optical deep dive
9:47
here but what I will do is provide links to either my Sony or my Fuji review here
9:52
if you want to go to those and dive into the optical performance there. I'll also
9:56
include that section from the Fuji the most demanding part in the text review
10:01
if you want to go and access that. But this is a lens that is nice and sharp
10:06
actually when I did head-to-head test on on the Fuji platform I found that this
10:11
lens actually outperformed the much more expensive Fuji 16 to 50 millimeter f 2.8
10:16
lens and so it is very very good good contrast good detail and good
10:20
consistency across the zoom range and so I think that it's a lens that holds up
10:25
very very well. Now as far as the optical characteristics of the lens there are
10:30
some strong barrel distortion at 18 millimeters some fairly heavy vignette though vignettes a little bit better here on Canon than what it was on Fuji
10:38
By the time you zoom in to the 50 millimeter position that barrel
10:42
distortion has become some pincushion distortion at 50 millimeters though it's not particularly pronounced and fairly easy to correct there. As noted there is
10:51
some vignette there is also some light fringing there is it's not strong or
10:56
overly objectionable but in my test I was able to see a bit of fringing
11:00
sometimes in bokeh highlights and then sometimes just in subjects right before
11:05
after the plane of focus. Overall very well controlled however and not a
11:10
serious issue. And then as far as the actual resolution levels I found that
11:15
this lens is consistently good it's very very strong in the center in the mid
11:19
frame throughout the zoom range the corners at 18 millimeters are just a
11:24
little bit softer they will sharpen up as you stop the lens down but frankly
11:28
this is a lens that optically is better than any of the competitors we've got to
11:32
look at right now by a pretty good margin on Canon RF. So this is I think at
11:38
the moment it's the only fast option and it is a very very good option. I found
11:43
flare resistance to be very good with the lens no serious issues there and so
11:47
for such a compact lens if I remove the hood you can see that this is a very
11:52
small lens very easy to bring along it's a good match even for the smallest
11:56
bodies like the R100 and so I think that you're going to be pretty delighted with
12:02
the image quality you get from such a compact lens. So my conclusion is this
12:06
this is a fantastic addition to Canon RF and I think it really helps to solve
12:11
what I consider to be the greatest liability of Canon's APS-C bodies
12:16
They've actually got some great APS-C cameras and the one thing that you may
12:20
still have an issue with this lens does not have stabilization built into it and
12:24
so some of those you know those RF-S bodies APS-C bodies they don't have in
12:32
body image stabilization and so you may have you know some issue if you're
12:35
trying to do handhold video footage but for the most part I think that you're
12:39
going to be delighted with what you get and get very very good performance out
12:43
of it. This was a lens that I liked well enough that I put my own money down and
12:48
I purchased one on Fuji and I would say that this is I would if I was buying
12:53
lenses for a new Canon APS-C camera there would be two lenses at the top of
12:57
my list right now. Number one would be this the 18 to 50 millimeter and the
13:01
second would be another Sigma and that's the 10 to 18 millimeter f 2.8. Put those
13:05
two lenses together and you've got a great kit with great image quality and
13:10
obviously a lot of versatility and how you're going to frame shots. I hope that
13:14
helps you and I'm just I'm very very pleased with how this lens has ported
13:20
over to Canon RF and hopefully we have the same kind of seamless experience
13:24
someday when Canon opens up the protocols to the full frame RF mount as
13:30
well. They've got some great cameras and those cameras really deserve some Sigma
13:34
Tamron, Viltrox type lenses, Samyang lenses that help to fill that void in
13:40
kind of the medium category of very good lenses that aren't priced into the
13:45
thousands of dollars. I'm Dustin Abbott and if you look in the description down below you can find linkage to the text review, you can also find linkage there
13:53
to an image gallery if you want to check out more photos. There's some buying links there. As always thanks for watching have a great day and let the
14:00
light in
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