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Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN X-mount Review | Better than the Competition?
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Dec 5, 2023
Photographer Dustin Abbott revisits the Sigma 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN to see how it performs when faced with Fuji's daunting 40MP sensor. | This video is sponsored by Fantom Wallet. Visit https://store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN15 to get 15% 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
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my video review of the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 DCDN
0:18
meaning it's designed for mirrorless APS-C. And while I actually reviewed this lens a couple of
0:24
years ago on Sigma. They have re-released it this year for Fuji X-Mount. And I have been revisiting
0:30
some of these lenses because the reality on Fuji is a little bit different than on Sony. There's
0:37
obviously some different competitors, typically more competitors. And also there is some different
0:42
performance requirements when it comes to an autofocus system that tends to be a little less
0:48
robust than what we find on Sony, but a 40 megapixel sensor that is definitely more robust
0:54
than anything that I've seen before. And when I last reviewed this lens, I was reviewing it on a
1:00
24 megapixel Sony a6400. So on this 40 megapixel Fuji X-H2, it is a completely different reality
1:08
in terms of the optical demands of this particular sensor. So I'm very interested to see how it holds
1:14
up. Now here on Fuji, there are kind of three primary competing zooms. One of those is shared
1:20
on Sony and it's the Tamron 17 to 70 millimeter f2.8. That lens does have image stabilization
1:27
Obviously it has a bigger zoom range, but as you can see, it is a vastly larger lens
1:32
than what the Sigma is. It retails right now on sale for 699 US dollars
1:37
the other most common competitor and closest in size is the fuji 18 to 55 millimeter f 2.8 to f4
1:48
ois lens often used as a kit lens but it does retail separately also for 699 us dollars
1:55
then finally the kind of premium option in the class is the fuji 16 to 55 millimeter f 2.8 lmwr
2:03
and it retails for a whopping $1099 or $1100 US dollars. The Sigma, you can get it right now for
2:10
$500 and as you can see it is incredibly small, it is very light and it is the cheapest by far
2:17
Has a constant f2.8 aperture, does have a smaller zoom range, has no image stabilization
2:23
has fewer features but it does have a very strong performance and so as we're going to see in this
2:28
review, even on Fuji, it's positioned quite well for this particular marketplace. And to me
2:34
it is an intriguing lens. We'll just explore all of that right after a word from our sponsor
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3:26
Now when it comes to the build and handling I refer you to my original review in that
3:31
basically everything here is the same. This lens has a 27 to 75 millimeter full frame equivalency
3:40
and it as kind of the standout feature is the fact that it is so incredibly small and compact
3:46
It is only 61.6 millimeters in diameter. It is 76.8 millimeters in length or 2.4 by 3 inches
3:55
and it weighs in at only 285 grams or 10.1 ounces. That compares most closely to the Fuji 18 to 55
4:04
millimeter, which is 65 millimeters in diameter, a little bit wider and 70.4 millimeters in length
4:12
So just a little bit shorter. So it is 2.56 by 2.77 inches, but it weighs in at 310 grams or 10.93
4:20
ounces. So a little bit heavier. But the one thing to remember in comparing these lenses is that
4:26
the Sigma is f2.8 all throughout the zoom range, whereas the Fuji actually only holds f2.8 till
4:33
about 23 millimeters. And there every, you know, little ways down the chain, you drop by one thirds
4:39
until you arrive at f4. And so it isn't a true competitor, at least in terms of maximum aperture
4:45
Now the Tamron has the largest zoom range of all going from 17 to 70 millimeters but it is a
4:52
honking lens. It is I always considered to be more of a full frame sized lens and that's
4:58
definitely true. It is 74.6 millimeters by nearly 120 millimeters in length 2.9 by 4.7 inches and it
5:06
weighs in at 525 grams or 1.2 pounds and so as you can see in this photo once again it just dwarfs
5:13
the Sigma in terms of the size. So obviously the Sigma is going to be a very nice pairing and a
5:19
much nicer pairing for smaller bodies like the XS10 or XS20 series bodies like that. You can get
5:27
away with it on a bigger body like this X-H2, but even so I really am enjoying the compact size
5:34
Now Fuji 16 to 55 millimeter is not quite as long, but it's the widest lens by a good margin
5:40
It is 83.3mm in diameter and 106mm long, so that's 3.28x4.17 inches
5:49
And it weighs in by far the heaviest at 655 grams or nearly 1 pounds And so there is a radical difference in the size of these competing lenses and as we already seen in price
6:02
Now, as far as the build and handling, everything that's here is nice. Everything is compact, but everything feels nicely executed
6:09
It feels like a well-made lens. In one area, it lags behind all the competing lenses
6:16
in that there is a weather sealing gasket at the lens mount, but there are no internal seals and the Tamron and both of the Fuji lenses are weather sealed
6:26
The two Fuji lenses also have a aperture ring. This lens does not. It also does not have any
6:32
optical stabilization and both the Tamron 17 to 70 millimeter and then the Fuji 18 to 55 millimeter
6:40
Both of those lenses do have an optical image stabilization built into them. And so overall
6:45
What's here is nice. The lens hood is compact lens hood. It is nicely made. Bayonets in there
6:52
nice and precisely. All of that is good, but just not a whole lot going on in terms of features
6:58
Now, when it comes to autofocus, we have Sigma's pretty standard stepping motor on these
7:03
STM focus motor. And fortunately, both the 18 to 55 millimeter and the 10 to 18 millimeter that I
7:09
previously looked at, they hold up really quite well for stills when it comes to autofocus. As you
7:16
can see here, autofocus is really snappy, back and forth, nice and quick, no real hesitations in that
7:22
setting. And I'm happy with that. And I was happy in real world shooting as well. I felt like autofocus
