| Author: | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Brno Posts: 295
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 25, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $260.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Range, all-in-one, stabilisation | | Cons: | Superzoom optical quality, weight, flares | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K20D, K5, K3
Autofocus: 8
New Or Used: Used
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I've bought this lens few weeks ago as used one to complement my 18-135WR, Sig17-70, Sig17-50 and others.
Lens provides very useful range in one unit. Image quality is similar to DA18-135WR, borders are a bit better and central part has less resolution than 18-135. It is obviuosly longer, so it means that I don't have to carry 55-300 in bag when I'm just walking light.
This lens is perfect for light hiking tourists or as general purpose lens if you have some additional lenses with you. For example Sig18-250 and DA40/2.8 works well for travelling light. 18-250 provides range and good F5.6-F8 images and the small prime covers low light and shallow DOF.
Image output in 18-100mm range is similar to Sigma 17-70/2.8-4.5 and slightly better or comparable to DA18-135WR. Above 100mm it is better than 18-135, similar to 55-300, but with less contrast as usual for older Sigma lenses. Extreme telephoto end around 180-250mm needs F8 to show what it can do properly. Certainly not comparable to lenses like Sigma 100-300/4, but still not bad for "small" superzoom.
AF is not a speed monster, again comparable to Sigma 17-70. But it is ok for most situations. Probably not the right lens for catching birds flying around. But it can do planes on sky.
Lens stabilisation works very well. Sometimes even better than SR. Unfortunately you have to select one or other. Pentax cameras cannot use both stabilisations together. OS is a bit laggy as expected for lens based stabilisation. It can easily be turned off for panning. But for video it is certainly better than K3's internal digital "stabilisation" or K5's erratic SR.
And OS works even with teleconverters like Kenko 1.5x or Kenko 2x which means that you can have 18-500/3.5-13 lens in small bag if you carry that 2x teleconverter. It still focuses on K3 or K5 using contrast-detect at this 500mm F13 combination and good light conditions, although the image output is not comparable to lets say my Sigma 50-500. But in case you have to travel light, it might provide some extreme telephoto coverage if resolution is not critical. On tripod with some stopping down it is quite usable.
This lens does not contain "Macro" in name like its successor, but it can still do nice close-focus shots of flowers or similar stuff.
Sample image:
250mm F8 - JPG straight from camera, no PP, some CA visible, resolution not bad, contrast might be better.. but for superzoom this is acceptable. RAW improves output by one level at least. But I wanted to show the worst part of zoom range without any SW manipulation.
In case you need some travelling lens to cover wide to telephoto range, this might be the right one. Especially with current 2nd hand prices.
| | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: May, 2015 Location: Hampshire Posts: 892 | | Review Date: August 27, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Wide range of FL's | | Cons: | Stiff ring to select FL (my copy) | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-5
Autofocus: 8
New Or Used: Used
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I saw this for sale and wondered about the effectiveness of such a large range of FL's. Now there is even wider ranging zooms!
It works fine with on board and hotshoe flash, has an effective in lens shake reduction (I tried it against my in body SR and it was as good) and can produce reasonable images throughout the range if one is not aiming to sell the images.
This was taken on an overcast day focussed less then 6 feet to look at the bokeh. A crop is provided too.
It may not quite replace a 1 8-55mm and 55-300mm pair in image quality but if you are not willing to swap and carry an extra lens it is good enough to avoid disappointment.
FL is 53mm at F4.5
Update, I have  tried it on my K100D Super and it works well with it. Here an image and a crop from today. Not the sharpest lens but usable for some cropping.
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: January, 2011 Posts: 45 | | Review Date: February 5, 2014 | Not Recommended | Price: $380.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | OS, HSM, wide range of focal length, fast AF | | Cons: | heavy, opposite zoom ring, | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 7
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Softest lens I have ever used. but it might be comparable to others in its range. I often use manual prime lenses and this Sigma lens is my first lens since 2010. It delivers its full sharpness at F8-11.
In lens OS helps very well in longer focal length to AF. Of course Pentax has SR feature that is comparable to the in lens OS. But having the OS in lens is great with zoom lens.
I shoot at F8-11, so I am not sure on bokeh.
Handling is Fine. wide range of focal length. fast and silent AF, good walkaround lens.
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2013 Location: Norwich, England Posts: 2
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 1, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $190.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Image stabilisation within the lens and auto focus system. | | Cons: | My copy is slightly softer on one side. Poor in low light. | | Sharpness: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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I bought this lens for a family trip to Paris as I was fed up having to change lenses. I wasn't expecting fantastic results but have been pleasantly surprised and very happy with the convenience of using just one lens. I was particularly pleased with the auto focus capability, which is fast, almost silent and accurate. Another surprise was the in lens OS, which us Pentax users are not particularly used too. You have to remember to switch off the in camera OS, which I forgot do on one occasion and ended up with a batch of unusable images. There is a zoom lock, which is a very useful addition as the lens extends quite a long way when fully open. The main downside is the slow aperture when zoomed out, however I did not find this to be a problem for daytime shots, especially with the K5's ISO capabilities. To combat this downside I simply packed a small fast prime lens for low light situations. These two lenses provided a very versatile travel kit.
When purchasing I was able to compare the Sigma to the Pentax and Tamron lenses of similar focal ranges. In terms of build quality and specification there was no question the Sigma was far superior, but larger and slightly heavier.
A few sample images from our trip. I have edited these in Aperture, however they indicate the lens capabilities.
 | | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2010 Location: Toulouse Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 12, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | long range, OS, HSM | | Cons: | soft between 150 and 250mm | |
the best 18-250mm for a PEntax DSLR
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2011 Location: The Canadian WetCoast Posts: 384
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 15, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Versatile, price | | Cons: | IQ, size, plastic construction | |
If I ever get stranded on an island, a K5 and this lens are all I need to document my life. It is that encompassing!
One negative point on my copy is it doesn't work with PTTL flashes. Sigma US has not given me an explanation so far.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: November, 2010 Location: New York Posts: 39 | | Review Date: December 3, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $480.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Relatively light and fast outdoor/sports lens with rapid AF | | Cons: | (None) | |
A relatively light and fast outdoor/sports lens for the Pentax K-r, with rapid AF given the wide focal length range.
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