18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary (for E Mount)

I'm a photographer that shoot most of my stuff while hiking and travelling. Size, Performance and versatility are my three biggest factors. Usually, I have to compromise pretty heavily between them. Last year I hiked in Zion for a week with the Sony 16F2.8, Which was amazing for keeping the weight down on long high-mileage days, and virtually disappeared on the camera. This was in exchange for meh results and a lot of lens flare and aberration. This year I decided to suck up the size, and took a Sigma 16F1.4. The weight was reasonable, and the pictures were amazing, but the lens itself was a chonk and it was frequently in the way. Both of these lenses also lacked versatility, resulting in a lot of shots where I shot wide and sucked it up for a heavy crop in post.Enter the Sigma 18-50f2.8. Pictures are sharp as a tack, check. Common 55mm Filter size, check. Small package, check. Reasonable weight, functional zoom range, decently wide aperture etc. It frankly does it all, and does it without being fat, heavy, obtrusive or expensive. Is it my favorite lens? No. It's frankly, just a little boring. It doesn't have a niche. It is however ASTOUNDINGLY capable. It's great to watch a player who shoots from half court, has handles like a Globetrotter or will dunk over 3 defenders, but this lens is the guy on the team who is a solid 9/10 in every fundamental and plays everything textbook. It's not a "fun" lens, but it will absolutely get the job done capably in every situation, in a smaller package and half the price of it's competitors.The minor gripes: The focus/zoom rings are annoying. They're flush with the barrel and I frequently have trouble finding the right one by instinct. They're smooth, but not intuitive to find. The lens hood when stowed also gets in the way of the rings. There is also no image stabilization. As a photographer, this doesn't bother me a bit. If you're a videographer, this will probably be a big problem if you don't have in-body image stabilization or a gimbal.

I love this lens. I produces super sharp images for my videos. I use it on a Sony a6600, it's great in low light, zooms well, it's light, and easy to balance on a gimbal.

Bought this as my primary video lens on a Sony A6700. It has totally lived up to the hype about it. Just fantastic - for video and photo. Although the A6700 isn't my go-to camera for photography, with this lens, it's a fantastic photography package when you want a "walk-around" solution with excellent optical performance in a very compact and lightweight form factor. Definitely makes me willing to purchase more Sigma lenses for my Sony camera bodies. Great job, Sigma! (I really, really, really wish it started at 16mm, but other than that, it's perfect.)

Bought this as a good zoom walk around lens for street photography and portrait photography. Love the size of this thing and the f/2.8 aperture. Seems to give me pretty clean results even wide open. There is no image stabilization, so I have to watch my shutter speed on my non-IBIS camera bodies. I have used this on both my A6400 and A7Cii with great results. The main reason I went those two camera bodies is the size of them and how easy it is to pack them for travel and this lens compliments them well. I have the 24-70mm, 18-50mm and 30mm as well as these two bodies and it takes up less space than my old DSLR setup with two lenses. For photographers, this is a great, light weight, affordable lens to have in your kit. The pic shows the size compared to an A7Cii with Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8

The lens feels very high quality, the autofocus just works. It's a 2.8 lens, so it'll be pretty fast if you use it at 2.8. Nice compact apsc lens.I would give it five stars, however, I find that the lens is a bit too soft for my preference, not a total dealbreaker. It has its purpose, but for a general lens, I prefer the Tamron 17-70, but that lens is a bit more expensive than this one.

finally decided to upgrade from the kit lens and I am really happy with how great the photos looks

Great versatile lens.

As an owner of both the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and 56mm f/1.4, I got this zoom lens with the intention of using it for travel photography, mostly due to the small size and great quality; but I can now say that it will pretty much be my default lens for most situations.It’s a great upgrade for anyone using the default sony kit lens, with the only caveat being the lack of stabilization. And while not necessarily an upgrade compared to my other sigma lenses in terms of image quality, it definitely is when it comes to practicality. At a constant f/2.8 aperture, the amount of light this little lens can capture is amazing.This will be the lens I keep attached to my camera by default. I still love my f/1.4’s, but unless I am on a low light situation or aiming for the most bokeh I can get, I rather use this amazing lens to gain the flexibility of the 18-50mm focal lengths without having to swap primes all the time.