7:28
speed was excellent. Focus noise is very quiet and focus accuracy was just generally good across all
7:35
of the stills images that I took. And so no complaints on that front. When you switch over
7:41
to the video side, that's where some of the cracks start to show. But then again, that's often true
7:46
of on Fuji platform in general. And so you can see from the autofocus pulls that there is
7:51
you know, sufficient power or torque there to drive focus pulls back and forth, but there's
7:57
just not a lot of confidence without a trackable subject in the frame. So there's hunting and
8:01
settling and you just rather than just locking onto the subject there's you know there's some
8:06
gradual things that are taking place there focus breathing as you can see is relatively low
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but overall you know autofocus in that setting was just okay it's a little bit better with my
8:18
hand test in that Fuji's autofocus system on its most recent bodies the actual focus system is not
8:25
really all that improved over stuff from even years ago but what is improved is it now has
8:31
AI tracking and has an engine that if there's a trackable object, autofocus is just much
8:36
much better. And so when it came to my eye slash hand test, it did a better job with that
8:43
Another area that I did find a little bit bothersome is, for example, if I try to zoom in
8:49
while shooting video, you can see that there are focus readjustments all along the way
8:54
But even if I was just doing a standard shot of just in a landscape type setting
8:58
you can see that there is some, it just doesn't hold focus every now and then. There's a little
9:03
bit of a pulse that kind of just pulls you out of the experience. So as has been pretty typically
9:09
the case with any lens on Fuji, but particularly these third-party lenses, I think that autofocus
9:15
does best when there's a trackable subject in the frame, you know, an animal, an eye, just the
9:20
various lists, you know, be it a vehicle, things like that, where the camera is able to recognize
9:26
and track, then it does better for video. But if you're looking for, you know, other type video
9:33
performance, you might be better served with a different kind of lens. I did also note that
9:38
for video purposes, that stabilization didn't feel great. Obviously I've got, there's no built-in
9:43
stabilization in the lens, but my Fuji X-H2 does have quite good in-body image stabilization. And
9:49
you can just see that there's a lot of little, little jittery motion movements in, you know
9:55
static but should be static still shots and so not delighted when it comes to that. So let's talk
10:01
about image quality. This lens has an optical design of 13 elements in 10 groups. The MTF charts
10:07
you know look pretty good for a zoom like this. I was really pleased with the overall sharpness
10:12
and performance on Sony but as I've said in the introduction I know that the demands of the 40
10:17
megapixel sensor are just radically different compared to that 24 megapixel sensor point that I
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reviewed at before. And so let's dive in together and let's see how this lens holds up when on this
10:29
much more demanding platform. So we'll start by taking a look at vignette and distortion
10:35
As I saw on Sony, there is a significant amount of barrel distortion and you can see that manually
10:43
correcting it isn't flawless, just a little bit of a mustache pattern left behind. In that manual
10:48
correction. I dialed in a plus 24 to try to correct for the distortion. You can see I had to
10:54
dial in a lot of vignette correction, plus 92. And it has been the case with basically all
11:00
third-party lenses that I've tested on both Sony and then on Fuji. It's about a plus 40 difference
11:07
There's something about the either optical path or the mount diameter flange, something in there
11:13
that causes more vignette on these third-party lenses that are ported over to Fuji and not designed specifically for them
11:21
And so on Sony, it was plus 54 to correct for the vignette, plus 92 here
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Now at the telephoto end of the spectrum, it's about the middle of the range. We start to flip from barrel distortion to a pincushion distortion
11:35
You can see that that is most pronounced by 50 millimeters. you can see on the right side here
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that pin cushion distortion in general tends to correct more easily than what
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barrel distortion does and you can see that even with a manual correction I was able to hit things pretty easily distortion was corrected with a minus 11 here and then vignette ever so slightly less than what we saw on the wide end but not far off
11:58
And so in this case, we're still a good three plus stops of vignette correction
12:04
Now, the good news is, is that even wide open, the profile in camera is going to do a fine
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job of correcting for that vignette and distortion. So you can see in this shot, even with snow right here in the foreground and into the corner
12:18
I haven't done any correction other than just the standard correction profile. And you can see it's cleaned up everything nicely
12:24
Now when it comes to longitudinal chromatic aberrations, we can see that they are low enough that they're not robbing away contrast
12:32
It's good. As you go out of focus, however, you can see a little bit of a blue-green fringing that is going to take place
12:39
We can also see here that you're going to see a little bit of that fringing that will outline specular bokeh highlights
12:46
And so you'll just see just a little bit of a kind of a bloom with a little bit of color fringing around that
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And in these really high contrast areas here, you can also see a little bit of that fringing
12:56
Now, without correction, there is a bit of lateral chromatic aberration near the edge of the frame
13:01
You can see it here in these transitions from black to white. It is there. It's not super strong and it corrects perfectly with the one-click correction
13:11
So not really a big deal. So now we'll take a look at the overall resolution here
