| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: North West UK Posts: 390
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 16, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, CA control, Weight great fun! | | Cons: | Not much | |
This is a lens which is getting a cult following. Everyone knows about it, no matter what make you have. And the people who have them love them, and the people who don't have one, want one.
The image quality is suberb. as is the CA control as well (It is there wide open, but stop it down a few F stops and the control is better - who uses this lens wide open anyway?)
The barrel distotion is also well controlled, especially as it goes to 10mm.
I have read on a number of forums that there have been quality control issues with this lens, but strangly only to Canon users........
If you want an ultra wide but don't want to go down the fisheye route, or canoot stretch to the Pentax 12-24, then go for this, you wont be disappointed.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2007 Posts: 3,381 | | Review Date: March 17, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $430.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | WIDE, Very good IQ, Lightweight | | Cons: | Distortion at wide end | |
This lens shoots WIDE. It is great for indoor architectural photography and produces beautiful landscapes. At 10mm it is a little soft and there is distortion. However, both problems are easily correctable in photoshop. Construction is good and it is lightweight. I have no reservations in recommending it.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2007 Location: Toronto Posts: 17,891
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 22, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $540.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Ultra Wide, Excellent control of distortion, Build quality | | Cons: | None | |
This lens has become the perminant fixture of my K10D while travelling. taking between 50%-80% of travel shots, and 20% of all my photos annually.
The 10mm focal length can cope with any interior shots, and is wide enough to get great archetctural shots when travelling, especially in cities where you can't just walk back a few steps.
There is some barrel distortion, but it is minimal, and easily corrected with a good photo editor.
This lens should be considered a MUST buy for anyone who wants to complete the lower range of focal lengths.
It should be noted however, that the internal flash of DSLRs cannot cover 10mm, and also get blocked by the lens hood if you try indoor shots with flash. Note my version is not an HSM version, and I think the HSM version is not released yet (mar 2008) for pentax.
For focusing the lens can be manually focused, and has an 80 degree rotation from minimum focus to infinity. Focus distance is indicated on the focusing collar but there is no depth of field indication. There is no de-coupling of the focusing collar for autofocus, the collar turns when the lens is autofocused.
In terms of coverage, although this is a DC lens (i.e. designed for ASP-C sensors) it provides full coverage for 35mm film from about 13 mm and up, as tested on my PZ-1
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2007 Location: Nove Zamky, Slovakia Posts: 7,183 | | Review Date: April 4, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | IQ, size | | Cons: | not much | |
Great lens, well balancing on K100D and it's joy to use. Colour rendition, sharpenss and contrast are all OK. Distortions are very well controled throughout the range. And the FOW it offers, simply great. Fantastic lens for indoor/outdoor architecture and landscapes.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2008 Location: Ratlum Mountain Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 21, 2008 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Relatively sharp, good contrast, low distortion - sort of | | Cons: | Could be sharper, high chromatic distortion in corners | |
Relatively sharp, good contrast, distortion ranges from none in the center to high in the corners, with chromatic distortion being very high in the corners but nonexistent in the main body of the photos. All in all a very good compromise and almost perfect consumer lens.
10mm, ISO 100, f8, 1/20 sec. Stone Museum in Peoples Forest.
10mm, ISO 100, f8, 1/250 sec. The view of Pleasant Valley.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2007 Location: Port Townsend, Washington State, USA Posts: 3,659 | | Review Date: July 2, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $459.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Build, balances well, sharp, filter threads, low flare, low CA | | Cons: | Geometric distortion@10mm, still useful | |
What i was able to find out from SLRguide.com, was that the Sigma 10-20 gives nothing away in sharpness to the Pentax 12-24, provided you keep it at F5.6 to F8. Both are fine lenses. Pentax has its sharpness at F4 which gives it an advantage of speed. On the other hand, the Pentax 24mm is soft while the 10mm FL of the Sigma has greater geometric distortion. Because of these deficiencies, both the Pentax and Sigma have their sweet spot in the 12-20mm range. The Pentax F4 speed and its slightly warmer images are advantages.
