[BruceBanner]

I own the Sigma 10-20 but I haven't really gravitated towards it, I think partly because it won't behave on the K-1 at all, not even in crop mode. The Sigma 10-20 when on the KP is giving a FoV very similar to what the FA-J 18-35 would be like on the K-1, and typically I use the K-1 more for landscape work, so I am somewhat tempted to pick one up.
Sadly this seems to be one of those lenses that is just rising in price compared to what a lot of reviewers have said to pick them up for. $330AUD here on ebay, and one at $200USD in the market place (which after shipping and currency conversion is pretty much similar price point). The reviews have this lens at $100USD with many reviewers saying they had it for much less.

The fastness of the lens is the same as the Sigma 10-20, so I'm really intrigued as to whether anyone has owned both these lenses at one time and which they preferred and why. I like the 'F' lenses so far. I own a F28, FA43 and FA77 and they are all fantastically sharp on the K-1. I did read that the corners are soft on the 18-35 but even if you take a shot at 18mm and crop the image to 20mm (30mp) then its sharp edge to edge, not a bad tip.

So yeah... any FA-J owners out there?

TIA

Bruce

[pepperberry farm]

I own the Sigma 10-20 but I haven't really gravitated towards it, I think partly because it won't behave on the K-1 at all, not even in crop mode.

"behave"?

[steve_k]

Why not get the Sigma 12-24 DG? I just found one for $370 US.

[BruceBanner]

"behave"?

Buggy, Autofocus not work, shutter doesn't fire often, weird stuff, meters weirdly. Crop mode doesn't help matters at all, I dunno I mentioned it before and apparently it is a thing, other copies can behave like that. Perfectly fine on crop sensor however (like my KP). Yup.. weird.

Why not get the Sigma 12-24 DG? I just found one for $370 US.

I don't know about this lens, is it FF?

[pepperberry farm]

Buggy, Autofocus not work, shutter doesn't fire often, weird stuff, meters weirdly. Crop mode doesn't help matters at all, I dunno I mentioned it before and apparently it is a thing, other copies can behave like that. Perfectly fine on crop sensor however (like my KP). Yup.. weird.





I don't know about this lens, is it FF?

sounds like you should return the lens...

"DG" is Sigma's designation for FF...

[BruceBanner]

sounds like you should return the lens...

"DG" is Sigma's designation for FF...

Ah well out of warranty and not meant for FF, not sure how the warranty would actually go on that one. If it's perfectly fine for the crop sensor cameras it's supposed to be optimised for...

I think perhaps a firmware can fix it maybe? Honestly I don't know and am not that fussed because I'd still be using it on K-1 in crop mode which is worse than what I'm getting with my KP.

I just like my lenses to be fully compatible across both systems if possible, but you know... the 15-30 ain't cheap lol.

Didn't know about the DG thing, cheers. Will look into that lens now.

---------- Post added 04-15-19 at 10:39 PM ----------

Why not get the Sigma 12-24 DG? I just found one for $370 US.

Seems to not take filters, which was one of the things I thought the FAJ 18-35 had going for it.

[drewski]

I actually have the SIgma 10-20 and used it extensively on my K5 and K-01. When I picked up the K1, I a new FF UWA lens was out of my budget so I used the Sigma on it in Crop mode (and heavily-vignetted FF mode as well). It actually produced very good results, and worked just as well on the K-1 as it did the K5 & K-01. I also bought a new old-stock FA J 18-35 and used that on my last trip. The one thing I really like about it is that it is very light and is my poor-man's UWA lens for the K-1. IQ is not as good as the 10-20 in my opinion, but I literally paid $100 for it new, as opposed to the Pentax 15-30 which I really like, but costs 15x more here in Canada. For the kind of shots I like to take, the FA J 18-35 is the lens that's been on my K-1 the most.

[jeallen01]

An interesting thing about my 10yr old Sigma 10-20 f4-f5.6 - a few years ago whilst staying in a hotel and putting the lens in the photo kit ready for the day out, I heard a bit of a "clonk" and looked down to the floor, and found a small metal tube there! Turned out to have fallen out the rear end of the lens, and so I popped it back in and then we went out and I took many more shots with that lens!

