Sigma DC 3,5-6,3/18-200 OS HSM for Nikon

Bought this some months ago from a small independent before it was generally available in Nikon fit with the HSM. Purchased to be able to have a lens that I could just fit to my D40 SLR and do away with all the faffing about changing lenses. Having had a previous bad 'dust on the sensor' experience with a previously owned D50 I wanted to be sure that I needed to swap lenses as few times as possible.

Since the day I bought it it has been fitted and never removed as it has suited all the photo opportunities I have encountered.

The 18-55 Kit lens has been in the box ever since and never used - simply no need - apart from size/weight which I will come onto later.

I have been very happy with the image quality the in built OS is a god send at the far end of the zoom range (note the picture does 'jump and judder' for a milli-second while the OS kicks in but this is normal).

If this lens has a down size it is it's size and bulk. Given the optics required to create the zoom range this should not be a surprise but understand this is a heavy and quite sizeable piece of kit.

I mention this because the D40 is marketed by Nikon on the strength of its weight and size - being a very easy to carry SLR - when you fit this lens you lose this advantage.

We are off to Florida shortly and for the theme parks I plan to use the kit lens just to make i that bit easier to carry - any zooming I will do 'post production' with Paint Shop pro.

Other issues - I also sometimes find the zoom ring a bit stiff, thought it might have been faulty at first but this was either down to the newness or I have got used to it.

It comes with everything you need, front and rear caps and a very nice 'petal' type lens hood.

For my money this is very good value when comparing with the Nikon equivalent - it cost just about the same as I paid at the time for my D40 - didn't want to lash out much more than the price of the camera, just for a lens - so settled on this.

I was introduced to the joy of super-zoom lenses when I bought from Amazon a Fuji FinePics S5700 as a pocketable back-up to my Nikon D40 SLR. The Fuji had a built-in 10-to-1 zoom lens, which made it very versatile. The Nikon D40 has a standard 18-55 mm kit lens, which is excellent and very sharp but its limited zoom range left me rather frustrated at missing too many shots at longer ranges. I wanted the image quality of the Nikon with the versatility of the Fuji and decided to buy an 18-200 super-zoom lens for the D40.

A review in "What Digital Camera" magazine gave the Sigma 18-200 super-zoom lens a higher rating than the Nikon equivalent, which is also considerably more expensive. I bought the Sigma for my D40 and it has definitely become my lens of choice for general photography. I recently took it to Lake Garda in Italy (a marvellous location for photography incidentally) and took some landscape photographs of considerably higher quality than my hereto somewhat feeble efforts.

Other reviewers have remarked on the bulk and weight of this lens, which is particularly noticeable on a lightweight camera like the D40, but I believe it to be a price worth paying for the increased functionality over the standard lens. The optical stabilisation feature seems to work very well and long-range shots are usually very sharp and free from camera shake.

I have nothing but praise for this lens and am happy to recommend it to other Nikon SLR users.

An internet search reveals various specialist reviews that'll either rate this lens as ahead of the equivalent camera manufacturers' lenses or slightly behind them in terms of quality. That's an ambivalence that points to pretty good glass and at a price which is significantly less than the camera brand-name - the product almost sells itself.

I've had this lens about 8 months now and it's probably on my Nikon D80 about 60% of the time. It's a great all-round lens and in my view its quality is easily as good as the first-generation equivalent Nikkor (I don't know about the latest Nikkor version). It's well built (maybe even a little heavy) and exudes quality. The internal motor is virtually silent and the optical stabilisation only makes itself known by the little clicks you hear as the gyroscopes kick in - and make no mistake about it, the stabilisation works! I was a little sceptical of its efficacy when I got the camera as it was so quiet, I wondered if I had a faulty model, however after a half-hour testing it at various focal lengths, apertures and shutter speeds and comparing the results with the OS switched on and off, it became readily apparent that it does significantly help at those longer focal lengths and/or longer exposures.

For all that, you have to bear in mind the compromises involved in building a lens with this range. It's like the proverbial "jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none". It does most things pretty well without being outstanding at anything. It can be a little soft wide open and it's not a fast lens (although the OS helps), and if you like soft, creamy bokeh this is not going to deliver.

Having said all that.........would I buy another? Definitely! It's a great all-rounder and has come into it's own when I've been on overseas trips where it's impractical or ill-advised to take anything more than the bare minimum of kit. It's a great walk-about lens too. Whack it on the camera and you've got a lens that will deal with the vast majority of photographic challenges.