Nikkor 18-70 vs Sigma 18-125/200?

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Body:
D70S (without Kit)

Lens: all Nikkors
50mm f/1.8
75-300 f/4.5-5.6

I'm looking for my next lens, which has to be on the wide angle side, since I cannot work indoors and do studio shooting with these two lenses that I have right now.
I'm going to sell the 75-300 to get some money to buy the new lens.


First of all let me tell you that I'm from Uruguay, South America.
I can only buy stuff in USA whenever somebody that I know is traveling there, so he/she can bring it back to me.
I cannot ship stuff to my house because customs charge me 80% over the cost and s&h, and the "gift" trick doesn't work.
Talking about money, the Nikkor 18-200 VR is totally out of contest, it's way to expensive for me.


There's a mate that has another D70S and a 18-70, so I already know how this lens performs.


I've read many things about the Sigma 18-125 and 18-200 and I'm a little bit confused.

18-70 vs 18-125
- I know the Nikkor has a faster AF, but I would like to know how slow is the Sigma, can it be compared to the 50mm's speed?
- Which one gives sharper images?
- Which one gives better colours?
- I don't want to sacrifice image quality for having just a little bit more range.
- I don't care about focusing noise.
- some say that some of them have a focus problem, you can either get a good sample or a bad one.
- some say that the bad samples are just the ones for Canon, what about the ones for Nikon?


200 better than 125:
Some people say that it's better, but...
- I've seen some photographs with more CA.
- It's softer.
- More on the tele side, but some say that it's really a 155mm
- More expensive


In case I'm getting the lens over here, the 18-200 is discarded due to its high price (200 US$ more), but if I can get somebody to bring it to me from USA, I'm going to take it into consideration.


Prices here
Nikkor 18-70 - 400 US$
Sigma 18-125 - 400 US$
Sigma 18-200 - 600 US$


Any help and comments are more than welcome. :)
 
It has to Nikkor whatever ... it is class glass !

Good luck ... wish I could take a trip over and bring you one !?!
 
the nikkor glass is supposed to be superior, i suspect all the nikon users will tell you that anyway, im sure someone will be along soon
 
Not knowing these lenses, It's hard to comment, but I would suggest the 18-70 would fit your needs best and give you best coverage. It's undoubtably not the best lens, a bit cheap for my blood.
I wouldn't go for an 18-200 either as lenses with this amount of range tend to be a bit of a compromise on image quality, the nikon being a bit of an exception to the rule, hence why it's so popular at the moment.

hope that helps? if only a bit!
 
it's got to be the nikkor 18-70. the af is very very fast and its frustrating using anything slower after it. it's also very sharp for the money. build quality isnt bad, better than the sigma but still a little plasticy.
 
Thanks for all that you've said.
Seems that I'm going with the Nikkor, but not yet.

:)
 
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