13:15
And so again, my test chart here, and this is on a 40 megapixel XH2 and the results are shown at 200%
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So this is an extreme torture test. In the center of the frame at 18 millimeters, everything holds up just fine
13:28
There's good detail. There's good contrast. No issues there. Mid-frame is still pretty good
13:34
It's not exceptionally high detailed, but it's quite good. And as we move down towards the edge, you can see, for example, here that we're crisper on this side of the bill than we are on this
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And so as we transition towards the edge, we're going to see a drop in the contrast and the detail there in general
13:53
Now, a quick pop around shows that we've got a roughly equal result here on the left side near the bottom
14:00
up at the left top about the same and then in the upper right about the same and so it's at least
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the centering is good and that kind of degrading of performance is consistent across the frame
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stopping down to f4 on the right gives us a little bit more contrast in detail in the center of the
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frame the mid frame also is pretty clearly improved the bottom is improved a little bit
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in terms of the brightness of it but you can see that the detail has not really significantly
14:29
improved. From F4 to F5.6, a very mild improvement, but not great yet. And from F5.6 to F8, there is
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just a little bit more sharpness, but we've kind of hit the limit where diffraction is going to
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start to limit things from here on out. And so, you know, looking in some other places
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it looks pretty good there. We'll look over here at Sir Winston, and you can see that it's kind of
14:54
a lateral move there between f5.6 and f8. And so somewhere in that range, you're going to get your
15:00
maximum performance at 18 millimeters. Now on a high resolution body, diffraction comes early. And
15:06
so f8 is pretty much the limit. After that, you're going to see a degradation in contrast and sharpness
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due to diffraction. And you can see by the get to the minimum aperture of f22, the image is very soft
15:20
due to the effects of diffraction. Now if we compare 18mm to 24mm, we can see that in the
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middle of the frame we've definitely got more contrast here at 24mm. In the mid frame you can
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definitely see better contrast in detail and the most obvious difference is going to be found down
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in the corners where you can see there is a significant difference from 18mm to 24mm
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Stopping on down to F4 gives us a very mild improvement, but you can see it's not going to be particularly significant because 24mm is pretty much the optimum here in terms of this zoom range
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And so it's kind of the peak, and so your return stopping it down further are a little bit more mild
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Now from 24mm to 28mm in the center of the frame, more similar than different, no significant improvement or degradation there
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Likewise, in the mid-frame, I very slightly favor 28mm here. Down in the corners, it's a little bit of a wash, I would say
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And so, good news is, in the middle of the frame, we have consistently strong performance
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Now, from 28mm to 35mm, we can see that there is a little bit of a softening of the image
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This is probably a low point in the middle of the zoom range, around 35mm
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You can see here in the mid-frame, not quite as sharp either. And down into the corners, the corners being the closest in that there's not a significant difference
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But in other places in the frame, it's not quite as sharp or high as contrast as what we saw at either 24 or 28 millimeters
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Fortunately, from 34 to 50 millimeters, there is another bit of an uptick
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Not quite as good as what we saw in 24 and 28 millimeters, but improved over the 35 millimeter point
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and you can see that here that the mid-frame definitely looks better down into the corner
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and once again here it's more of a lateral move there but certainly no softer than what we saw
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and over on this side you can see that contrast is a little bit better and even off here towards
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the edge again i slightly favor the contrast in the detail of what i see at 50 millimeters
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so taking a look at a few real world images at 100 magnification we can see in this winter
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scene that detail and contrast look pretty good and this case it not quite as good right at the edge of the frame but looking pretty good overall This wide f2 shot of Nala shows good not exceptional in terms of the contrast and detail but good performance
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You know, plenty of workable detail and information there. This shot here shows kind of what is a pattern in the center of the frame
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Everything looks really, really good. You move off a little ways to the mid-frame, still looking good
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You get off towards the edges here, and it's not bad here
