Have I made a good lens choice? or not Is the question I keep asking myself. In May of 2024, I found myself looking for a new camera and lens package. After using high end Canon products since 2019 I decided to try and stick as close as possible to a setup, I knew I could trust right out of the box.

A Lens I knew

Roll back to my first experience of using a Canon. The purchase was by no means cheap. I had been a photographer for over 20 years at the time of buying this set up and knew it wasn’t to be a wasted investment. The first package was of a Canon Eos 6D Mark II complete with EF 16-35mm F4L USM, EF 70-200mm F2.8L USM, a few 77mm Hoyer filters, Genuine Canon battery and a BG-21 battery grip. Total cost in 2019 was £3,963.59.

This bundle of equipment really made me enjoy getting out more and putting it to use, I was impressed with the first lens, the 16-35mm. Fast, Crisp, and handled all-weather conditions with no issue. The cost in 2019 was £949, a bit on the steep side of what I had ever paid for a lens, nonetheless worth it in my opinion at the time.

As things progressed id had time to gather a few hundred thousand shots with this set up and ending up selling the package to a beginner. They absolutely loved it, albeit a used set up but still a cracking one to get started with. This sale got me thinking about my next purchase. May of 2024, I decided the time was right to go ahead with it and guess what, Yep! Another Cannon 6D Mark II (again £1349). This time however, I stopped short on clicking add to basket on the lenses I knew and trusted.

Counting the cost

Adding both the EF 16-35mm and 70-200mm again to the basket would have cost me a total of £2,278 on just the two lenses. This got me looking back through the archive of images and instantly I noticed a pattern. Flagging my favourite images from a whole load of folders I soon discovered without even realising, 90% of my images had a focal range of 20-90mm. Did I really need to invest another few thousand pounds into focal ranges I barely used?

So, there I was, asking myself where to start looking for an alternative, what did I want from a lens? did I need more than one? How much was too much?

What Lens is popular right now?

I soon discovered a few lenses being talked about in the art world I thought I should start looking at. One, a Sigma and the other a Canon, both offering 24-105mm and both regarded as high end. With the Sigma valued at a modest £639 and the Canon at £1389, both offering F4. After reading things like how much heavier the Sigma was over the Canon, a whole 175g heavier, I believe this is in part due to the fact the Sigma is of metal construction. I have to admit that weight wasn’t really an issue for me, after all I prefer my cameras to have a battery grip with the extra battery.

I decided to give the Sigma a shot, if it turned out to be useless, I could trade it back in for the Canon version.

First Thoughts

A few days passed and I have to say, it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. I think I made a good lens choice. Firstly, I noticed that the colour in the images was a little better than the Canon. The extra weight also, this seemed to help balance the camera out a little better than the lighter Canon. The Sigma was up for its first test in a few days too, I had a wedding to shoot and with only one lens for this one. It had to perform, and hell did it. Not once did it struggle. I found it fast, quiet on auto focus and great in the rain. It performed great though all focus ranges with various f-stop settings. Ok F4 doesn’t look as well as F2.8 for a portrait but it done the job just fine. Even low light shots with no flash. The ISO was still well below 1800 and it was sharper than I had ever thought it could be. Even sharper in total darkness with a speedlight fitted. This performed great.

The verdict

I have since begun to love this lens. One main factor here is that I love to be out in all weathers and all locations. Having this lens means that 100% of my shots are now in my favourite shooting range, I don’t have to change a lens to get over 35mm which has the added bonus of keeping the camera clean inside, no more sand particles entering the image on the beach and certainly no chance of a stray raindrop entering when changing the lens in the rain. This Sigma 24-105mm lives on my camera. I’m struggling to find a situation where it fails. I find it’s also a little better when out at night shooting the stars. Keeping the shutter speed around 12-15 secs and iso down to around 100 produces some fantastic images.

Money well spent or saved. Did i make a good lens choice? Depends how you look at it. I’m not sorry I bought it so will go with money well spent. If you’re out there looking for a lens and have the budget for the £1300 Canon, might be worth a look at the Sigma. It could just be enough to tempt you over from Canon on this one.

To see where I purchase my equipment Click Here

To see images from the Sigma lens Click Here

Thanks for reading.