sigma vs. nikon

[KendraW]

I'll apologize because I'm sure this question has been asked a million times, but upon searching nothing jumped out at me...

Is it too big of a sacrifice of quality to go sigma over nikon for lenses? The price makes it tempting...

If you have experiences with specific sigma lenses, I'd love some reviews. Thanks!

[kirbinster]

I think it depends on the specific lens. I have a Sigma 10-20mm HSM and a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 that I think are great lenses. I had a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens that I replaced with a Nikon - and there is no comparison between the two -- the Sigma was fair at best, and the Nikon is sharper than some prime lenses.

[sk66]

And it depends on the sample.
I think Nikon has better quality control, but there can still be a few "bad copies".

Sigma tends to be a bit more "variable", but they have great customer support and you can save a ton of money.

Because of how good their customer support is I tend to buy Sigma EX and I tend to buy used. (MUCH easier than Nikon Service IME)
I even bought a "broken" 50-500mm for dirt cheap...and had it completely rebuilt and tuned for $300 by Sigma USA. (new aperture mechanism and focus motor...it had been dropped on the aperture end pretty hard) Total cost to me was about $500 with shipping...at the time they were generally selling for about 1k used and 1.5k new.

[jdepould]

I tend to think "you get what you pay for," which isn't a knock on Sigma at all. They have some good, fairly expensive glass. They have some not-so-good cheap glass. Nikon has some really good, even more expensive glass ... you get the point.

Actually, come to think of it, they both have some not-so-good, fairly expensive glass too.

[Drkranger]

I am very happy with the two Sigma lenses that I own: 50-150 (the original model) and a new 18-50mm f/2.8-4.5. I'd imagine if people looked really critically at photos from lenses around that range between Nikon and Sigma, they'd be able to see some differences. I don't know. I like the photos from those lenses as do my customers.

I'd recommend looking at the Sigma glass over the Nikon for sure. I've been very happy with mine.