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but it's obviously not quite as sharp and high contrast as what we see in the center or mid-frame
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This shot at about 45 millimeters shows that in the area of focus
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you know, the contrast and the detail look pretty good, holding up pretty well on this very high-resolution body
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Another shot from a similar scene that, you know, as I get towards the front of the image here down towards the edge, it's not super sharp. But if you
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look at the image as a whole, in most places, it's pretty sharp. And if you look at the image kind of
18:51
at a global level, the way that most people ordinarily do, everything really looks quite good
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I think it's important to get a little bit of context here. And so if we compare the chief
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competitor, which is the Tamron 17 to 70 millimeter with the Sigma on the wide end, we can see that in
19:06
the center of the frame, the Sigma clearly has a better amount of contrast and detail
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Likewise, in the mid-frame, the difference isn't as significant, but I do slightly favor
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the Sigma result. Down here in the corner, I would favor the Tamron result
19:22
It has just a little bit more detail and contrast, but you can see it's also not exceptional
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in the corners. If we compare the 50mm point from the Sigma on the left to the Tamron on the right, we
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can see that in the center of the frame that it's basically a wash. I would say that the Tamron may
19:40
have very, very slightly more contrast. The amount of resolution is about the same. In the mid frame
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the Sigma is a little bit better, more detail, and then off in the corners, I would give the edge to
19:53
the Tamron, which looks sharper there. If we compare the actual end of the zoom range at 70
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millimeters to the Sigma at 50 millimeters, we can see that they're, again, they're roughly
20:04
similar in the center of the frame. In the mid frame, they're close with maybe a slight edge to
20:11
the Sigma, and down in the corner, we can see that the Sigma is a little bit sharper and higher
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contrast. So bottom line is that the Sigma is much, much smaller, but it is not softer by comparison
20:24
And so a quick look at a few other areas of optical performance. As far as the bokeh quality
20:29
You can see a little bit of outlining in this image and I saw in others, but overall the quality of the blur for this type of lens is really not bad
20:40
It isn't incredibly creamy like a nice prime lens would be, but you can see the detail works and then the background is reasonably soft
20:50
This image right here holds up quite nicely and of course the colors are nice and complimentary
20:54
You can see some of that outlining that I'm talking about that tends to draw the eye a little bit more than what I would like
21:01
Here with some specular highlights in the background, we can see that there's a little bit of bleeding at the edges of them
21:07
And if we zoom in here, we can see they're just a little bit of general busyness, but at the same time, it looks reasonably good
21:15
This image was perhaps one of the best for having some creaminess up in this area, even though there is a bit of that outlining down here
21:22
Flare resistance, as I found with the Sony review, is fairly good
21:26
You can see in this image with bright sun coming through, no issues there
21:30
Here with the sun up in this corner, you can see that contrast
21:34
there's a little bit of veiling, a little loss of contrast in that bright area, but no big splash of blobs of color ghosting artifacts elsewhere
21:42
Here, stop down a bit. You can, well, stop down a fair bit to around F11
21:47
You can see a little bit more of a ghosting pattern, but it's not terrible
21:51
Likewise here at f11, you can see a little bit of that here
21:55
And if I shoot wide open, there's a bit more veiling, loss of contrast, but overall, nothing
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that's terribly disruptive to the image. So really not a bad performance when it comes to flare resistance
22:06
And so what we determined in our image quality section is that there are definitely some
22:10
areas, at least on the 40 megapixel sensor, that the lens doesn't look as dramatically
22:15
good as it did before. That's kind of to be expected, at least by me at this point, after I've tested a number
22:21
of lenses on this platform and frankly there are there's a pretty short list of lenses that
22:25
really resolve that whole sensor and look fantastic that being said relative to the
22:31
competition i think that the lens holds up really well and so i think it remains a really intriguing
22:36
option for fuji despite the demands of 40 megapixels yes there is slightly less zoom range
22:42
there's no aperture ring but it is hundreds of dollars of hundreds of dollars cheaper than any
22:47
of the competitors and it has that just wonderful blend of compact size and good performance and that
22:54
makes it a really intriguing option to me. In fact I'm strongly considering picking one up from my own
23:00
little Fuji kit because I just find the lens to be really useful and the image quality holds up
23:05
well enough that I haven't really seen anything that's doing a lot better job and so I am happy
23:11
enough with it that I think I'll probably snap one up. Hopefully this helps you as well in terms
23:16
of making the buying decision. If you want more information, you can check out my written review
23:20
that's linked in the description down below. There's also an image gallery you can access
23:25
buying links if you'd like to purchase one. If you haven't already, please like and subscribe
23:30
Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in
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