The first day with the Sigma, i was all thumbs, but i was impressed by its images of the inside of my house. wall to wall perspectives and then some.. The 2nd day produced no acceptable outdoor images and i determined to return it the next day. The 3rd day, I gave it, and myself one more chance. The 4th day I got 4 compliments on an image i submitted to the local photo club. No way is it going back now :-)
I should mention that on one's photographer's website, he made mention of a AF problem with this Sigma lens but didn't provide any detail. I experienced this too, but its not much of a problem in practical use. What I found was that in low light conditions, the 10mm FL has problems finding a focus, but not under bright conditons. Because this FL is so wide, it is difficult for the camera (and one's eye with the Katzeye split screen installed) to tell the difference on distant objects. I found that the fix was to manually focus or even easier, just crank in a manual setting that will give one the DOF required. Further, as you zoom to 12mm and on up, the Sigma had no AF problems that i encountered. I didn't run any formal test on this because it just is not even a minor issue for me.
My conclusion: there's a learning curve to an ultra-wide lens, but its a climb worth taking. Pentax and Sigma are both good lenses and both have some advantages. Knowing what i do now, i would have made the same decision again due to price and the 10mm reach of the Sigma.
| | | | | | | | Review Date: July 25, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $499.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | very wide, renders lines straight at 12mm | | Cons: | none | |
This is truly a great lens, practically and historically. While there is slight pincusheon distortion at 10mm, and a touch of barrelling at 20, at 12mm it renders lines absolutely straight. So for architecture and interiors, this lens is as good as anything. For landscapes, it is absolutely incredible.
It would be nice if it were an f1.4, but let us be reasonable here. A lens this good at a constant f2.8 aperture would cost a morgage to own. At 5 bills, this is the bargain of the century. Bravo Sigma.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: February, 2007 Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Posts: 364 | | Review Date: July 27, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $670.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Wide | | Cons: | poor performance from f10 onwards | |
The sigma 10-20 is a great lens, that i would absolutely recommend it to anyone in the market for an Ultra wide lens.
I have found that it performs best at f8, and when shooting at f8, when you focus at around 50 cm, the hyper focal distance seems to be from about 30cm to infinity.
Once you get to f11 and onwards resolution suffers massively as well as contrast. Images taken at f16 and f22 look very soft and muddy.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: August, 2007 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 233 | | Review Date: October 14, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $420.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very Wide. Very Good Build Quality. Can be quite Sharp. Good Contrast. | | Cons: | Soft at f4 10mm. Relatively Slow. | |
I purchased and used this lens briefly to compare with my DA14.
This lens has a lot going for it. Super wide at 10mm. Generally very sharp and contrasty at f5.6 and up. It has the advantage of a zoom which is quite significant from 10mm-20mm. Focus speed is very good. Solid feeling, but not heavy or overly bulky. The surface of the lens has a comfortable, felt-like feel to it. Even the colors are really crisp and natural.
My biggest complaint with the lens is that at 10mm f4, it's soft, and at 20mm f5.6, it's dark. Not only is that immediately noticable through the viewfinder brightness (even my non-photographer wife noticed), it makes flashless photography indoors very difficult.
If you are a daytime landscape photographer who uses the lens primarily at f8, I agree, this lens is fantastic; but if you want the wide angle for indoor shots, be prepared to bring an external flash. I think the DA14 is much better for indoor flashless photography and people shots where 1-2 stops makes a big difference.
As for the advantages of 10mm, with a telephoto, there are many times when you can't get any closer, but concerning the difference between 10mm, 12mm, even 14mm, most of the time, it is possible to take a few steps back.
I think this lens is an excellent balance of FOV, weight, versatility and price. As long as you understand the limitations, I have no reservations recommending it.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: August, 2008 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 19 | | Review Date: January 5, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | focal length, price, build quality, CA control | | Cons: | no HSM, corner distortion | |
Excellent lens for landscape photography. A great alternative to the DA 12-24.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: May, 2008 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,697
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 11, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: GX10, K-5, K-3, K-30
New Or Used: New
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Like Lowell, this is the default lens on my Samsung GX10 (~KD10) when I go on holiday - where it is SO useful as sometimes you simply cannot get back any further when indoors.
