Wide Angle Comparison - Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 vs. Nikkor 12-24mm f/4?

Question

I use a Nikon D200 and I'd consider myself a serious amateur photographer who does a nominal amount of freelance work.
I am looking to buy a new wide angle lens and I'm trying to decide between a Sigma and a Nikkor. I own both Sigma and Nikon lenses, but since the Nikkor will run over 900. and the Sigma will run around 600., as usual, I can't decide whether to spend the extra money.
Any advice out there?
I'm looking at:

The Sigma Zoom Super Wide Angle 10-20mm f/4-5.6D EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens

The Zoom Super Wide Angle AF 12-24mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Autofocus Lens

Answer 1

Basically the width of this lens makes it a tricky beast to make. They commonly suffer from softness in the corners and chromatic aberration (prism effect again largely shows up in the corners) For this reason after reading all the reviews I decided on the 12-24. I am sooooooooooo glad I did.



teef_au

Answer 2

I used to use the f4-5.6 version of the 10-20, loved it at the time, great for landscapes. I now use the Tokina 11-16, not got the same zoom range, but is better accross the zoom range it has (not that the 10-20 was poor) the main benefit being the faster aperture at f2.8, essential for my video use. I ruled out the 10-24 as its a fisheye, the 12-24 because I had a sigma 12-24 as well and wanted to go a little wider (the 1mm makes a difference at ultra wide angles) and wanted the extra speed. I ruled out the sigma 10-20 f3.5 as I felt it was too expensive and used 82mm filters wheras all my other lenses use 77mm filters.

Answer 3

If you're asking for opinions, mine is spend the extra money on the nikkor. Personally, I haven't had great experiences with sigma, I don't care for the build quality and have heard of many longevity issues with most of their lenses. They seem to be a bit soft wide open, also. If you must go with a third party lens, for cost considerations, you may want to read up on the tokina 12-24mm f/4 which has gotten much better reviews. I haven't tried it out yet, but I have read excellent things about it, and it's even cheaper than the sigma.