Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM Lens for Nikon Black

If you have a Nikon D3000/3100/3200 or D5000/5100/5200 and you want the convenience of point and shoot zooms with the quality of DSLR this is THE lens for you. Yes it is expensive, yes it might well cost more than you camera but it is worth it.The problem with lenses is that the more the zoom the less the quality, it is always a balance. This hits the sweet spot for most uses that these types of cameras will be put to. It has a nearly 15 X zoom, a macro feature for close ups and doesn't weigh too much. The price is great as well.Be warned the "lightweight" in the product description is relative to other super zooms. This is a hefty piece of glass and adds considerable weight to the smaller camera it would normally be paired with. But once again it is a question of balance. If you want that range of zoom (super useful for not missing photos, for wandering around taking great pictures) and reasonable quality well there will be some weight.If you aren't worried about quality get a cheap point and shoot camera (any will do) with more zoom than this lens alone at a cheaper price and forget about DSLR. If you don't need zoom consider the awesome Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f1.8G Lens a lens that, at less than half the price, can take much better photos and awesome portrait shots. But it can't zoom in on that bird you just saw landing on the tree. It can't take a great shot of the butterfly hovering nearby.This is the lens for flexibility at a reasonable price, weight and quality.

I bought this lens to replace my first-gen Nikon 18-200 lens, the VR mechanism of which had stopped working. I chose this over the second-gen Nikon (or indeed repairing the old one) mostly for the relatively lower weight, and extra telephoto reach, as well as being a bit cheaper.Optically the lens is fine, considering the extensive zoom range. Yes, the sharpness falls off away from the middle of the image, but it's no worse than the Nikon. I do find I sometimes get quite severe vignetting at the corners though, which normally gets fixed nicely by Lightroom's lens profile correction (which also does a good job with the ample distortion).It takes a little time to get used to the fact that the zoom ring turns in the opposite direction to Nikon lenses, but otherwise the zoom action is good with no sign of creep. The stabilisation seems to work just as well as the Nikon equivalent.One more niggle is the fact that the lens seems to keep the camera's exposure system active for about a minute after activating, regardless of the camera's own setting. This ought to reduce battery life, but since I have rarely found that to be an issue with my D300 I haven't really noticed.Although I thought it important to point out the negative aspects I've found with this lens, I still think it is good, and would recommend it as a travel lens.

The Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM is and excellent all-round lens. I have a Nikon D3100 which I bought bundled with a standard 19-55mm kit lens and a Sigma 70-300mm lens. While I had no problem with the quality of these lenses there was an awkward gap between 55mm and 70mm. So, when going out to take some photos, I had to make the choice between the kit or the Sigma lens, or take both and swap them around as needed. With the 18-250mm lens I reduce the amount of gear I need to carry around with no loss of flexibility. In the few weeks that I have had the 19-250mm lens I have found it easy to use and quite a few of the pictures I have taken have been in the 55-70mm gap that I had before. I have no problem with the picture quality. When closed the lens is only slightly larger than the 18-55mm kit lens (although it is heavier, but not excessively so), and much smaller than its 70-300mm brother. I expect I shall be using this Sigma 18-250mm lens most of the time.

I purchased this lens for my Nikon D3200 3 years ago, the zoom was always slightly sticky but I had read this was an issue with this model but it was not to bad.I was really happy picture quality and the versatility of the lens, I very rarely used any of my other lenses. I recon I took about 20-25,000 pictures with the lens before it jammed completely full zoomed in. I was on holiday at the time at a moto GP round and had only taken this lens. I assumed it was jammed by the zoom lock and tried to free it for race day to no avail. I was obviously pretty hacked off with this as we were located in a great spot for pictures of Rossi and co.As I had interfered with zoom lock I assumed warranty would not possible so I stripped it myself and found that the tiny screws on the inside of barrel had stripped and fallen out causing it to jam. It was to much of a risk to assemble and have them fall out again at such an important event again so I have scrapped the lens.I handled the lens gently throughout its life so the problem was not abuse.As other mentioned sticky zoom function I can only assume it can be poor build quality so I am going to buy a Nikon 18-300 this time round.