Very happy with it at all apertures.
Edited Oct 2015 - still very happy with my quite early copy, which has since been used a lot on a K-5, K-3 and K-30 (when I go on holiday, and my other go-to lens for holidays is the 18-135), but a funny thing happened a few months ago: as I was changing lenses, the rear inner barrel just dropped out onto the carpeted (luckily!) floor! Probably a result of long-term misabuse and many hard bangs (hit the floor several times with a camera body behind it!)
Popped it back in temporarily and fixed it in-place a few days later with some medium strength thread-lock liquid and it's been fine ever since - this is a TOUGH lens!
Edited Dec 2017
Still my go-to lens for usage as above, and that rear barrel has not fallen out again.
PS: Wonder if removing the inner barrel would allow it to cover FF????
Edited Oct 2019:
Still in my collection as it "soldgers on regardless" - now on the K-70 when needed 
"Tough as old boots" as my Oct 2015 Edit will attest" and still seems as sharp as ever, so why would I "upgrade"????
Edited April 2020: It's still here and now doing "sterling" service on the K-70 - otherwise "no change" to my earlier comments | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2007 Location: Dayton, Ohio Posts: 2,978
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 28, 2009 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Wide and fun | | Cons: | none | |
An extremely fun lens to use. I just started submitting for PPG and both the images that were accepted were from this lens. I am happy with the sharpness and contrast.
Fun Perspective:
Directly in to the sun against black granite and it still delivers:
 | | | | | | | | Review Date: February 8, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $505.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, Sharpness, rendition, lack of CA and distortion | | Cons: | none | |
I really can't fault this lens. I love it.
A few people have said there is QC issues with this lens, but mine is optically awesome and sharp wide open but a f/5.6 to f/8 it is astonishingly razor sharp.
There is the slightest amount of distortion at 10mm but it's that minute unless you are pixel peeping it's invisible (to my eye atleast) to the naked eye.
I paid A$750 for this lens last year, and now goes for $950 because of the exchange rate but am glad I bought it then.
One of my favourite lenses i've used, and between it and my sigma 17-70 spend 99% of the time on my camera.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Western Canada Posts: 37 | | Review Date: April 19, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $599.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Ultra wide, 10 yr warranty in Canada | | Cons: | Price (at least in Canada), Not all that sharp | |
I like the wide aspect, just not sure why this lens is as expensive as it is. It's not fast, build quality is okay but nothing special, there's no HSM in Pentax mount (only in Nikon, Canon, and Sigma), Sigma has a reputation for sample variation and quality control issues.
My copy, although it seems to conform to the majority of reviews in that it mainly is soft in the corners wide open, distorted at 10mm but fine at 12mm+, and thankfully I don't have the soft left side that others have noticed.
For the price, CA$699, I'm a bit disappointed. I think it should be about a $500 lens. And I think it is in USA. It makes me wish the Tokina 11-16/2.8 was available in K mount.
Also a minor niggle that the lens cap can't be removed when the hood is on. C'mon give us a center pinch you meatheads!
Update- This has become my favourite lens!
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: September, 2008 Posts: 28 | | Review Date: May 26, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Ultra-wide, nice colors, a pleasure to work with | | Cons: | The distortion at the 10mm is hard to correct | |
I have this lens for about a year and I absolutely love it.
Using it out-doors is always fun and results are quite impressive in color and contrast.
It is also very interesting to work with on exhibitions and other well-lit events.
Low light can make it difficult to work with if you are not ready to go up with ISO.
What I found difficult to deal with is how to correct the weird distortion while using it on the 10mm end, but there are tools out there that are working like a charm.
I wish it was a bit faster, a bit more corrected (like the 15-30), a FF (like the 15-30) and a bit more cheap... but hey you can t have everything in that price... it is still a very nice and decent lens.
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