On reflection, I suspect that - a bit like the 60-250mm SDM - the tube is there to prevent the lens covering FF, but, not having/getting an FF body then I can't check that theory out!

BTW: after it fell out a few more times (!), I finally used some semi-permanent threadlock to hold it in place in the lens, which is still doing a sterling job and I love it.

[BruceBanner]

I actually have the SIgma 10-20 and used it extensively on my K5 and K-01. When I picked up the K1, I a new FF UWA lens was out of my budget so I used the Sigma on it in Crop mode (and heavily-vignetted FF mode as well). It actually produced very good results, and worked just as well on the K-1 as it did the K5 & K-01. I also bought a new old-stock FA J 18-35 and used that on my last trip. The one thing I really like about it is that it is very light and is my poor-man's UWA lens for the K-1. IQ is not as good as the 10-20 in my opinion, but I literally paid $100 for it new, as opposed to the Pentax 15-30 which I really like, but costs 15x more here in Canada. For the kind of shots I like to take, the FA J 18-35 is the lens that's been on my K-1 the most.

Thanks for chiming in, you're exactly the person I was hoping would appear

By chance do you have any shots taken with the K-1 and FAJ18-35 to share? Did you do any night time shots? How are the star bursts etc?

An interesting thing about my 10yr old Sigma 10-20 f4-f5.6 - a few years ago whilst staying in a hotel and putting the lens in the photo kit ready for the day out, I heard a bit of a "clonk" and looked down to the floor, and found a small metal tube there! Turned out to have fallen out the rear end of the lens, and so I popped it back in and then we went out and I took many more shots with that lens!

On reflection, I suspect that - a bit like the 60-250mm SDM - the tube is there to prevent the lens covering FF, but, not having/getting an FF body then I can't check that theory out!

BTW: after it fell out a few more times (!), I finally used some semi-permanent threadlock to hold it in place in the lens, which is still doing a sterling job and I love it.

I think I recall the lens working ok on the K-1 for a few goes, and then stopped (this was awhile back when I first got it). Wonder if something also fell away lol. Anyway, not so fussed about it as like I say looking to replace it eventually with something else.

[W412ren]

I have never owned the Sigma but I did pick up a copy of the 18-35 here in the UK.

I used it with the K-1 for a Single-In for a month - these are the images:

Single in June 2018 | Flickr

I was pleasantly surprised and the 67mm filters are a useful bonus too.

[BruceBanner]

I have never owned the Sigma but I did pick up a copy of the 18-35 here in the UK.

I used it with the K-1 for a Single-In for a month - these are the images:

Single in June 2018 | Flickr

I was pleasantly surprised and the 67mm filters are a useful bonus too.

Excellent album! Thank you so much for this, this I feel really helps. With your images I can get a feeling for quality and rendering it gives. I too look at the 67mm filters as a bonus.

[Lowell Goudge]

I own the Sigma 10-20 but I haven't really gravitated towards it, I think partly because it won't behave on the K-1 at all, not even in crop mode. The Sigma 10-20 when on the KP is giving a FoV very similar to what the FA-J 18-35 would be like on the K-1, and typically I use the K-1 more for landscape work, so I am somewhat tempted to pick one up.
Sadly this seems to be one of those lenses that is just rising in price compared to what a lot of reviewers have said to pick them up for. $330AUD here on ebay, and one at $200USD in the market place (which after shipping and currency conversion is pretty much similar price point). The reviews have this lens at $100USD with many reviewers saying they had it for much less.

The fastness of the lens is the same as the Sigma 10-20, so I'm really intrigued as to whether anyone has owned both these lenses at one time and which they preferred and why. I like the 'F' lenses so far. I own a F28, FA43 and FA77 and they are all fantastically sharp on the K-1. I did read that the corners are soft on the 18-35 but even if you take a shot at 18mm and crop the image to 20mm (30mp) then its sharp edge to edge, not a bad tip.

So yeah... any FA-J owners out there?

