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I bought this as an additional secret weapon for weddings and industrial hand held, low-light shooting. This is the latest version of this lens (there is an older version that is not "DG"). This lens is either loved or hated apparently due to the Sigma curse of poor quality control. I've been lucky with Sigma's so far, but I've had friends that had to send their lenses back. To Sigma's credit, they always seem to return a well adjusted and properly operating lens. This copy is pretty soft in the center at F/1.8 which is about what you'd expect. However -- and to me inexplicably -- just a 1/3 stop closure to F/2 clears things up immensely. I've shot it on my D200 and my D7000 and it works well on each, though I had to dial in correction for a bit of back focusing which is only really apparent on very shallow depth of field shots. Shooting it on DX (1.5x crop, the edges are soft until you start to hit F/2.8 or so and not really getting sharp until F/4 -- but by F/5.6 the lens is extraordinarily sharp. There's little out there at this wide an angle that is as affordable as this lens. For many shots, that gauzy softness -- particularly for weddings -- might be actually usable. Some carefully applied masked sharpening can work wonders to make a nice looking shot. Soft focus and noise clean up better than motion blur. One of the wonders is how close this thing focuses. This is one of the lens strengths/weaknesses. Some said the lens just wasn't as sharp when wide open at close focus as it was nearer infinity. My copy seems to be the opposite of that. Wide open shots at f/1.8 a few inches from the lens appear sharper than the shots further away. Could be an anomaly and it's not dramatic but that's what I think I'm seeing. Overall, a surprisingly useful lens at F/2 where I will choose to shoot it for very low light performance. This lens, paired with the good high-iso noise of my D7000, can make some shots possible that I normally would not bother with knowing that there would be no usable quality. Although it seems these lenses can be a "crap shoot", I recommend getting one if you need something very fast and fairly wide. For this price you can certainly find something you can use it for when you have no other options. If, like me, you have old Nikon film cameras then you will like that this lens has a real aperture ring. Since the lens is full-frame compatible it can be used as an ultra wide lens on full frame and film cameras -- through frankly with it's edge sharpness issues on DX I would think using it on film/FX would require careful framing and limit your applications at large aperture. My version is for Nikon AF and I presume the other versions are similar in this respect: there's no motor in the lens. It is entirely dependent on the focus drive motor in the camera which means slightly slower focus performance and a bit more noise. Still, I don't consider this lens excessively noisy or slow but if you're used to a professional AF-S or USM style lens this is a step back. Not bad for a motor driven AF lens from Sigma though. A word on build quality: this is a Sigma EX (top-of-the-line) lens and it feels solid. Certainly it's huge for a prime with its nearly 4" length and 82mm filter. It has the hokey focus clutch like a Tokina which I'm not fond of, but I don't focus this one manually anyway so who cares. Just make sure the focus ring is pushed forward towards the objective when you use it.Read full review
If want a fast aperture f1.8, wide-angle 20mm, full frame sensor capable, prime lens--you have virtually no other options under $1,000. Quality build, a bit heavy with an unusual auto focus/manual focus mechanism. Feels good holding, easy to control and manually focus. Fast auto focus. OK sharpness wide open @ f1.8. Exceptional sharpness @ f4.0 and up. Low distortion and CA. Great bokeh! Get to know it's limitations and you can excel @ photo taking with this unique lens.
Very bright lens at this focal length. Surprisingly sharp, even though the edges lose some sharpness. So, it may not be the best lens for film or full-frame digital cameras, but with the crop factor of many digital SLR's, the edge sharpness in negligible. Still, given the price, this is an excellent lens for all formats. One thing that could be better is focusing speed. It's kind of slow, so I recommend manual focusing, especially in low light conditions.
The lens does exactly what I'd hoped for, shooting environmental portraits where the subject is tack sharp and the wider view is out of focus but discernible. I had loved the shots I'd seen pros make with the Nikkor 24mm f1.4 at f1.4, but as an amateur can't justify $2k+ for a specialty lens. The Sigma 20mm f1.8 does nearly the same thing on my Nikon DX body when shot at f1.8. At a few feet away the DOF is about 1' so it's not super picky focusing but still does a nice job of blurring backgrounds that are 6' or further away, making your subject really pop. At an equivalent of 30mm it works nicely for portraits as the edge of frame distortion is not too high if you shoot off level and center. It's plenty sharp at f1.8 for portraits and focuses well. It was the lens I was looking for in my budget.Read full review
Wonderful lens... ideal for urban exploration photography with it's sharpness and high contrast -- it really lends itself to black and white photos, just as much as in color. Very solid feel.... the only complaint that I have is that the AF is somewhat slow -- as it isn't yet offered with HSM.
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