TIA

Bruce

I have both lenses

I have not yet tried the 18-35 on the k1, and don't understand the issue the Sigma does not work on the K1. Again I have not tried it. But the question has my interest. I know the sigma 10-20 works fine on my PZ1 and supports full frame coverage from 13 mm and above, so there is no reason it should not work in the K1.

Note, it may not be recognized as a 10-20 however, I believe on some Pentax bodies the lens ID isn't right but can't recall now the total issue

[BruceBanner]

I have both lenses

I have not yet tried the 18-35 on the k1, and don't understand the issue the Sigma does not work on the K1. Again I have not tried it. But the question has my interest. I know the sigma 10-20 works fine on my PZ1 and supports full frame coverage from 13 mm and above, so there is no reason it should not work in the K1.

Note, it may not be recognized as a 10-20 however, I believe on some Pentax bodies the lens ID isn't right but can't recall now the total issue

Could be this issue here; Sigma 10-20mm/4-5.6 not recognized by K-5 - PentaxForums.com

Mind you I don't have a single bit of problem with any other lens on my K-1, but this is the only Sigma I have, so unless Sigma speak differently to the K-1 than Pentax lenses then the fault could lie with my K-1. I have a few K-1 friends about so I can test the Sigma on their K-1's and see if it's fine or an issue, thus suggesting the problem is either camera or lens specific.

Like I say, not a deal breaker per se as I'm looking to replace the 10-20 with something else anyway. Prime wise I have a F28 that is excellent wide open, it's just that 18-28 that I wouldn't mind filling the gap with. Basically a landscape lens that is useful on the K-1 as well as KP would be ideal (not so much for portraiture, I feel 28mm is about the max I wanna go before people can get distorted).

[Lowell Goudge]

I have both lenses

I have not yet tried the 18-35 on the k1, and don't understand the issue the Sigma does not work on the K1. Again I have not tried it. But the question has my interest. I know the sigma 10-20 works fine on my PZ1 and supports full frame coverage from 13 mm and above, so there is no reason it should not work in the K1.

Note, it may not be recognized as a 10-20 however, I believe on some Pentax bodies the lens ID isn't right but can't recall now the total issue

Inspoke too fast. When I tried my 10-20 on the PZ1 it did not appear to vignet on the viewfinder beyond 13 mm but on the K1 MK2 it vignettes badly on images taken all the way to 20mm even though it was not really visible in the viewfinder.

---------- Post added 04-15-19 at 07:52 PM ----------

Could be this issue here; Sigma 10-20mm/4-5.6 not recognized by K-5 - PentaxForums.com

Mind you I don't have a single bit of problem with any other lens on my K-1, but this is the only Sigma I have, so unless Sigma speak differently to the K-1 than Pentax lenses then the fault could lie with my K-1. I have a few K-1 friends about so I can test the Sigma on their K-1's and see if it's fine or an issue, thus suggesting the problem is either camera or lens specific.

Like I say, not a deal breaker per se as I'm looking to replace the 10-20 with something else anyway. Prime wise I have a F28 that is excellent wide open, it's just that 18-28 that I wouldn't mind filling the gap with. Basically a landscape lens that is useful on the K-1 as well as KP would be ideal (not so much for portraiture, I feel 28mm is about the max I wanna go before people can get distorted).

Even considering my latest post, the 10-20 on a cropped format, will give the same FOV as a 15mm full frame shot, the FOV between 15 mm and 18 mm is significant.

For several years, I.e. before I got the 10-20, I would use the FA-J 18-35 on my PZ1 even though it came with my *istD as the kit lens, because it was a much better FOV for wide angle.

If I really need super wide today, I would shoot the Samyang 14mm/2.8 on full frame. It was a lot of fun on my PZ1

[boriscleto]

Note, it may not be recognized as a 10-20 however, I believe on some Pentax bodies the lens ID isn't right but can't recall now the total issue

My 10-20/3.5 has a generic lens id. It shows up as a 70-200/2.8 in EXIF...In the past Sigma could flash the firmware, but now they won't do that for K-mount lenses anymore.